Receiving Bread From Within
Luke 11:5 And he said unto them, Which of you shall have a friend, and shall go unto him at midnight, and say unto him, Friend, lend me three loaves;
6 For a friend of mine in his journey is come to me, and I have nothing to set before him?
7 And he from within shall answer and say, Trouble me not: the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot rise and give thee.
8 I say unto you, Though he will not rise and give him, because he is his friend, yet because of his importunity he will rise and give him as many as he needeth.
This parable of the man coming to his friend at midnight in order to find bread declares to us that "the door is now shut".
Some try to say that because the friend from within gives the man bread it indicates salvation will still be available even after the door has shut. This is not in view at all.
First of all, the man who comes for bread represents God's elect. And the man from within who eventually gives the bread is a picture of God Himself. So, the fact that they are friends already shows that there is a personal relationship in view between the two friends that is only possible AFTER salvation has occurred.
John 15:13 Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
14 Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you.
Again, the fact that they are friends means salvation has already come to the man seeking bread.
Secondly, it is significant that the man's friend is said to be "within". We immediately think he is within a house. But the word house is not mentioned anywhere in the parable. He speaks simply from "within".
Yes, but isn't it obvious that he's within a house? Where else could he possibly be?
We have to allow the Bible to tell us exactly where this place "within" is located.
The Greek word translated within is esothen (Strong's #2081). It is found 14 times in the N.T.
In 10 out of the 14 times it points to the soul or inner being of a man. For example:
Mark 7:21 For from within (#2081), out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, ...
23 All these evil things come from within (#2081), and defile the man.
Also,
Luke 11:39 And the Lord said unto him, Now do ye Pharisees make clean the outside of the cup and the platter; but your inward (#2081) part is full of ravening and wickedness.
40 Ye fools, did not he that made that which is without make that which is within (#2081) also?
As we can clearly see the references to "within" in the verses above are telling us about the
spiritual part of a man.
Here's another verse where there is no doubt that the soul of man is what is in view:
2 Corinthians 4:16 For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward (#2081) man is renewed day by day.
The contrast between the outward man (flesh) and the inward man (spirit) is unmistakable.
The Greek word esothen (#2081) comes from the word eso (#2080). Eso is the word found in Romans chapter 7's passage wherein the apostle Paul was moved to write about his struggles with the flesh while delighting in the law of God in the spirit:
Romans 7:22 For I delight in the law of God after the inward (#2080) man:
23 But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.
We see again that the inward man is a reference to the new spirit placed within the elect child of God.
The fact that God chose this word to tell us about the friend coming on his journey seeking bread at a time of midnight once the door has been shut – is extremely telling.
Why did not God say that the man inside his house answered and said? Why tell us "And he from within shall answer and say"?
The reason is because the man who is coming, as we have pointed out, is a friend of God. He has already been saved. And once saved he received the Spirit of God.
Where is God's Spirit in the one who has become saved? Why – it is within him:
Ezekiel 36:26 A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.
27 And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.
The individual whom God has saved received the Spirit of God within his new soul.
The N.T. reveals the same truth:
John 14:16 And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever;
17 Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.
Where is the Spirit of Truth to be found? The answer the Bible gives is – within you.
See also:
Romans 8:9 But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.
The Spirit of God dwells inside the elect child of God. And it is the Spirit's role to guide the born again Christian into truth:
John 16:13 Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come.
In the Bible, bread points to right doctrine. Or to the right understanding of the Bible's spiritual truths. To those who say the man's request for bread for a friend on his journey has to do with salvation – they must then answer why it is that in the Lord's Prayer, Christ encouraged us to pray for our "daily bread"? If bread is salvation, why would anyone need every day?
But it is not salvation. Bread is a picture of spiritual food. Of spiritual nourishment for the born again soul. And we need to partake of it regularly just as the physical body needs to regularly partake of physical bread.
The Major Point
The man going to his friend at midnight seeking bread typifies God's elect coming to God for right spiritual understanding (truth) in the Day of Judgment. The man is already a friend of God which means he already has become saved. The man is beseeching his friend for bread – teaching us that the elect may come to God in the time of the world's final judgment for wisdom and understanding of the Bible.
Yet the man's friend is within – himself. That is, God's Spirit is within the man seeking bread. The prayer, as it were, for bread from the man is received from the Spirit of God within the man's new born again soul.
What does it mean that the man is within who provides the bread?
Let's look at it from another angle. Let's say people are approaching God at the time of midnight (judgment) and the door is shut. And these individuals are not saved. This means they have no indwelling Spirit of God. Therefore, there is no friend for them within. The door to them is simply shut. They will not be heard. No bread will be provided for them. It cannot be.