The Parable of the Unjust Judge

    “And he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint; Saying, There was in a city a judge, which feared not God, neither regarded man: And there was a widow in that city; and she came unto him, saying, Avenge me of mine adversary. And he would not for a while: but afterward he said within himself, Though I fear not God, nor regard man; Yet because this widow troubleth me, I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me. And the Lord said, Hear what the unjust judge saith. And shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them? I tell you that he will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?” (Luke 18:1-8).

    The Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God is our Saviour. We live by the merit of his imputed righteousness, the efficacy of his sin-atoning blood, and the power of his omnipotent grace. And our great Saviour was and is in all things our example. Let none imagine that his life was nothing more than an example. Yet, we must never fail to see that he is the example by which we must seek to pattern our lives (1 Peter 2:21-24).

    He says, “I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done” (John 13:15). He shows us by example how to love God and one another. He shows us by example how to suffer patiently, committing ourselves unto our God. He shows us by example how to live in this world by faith, believing God and serving him. In all things, Christ himself is the pattern we are to follow.

    As in all other things, our blessed Saviour was supremely exemplary in prayer. When he exhorts us to continue in prayer and to “pray without ceasing”, he is only telling us to do as he has done. If ever there was a man who might have no need to engage in prayer, it would have been the God-man. He was never defiled with the sins that constantly beset us. He had no lusts of the flesh warring in his members. He is holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners. He knew no sin, did no sin, and had no sin. He walked with God perfectly, in complete obedience to the Father’s will, ever doing those things that please him, always glorifying him in thought, in word, and in deed. Add to that the fact that this man, the God-man, had (even while he walked on the earth) in his possession all omnipotence as God, and you cannot help being astonished that he is the supreme example of faith and prayer.

    Luke tells us, as he introduces the parable of the unjust judge, that the lesson, the message of the parable is just this: “Men ought always to pray, and not to faint”! As one of the old writers put it, “He hangs the key at the door.” So the first thing we see in this parable is this word of instruction about prayer. “Men ought always to pray and not to faint.”

    The subject of prayer is one that always arouses my interest, though it always causes me to blush with shame. I fear I know very little about it. Prayer is the life breath of the believing heart. J. C. Ryle was exactly right when he wrote, “Here it is that religion begins. Here it flourishes. Here it decays. Prayer is one of the first evidences of conversion (Acts 9:11). Neglect of prayer is the sure road to a fall (Matthew 26:40, 41).” Our Saviour says, “Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation.”

    In this parable the Lord Jesus instructs us in the matter of prayer by telling a story. It is a story about a poor, needy widow, who obtained justice from a wicked judge simply because she would not leave him alone until she got what she needed from him. She would not leave him alone, because she was in a pinch. She had to have what he alone could give her. She would not leave him alone, because she had no one else to whom she could turn for help. She got what she needed by the sheer force of her importunity. The judge said, “Though I fear not God, nor regard man, yet because this widow troubleth me, I will avenge her (I will see that she gets justice), lest by her continual coming she weary me.”

    The Saviour tells us the meaning of this in verses 6-8. “And the Lord said, Hear what the unjust judge saith. And shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them? I tell you that he will avenge them speedily.” He says, “The day is soon to come when the Lord God will avenge his chosen. He will do that which is right and just for them and with them. He will satisfy all their needs, all the cravings of their souls, for which they continually cry unto him day and night. He will not put them off forever. He will avenge them speedily.”

    If the constant, importunate cries of this widow stirred up the heartless judge to avenge her of her adversary, how much more shall the cries of our hearts to our God stir up our heavenly Father, the Judge of all the earth who must do right, to avenge us of our adversary the devil!

    But is it possible for us to pray always? There are some who take these words very literally and vainly imagine that they are praying as they try to constantly repeat the words of scripted prayers, usually rubbing their magical prayer beads as they do. That is the whole notion behind monastic and cloistral religion. Needless to say, that is not what our Lord is teaching here. Such religious insanity, self-righteousness, and idolatry is not prayer.

    Our Lord’s words here, “Men ought always to pray”, simply mean that we ought always to live looking to our God in faith, constantly carrying our needs and our hearts desires to him. Our Master gives us similar instructions in other places (1 Thessalonians 5:17; Colossians 4:2; Hebrews 4:16).

    We are to “continue in prayer”. That is the sense of our Lord’s doctrine in Luke 18. He does not tell us to pray all the time. That would be impossible. He is telling us to live in the spirit and attitude of prayer and fellowship with God. Again, I am not suggesting that we neglect the act of prayer, or fail to spend time alone with God in prayer. Not at all. Let us pray more and pray frequently about all things.

    “Watch in the same.” Let us ever be watchful over our souls and watchful for one another in prayer, ever looking to our God for mercy and grace. How we need to take care to be watchful, lest we sleep. “Continue in prayer, and watch in the same with thanksgiving” (Colossians 4:2). To live in watchful prayer and faith is to live with thankful hearts before God (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18). It is the will of God that we rejoice always, pray continually, and give thanks to him in everything. Whatever our present situation is at anytime is the will of God for us (Romans 8:28). We should rejoice and give thanks always (Philippians 4:4-6).

