#DailyDevotion Do You Actually Know Jesus?
Matt. 25 Then the kingdom of heaven will be like ten girls who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. 2Five of them were foolish, and five were wise. 3The foolish girls brought their lamps, but they took no extra oil. 4The wise took flasks of oil with their lamps. 5But the bridegroom delayed, and so they all dozed off to sleep.
In the beginning of this parable we have a bit of Gospel. There are ten virgins. Now ten represents completeness. Everyone is invited to the wedding banquet. These ten virgins represent all the people in the world. The gospel invitation goes out into all the world to the kingdom of God. It shows no partiality. The bridegroom is Jesus Christ.
In John’s Gospel the Baptist proclaims, “Look at the Lamb of God Who takes away the sin of the world.” (John 1:29) Jesus says in John 1232“And once I have been lifted up from the earth, I will draw all people to Me.” Again Jesus says in John 3, 16 “God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son so that whoever believes in Him would not perish but have everlasting life.” St. Paul writes, Romans 323 “All have sinned and come short of God’s glory. 24 They are declared righteous freely by His grace through the ransom Christ Jesus paid to free them.” Again Paul says, 2 Cor. 519 “In Christ God restored the relationship of the world to Himself by not counting their sins against them…”
These passages show the universality of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Jesus came to save all people in the world bar none. You can always be certain Jesus died for your sins. You can always be certain Jesus has invited you to his wedding banquet. You can always be certain Jesus has reconciled you to the Father so that the Father will not count your trespasses against you.
Yet we see five virgins were wise and five were foolish. Jesus throws in this detail that some took extra oil while others just took their lamps (assuming they had enough oil for the occasion). Now commentators throughout the ages have used a lot of ink on what this oil represents. Is it the Holy Spirit? Unbelievers don’t have the Holy Spirit and he can’t be exhausted by believers. Is it faith? Both girls have oil and there is not a measurement of faith required to get into heaven. Is it good works? There is not enough good works anyone can do. I think the whole oil thing is a canard. How much oil you have is irrelevant.
So what makes one group wise and one group foolish? It is this, one group knows the bridegroom while the other group does not. Those who know Jesus know he is a long time in coming because he said he would be but also be prepared for his coming at any time. So the wise properly prepare themselves. They know the nature of the Groom. They prepare themselves for this fact. The foolish don’t know the Groom. They just expect him to act like any old groom and show up when he’s supposed to show up. What man isn’t on time to his wedding? (ok worldly speaking there may be a few). The thing is they all fall asleep, i.e. die. One group falls asleep knowing and trusting in the character of Jesus and the other group not really knowing Jesus so they think he is like any other god. The question is do you really know Jesus? Does you life resemble someone who knows Jesus?
Heavenly Father, grant unto us true knowledge of your son Jesus Christ so we may rightly believe in him and live our lives according to this knowledge. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.