The Life of Christ
- When
- Written c. AD 60–80
- Written by
- Luke, the physician
- Chapters
- 24
The big idea
An ordered account for Theophilus: Jesus, born in poverty and filled with the Spirit, seeks and saves the lost, welcomes the outcast, and rises to send the Spirit.
Themes
- Salvation for all
- Prayer and the Holy Spirit
- Mercy and joy
- The poor and the outcast
Memory verse
For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.
Key passages
- 1–2The infancy and the canticles
- 4:16–21Jesus in Nazareth
- 15The lost sheep, coin and son
- 23:39–43The good thief
- 24:13–35The road to Emmaus
Links to other Scripture
- Isaiah 61:1–2The Spirit of the Lord upon me
- 1 Samuel 2:1–10Hannah’s song
- Malachi 4:5–6The spirit of Elijah
- Acts 1:1–2Luke’s second book
Read the text
Choose a chapter to read it here in the King James Version. Verses with a dotted underline have notes from Bible scholars. Tap one to open them.
Notes from
Chapters
King James text and the commentaries of Henry, Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, Gill, Clarke, Calvin, and Keil and Delitzsch are in the public domain. Tyndale Open Study Notes are used under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license, from tyndaleopenresources.com. Texts were reformatted for this site.
Journal prompts
Keep a journal or notebook for your study. Write your answers there, in your own words.
- Where do you see Christ in this book?
- Luke records Jesus welcoming the outcast again and again. Who do you find hard to welcome?
- Read the parable of the lost son (chapter 15). Which person in the story are you today?
- On the road to Emmaus the disciples did not recognize him. When has Jesus been with you in a way you only saw later?
- In one sentence, this book is about…