    Rejoice in prosperity or adversity. Pray always. Live prayerfully, trusting the Lord. Let praise, prayer, and thanksgiving constantly rise from our hearts to our God. Let us place such high value upon Christ, his righteousness, his boundless grace, his blood atonement, and life eternal from him, in him and with him that nothing in this life overshadows God’s unspeakable gift. How can I complain about anything when I am an heir of God and joint-heir with Christ?

    Our Lord Jesus does not require that we be constantly engaged in the exercise of prayer, but that we always live prayerfully. By all means, spend much time in the exercise of prayer, but more, importantly, live prayerfully.

    Let us never weary of faith. Let us never get tired of living upon the bounty of our God, of coming to the throne of grace. Can you imagine the hungry widow becoming weary of going to the barrel God constantly filled and getting food for her and her son? Yet, our flesh is so opposed to all that is good for our souls that our Lord constantly reminds us that we must watch, and pray, and faint not! Why are these admonitions so often repeated and in so many ways? Because they are admonitions we need, and need constantly!

    Our Lord is not telling us in the parable that if we have a great desire, if we want something bad enough, we ought to just keep asking God for what we want until he gives it. James tells us plainly that such praying is praying amiss (James 3:3).

    God never promised to gratify our lusts, not even when our lusts appear to be good and reasonable desires. We do not twist God’s arm in prayer, forcing the Almighty to bow to our will! In prayer we pour out the groans of our hearts to him and bow to his will. Have you no groans, groans for which you cry unto God day and night, groans created in you by his grace, groans that will not allow you rest until they are fulfilled? Of course you do, if you are God’s. I do, too.

    We groan for freedom from sin. We groan that we might be conformed to Christ. We groan for our lack of love for God our Saviour, our lack of faith before him, our lack of commitment and devotion to him who loved us and gave himself for us. How we groan before our God for an end of strife, for peace, and an end to sorrow and sighing, toil and temptation, pain and causing pain, grief and causing grief!

    In the parable of the unjust judge our Lord tells us to never quit seeking God’s grace, to never quit living by faith, looking to him and looking for him (Philippians 3:7-14; Hebrews 12:14). His grace will prove sufficient and satisfactory, even when he denies us what we crave for ourselves. Our Lord’s promise, the promise drawn from the parable of the unjust judge is just this. As that unjust judge avenged that helpless widow of her adversary, so too our heavenly Father will soon avenge us of our adversary (Romans 16:20; Revelation 22:4-7). At the appointed hour, the God of Glory, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ gave him the glory he promised him. And at the appointed hour, he will give us the glory he has promised us. Let us therefore pray always and faint not (Hebrews 10:35-39; Habakkuk 2:3).

    The second thing we see in our Lord’s explanation of this parable is the fact that there is an elect people in this world, loved of God and the objects of his constant care. The Lord Jesus declares that God will “avenge his own elect, who cry day and night unto him.” “I tell you”, he says, “that he will avenge them speedily.”

    God’s elect are his own special, peculiar people, whom he has loved with an everlasting love. We are his by his own sovereign good will and pleasure, chosen in his Son Jesus Christ unto everlasting life and salvation, through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth. He will avenge them of their adversary and vindicate them before all worlds at the last day, right all wrongs concerning them, do them justice, and deliver them into his heavenly kingdom and glory. And he will do so in accordance with absolute, strict justice, through the merit and efficacy of Christ’s obedience, death, and intercession.

    Like this poor widow, they cry unto him day and night. He hears our cries, puts our tears up in his bottle. In a word he cares for us and takes care of us at all times, in all our needs, and forever.

    God takes great care to comfort his people in their many trials and sorrows in this world. He commands his preachers to have for one of their goals the comfort of his people. He says, “Comfort ye, comfort ye my people.” Here are three things described in the Word of God that should be of great comfort to every believer.

    The Lord God has made a bag for our sins. Job said, “My transgression is sealed up in a bag, and thou sewest up mine iniquity” (Job 14:17). In ancient times, when men died at sea, their bodies were placed in a weighted bag, which was sewn together and sealed. Then they were cast into the depths of the sea. That is what God has done with our sins. They are cast “into the depths of the sea.” When Christ died, by his one sacrifice for our sins, which were imputed to him, he put away all our sins. They were buried in the sea of God’s infinite forgiveness, put away, never to be brought up again. God Almighty will never charge us with sin, impute sin to us, remember our sins against us, or treat us any the less graciously because of our sin. That is forgiveness! “Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin.”

