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PROFITS IN HISTORY (1)Then Peter said, Lo, we have left all, and followed thee. And he said unto them, Verily I say unto you, There is no man that hath left house, or parents, or brethren, or wife, or children, for the kingdom of God's sake, Who shall not receive manifold more in this present time, and in the world to come life everlasting (Luke 18:28-30).
The parallel passage in Matthew makes clear the theocentric focus of this passage: the name of Jesus. "Then answered Peter and said unto him, Behold, we have forsaken all, and followed thee; what shall we have therefore? And Jesus said unto them, Verily I say unto you, That ye which have followed me, in the regeneration when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name's sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and shall inherit everlasting life" (Matt. 19:27-29). The key phrase is "for my name's sake." For His name's sake, it is worth sacrificing everything we own. By this sacrifice, His followers will gain a huge return.
Status: Thrones of Judgment Peter's question was in response to Jesus' warning about how few rich men enter the kingdom of God. Peter reminded Him that he and the other disciples had forsaken all, which included their families. They were not rich. Bluntly, he asked: "What's in it for us?" He was looking for assurance of a positive sanction. Christ promised two.
First, they would exercise authority. They would sit as judges on twelve thrones alongside of Christ. They would judge the twelve tribes of Israel (Matt. 19:28). In Luke, we are given another account of this same promise. It relates to the meaning of the Lord's Supper. "Ye are they which have continued with me in my temptations. And I appoint unto you a kingdom, as my Father hath appointed unto me; That ye may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom, and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel" (Luke 22:28-30). What did this mean? Why was rulership related to the sacrament of the Lord's Supper? Because of sanctions. The Lord's Supper is a sacrament of judgment: self-judgment, church judgment, and God's judgment.(2)
Second, they would gain stewardship over God's kingdom. The Jews would lose it, He told the leaders. "Therefore say I unto you, The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof" (Matt. 21:43). Old Covenant Israel was coming to the end of the road. The church was about to inherit God's kingdom and its promises. One aspect of this kingdom is the rendering of judgment. Jesus had already told them: "Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven" (Matt. 18:18).
The apostles, by bringing the gospel of the kingdom to Israel, were also bringing a covenant lawsuit against Israel. Like the prophets before them, Jesus told them, they would suffer persecution by the Jews because of this covenant lawsuit. "Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you" (Matt. 5:11-12).
These would be negative sanctions on the apostles. This was not what Peter wanted to hear. He wanted to hear about positive sanctions. Jesus told them that they would be agents of judgment against Israel. They would bring judgment against the Jewish nation. How would they do this? He did not say. He did not promise them that they would do this in heaven. This may have been His frame of reference, but for all of them to exercise such heavenly judgment, they would all have to die before the fall of Jerusalem in A.D. 70, when historical judgment arrived. Jesus may have had in mind their preaching of the kingdom. This would be a means of bringing judgment. What He did say is that they would participate with Him in the rendering of judgment against the twelve tribes. The dozen apostles (minus Judas, plus Matthias) would replace the dozen non-priestly tribes of Israel.(3) They would serve judicially as representative agents of the New Israel of God, the church.(4)
This was a major blessing. They would become the patriarchs of a new Israel. They would become founders, not in the sense of biology, but rather as forefathers. Their names would extend down through the ages.(5) So few people are remembered in history, that becoming part of the historical record of a civilization is generally regarded as a great honor. Fame ranks with money and power in the minds of most people: the desire not to be forgotten. Wealth is far easier to achieve than fame.
Inheritance: Multiplication Exercising authority would be one positive sanction. Second, "every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name's sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and shall inherit everlasting life." They would receive a hundredfold. This is an image of great wealth.
What had they forfeited? Above all, their families: parents, brethren, wives, and children. Also listed in Matthew's account is land. In Luke's, houses are mentioned. Here is the context of the promise of a hundredfold increase.
This is confusing. If they paid for their time spent with Jesus by losing contact with their families, or possibly losing the trust of their families, how could they be repaid a hundredfold? With money? How much money? How can anyone place a market value on forfeited family life? In any case, what would be the form of this income? It would not be monetary income from wandering the roads of Judea.
