THE GOSPELS

In this section:

MATTHEW 25:1-13

MATTHEW 25:14-30

MATTHEW 25:1-13

This passage involves a parable that Jesus tells about His future coming in His New Covenant as King of kings and Lord of lords. In the contextual flow, Jesus has been warning the Israelites who are the lost sheep of the house of Israel. At this point, He is still warning the Israelites who are the lost sheep of the house of Israel, to which He has come to announce His arrival as the promised Messiah King. He says,

"Then the kingdom of heaven will be comparable to ten virgins, who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. 2 Five of them were foolish, and five were prudent. 3 For when the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them, 4 but the prudent took oil in flasks along with their lamps. 5 Now while the bridegroom was delaying, they all got drowsy and began to sleep. 6 But at midnight there was a shout, 'Behold, the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.' 7 "Then all those virgins rose and trimmed their lamps. 8 The foolish said to the prudent, 'Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.' 9 But the prudent answered, 'No, there will not be enough for us and you too; go instead to the dealers and buy some for yourselves.' 10 And while they were going away to make the purchase, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the wedding feast; and the door was shut. 11 Later the other virgins also came, saying, 'Lord, lord, open up for us.' 12 But he answered, 'Truly I say to you, I do not know you.' 13 Be on the alert then, for you do not know the day nor the hour." (Matthew 25:1-13)

According to the typical NEST interpretation, this passage is seen as suggesting that Jesus is teaching that all ten virgins of the analogy are actually saved. Five of the ten virgins are foolish and are not prepared for the coming of the bridegroom, so they lose their salvation that they supposedly had once before.

The NEST interpretation is wrong. To understand why the NEST interpretation is wrong, we must recognize that in the context of this parable Jesus is still teaching concerning the lost sheep of the house of Israel. All of Israel is likened to the 10 virgins who are expecting to be marriage attendants. In the parable, they are answerable to the one groom which is the true Messiah. This is not a polygamy teaching where the bridegroom is planning on marrying ten virgins, and then only marries 5 at the last moment. What Jesus is doing is illustrating readiness and expectation concerning His kingdom by using a cultural practice that all Israelites were familiar with. The virgins here are the customary wedding attendants to the bride at the wedding feast. The ten are all the virgins that had been originally invited to be what we would call bride's maids. There are prudent virgins among the invited, which represent those who embrace their Messiah in full belief that He is the Messiah who is their King, Lord, and Savior. When the shout of Messiah comes at His return to desolate the apostate religious system, (not in a gnostic sense) these prudent Israelites are ready for Him. They have prepared their lamps, so to speak, in seriousness of expecting the surprise wedding call to come at an undisclosed, yet inevitable night. They will be ushered in to attend the typological wedding feast of joy in the kingdom of heaven of the New and better covenant, (cf. Hebrews 8) which replaces the Old obsolete covenant as Messiah's "eternal covenant" (cf. Hebrews 13:20). They know the groom and the groom knows them. On the other hand, the rest of the virgins are not saved; they never were saved. So at the time that they are supposed to come out to meet Messiah, they will realize that Messiah has come to Israel as promised, but it will be too late. They thought they were elect. They thought they were truly attendants, but the harsh reality is that they were never elect to eternal spiritual salvation, which is made evident in the fact that Christ says in verse 12,

"Truly I say to you, I do not know you." (Matthew 25:12)

Christ does not have a memory problem. He does not have a handicap in His cognitive ability. He is not sitting in the heavenlies having mental lapses in recognizing Israelites or Gentiles. On the contrary; Israel's Messiah does not know those startled and unready Israelite virgins who waited too late to be ready for His return, in a certain manner, and a certain way of not knowing them. That certain manner, and certain way that Jesus the Messiah does not know those Israelites, is in salvation. He does not, did not, and will not know them as eternally spiritually saved. The point is that Messiah is making His general evangelistic call to all the lost sheep of the house of Israel and they are exhorted to turn to Him right now. Now is their day of salvation and preparation for His guaranteed and imminent return.

There are some interpreters who think that the oil in the parable signifies the Holy Spirit, and so it is suggested that the five unsaved virgins did not have the Holy Spirit later, but had a little bit of the Holy Spirit once before. This is probably not what Jesus meant. Further, every single detail, for example, the number ten for the virgins, the number 5 representing the saved, and another number five for the not saved, etc., are not to be given more importance than is exegetically clear. Christ's overall thrust is what is important. The five rejected virgins evidently went out to "merchants" to "make the purchase" of some oil, but we can not push this to mean that they bought some Holy Spirit. We find that when Simon Magus in Acts 8, attempted to buy the Holy Spirit, He failed, as the Holy Spirit can not be bought. Neither the virgins of the parable, or actual people, are to go out and buy the person of the Holy Spirit. Additionally, the five foolish virgin's lamps were originally trimmed, so they had some oil once! They simply did not bring the extra flasks of oil like the wise virgins, so their lamps were going out. Finally, we are pressed to admit that any theory that seeks to explain how one can carry extra Holy Spirit around when one's lamp is going out, is pushed, and highly theoretical. With these considerations, we must be careful not to assert that the oil in this parable represents the Holy Spirit.

The main point is that this is not a parable that even remotely suggests that those who are elect to eternal spiritual salvation under the New Covenant, can lose salvation, gain salvation by personal meritorious effort, or maintain keeping salvation secure by humanistic perseverance methods.

