Chapter 1—Teaching in Parables
In Christ’s parable teaching the same principle is seen as in His
own mission to the world. That we might become acquainted with His
divine character and life, Christ took our nature and dwelt among us.
Divinity was revealed in humanity; the invisible glory in the visible
human form. Men could learn of the unknown through the known;
heavenly things were revealed through the earthly; God was made
manifest in the likeness of men. So it was in Christ’s teaching: the
unknown was illustrated by the known; divine truths by earthly things
with which the people were most familiar.
The Scripture says, “All these things spake Jesus unto the mul-
titude in parables; ... that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by
the prophet, saying, I will open My mouth in parables; I will utter
things which have been kept secret from the foundation of the world.”
Matthew 13:34, 35
. Natural things were the medium for the spiri-
tual; the things of nature and the life-experience of His hearers were
connected with the truths of the written word. Leading thus from the
natural to the spiritual kingdom, Christ’s parables are links in the chain
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of truth that unites man with God, and earth with heaven.
In His teaching from nature, Christ was speaking of the things
which His own hands had made, and which had qualities and powers
that He Himself had imparted. In their original perfection all created
things were an expression of the thought of God. To Adam and Eve
in their Eden home nature was full of the knowledge of God, teeming
with divine instruction. Wisdom spoke to the eye and was received into
the heart; for they communed with God in His created works. As soon
as the holy pair transgressed the law of the Most High, the brightness
from the face of God departed from the face of nature. The earth is
now marred and defiled by sin. Yet even in its blighted state much that
is beautiful remains. God’s object lessons are not obliterated; rightly
understood, nature speaks of her Creator.
In the days of Christ these lessons had been lost sight of. Men
had well-nigh ceased to discern God in His works. The sinfulness
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