The context indicates the multiplication of families. The apostles had lost those things closely associated with family life. They would gain access to a new family inheritance. Their efforts in spreading the gospel of the kingdom would lead to a new family: the family of God. A new era of mass adoption by God was at hand. The founders of the church would be welcomed into households everywhere. They would become founders of a new family, a family analogous to the family of Old Covenant Israel.
They would be involved in the burial of the old family of God. Old Covenant Israel would die without heirs. The church would therefore inherit. Israel's inheritance would come to them as the nearest of kin. "And if his father have no brethren, then ye shall give his inheritance unto his kinsman that is next to him of his family, and he shall possess it: and it shall be unto the children of Israel a statute of judgment, as the LORD commanded Moses" (Num. 27:11). The patriarchs of the church would then become heirs of all of Israel's promises. This was as meaningful a promise to a Jew in Jesus' day as it had been for Abraham, who inherited Canaan only representatively through God's promise of inheritance by his heirs (Gen. 15:16).
This did not necessarily mean that they would receive the inheritance in history. The language of their judging Israel on thrones of glory pointed to the opposite: their deaths, one by one, prior to the fall of Jerusalem. But inheritance is covenantal. It is inheritance by confession. Their confessional heirs would inherit the promises. In this sense, the apostles would inherit God's kingdom in the name of their heirs. They would inherit definitively in history, though not finally.
Conclusion The promise of multiplication had to do with inheritance. Whatever the apostles had already lost and would continue to lose as disciples of Christ, they would regain a hundredfold through their spiritual heirs. The church down through history constitutes their inheritance. They would have lost their inheritance anyway, had they remained loyal to Old Covenant Israel, whose day of reckoning came in A.D. 70. The transfer of Israel's inheritance -- the kingdom of God -- was at hand. The apostles served as the original trustees in the transfer of the inheritance to their covenantal heirs. As forefathers, they would see their heirs and their heirs' wealth multiplied. They would see this in history only by the eyes of faith, just as Abraham had seen his inheritance.(6) But the transfer was secure as Abraham's had been. They had Christ's word.
This promise of inheritance extends to every generation. Adoption into the church brings every Christian into covenantal union with others of the same confession. Their inheritance is the whole earth.(7) This inheritance is open to everyone who follows Christ. The expansion of this inheritance is achieved through the extension of God's kingdom throughout history: the Great Commission.(8)
This places top priority on the preaching of the gospel. The apostles' task is our task, too: to work for the multiplication of heirs through adoptions by God. The task in proclaiming the gospel was two-fold, for the covenant's sanctions are two-fold: blessing and cursing, inheritance and disinheritance. The apostles were told that they would gain their inheritance through their covenantal heirs. This would require the disinheritance of Old Covenant Israel, which they would oversee from the twelve heavenly thrones. So it is with their heirs. The disinheritance in history of covenant-breakers is as much as part of the gospel's effects in history as the inheritance of the kingdom by covenant-keepers. As Christ's kingdom grows, Satan's kingdom shrinks. Covenant-keepers are supposed to inherit the earth progressively in history because Christ inherited it definitively in history at Calvary. He will inherit finally at the last judgment.
Footnotes:
1. This is adapted from Chapter 39 in Gary North, Priorities and Dominion: An Economic Commentary on Matthew, electronic edition (Tyler, Texas: Institute for Christian Economics, 2000).
2. "But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup. For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body. For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep" (I Cor. 11:28-30).
3. Levi, the priestly thirteenth tribe, was replaced by the church. The priesthood ceased: no more animal sacrifices.
4. "And as many as walk according to this rule, peace be on them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God" (Gal. 6:16).
5. "Simon, (whom he also named Peter,) and Andrew his brother, James and John, Philip and Bartholomew, Matthew and Thomas, James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon called Zelotes, And Judas the brother of James, and Judas Iscariot, which also was the traitor" (Luke 6:14-16). "And they gave forth their lots; and the lot fell upon Matthias; and he was numbered with the eleven apostles" (Acts 1:26).
6. "By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went. By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise: For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God" (Heb. 11:8-10).
7. Gary North, Inherit the Earth: Biblical Blueprints for Economics (Ft. Worth, Texas: Dominion Press, 1987).
8. Kenneth L. Gentry, The Greatness of the Great Commission (Tyler, Texas: Institute for Christian Economics, 1990).
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