Jesus Weeping, Despised and Rejected by the Crowdby CBPepper
1:11John 1:11
He came unto his own, and his own received him not.
He came to His own as Creator to the world He Himself had made and as Messiah to the Jewish nation He had chosen, favored, and entrusted with His oracles, living among the very people whose songs, prophecies, and sacrifices had pointed to Him for more than a thousand years. He came as the eternal Word who was with God and was God, made flesh and dwelling among men full of grace and truth to reveal the Father, save the fallen race, and put away sin by His sacrifice as substitute and surety. He came in humility without outward display, veiled in humanity of poor parentage, and His own received Him not because darkness did not comprehend the light and they stumbled at His lowliness while looking for a mighty king who would compel the Gentiles to obey. The rejection was general but not universal, for nearly all refused and hunted Him from Bethlehem to Nazareth to Jerusalem until they crucified Him, yet a few among Jews and Gentiles received Him with gladness when He was revealed to them. As many as receive Him by believing on His name are given power to become sons and daughters of God by new birth, while those who refuse separate themselves from God and repeat today the same unbelief that brought ruin upon Jerusalem.
His Own People Identified
He came to the Jewish nation as to His own, the chosen and highly favored people whom God acknowledged as His peculiar treasure. They were the people He Himself had brought out of Egyptian bondage, leading them in the pillar of cloud, preparing their way with mighty miracles, and communicating light to Moses. To them He had entrusted His oracles and commandments, among them He lived in the flesh, and on His coming their hopes had long centered. Their failure to recognize and acknowledge Him as Messiah was therefore especially striking, for world-loving hearts and greed for money and worldly gain blinded them to the beauty of His character and mission.
His own means also the world He Himself made as Creator, for He was the eternal Word through whom all things were made, who came in human form to dwell among men in the world of His own making. Though He was in the world He had made as the true Light lighting every man, the world did not know Him and His own did not receive Him. By creation and by redemption at infinite cost He holds a just claim and deed of possession to every human being. Those who do receive Him by believing on His name stand in contrast to this rejection, being given power and right to become sons and daughters of God.
His own included in particular His brethren and relatives, who judged He could not be the Messiah, found fault with His manner of working, judged Him by human standards, misunderstood His motives, tried to make Him conform to their ideas, and wounded Him with unbelief, prejudice and reproach. They included His neighbors at Nazareth and the common people of Judea, many of whom might have accepted Him but were afraid of what the leaders might do. Above all they were the priests and rulers, scribes and Pharisees and elders, who sat in Moses' seat, professed to know God and His will, and prided themselves on being God's chosen people while filled with self-righteousness. These leaders hunted Him from place to place, stayed on His track, opposed His work, denied His wonderful works, distorted and misconstrued His gracious words, treated rejoicing over His compassion and healings as a personal slight, stirred fear in the people, and at last sought opportunity to kill Him to preserve their own influence.
They had waited more than a thousand years for the Saviour's coming, resting their brightest hopes on that event and enshrining His name in song and prophecy and in temple rite and household prayer. Their ceremonies and sacrifices and offerings had pointed forward to Him as the Lamb of God and illustrated His atonement. He came at the appointed time and in the manner foretold by the prophets, as the promised Light prefigured in their types, with sufficient evidence in prophecy for the unprejudiced to know Him as the Son of God and Saviour. Yet pride and expectation of royal power and worldly honor blinded them when He came as a poor child and a stranger, meek and lowly in humiliation and suffering, so they would have none of Him, counted Him an impostor, continued their offerings after He had come, and led Him to be killed like a lamb going to slaughter.
