Luke 24:32 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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Luke 24:32

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Yes, their hearts burned within them, because they knew they were in the hands of a skilled teacher and exponent of the word of God. They got a sense of glory. They loved the truth of God and saw that this one could instruct them in the deep things of God. He was one who would not deceive them, who had the fountain of all knowledge within him. How often we falter in our understanding and reach an impasses, and what a blessing it is to have someone with us who can help us to go beyond where we are able to go ourselves in exploring the truth of God!But they say this to themselves after he has vanished from their sight, because they are now sure of him, and they want to say to each other that they recognized there was something special about him even before he behaved in this supernatural way. Of course the Lord is so special to us, that we want to assure ourselves that we recognise him in whatever way he comes to us. What should every believer value more than one who can open the Scripture to him, or to her? But they had realised that there was something about him that was special, even beyond his marvellous ability to open the Scripture. He conducted himself with such divine authority, he spoke with such perfect logic and reasoning, with such apt appreciation of the word of God and ways of God. He was so honest and straightforward with them and so without any fear of man. He explained the mysteries of what he had done in going to the cross – though they did not know then that he was talking about himself – and they saw he was right in everything he said. Christ had navigated that path alone with all its infinite difficulties. No one else had done it with him. If he had asked any for help, no one would have been able to assist him or advise him. ‘I have trodden the winepress alone; and of the people there was none with me’ (Isaiah 63:3). What he was doing was a mystery even to his disciples. Peter would have given the advice, ‘Be it far from thee, Lord: this shall not be unto thee’ (Matthew 16:22). That was one reason why he had done it alone. But another reason was that it was totally beyond anyone else to join him in this work. He had to scale a cliff which no one else could climb. He had to face terrors which no one else would be able to face.

Application

Christ had been through experiences as our Redeemer which no one else could join him in, and yet, it is the case that every believer has passed through something analogous, because Gethsemane, Calvary, the burial and the resurrection of Christ can even be a picture of the way of salvation. Chiefly, they are what Christ did in order to purchase our salvation, but they also serve as a picture of the way we are brought to life through the gospel, and the Bible often uses them in that way. For instance, when we read of the teaching of baptism, these very things that Christ did, his death and burial and his resurrection, are used as a picture of the way in which those who come to Christ are converted to him. It's as though you have your own private garden of Gethsemane. Suddenly, you are very troubled about your sin and your spiritual deadness and darkness, and you are full of doubts and fears, and you are wrestling in your soul, even though it is for different reasons than Christ suffered in the garden of Gethsemane. He had no doubts or fears. He was agonizing because of his anticipating of bearing away the sin of his people. But still, you have your own private garden of Gethsemane. People say, ‘What's happened to him? Why is he like he is? Why has he become gloomy, full of forebodings, suddenly concerned about his sin, suddenly becoming religious, struggling, seeking the Saviour, trying to find out? Suddenly, life seems to him to be barren without God.’ For the first time in your life, if you're going through this, you are actually touching realism. Maybe you have always been a somewhat reflective, pensive, depressive kind of person. But maybe you have been someone who lived life on a bubble, and now it is gone. There is a new great hunger for something deeper, something spiritual and enduring. You have your own private garden of Gethsemane before you are truly converted.

Then too it is as though you have your own Calvary. You realise that to find the Lord, you've got to put to death the old life and crucify it. You've got to turn your back on it completely. It has got to die. Now, of course, when the Lord went on the cross, he was actually bearing the punishment of our sins and achieving something. My own Calvary achieves nothing like that. But as I come to the Lord, I put behind me the old life; I crucify it. In the words of the Bible, I nail it to the cross. That's what you have to do to come to Christ. All your own old selfish ambitions, your worldly sinful pleasures, all your own ideas and opinions – I am going to run my life and do what I want to do and have what I want to have, and live a life that cuts God out – all that has to go. And sometimes it's rather like a burial; sometimes you go into a sort of blackness. You are seeking the Lord, you want to find him, but it doesn't seem as though you can quite find him. You say, ‘I've repented of my sin. I want to find the Saviour, I believe he bore the punishment of my sins on Calvary, I want to know him and be changed by him, and I've asked him, I've repented, but nothing happens.’ The Lord isn't going to save you, because you are not quite repenting as you ought. Yes, you are repenting all right, but there are some things you are still hanging on to, and the Lord isn't going to hear you and bless you until you give them up.

Sometimes the reason is even simpler: you're not trusting in him, and there's a sort of dark period until you do. You are no longer happy in the world, you have ended the old life, but you can't yet say that you've been converted. You are in between; you haven't trusted the Lord yet. Many people have sought the Lord in this way. They have repented of their sins, and then said, ‘Lord, save me’, and immediately, like somebody taking medicine, they feel their pulse and ask, ‘Is it making me any better?’ There's something they are not doing. They are not trusting him to do it. Look to him, and tell yourself he has saved millions before you. He will save you. He suffered and died for you. If he didn't mean to save sinners who come to him, he wouldn't have come from heaven to Calvary. He wouldn't invite you to himself.

And finally, you have your own resurrection. You come to life. Here is the glory of Christian conversion. When a man or woman or young person is truly converted, he doesn't just think something has happened to him. Something really has happened. When a person really comes to know the Lord, it's like being resurrected to a new life. The power of God, the life of God comes into my soul. Suddenly my eyes are opened. I understand the Bible like I never understood it before. I begin to feel love for him in a way I never knew before. I sense and know that my sins are washed away and I'm received by him. Suddenly I can pray as I've never prayed before. I know what is right and what is wrong, what I must do. I'm strengthened and I find that all those sins I kept slipping back into – I am given strength to fight them. Christian people become my special friends. I look at them with new eyes. I realize there is now spiritual life in me. I have so much in common with other believers. I'm altogether changed. I have been converted by the power of God, almost as if I have had my own private resurrection.

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Luke 24:32 Commentary and Bible Study

The meaning of Luke 24:32 explained