Chapter 59
He Seeks and Saves the Lost
here is no more glorious truth in the Bible than the words of Luke 19:10: "The Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost." That verse sums up the work of Christ on earth. From the human viewpoint, it may represent the single most important truth ever recorded in Scripture.
Unfortunately, traditional dispensationalism tends to miss that simple point. Some dispensationalists teach that "the gospel of the kingdom" Jesus proclaimed (Matt. 4:23) is distinct from "the gospel of the grace of God."1 The substance of this "gospel of the kingdom," one popular source says, is "that God purposes to set up on earth the kingdom of Christ . . . in fulfillment of the Davidic Covenant."2 Lewis Sperry Chafer wrote that the gospel of the kingdom was for the nation of Israel only "and should in no wise be confused with the gospel of saving grace."3 Another early dispensationalist writer declared that the gospel Jesus preached had nothing to do with salvation but was simply an announcement that the time had come to set up the kingdom of Christ on earth.4 That may fit neatly into a particular dispensational scheme, but Scripture does not support it. We must not forget that Jesus came to seek and to save the lost, not merely to announce an earthly kingdom.
When Jesus proclaimed His kingdom, He was preaching salvation. His conversation with the rich young ruler in Matthew 19 helps to clarify the terminology He used. The young man asked Jesus what he could do to obtain eternal life. After the man left without receiving it, Jesus said to His disciples, "Truly I say to you, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven" (v. 23). Thus, entering the kingdom of heaven is synonymous with obtaining eternal life. In the next verse the Lord said, "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God" (v. 24). Obviously the kingdom of God, the kingdom of heaven, and eternal
1. E. Schuyler English et al., eds., Th e New Scofi eld Reference Bible (New York: Oxford, 1967), 1366. 2. Ibid. 3. Lewis Sperry Chafer, Grace (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1922), 132. 4. Clarence Larkin, Rightly Dividing the Word (Philadelphia: Larkin, 1918), 61.