Manner of His Coming
He came as the eternal Word who was with God and was God, by whom all things were made and in whom was life as the light of men. He was made flesh and dwelt among men in the world He Himself had made, full of grace and truth, with glory as of the only begotten of the Father. He came from the heavenly courts to represent God in human form, sent from the throne of the Infinite with a prepared body to do God's will, the child born and Son given called Wonderful, Counsellor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. He is the true Light which lights every man, come to earth as the Light of the world to a guilty world, yet the world did not know Him. In Him the Father's glory, character, law, love and life were revealed, for He is the image of the Father who cannot be truly represented by man's art, and though in human form He spoke with the authority of true greatness by commission from the Excellent Glory, calling for submissive attention while God summons the world to listen and receive every word He utters as law and life. He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, from whose fullness all who receive Him receive grace for grace, grace in the soul flowing out to others while more flows in to be given back to God in willing offerings.
He came in humility without outward display of heavenly power, laying aside His royal state and majesty and taking human nature, His divinity veiled in human flesh. He laid aside heavenly display of His true princely character with armies of angels and came in the garb of humanity as one of poor parentage. He made His light available to people of every rank, and the common people heard Him gladly. He suffered with humanity all temptations wherewith man is tempted, tempted in all points as human beings are yet without sin, in order to reveal that it is possible to be victorious overcomers, one with Him as He is one with the Father. He stood before His own nation's rulers to be condemned and patiently endured their abuse, and His humble coming condemns grand display in preaching, medical missionary work, buildings, dress and adornment, requiring instead economy, careful study according to the Saviour's plan, self-denial, cross-bearing, following Him, and purifying the soul by obeying the truth in preparation for the mansions He has gone to prepare.
He came personally on a mission of mercy to save the fallen race, part of God's provision to save sinners. He came in person to His own world to give His life to rescue sinful men and women from a life of transgression to a life of obedience and righteousness, to ransom man from the power of the destroyer. By becoming the Sin-bearer He broke the power of Satan and declared He will become the center of the redeemed world. His work in coming was to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself on the cross of Calvary, taking humanity's transgression upon Himself as its substitute and surety and bearing sin's penalty so that people may be freed through faith and share in the redemption He made available. By perfect obedience He perfected a human character after the divine likeness, overcoming by prayer and strong supplication, and thus procured redemption for all who will be obedient. He is the way, the truth, and the life, the true Light, the Bread of life, the Sun of Righteousness come to an earth covered with darkness and gross darkness that would be left in eternal night without His beams, and the Lamb of God who takes away sin, come to heal, comfort, deliver and restore and to give life and the richest reward heaven can bestow, even the inheritance of life eternal.
He came when rebellion against God's law had become widespread and evil was in unceasing activity, and the world had chosen Satan's side of the question. He foreknew that only a few would receive Him as the Son of God and nearly all would hate and reject Him, yet He came. He left all His glory in heaven, appeared on earth as a man, humbled Himself as a man, and stood between the wrath of His Father and guilty man, bearing iniquity and scorn and gathering the penalty upon Himself. He became acquainted by His own experience with human temptations so He would know how to succor those who are tempted, and finished His work as a teacher. He was delivered into the hands of men, being spat upon and suffering almost every cruelty Satan could inspire wicked men to inflict, with dreadful mental agony greater than bodily suffering under the weight of the sins of the whole world. He died the cruelest death hung between heaven and earth as a guilty sinner, through which God's love for sinners was expressed and the way to everlasting life was given, then rose again the third day and ascended to His Father to intercede for wayward, guilty man.
History of His Rejection
The rejection was general but not universal, for the light shone into darkness and the darkness did not understand it, yet not all were indifferent to the gift of heaven. The Creator came in person into the world He had made, but the world did not recognize Him and His own people did not receive Him, though prophecy had declared how He would come. Nearly all hated and rejected Him as the Son of God, and only a few received Him and showed respect and reverence to His name. Unlike senseless heathen idols that could give no blessing and do men no good, He could bestow blessing, yet men did not honor Him as even ancient heathen honored their false gods with days devoted to self-purification by offering of sacrifices, contemplation, self-denial, solemnity and ceremony to recognize their dignity and gain favor. A Roman centurion, despite lacking Israel's privileges, showed greater faith and appreciation of Him than Israel did.