    The Lord has also written a book for our names. Take heart, child of God. Your name is written in the book of God. Before the worlds were made, the Lord God inscribed the names of his elect in the Lamb’s book of life. In that book God has recorded not only the names of the chosen heirs of heaven, but also all things pertaining to them. “In thy book all my members were written” (Psalm 139:16; Philippians 4:3; Revelation 13:8; 17:8). The Lamb’s book of life is the book of God’s eternal purpose of grace, predestination, and election. The fact that our names are written in that book means that our salvation is a matter of absolute certainty, and that all things work together for our good by God’s arrangement to secure our predestined end, which is perfect conformity to Christ (Romans 8:28-30). When our Lord says, “Rejoice because your names are written in heaven”, he is telling us that we have nothing to fear. All is well for those whose names are written in heaven.

    Moreover, the Lord God keeps a bottle for our tears. “Thou tellest all my wonderings: put thou my tears into thy bottle: are they not in thy book? ... This I know; for God is for me” (Psalm 56:8, 9). It was customary at ancient Egyptian funerals for mourners to have a small cloth or sponge to wipe away their tears. Then, they were squeezed into a small vial, a tear bottle, and placed in the tomb with the dead, symbolizing the care the mourners had for the one who had died. Even so, the Lord our God, our heavenly Father, our almighty Saviour, and our holy Comforter, tenderly cares for us. In all our afflictions he is afflicted. We are the very apple of his eye!

    Could anything be more comforting in this world of sin, sorrow, and death? The Lord our God has put our sins in a bag and buried them, our names in a book to remember them, and our tears into a bottle to show his tender care for us. All this shows our Father’s care for his elect.

    How we rejoice in God’s electing love! It is one of the sweetest, most blessed, most soul-cheering things revealed in the Book of God (John 15:16; Ephesians 1:3-6; 2 Thessalonians 2:13, 14). Election is the everlasting purpose of God, whereby, before the foundations of the world were laid, he has decreed in sovereign predestination to deliver the objects of his eternal love from sin, the curse of the law, and eternal damnation, and to deliver them unto eternal glory in, by, and with the Lord Jesus Christ.

    Election is the guarantee of eternal salvation by Christ our Surety and the source of all spiritual and eternal blessedness. Little wonder that David danced before the ark when he thought about God’s election (Psalm 65:4). Election calls for unceasing praise and thanksgiving to our God. Except God had chosen and called us, we would never have chosen and called on him. Except he had chosen us of his own good pleasure, unconditionally, we could never have been chosen, for we could never make ourselves worthy of his choice. Let the Arminian, the works-monger, the will-worshipper rail, and rant, and rave on. We rejoice in electing love! We bless God for the blessing wherewith he has blessed us. Eternal Election! We know and rejoice to sing with Josiah Conder ...

    ’Tis not that I did choose Thee,

    For, Lord, that could not be;

    This heart would still refuse Thee,

    Hadst Thou not chosen me:

    Thou, from the sin that stained me,

    Hast washed and set me free,

    And to this end ordained me,

    That I should live to Thee.

    ’Twas sovereign mercy called me,

    And taught my opening mind,

    The world had else enthralled me,

    To heavenly glories blind:

    My heart owns none before Thee,

    For Thy rich grace I thirst

    This knowing, if I love Thee,

    Thou must have loved me first”!

    Are there any marks of election, any tokens by which I can know whether I am one of God’s elect? Indeed, there are! These marks are clearly laid down in Scripture. Election is inseparably connected with faith in Christ and conformity to his image (Romans 8:29, 30). When Paul saw the working “faith”, and patient “hope”, and labouring “love”, of the Thessalonians, he knew their “election of God” (1 Thessalonians 1:3, 4.). Our Lord gives us this mark of election in the passage before us. God’s elect are a people who “cry unto him day and night.”

    And, yes, God shall avenge us. He shall avenge his own elect, “though he bear long with them.” Perhaps these words refer to our adversaries, oppressors, and persecutors. They are vessels of wrath, fitted for destruction. The Lord God endures their wickedness with much longsuffering toward his elect, until the sufferings of his people are accomplished and the iniquities of these reprobate are full.

    However, I think the words, “though he bear long with them” are most properly to be understood as referring to the elect. They might be better translated, “and is longsuffering towards them.” He delays the execution of vengeance upon the world of the ungodly until all his elect are gathered in from among them. Then, our Saviour says, “I tell you, he will avenge them speedily” (v. 8; 2 Peter 3:9, 15).

    The third thing we see in this passage is the fact that true faith will be a scarce and rare thing in the last day. Our Saviour shows us this by asking a very solemn question in verse 8. “When the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?” The answer is obvious. As it was in the days of Noah and Lot, so shall it be when the Lord Jesus comes again. In the days of Noah only eight souls entered into the ark. In the days of Lot only three were delivered from wrath and judgment. All the rest perished. So shall it be in the end of the world.

    “Dost thou believe on the Son of God?” If you do, bless God for his free electing love and the gift of his grace upon you. If you believe, salvation and eternal life is yours in Christ. But, if you believe not the Son of God, the wrath of God abides on you and you shall never see life (John 3:36; 8:24).