miracle

Luke 17:11-19 – Ten lepers healed, one leper saved

POST OVERVIEW. A post about Luke 17:11-19 where Jesus cleansed ten lepers of their leprosy. One of those ten lepers was also eternally saved.

In Luke 17:11-19, we read the story of our Lord healing ten lepers. While on His way to Jerusalem, Jesus enters a village and encounters ten leprous men who call Him by name and ask for mercy. As these men are going to the priests, all ten are miraculously cleansed of their leprosy. One of the ten returned, “fell on his face at Jesus’ feet,” and gave Him thanks for the healing. Jesus tells the man, “Your faith has made you well” (17:19).

THE MAN’S FAITH SAVED HIM

This story of the leprous men follows the same pattern as a number of other stories in the gospels, particularly in the gospel of Luke. A sinner encounters Jesus, the sinner believes in Jesus, often because of a miracle Jesus has performed, and Jesus announces that the sinner is saved by his or her faith. Thus in these encounters two miracles occur: Jesus performs a miracle and then a sinner repents and is saved so that there is joy in heaven (Luke 15:7, 10).

Salvation of a sinner is the issue in these stories. And because salvation is the issue, we need to correct the translation of Luke 17:19 (and others like it, including Luke 7:50*; 8:48; 18:42; Matt. 9:22; Mark 5:34; 10:52) to reflect the real focus of the story. (Translations considered are ESV and NASB.) [* Note that Luke 7:50 is correctly translated, “Your faith has saved you,” in both ESV and NASB.]

TECHNICAL DETAILS

The Greek phrase that is usually translated, “Your faith has made you well,” is:

ἡ πίστις σου σέσωκέν σε.

The verb in this phrase is σέσωκέν, which is the perfect indicative active form of the verb σῴζω, a verb ordinarily translated as “save” or “rescue.” This verb is among a group of New Testament words that are used to describe Christian salvation. “Savior” is the Greek word “σωτὴρ.” “Salvation” is “σωτηρία.” The adjective “saving” is the Greek word “σωτήριος.” Since σῴζω is the verb in this group of words about salvation, the word should be translated into English as “save” unless there is some compelling reason not to.

Returning to the Greek phrase above, the words would be literally translated as:

The faith of you has saved you, or

Your faith has saved you.

As we explore this passage further, we will see that this is exactly what is intended by our Savior. Jesus is telling the person that their personal faith in Him has rescued them from God’s condemnation and judgment and that they have now passed from death to life (John 5:24). With this as background, let’s go into the text.

EXPLORATION OF THE TEXT

In Luke 17:19, we first observe that the leper’s faith did not make him well. Jesus did. Jesus healed the leper that returned and thanked Him, but Jesus healed all ten lepers equally. They were healed whether they had faith or not because Jesus is Lord of all. So, Jesus was the one who made the leper well, not the leper’s faith.

But second, notice that the leper who returned displayed his faith in Jesus by turning back and “giving thanks to Him” (17:16). This one leper acknowledged that Jesus had healed him and he therefore submitted to Jesus as Lord. So we see that Jesus healed the leper by His divine power, but it was the leper’s faith in Jesus that saved him. Thus the correct translation of Luke 17:19 is, “Your faith has saved you.” Those without faith take whatever good things God provides and then go on without giving thanks to God or acknowledging the Lord’s mercy, but those with faith fall down before the Lord and give Him thanks. The faithful “glorify God with a loud voice” (17:15).

An examination of the other occurrences of “ἡ πίστις σου σέσωκέν σε” (see above for a list) will reveal that each instance should be translated, “Your faith has saved you.” In these events, Jesus (usually) heals the faithful and the unfaithful alike. Jesus performs these miracles of healing  to verify His identity as God the Son so that some of those who see the miracles will place their faith in Him and be saved. Thus it is the sinner’s response of faith in Jesus that saves the believing sinner. Jesus performed miracles of healing. This is objective fact. Ah, but those who saw the miracles and responded in faith were saved.

OBJECTIVE FACT AND SAVING FAITH IN THE GOSPEL

In many ways, the gospel is like Jesus’ miracles. The gospel is a message that contains facts that are objectively true for all people. The facts of the gospel are these: God is holy and will punish all sin. Man is not holy. Man is a rebel who willfully disobeys God’s commandments and is, therefore, under God’s wrath and judgment and in danger of eternal condemnation. From this objective danger all people must be rescued or they will eternally perish.

But the gospel goes on to declare that God, in His mercy, has provided a way for man to be rescued. Two thousand years ago, God sent His Son Jesus into the world to be our Savior. Unlike every other person, Jesus willfully obeyed every commandment of God for His entire lifetime. As we have seen in this story, Jesus also performed miracles that only God could perform. After living a sinless life, Jesus died on a Roman cross as God’s appointed sacrifice for sin. Then three days later, Jesus was raised from the dead to confirm that His sacrifice on the cross had been accepted by God as payment for sin. Now any sinner who repents of their sin and places their faith in Jesus as Lord and Savior will be saved.

Those are the objective facts. You and I need to be saved from our sins and Jesus Christ has died and risen from the dead to provide the salvation we need. Now you and I must respond by placing our faith in Jesus as the Lord of our life.

But just as the nine lepers could be healed and yet not be saved, so you can know the objective facts about Jesus and the salvation that He offers and still not be saved. Like the lepers, we must believe in Jesus to be saved. Objective facts cannot save you. Only faith in Jesus will save you. “Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved” (Acts 16:31). Then on the last day you will hear the Lord say, “Your faith has saved you.”

