“Wisdom Justified”

    “And the Lord said, Whereunto then shall I liken the men of this generation? and to what are they like? They are like unto children sitting in the marketplace, and calling one to another, and saying, We have piped unto you, and ye have not danced; we have mourned to you, and ye have not wept. For John the Baptist came neither eating bread nor drinking wine; and ye say, he hath a devil. The Son of man is come eating and drinking; and ye say, Behold a gluttonous man, and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners! But wisdom is justified of all her children” (Luke 7:31-35).

    First our Lord speaks about a group of people called, “this generation”. At first glance, it looks as though he is using the word “generation” the way we commonly use it, to speak of that specific group of people living at the time. But that clearly is not the case. If you look through the scriptures, every time these words are used together, they are used to describe self-righteous religionists. They always refer to lost religious people, like the Pharisees, Sadducees and Herodians of our Lord’s day. And those people called “this generation” are always hostile, persecuting people. They are the people of whom our Lord spoke specifically when he said, “In the world you shall have tribulation.” The words “this generation” speak of the enemies of our God and of our souls in every age (Psalms 12:1-8; 71:12-18; Matthew 12:41, 42; 23:29-38).

    In Luke 7:31-34 the Lord Jesus shows us that unbelieving religionists are always opposed to, find fault with, and are quick to slander God’s servants and his people, because the carnal mind is enmity against God.

    We ought to always take care not to offend the people of this world. We should always strive to be kind, gracious, thoughtful, and caring of those people among whom we live and with whom we work in this world. As much as possible, live peaceably with all men. Try to get along with people. Make sacrifices to do so. Endeavour to live blamelessly before your neighbours, for Christ’s sake, for the honour of God, for the gospel’s sake. Yet, we must not concern ourselves with the cavils of men. If men and women are determined to set themselves in opposition to us, as we endeavour to serve our God, they should not disturb us. We must not court the favour of men; and we must not fear the frowns of men. “This generation” is a hard, implacable, peevish, childish generation, which will never be made friends to the cause of Christ. The cross of Christ has always been an offence to them and always will be.

    This is the lesson to be learned by our Lord’s comparison describing “this generation” as children. If we would be saved, we must become as little children; meek, humble, inoffensive, trusting. Yet, lost religionists are also like little children, not adorable, sweet children, but peevish brats. Our Master compares “this generation” to perverse, rebellious children, who can never be pleased with anything. Nothing satisfies them. Nothing contents them. They find some fault with everything and everyone, but themselves.

    John the Baptist came, leading a stern, austere, separated life of self-denial; and they said, “he hath a devil”. After him, the Lord Jesus came adopting the habits of a more social man, a man who mixed with people; and the very same men of “this generation” said of him, he is “a glutton and a winebibber”.

    Their animosity was not really against either John or Jesus of Nazareth as men, or as preachers, but against the message they preached, the doctrine they taught, the God they represented. The men and women of “this generation” really do not care at all what kind of man the preacher really is. They know they can make their kind of preachers become whatever they want them to be.

    John the Baptist and the Lord Jesus Christ preached exactly the same thing. Both preached repentance toward God and faith in Christ. But the men and women of “this generation” are determined not to hear God’s Word, bow to his Son, confess their sin and seek salvation by free grace alone. The fact is, “the carnal mind is enmity against God”. Nothing will ever change that, but grace itself.

    The pretended objections of this generation to God’s servants are only a smoke screen to cover their rebellion and hatred of God. Anyone who would hear God’s message from the lips of the Master would also gladly hear it from John’s lips. And any who would hear God’s message from the lips of John the Baptist would gladly hear it from the lips of the Lord Jesus.

    How often we see religious men and women who have a blind attachment to a preacher! They follow not the Shepherd’s voice through the preacher, but the preacher’s voice. Such people are always fickle and unstable. And rebels will always find an excuse for their rebellion. The carnal mind will always attempt to cover its hatred of God and justify its unbelief. For proud, self-righteous, self-willed religious men and women, no matter who the preacher is, free grace is too easy, faith in Christ is too simple, substitution is too dangerous.

    Notice this, too. Most of those things which divide the unbelieving religious world are matters of complete insignificance and indifference. What was it that caused these people to talk? What was it that kept some from hearing John and others from hearing the Lord Jesus and all of them from hearing either? John the Baptist was a strict separatist, a Nazarite. The Lord Jesus was far more free in his conduct.

    Let us not behave as such peevish, silly children. Rather, let us ever behave as mature men and women. We have no right to make indifferent matters of importance. Let us learn to be silent about all those things about which the Book of God is silent. We have no right to impose rules upon God’s people that God never imposed. And we dare not make essential matters of indifference. The gospel of Christ, believer’s immersion, the observance of the Lord’s Supper are matters of primary importance. The doctrine of the gospel, (righteousness by the obedience of Christ, redemption by his effectual blood atonement, salvation by the irresistible gift and operation of grace) cannot be compromised; and these things are held forth perpetually in the symbolic ordinances of the gospel, when those ordinances are observed as our Lord gave them.

    This generation is a wicked, perverse generation. But our Lord also speaks of something else.

    There is another generation, called “his generation”, “the generation of thy children”, “the generation of the upright”, and “a chosen generation”. Look at verse 35. Here our Master draws a direct and distinct contrast between those of “this generation” and his own elect. “But wisdom is justified of all her children.”

    Certainly there is at least a reference here to the Lord Jesus Christ himself, who is our Wisdom (1 Corinthians 1:30). Christ is the wisdom of God. He is the Word, that One in whom and by whom we know God. He lived in wisdom here and shows us the way of wisdom. The Lord Jesus stood for us as our Wisdom in the council chambers of the Almighty in eternity. He fulfilled the wisdom of the covenant. He makes believing sinners wise unto salvation. And he gives us wisdom as we need it in the face of our numerous, subtle foes.

    All God’s elect justify him in all his person and work. “Wisdom is justified of ALL her children.” All who are born of God, born of wisdom, repent before him and thereby justify God (Psalm 51:4). Repentance is taking sides with God against ourselves, coming into agreement with God, and justifying God in the way he saves sinners.

    Yet, there is more. Believer’s justify God’s wisdom in all things and thereby prove themselves wise indeed. The scriptures make us wise unto salvation through faith in Christ (2 Timothy 3:15). And God the Holy Spirit is in his people the Spirit of Wisdom, Revelation and Grace. Thus, we are taught and enabled to see the justice and equity of our God in all his works and in all his ways (Psalms 36:6; 48:11; 97:8; 119:75; Isaiah 26:8, 9; Revelation 19:1-6).

    Even when he is spoken of in derision, our Lord Jesus Christ proves himself to be a great Saviour. His enemies constantly derided him, calling him “a friend of publicans and sinners.” How I rejoice to declare that that is exactly who and what the Lord Jesus Christ is. In fact, he is the only friend of publicans and sinners, the only friend we have; and he is the Friend only of publicans and sinners (Matthew 9:12, 13; Mark 2:17; Luke 5:31, 32).

    Oh, how willing God is to be gracious! Did you ever notice how often the Lord God refers to our sins as sicknesses, diseases and infirmities? One reason for that is this: our heavenly Father views the sins of his people as sicknesses calling for pity, not as crimes calling for punishment!

    Come, ye sinners, poor and needy, weak and wounded, sick and sore.

    Come, ye weary, heavy-laden, lost and ruined by the fall.

    Come, ye sinners, come and welcome, God’s free bounty glorify!

    True belief and true repentance, every grace that brings us nigh!

    Joseph Hart