<p>13:11 <em>And he answered and said to them: To you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven</em>- The things which God has prepared for those who love Him, things which the natural eye has not seen but&nbsp;which are revealed unto us by the Spirit, relate to our redemption in Christ, rather than the wonders of the future political Kingdom (because Mt. 13:11; 16:17 = 1 Cor. 2:9,10). The context of 1 Cor. 2 and the allusions to Isaiah there demand the same interpretation.</p>
<p><em>But to them it is not given</em>- Here we see the element of predestination- understanding is &ldquo;given&rdquo;. Paul in Romans speaks of such predestination as the supreme evidence of our salvation by grace. One example of the Lord Jesus' emphasis on our salvation being through grace rather than our works is found in the way the parables teach that our acceptance is to some degree dependent on our predestination. Thus the parable of the types of ground suggests that we are good or bad ground at the time the seed is first sown; the fish are good or bad at the time they first enter the net; the wise virgins take the oil with them from the start of their vigil. I would suggest that this is not just part of the story. It was evidently within the Lord's ability to construct stories which featured the idea of bad seed or fish etc. changing to good, and vice versa. But He didn't; indeed, His emphasis seems to have been on the idea of predestination. This isn't to decry the effort for spirituality which we must make; but His stress of the predestination factor is surely to remind us of the degree to which our calling and salvation is by pure grace. &nbsp;&nbsp;<br />
The Lord&rsquo;s grace to His men is reflected in Mark&rsquo;s record of how the twelve were confused by the Lord&rsquo;s parables. He responds that He speaks in parables so that &ldquo;them that are without&rdquo; would not understand; but His followers would, He implies, &ldquo;know the mystery of the Kingdom of God: but unto them that are without, all these things are done in parables&rdquo;. And yet it&rsquo;s immediately apparent that the disciples were equally confused by the parables. We sense the Lord&rsquo;s frustration with this: &ldquo;Know ye not this parable? How then will ye know all parables?&rdquo;- i.e. &lsquo;If you don&rsquo;t understand this parable, it means you won&rsquo;t understand any of them, which makes you equal with the crowd of those outside of Me, whom I&rsquo;m seeking to leave confused&rsquo;. And we note how straight away Mark notes, perhaps in sadness and yet marvel at the Lord&rsquo;s grace: &ldquo;But without a parable spake he not unto them [the disciples]: and when they were alone, he expounded all things to his disciples&rdquo; (Mk. 4:10-13,34). Mark, or Peter writing through Mark, could look back in wonder. They the supposed disciples, learners, of the Lord Jesus had been as dumb as the crowd; but by grace alone the Lord had privately explained the parables to them. And our understanding of true Bible teaching is likewise a gift of grace, when we are every bit as obtuse as the people in darkness who surround us. The phrase &quot;them that are without&quot; (Mk. 4:11) seems to have stuck with Paul; he uses it five times. Perhaps he saw that a characteristic of the believers, those separated from the world of darkness, was that they understood the parables; and this would explain Paul's frequent allusion to them, stressing as he does the need to appreciate their power. But those &ldquo;without&rdquo; in His other teaching clearly refer to those rejected at the judgment, who will stand &ldquo;without&rdquo; begging for admission to the Kingdom (Lk. 13:25; Rev. 20:15). But those &lsquo;without&rsquo; in Mk. 4:11 are those who chose not to understand the Lord&rsquo;s teaching, for whom it&rsquo;s all parables, fascinating perhaps, but confusing, unclear, and not something they are really bothered to understand. This connection of thought doesn&rsquo;t mean that intellectual clarity of understanding alone decides who will be, indeed who is, within or without of the Kingdom. But it is all the same true that the Kingdom life both now and in the future requires us to understand so that we might believe and live and be as the Lord requires.&nbsp;</p>