Among the Jews there were those dissatisfied with formal religion who longed for what was spiritual and uplifting, and in different nations there were earnest thoughtful men seeking in literature and science and heathen religions for the soul's treasure. When He was revealed to such longing, praying seekers they received Him with gladness, as seen in His chosen disciples among the Jews and in Cornelius and the Ethiopian eunuch among the Gentiles.
From infancy He found no rest or safety among those He came to save, but leaving His heavenly home and taking human nature to save fallen humanity He met insult, hatred and abuse rather than the worship and love His self-sacrifice deserved. His rejection began even in infancy when He had no safety among the world's inhabitants, driven from Bethlehem and rejected at Nazareth and condemned without cause at Jerusalem, and ended with His death at the hands of the very people He came to benefit and save. God sent angels to protect Him until His saving mission was complete. He was hunted from place to place and had to go from city to city to preserve His life until His work was done and the appointed time came, leaving Judea and walking in Galilee and not in Jewry because the Jews sought to kill Him.
His own people, the Jews, with priests and rulers and the mob, rose up against Him when truth came down from heaven in Jesus as the truth itself, the true Light and Creator in the world He had made, and though the world did not know Him they who belonged to Him turned Him away, shouting for Him to be taken away and crucified and choosing a robber and murderer before Him. The people who professed to know God's will clung to religious forms and symbols, followed their own ways, refused heaven's messages and counsel, and crucified and mocked Him as the Light given by the Father and the leader who guided ancient Israel. The Father had sent prophet after prophet who were beaten and stoned, saying They will reverence My Son, but hearts had grown hard by rejection of light and stubborn resistance, so they said This is the heir; come, let us kill Him, and let us seize on His inheritance, and the work of rejecting light resulted in the murder of their Lord. The scribes and Pharisees and priests and teachers were His most diligent enemies, filled with hatred, prejudice and blindness, bearing false witness while thinking they did God service, and by counterworking Him they kept the common people who would have listened and stood with Him from taking their position with Him. Though He went through all Canaan and did mighty works in Chorazin, Bethsaida and Capernaum, those cities did not believe on Him, which brings sadness to the heart.
Many were kept from accepting Him by fear of their leaders, who opposed His work, denied His miracles, distorted His words, and treated the people's joy over His works of compassion and healing as a slight to themselves. Even His loving appeals and convincing arguments stirred hatred in those who had refused the light. They rejected Him despite three years of public labor of self-denial, purity and devotion, and despite His self-denying life of poverty and suffering and His love for the nation He came to save and bless, whose people had departed from God, misunderstood and misrepresented Him, and did not recognize His mission. In Nazareth they rejected His explanation of the prophets' words about Himself and saw Him only as a carpenter's son, and even after witnessing His miracles and hearing of His wisdom and power they clung to prejudice, pride and earlier decision to reject Him.
They would not accept the evidence that He was the Messiah and Redeemer, and their rejection hardened into hatred and jealousy and efforts to keep others from hearing Him, despite His humble and godly life. Though God had chosen Israel and blessed the nation with the law, deliverance from Egypt, passage through the Red Sea and Jordan, and victory at Jericho, pride, ambition and love of display blinded them to who He was when God sent Jesus as His greatest gift. Though He healed, rebuked injustice, showed power over death, and brought works of healing, deliverance and power over death with the privilege of His presence in the flesh, prejudice led His own chosen nation to scorn Him and refuse the mercy He offered.
In this rejection the sacrificial types met their fulfillment in Him as the sinless and spotless sacrifice who bore the world's iniquities, and His coming fulfilled the bruising of the heel of the seed of the woman. Their sacrifices and offerings had pointed forward to Him as the Lamb of God and illustrated His atonement and ransom of humanity, yet blinded and deceived by Satan through generations to miss the prophecies, they rejected Him and led Him to be killed like a lamb going to slaughter. They continued offering sacrifices while awaiting a Messiah who had already come, relying on their own ideas of virtue and purity instead of learning from Him, though the prophecies gave unprejudiced people sufficient evidence that He was the Son of God and Saviour and they treated Him as an impostor. Because they did not recognize Him as the true sacrifice and only mediator, they could not receive the benefits of His mediation when He entered the heavenly sanctuary after His ascension, and the former system of sacrifices and offerings could no longer give them access to God. For a time success appears to be with the majority while Satan with evil angels conspiring with evil men concentrates all the energy of apostasy to counterwork missionaries and champions of truth and destroy their influence, as churches and the world walk together in spirit following their leader, making void the law of God and rejecting truth for error.
