Something very disturbing had happened in the hearts of many of the religious “elite” of Jesus’ time – including priests, Pharisees, and Sadducees – that caused our Lord to categorize them very differently from the common people, even contrasting them in a negative light vis-à-vis the prostitutes and tax collectors, the “dregs” of Hebrew society!
Matthew 21:31-32 NASB…“Truly I say to you that the tax collectors and prostitutes will get into the kingdom of God before you. For John came to you in the way of righteousness and you did not believe him; but the tax collectors and prostitutes did believe him; and you, seeing this, did not even feel remorse afterward so as to believe him.”
According to Jesus, not only were these privileged “sons of Abraham” NOT God’s children, but they had been, in fact, spiritually sired by the evil one, Satan himself! These “converts” were not growing up into the image of Christ. Instead, they were being transformed into the image of the “father of lies.”
John 8:44 NASB “You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies.”
Even more terrifying, some very self-righteous and pious among these “counterfeits” had descended so far into Satanic deception and demonic control that they had consciously and deliberately blasphemed the Holy Spirit by declaring – in their jealous rage – that the Son of God and His disciples were casting out demons in their midst by the power of the prince of demons himself, “Beelzebub.” For this sin, Jesus said, there was NO forgiveness, either in this life or in the life to come!
Matthew 12:32 NASB “Whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man, it shall be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the age to come.”
It is odd to think that Jesus would pray and ask God to forgive many of the very people who persecuted Him, accused Him, and brutally nailed Him to the Cross, but that there was another class of “religious” persons who had become so blinded and perverted by darkness that they had already sealed their own doom for all eternity, by denying the true source of exorcism by the power of the Holy Ghost working through Jesus and also through His spiritual descendants. By contrast, others like Nicodemus and some of his peers – though in the beginning unregenerate – turned to Jesus, having recognizing the source of His spiritual authority.
Matthew 6:23 NASB “But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!”
Hebrews 10:26-31 NASB “For if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a terrifying expectation of judgment and the fury of a fire which will consume the adversaries. Anyone who has set aside the Law of Moses dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much severer punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled under foot the Son of God, and has regarded as unclean the blood of the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has insulted the Spirit of grace? For we know Him who said, ‘Vengeance is Mine, I will repay.’ And again, “The Lord will judge His people.” It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”
Satan is now, more than ever, in the business of seducing followers, but we need to realize that until we are convicted of sin and make the choice to surrender ourselves fully to Christ, we are all prisoners of death and darkness. But for those even in our darkened generation who desire to know truth and whose consciences have not been permanently seared by an appropriation and subsequent rejection of the “Spirit of grace”, there remains great HOPE!
How great is God’s love for us?
Romans 5:8-11 NASB “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. And not only this, but we also exult in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.”
Bryan
Fracas In The Family :) 