Jesus and Beelzebub
Scripture
Matthew 12:22-37
Mark 3:23-27
Luke 11:14-28
Key Differences
Luke contains commentary on the way demons
operate. When evil is forced out, it will try even harder
to get back in. In the case of the empty house, the person
has done nothing to change their life since the evil has left
them, therefore it is not a problem for evil to reenter.
For those who fill their life with Christ, evil will find it
much more difficult to reenter.
Commentary
Abraham Lincoln's great speech quotes from this
passage of scripture. He was calling for unity.
Jesus instead was saying that He had no unity with Satan and
instead was at war with him by driving out demons.
The Pharisees do all they can to discredit Jesus
and not acknowledge the hand of God at work. This is the
opposite reaction that most people have when they see a miracle.
When something incredible happens, they give God the credit.
Instead, the Pharisees state that it is done by the power of
Satan.
There have been various interpretations of
blasphemy of the Holy Spirit and even one can lose their
salvation because of it. In the context, it is quite
obvious that the Pharisees were never believers of Jesus.
Rather than this being the straw that broke the camel's back and
caused them to be unforgivable, this is probably best understood
as evidence that they as so far gone that they will never seek
repentance.
God has the power to forgive every sin, but a
person must call upon Him and ask for forgiveness. A
person who refuses to acknowledge the power of God is not going
to call upon Him for forgiveness however. This makes the
sin unforgivable. God has turned around the lives of some
terrible sinners from Nebuchadnezzar to Paul. The key
however was that they were humbled and asked for forgiveness.
The pharisees will not be humbled however and would sooner
attribute the work of God to Satan than to acknowledge God's
power.
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