His rejection, trial and crucifixion were part of His earthly ministry from heaven to save humanity, followed by His resurrection and ascension as humanity's Advocate.
Causes of His Rejection
He came to the world He Himself had made, yet the world did not know Him and His own people did not receive Him, for darkness did not comprehend the light. The Word who is the light and life of men came as life and light, with all spiritual light also spiritual life coming together from Him alone, but those He came to did not accept and walk in that light, remaining dead in trespasses and sins, spiritually ignorant, depraved, wretched and blinded to His worth, mission and divine character. Divinity clothed in humanity embodied the law of God and imaged the Father in purity and benevolence, with divinity flashing through humanity in softening light, yet because of depravity, moral darkness, unbelief and attention to temporary things men did not recognize Him as the Son of God despite overwhelming evidence. This stands in contrast to those who receive Him by faith as the Son of God, believing on His name, who are given power to become God's children with eternal life and hope.
They trusted the promises given to them as a people and expected their Saviour and King to come clothed with majesty and power to rule and to compel all Gentiles to obey Him. Because Jesus came meek and lowly in humiliation and suffering, as one of poor parentage, a peasant and carpenter of obscure origin and impoverished appearance, they stumbled, were disappointed, and would not acknowledge Him as the Saviour of the world who came to give them life. Had He appeared in splendor and assumed the authority of the world's great men instead of taking the form of a servant, they would have received and worshiped Him with worldly splendor and authority. Their understanding of the prophecies had been blinded so that they refused to accept Him as their Saviour.
Pride and self-righteousness kept them from receiving Him, for He did not come in a way to suit their opinions and ideas and His lessons of humility, compassion and love rebuked their show of piety. Trusting in their own standard of righteousness and satisfied with self-righteousness, they did not recognize their need of His righteousness nor appreciate God's love in giving Christ as Mediator, representative, intercessor and Advocate. The priests and rulers were too proud to admit their ideas were incorrect and needed remodeling, and would not consent that they needed repentance and conversion in order to obtain salvation. Rather than acknowledge this they counted Christ an impostor because His teachings were not in harmony with their own, and the same spirit is seen when professed Christians reject truth from heaven because it conflicts with errors they have accepted. Estranged from the pure spirituality formed by obedience to God's law, they had lost sight of the character He would reveal and the manner of His coming though plainly described in Scripture, and continued to teach human commandments as doctrine while professing to look for the Messiah.
Their world-loving hearts kept them from seeing the beauty of His character and mission, for greed for money and worldly gain blinded them despite His leading them out of Egypt in the pillar of cloud, preparing their way with mighty miracles, and communicating light to Moses. Although blessed with the law, deliverance from Egypt, passage through the Red Sea and Jordan, and victory at Jericho, they failed to use their privileges faithfully, and when God sent Jesus His greatest gift, pride, ambition and love of display blinded them though He healed, rebuked injustice and showed power over death. The natural heart is carnal and does not love Christian graces, so they did not receive or value heaven's gift of the Bread of life in a world corrupted by sin where hatred of God, impiety and injustice were widespread. Envy and jealousy made them implacable and determined not to receive Him, leaving their lives surrounded with darkness as the darkness of midnight.