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MATTHEW 25:14-30

In the context of Matthew 25:14-30, Jesus has been warning the Israelites who are the lost sheep of the house of Israel. He has just told a parable about His future coming in His New Covenant as King of kings and Lord of lords. At this point, He is still warning the Israelites, to which He has come to announce His arrival as the promised Messiah King. Jesus is also concerned with teaching on the coming rule and reign of His New Covenant messianic kingdom among His redeemed people through the cross and resurrection. Though Christ is teaching directly to His students, we understand from Mark 13:37, and Luke 12:1, 12:54, that He is also speaking to the crowds at this juncture. We must keep these important details in mind as we read the next parable that Jesus tells. He says,

"For it ["it" here is still the kingdom of heaven, which is called the kingdom of God in Matthew 21:43. So Jesus is giving His parable, saying For the kingdom of heaven] is just like a man about to go on a journey, who called his own servants and entrusted his possessions to them. 15 To one he gave five talents, to another, two, and to another, one, each according to his own ability; and he went on his journey. 16 Immediately the one who had received the five talents went and traded with them, and gained five more talents. 17 In the same manner the one who had received the two talents gained two more. 18 But he who received the one talent went away, and dug a hole in the ground and hid his master's money. Now after a long time the master of those servants came and settled accounts with them. 20 The one who had received the five talents came up and brought five more talents, saying, 'Master, you entrusted five talents to me. See, I have gained five more talents.' 21 His master said to him, 'Well done, good and faithful servant. You were faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.' Also the one who had received the two talents came up and said, 'Master, you entrusted two talents to me. See, I have gained two more talents.' 23 His master said to him, 'Well done, good and faithful servant. You were faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.' And the one also who had received the one talent came up and said, 'Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow and gathering where you scattered no seed. 25 'And I was afraid, and went away and hid your talent in the ground. See, you have what is yours.' But his master answered and said to him, 'You wicked, lazy servant, you knew that I reap where I did not sow and gather where I scattered no seed. 27 Then you ought to have put my money in the bank, and on my arrival I would have received my money back with interest. 28 Therefore take away the talent from him, and give it to the one who has the ten talents. For to everyone who has, more shall be given, and he will have an abundance; but from the one who does not have, even what he does have shall be taken away. 30 Throw out the worthless servant into the outer darkness; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.'" (Matthew 25:14-30)  

According to the typical NEST belief, the proper interpretation of this parable concerning the kingdom of heaven, is that all the servants in the parable are people who are already saved. Each person is described as a type of person saved in the New Covenant in respect to how shrewdly he follows the Lord in utilizing his talents. The one who decides not to use his talent, or put it into savings to draw interest for Christ, is said to lose salvation, and is damned forever in his failure.

The NEST is wrong. The way to understand why the NEST is wrong is to identify one of the presuppositions that those who believe in the NEST bring to the interpretive arena concerning the language used in the parable. As a first consideration, the NEST interpretation assumes the account here, through a mistaken New Covenant theology. According to the NEST interpretation, it is presuppositionally assumed that because Jesus is talking about a master and servants, He must be talking about born again people who are servants of Messiah in the spiritual salvation of the New Covenant. Since we know that Jesus, in this contextual flow, has been talking to, and talking about, Israel, all we need to do is recognize that Jesus has not abruptly decided to change His subject focus at this point. In other words, if Jesus considers His Old Covenant people here, (which are Israelites), to be servants, which includes the lost sheep (cf. Matthew 15:24, 10:6) then the NEST interpretation is simply based upon a mistake of equivocation in asserting otherwise. Actually, such is the case. Old Covenant Israel is the subject and teaching thrust at this point, as has been demonstrated earlier in the previous section dealing with Matthew 25:1-13. The important point is that God referred to Old Covenant Israel as His servants. We look to Leviticus 25:55 to get into the proper cultural context of the language that Jesus is using,

"For the sons of Israel are My servants; they are My servants whom I brought out from the land of Egypt. I am Yahweh your God" (Leviticus 25:55)

With this simple identification out of the way of who the "servants" are in terms of national Israel, we must look at a second consideration, and that is that not all the sons of Israel are saved, but rather, only a remnant are saved, as Paul states in Romans,

"Though the number of the sons of Israel be like the sand of the sea, it is the remnant that will be saved;" (Romans 9:27)

Putting all of this together, what we see, is that Jesus is still talking to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. They are the lost sons of Israel who are his servants according to an old covenant, and He is still teaching them about His Messianic Kingdom, (apparently in a coming New Covenant realization). The wicked servant, which is an apostate Israelite, has only a little bit given to him, but it is not something that accompanies salvation. In fact, compared to the other good and faithful servants, the wicked one is described by Jesus as "the one who does not have," (Matthew 25:25). Jesus goes on and explains that it is exceedingly bad for this wicked, lazy person, because from the one who does not have, even what he does have shall be taken away, which means he is lost, always was lost, and always will be lost.

"30 Throw out the worthless servant into the outer darkness; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth." (Matthew 25:30)

If you will remember, this is the place that unbelievers go, according to what Jesus says in this same teaching lesson as recorded in Luke,

"46 the master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he does not know, and will cut him in pieces, and assign him a place with the unbelievers." (Luke 17:46)

The hypocrites are there in that same place too, according to Matthew 24:51, because they are the religious leaders of Jerusalem, who, as worthless unbelievers, reject the Messiah who has come to the sons of Israel.

With all these pertinent details in view, we recognize that Jesus is not talking about saved people losing their salvation. Jesus is talking to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, who had their Messiah come in their own generation, in which some do follow Him, and some will follow Him. His followers look forward to His return, and the fullness of His established kingdom. On the other hand, Jesus is also talking to some there who do not follow Him, and will not follow Him, and so they are doomed to be assigned "a place with the unbelievers," where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth for all who reject Jesus as the true Messiah.