3. His purpose: the Gospel for Theophilus

    [1:1] Inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the things that have been accomplished among us, [2] just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word have delivered them to us, [3] it seemed good to me also, having followed all things closely for some time past, to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, [4] that you may have certainty concerning the things you have been taught.
(Luke 1:1-4 ESV)

3.    His purpose: the Gospel for Theophilus

‘Poetry’, said the French poet Baudelaire, has ‘no other aim but itself … If the poet has pursued a moral aim, he will have diminished his poetic power; nor will it be incautious to bet that his work is bad.’19 Not one of the Bible writers would have agreed (and some of them [Luke, Page 30] were very fine poets indeed). Baudelaire, with his belief in ‘art for art’s sake’, would for his part have dismissed Luke after reading the first ten lines of the Gospel, for Luke declares unashamedly that his literary work has a ‘moral aim’: he aims to bring Theophilus to a sure knowledge of the truth of Christianity.

a.    What Theophilus has already heard

The ‘things’ of 1:4 are of a different kind from the ‘things’ of 1:1; they are in fact ‘words’. What Theophilus has heard is something more than the mere events of the days of Jesus. It is a significant choice of those events, which has been preached, with incandescent power, by the apostles. It is a word which changes the lives of men.
    Even so, Theophilus apparently still lacks a thorough grasp of the facts, and that is the lack which this Gospel sets out to supply. It is what he needs, whether he is already a convert or still merely an onlooker; for it is not clear how Theophilus stands in relation to the Christian faith (‘informed’ represents a Greek word which could imply either that he has undergone Christian instruction or that he has heard an unfriendly report).20 But in either case—if he is on the one hand a new Christian with a rudimentary knowledge of the faith, or on the other hand a non-Christian who is interested enough to learn what it is really about—this Gospel is written especially for such as him.

b.    What Luke’s Gospel can do for him

The reading of this book, which is written particularly with Theophilus in mind, will enable him to ‘know the certainty’ (AV, RV) of these things.
    Luke places the word ‘certainty’ emphatically at the end of his long sentence: ‘I have written all this, Theophilus, so that you may be sure.’ Like many men of his day, this man, presumably brought up in a pagan religion which had become increasingly meaningless, may well have felt ‘a strong desire for firmly established truth’, and ‘yearned for trustworthy knowledge concerning religious matters.’21 And, we may add, like many men of our own day—men for whom both the Christian church under its popular image, and the many beliefs which are offered as alternatives to it, seem very insecure foundations for living. But my Gospel, says Luke, will offer you [Luke, Page 31] certainty. And in saying this he grasps yet another twentieth-century nettle. For the word is asphaleia, which might be translated ‘infallibility’—a concept around which long warfare has been waged. Without apology Luke claims it for his Gospel, and its real meaning becomes plain. Read what I have written, he says, and you will see the facts on which Christianity is based; and you will find there something firm and solid and absolutely trustworthy, a sure foundation for faith.
    And ‘know’ also is a special word. It means a deep, thorough knowledge. Luke wants his reader to know the certainty of the gospel not only in his mind but in his heart, so that it becomes part of the fibre of his being. Such knowledge may be yours, says Luke. How? By some mystical experience? By a deep study of philosophy? No: by reading and meditating on the plain facts of the story of Jesus, set out here in my Gospel. That is where you may come to know the basic certainties of life.

This, then, is what we look for as we embark on our reading of the Gospel according to Luke. Like many another book of the same kind, most of them now lost, it recounts ‘the tradition’, the facts about Jesus: though they are not merely facts, but truth which when proclaimed changes the lives of men. This book, moreover, sets them out with a remarkable fullness, accuracy, and meaningful order, and demands our closest attention. Granted this, we may expect it to lay deep in our hearts the infallible basis of spiritual certainty in a world where all else is changing and inconstant. Let us then go to our study of it with a will.

How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord,
Is laid for your faith in his excellent word;
What more can he say than to you he hath said,
You who unto Jesus for refuge have fled?22