That rejection was worked by Satan, who after failing to lead Christ into sin gathered his human agencies in the religious world and instilled into them his own enmity against the Champion of truth, seeking to blind their understanding and fill them with unbelief, envy, jealousy and hatred to make His earthly life bitter. Under Satan's control they would not receive the Messiah but expelled the Prince of truth from His territory and sought opportunity to kill Him, foreshadowing the abuse of God's innocent servants by religious hatred. His righteous, self-denying life was a continual rebuke to those who professed piety but lived corrupt lives, so the chief priests and elders from jealousy feared He would become higher than they and king of the Jews, denied His works, distorted His words, sought false witness, and cried for His condemnation though innocent. The scribes, Pharisees, priests and teachers became His most diligent enemies, filled with hatred, prejudice and blindness and thinking they did God service, keeping the common people who would have listened from taking their stand with Him, so He had to leave Judea to walk in Galilee and go from city to city to preserve His life until His work was done. His murderous rejection only seemed to prevail for a time, for God overruled it to make Him Redeemer of mankind and ruler over the whole world, who still freely receives and pardons all who come repentant confessing their sins.
They misread the Scriptures entrusted to them and clung to human traditions and forms, mixing divine precepts with commandments of men and corrupting God's law. They had lost the true sense of the Old Testament prophecies, studying the prophets to support ambitious hopes rather than sincerely seeking truth, neglecting to let God's word be its own interpreter and to compare scripture with scripture. They applied to His first coming the glory foretold for His second, resented that He had not learned from their religious teachers though He knew the Jewish system of worship as represented in Scripture and lived God's law without discouragement, and treated evidence of His divinity as evidence against Him. Though the common people heard Him gladly and some priests and rulers believed, prejudice kept the chief leaders from becoming His disciples, and because the people had been taught from childhood to revere these leaders and defer to their authority, their example led the nation to reject and abuse the Teacher sent from heaven and make plans to crucify Him despite convincing evidence.
The authorities of a nation that claimed to know God rejected Christ when He came in human form, revealing that human wisdom and reason cannot form a correct idea of God through Christ's way and works.
Gift to Those Receiving
Against the refusal stands the promise to all who welcome him and trust his name, that they are granted authority and ability to become sons and daughters of God. The one who formed the world came among his own people and was not received, yet his coming brought redemption and the provision to save sinners for everyone who responds by faith in him as Son of God. That reception is set in contrast to rejection as the way overcoming is understood and worked out, with gladness by earnest seekers when he is revealed. From his fullness, which is full of grace and truth, they receive grace for grace.
This sonship is a birth from God, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man. Grace is neither inherited nor gained by human power nor inherent in people, but received by faith in Christ. So a very bad father may have a godly son, and a Christian father may have a wayward or profligate son. For a mother with a godless husband this makes her work plain in a household where evil works through the father to secure the children: to hold her children as the purchase of Christ's blood, to seek the Lord in faith and humility for their salvation and her husband's repentance, to let her light shine and win them not by talking and pleading for sympathy but by living the life of Christ in words, spirit, character, meekness, patience, forbearance and cheerfulness as a signpost pointing the heavenward path.
To receive him is to come to Christ as the only hope and personal Saviour, laying open the inmost soul to him because he owns every person by right of creation and by redemption, and trusting his pardoning love. It must continue day by day by receiving and confessing him, being kept by the power of God in humility, acknowledging lack of sufficiency in self and depending on the Holy Spirit alone for guidance into truth. True reception is not surface, casual acceptance but emptying the soul of everything that defiles and making room for Jesus in the soul temple, that he may be all and in all, with the mind's eye seeing only Jesus the crucified One and every word of praise directed away from self. Israel's responsibility was especially great because he was the light of the world, and the people needed not only to receive the light but to live by it in belief and obedience to truth, and the discouraged are encouraged to come to Jesus who will receive them when they receive him.