Soli Deo gloria            rmb                 12/6/2023                   #681

Jesus has options we don’t have (Luke 7:11-17)

INTRODUCTION. A post appreciating Jesus’ divine ability to perform miracles as evidence of His identity.

In the pages of the gospels, the Lord Jesus displays His deity in a continuous stream of divine miracles. Our Savior casually does what only God can do, and He does these things without fanfare or pretense, and He does them repeatedly, and He performs these miracles in the presence of many witnesses. These attesting signs point to one obvious conclusion: Jesus is God in human flesh.

I have been particularly struck by Jesus’ miracles in the gospel of Luke and over the next several weeks I hope to write my impressions of those events. But before we look at the Lucan miracles, I want to share a few thoughts about Jesus’ earthly ministry and how plainly His entire ministry attests to His identity.

JESUS IS AWARE THAT HE IS THE KING

By His regal demeanor, Jesus assumes His full authority over every situation. Jesus is the King, and He is fully aware of His royalty. As King, He is always the One directing the action and He is always the unrivaled focus of attention. In every scene, He is the most important person, and around Him mere mortals, both righteous and unrighteous, revolve.

Without the slightest trace of pride or condescension, Jesus reigns over all other men. Sinners appropriately fall before Him in worship, seeking His compassion and His forgiveness of their sins, and Jesus accepts their worship as His due while giving them the divine compassion and forgiveness they seek.

Even in the days of His flesh, when He had “taken the form of a bond-servant and been made in the likeness of men” (Phil 2:7), Jesus reigns. Jesus Christ wears His divine authority as an eagle wears its flight. As the eagle gives no thought to his flight, so Jesus gives no thought to His sovereignty. As the eagle soars because soaring is the essence of what it means to be an eagle, so Jesus reigns over all because sovereignty is the essence of being God.

Jesus reigns over His enemies and adversaries. While perfectly knowing His enemies’ vicious intentions, Jesus nevertheless directly confronts the Pharisees and the scribes and passes divine judgment on them. Without a trace of vengeance or hatred, Jesus condemns the self-righteous and warns them of the coming judgment. Jesus condemns and passes judgment because, as God, He has the authority to do so (Romans 9:18).

Jesus is God, and His miracles and demeanor and words consistently attest to that fact.

JESUS HAS OPTIONS WE DON’T HAVE

Since Jesus is divine and has authority over the normal operations of nature, He has options that we don’t have. As God, Jesus always has at His disposal the option to perform a miracle to remedy a situation. This post explores one of those situations from Luke 7:11-17.

LUKE 7:11-17. This event takes place early in Jesus’ Galilean ministry. Jesus is going along with His disciples and a large crowd, and as He is approaching a city called Nain, He and the crowd are met by a funeral procession coming out of the city. It turns out that the man who had died was the only son of a widow from Nain. That is the context for this story.

Given this context, we would all agree that there are no options for the widow. Humanly speaking, the only possible outcome for this scene is that the dead man will be buried and will be mourned and then his widowed mother will need to find some means of survival, since all the men in her life who could provide for her are dead. In a funeral, there simply are no options. Death is final and it eliminates all human options. There may be burial options, but there are no outcome options.

So, no one in the crowd around Jesus or in the funeral procession was expecting anything but a burial. The widow’s only son was dead and it was a sad day. Jesus may witness the funeral and He may experience the sadness of the day, but like all other human beings, He had to bow before the finality and the power of death. Or did He?

13 When the Lord saw her, He felt compassion for her, and said to her, “Do not weep.”

“He felt compassion for her.” It is amazing to think that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, feels compassion for wretched human beings like us, but here the Lord feels compassion for this woman He has never met before. He is emotionally moved and feels her pain and sorrow.

But what Jesus does next is what is truly astounding. For Jesus not only feels compassion for this destitute widow, but He also decides to act. We mentioned before that Jesus has options that mere mortals do not. For us, death eliminates options. Death always has the final word and all funerals end in burials. But Jesus is no mere human. Jesus is God veiled in human flesh and as God, death is subject to Him. He decides when death gets the final word. And on this occasion, Jesus chose to deny death its usual victory.

14 And He came up and touched the coffin; and the bearers came to a halt. And He said, “Young man, I say to you, arise!” 15 The dead man sat up and began to speak. And Jesus gave him back to his mother.

It is hard to imagine a more unexpected set of circumstances. Jesus walks up to the coffin to stop the funeral procession, then issues a command to the dead man. When was the last time you were at a funeral and someone issued a command to the dead person? You would have to assume that the person speaking to the corpse was out of their mind. But Jesus, in front of a vast crowd, commands the corpse to get up, and the corpse obeys! Upon hearing the voice of God, death releases its hold on the dead man and the man sits up in the coffin and begins to speak. Then Jesus, in an act of compassion, gives the revived son back to his mother.

The crowd is understandably stunned.

16 Fear gripped them all, and they began glorifying God, saying, “A great prophet has arisen among us!” and, “God has visited His people!”

In the face of this astonishing miracle, fear grips the crowd. They have just witnessed the impossible and such power in their midst is frightening. Perhaps they grasp the truth of their own words, “God has visited His people!”

SDG                 rmb                 6/25/2022                   #548