This gift proves he never gives a command without furnishing power to obey, so the command to be perfect even as the Father in heaven is perfect is not impossible, and every lesson God gives can be brought into life practice through the holy privilege and high dignity he confers. Under the Abrahamic covenant which is the covenant of grace where salvation is by grace, to become sons of God means to become obedient children obedient to all his commandments, and obedience is proof of love for him. Those who receive and acknowledge him as Saviour, born of God and partakers of the divine nature and energized by his Spirit, are enabled to overcome the assaults of Satan and escape the corruption in the world through lust, and saved to the uttermost as they look unto Jesus, catch divine light, copy his purity and goodness and pleasantness, and walk as obedient children in the fear of God. Adoption into God's family brings transformation by the Spirit, changing self-love into self-denial and supreme love for God, and revealing his happiness, love, justice and mercy so others are drawn to the Saviour, though many still refuse to come, choosing darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil.
Those who receive him are called out of darkness into marvelous light to go forth showing his praises and representing Christ and the spiritual character of his kingdom, giving up forms and customs to reach minds while surrendering no vital truth. He raises fallen people to spiritual life, quickening them with his life and filling them with hope and joy, in contrast to the eternal night without his beams as the way, the truth, and the life and the Sun of Righteousness come to an earth covered with darkness and gross darkness. To those who accept him as Redeemer he gives power to become sons of God and offers the richest reward heaven can bestow, even the inheritance of life eternal and hope. The verse points people away from reliance on human wisdom and toward Jesus, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, for to turn from him is to reject infinite truth, love and righteousness, shut the heart to heavenly light, and welcome darkness and despair, while accepting him brings light, peace and joy.
Results of Rejecting Him
By coming in human flesh to the nation He had made, He stood to be judged by His own people, and when the Jewish rulers and nation rejected Him they separated themselves from God. The old temple order was coming to an end, its glory departing when Heaven's gift was put away. The removal of the candlestick signified that they were becoming a people no longer acknowledged as God's church. The vineyard's privileges and work were entrusted to others, and the word of life offered to them and refused was taken to the Gentiles. He grieved over that rejection and over Jerusalem's coming desolation, for they repaid good with evil and love with hatred, even as the vineyard tenants seized the heir and killed the Son.
Envy and jealousy made them implacable and determined not to receive Him, and their refusal left their lives surrounded with darkness as the darkness of midnight. The foretold doom then came upon them through their own uncontrolled fierce passions and rebellious stubborn pride, for in blind rage they destroyed one another and brought upon themselves the wrath of their Roman conquerors. Jerusalem was destroyed, the temple was laid in ruins with its site plowed like a field, the children of Judah perished by the most horrible forms of death, and millions were sold to serve as bondmen in heathen lands. They refused the One who could have healed Jerusalem and saved it from ruin, choosing their own course and bringing ruin upon themselves. Their history in rejecting Him and the salvation message sent from heaven warns those living before His second advent not to reject the great light and opportunities given them.
Their unbelief was a bitter spirit of prejudice that cut His heart, judging He could not be the Messiah and finding fault with His manner of working, even among His own brethren and relatives and former followers who turned from Him. He was rejected and despised because His righteous, self-denying life rebuked corrupt conduct and those who professed piety but lived corrupt lives. The chief priests and elders opposed Him from jealousy because His greater works drew the people from them and threatened their authority, fearing He would become king of the Jews, so they took Him privately, sought false witness, would not accept Him as king, and cried for His crucifixion though He was innocent and guilty of no wrong. That rejection did not prove His mission a failure, did not destroy His truth, and did not make Him a false teacher or an impostor. God overruled even murderous rejection to make Him Redeemer of mankind, Saviour of the fallen race, and ruler over the whole world, as Joseph's sale by his own brethren made him saviour of his father's family.
Joseph illustrates this rejection, sold to his enemies by his own brethren for a small sum as the Son of God was sold to His bitterest enemies by one of His own disciples, stripped of his coat of many colors as the executioners cast lots for the seamless coat, hated and falsely accused and imprisoned though innocent as Jesus was hated for faithfully reproving sin and condemned on hired false testimony. Though despised, mocked, and put to a shameful death, He meekly forgave His murderers, rose from the dead, ascended to His Father, received all power and authority, and still freely receives into favor and pardons all who come to Him repentant confessing their sins, exalting them if true to His throne as heirs of the inheritance purchased with His blood. He came as the Word who is the light and the life of men, with all spiritual light also spiritual life coming together from Him alone, yet those He came to did not accept and walk in that light but remained dead in trespasses and sins, spiritually ignorant and depraved and wretched, not comprehending that the greatest blessing possible was offered to them. As Substitute and Surety He suffered the penalty of sin to enlighten and give them life, shedding His bright rays upon them. Their casting Him aside as worthless, even by those who live in God's house and daily receive His favors, amazes the angels and continues the course of the world ever since Cain lifted his hand against Abel in rejecting every provision Heaven has made for restoration.
For their sake He lived self-denial, poverty, and suffering, unappreciated, unacknowledged, despised, and rejected, often weary and hungry and filled with sorrow in the consciousness of unrequited love, because they departed from God and constantly misunderstood and misinterpreted Him and did not recognize His mission. After the Father had sent prophet after prophet who were beaten and stoned, saying they would reverence the Son, their hearts had grown hard by rejection of light and stubborn resistance, so they said this is the heir, come let us kill Him and seize His inheritance, and the work of rejecting light resulted in the murder of their Lord. The scribes and Pharisees and priests and teachers were His most diligent enemies, filled with hatred, prejudice and blindness, bearing false witness while thinking they did God service, and by counterworking Him they kept the common people who would have listened and stood with Him from taking their position with Him. Though He went through all Canaan and did mighty works in Chorazin, Bethsaida and Capernaum, those cities did not believe on Him, and He had to leave His own and go from city to city to preserve His life until His work was done, walking in Galilee and not in Jewry because the Jews sought to kill Him, which brings sadness to His heart. Looking at Jerusalem and the punishment to come upon it He wept because they would not be gathered, His soul filled with grief over the backsliding of Israel, leaving their house desolate.
His rejection came at the time of their greatest responsibility, privilege, and blessing, making it their greatest sin. They rejected Him as a merciful, sin-pardoning Saviour who offered redemption and life, whose they were by creation and redemption, and made themselves responsible for Jerusalem's destruction. When judgment came they would long for the Deliverer they had refused, but it would be too late.
Warning and Example Today
The same history that left the Creator unrecognized and unreceived in the world He had made is being repeated today and will be repeated again and again before He comes in the clouds of heaven. When that time comes the deceptions of Satan will be upon those who dwell on the earth, the enemy will claim to be Christ, and all will be deceived except those who are steadfast and true to God. Churches that would reject Him now if He came in the same humble manner are warned by this, for pride and self-glorification that left the Jewish people unready at His first advent can leave a people no better prepared and unready for His second advent. The failure came from unbelief and moral darkness that could not comprehend the life and light brought to scatter that darkness, and that same spirit of refusing to acknowledge Christ and to recognize light sent from God continues and is not extinct in the last days. Those who repeat it now are less excusable than the Jews, because they have before them the example of the Jews rejecting Christ and His apostles and the warning not to fall after the same example of unbelief.
To reject Christ in the person of His delegated messengers is to repeat His rejection by His own. It is to refuse the gracious light of truth sent for salvation, especially when after a first rejection a second opportunity is given by the Divine Messenger, by hardening the heart in prejudice and pride and encasing the self in pride. Those who do this close their hearts against Jesus while supposing they preserve their dignity as free men with the right to think and act and believe or doubt for themselves, but they place themselves in bondage to Satan and, like the despisers in apostolic times, wonder and perish. The same darkness that surrounded the Jews when they refused Him as light sent through God's beloved Son surrounds any soul that rejects the reproof of the Holy Spirit of sin and righteousness and judgment, even when that reproof comes through agents God uses. This was seen at Battle Creek, where professed believers in the truth were in the same unbelieving condition as the Jewish church at the first advent, contradicting profession by works of selfishness, pride and love of the friendship of the world, refusing the picture of neglected duty, pleading good and great things and wonderful works as title to exaltation, so that had Christ appeared among them few would have recognized Him as the Lord of glory and they would have rejected His reproof. It was seen at Minneapolis and in rejection of the law and the Sabbath, where messages and messengers of blessing bringing light were despised and the working of the Holy Spirit was resisted, which is disgraceful treatment of Jesus Christ Himself, for those who resisted the Spirit would have treated Christ as the Jews treated Him when He came to His own.
The world's rejection of its Creator proves that the world's beliefs and practices are not a safe guide for His followers, whom the world likewise does not know. Yet rejection gives no cause to fail or be discouraged, for amid abounding sin and refusal by Israel as His own people He still recognized the grace of God at work and His confidence in His Father was not impaired. He came to save fallen people and to give life, but His own nation treated His mercy with contempt, met Him with indignity, and at last killed Him, yet He did not turn away from fallen humanity. His perseverance in doing good under contempt, ingratitude and opposition is the model for missionaries and for all who obey, who are to arm themselves with the mind of Christ and keep helping others even when many efforts meet rejection, including rejection by those closest to them.
Having abundant opportunities to know the truth does not ensure welcome to Christ, for carelessness, selfishness and choosing one's own way can repeat that rejection. True reception is not a surface, casual acceptance but emptying the soul of everything that defiles and making room for Jesus in the soul temple, that He may be all and in all, with the mind's eye seeing only Jesus the crucified One and every word of praise directed away from self. Studying His rejection together with the promise to as many as receive Him by believing on His name of power to become sons of God melts and subdues the heart under every fresh manifestation of His rich grace. That grace produces sincere, sanctified love for the saints as the purchase of His blood and the objects of His tenderest care, knitting believers more closely to one another as members of Christ's body, of His flesh and His bones, with deep interest and love because one Spirit animates the whole, each keeping individuality while united in one faith, and followers must guard against prejudice, pride and unbelief lest they refuse light. This divine birth is from God and not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of man, so grace is not inherited and a very bad father may have a godly son while a Christian father may have a wayward son. Therefore a mother with a godless husband is to hold her children, though they have a godless father, as the purchase of Christ's blood, to seek the Lord in faith and humility for their salvation and her husband's repentance, and to win them not by talking and pleading for sympathy but by living the life of Christ in words, spirit, character, meekness, patience, forbearance and cheerfulness as a signpost pointing the heavenward path, for steadfastness in truth and growth in grace may lead spouse and children to follow Christ.
He who came to His own is the same Creator who in the beginning gave Eve to Adam as a helpmeet and formed marriage as a sacred institution He Himself made, along with the Sabbath. He came to our world to rectify man's mistakes and restore the moral image of God in man, to correct wrong sentiments about marriage that made its sanctity of none effect, and to give His decided sanction to the marriage He had sanctioned in Eden. By commencing His public ministry at the marriage festival and witnessing there, He announced that marriage when kept pure and undefiled is sacred and one of the greatest blessings given to the human family, and that He will not refuse His presence on marriage occasions. His coming to His own place in the Review and Herald Office is likewise to be recognized, and His Spirit is to imbue every worker serving Him there.
He came to His own as Creator to the world He Himself had made and as Messiah to the Jewish nation He had chosen, favored, and entrusted with His oracles, living among the very people whose songs, prophecies, and sacrifices had pointed to Him for more than a thousand years. He came as the eternal Word who was with God and was God, made flesh and dwelling among men full of grace and truth to reveal the Father, save the fallen race, and put away sin by His sacrifice as substitute and surety. He came in humility without outward display, veiled in humanity of poor parentage, and His own received Him not because darkness did not comprehend the light and they stumbled at His lowliness while looking for a mighty king who would compel the Gentiles to obey. The rejection was general but not universal, for nearly all refused and hunted Him from Bethlehem to Nazareth to Jerusalem until they crucified Him, yet a few among Jews and Gentiles received Him with gladness when He was revealed to them. As many as receive Him by believing on His name are given power to become sons and daughters of God by new birth, while those who refuse separate themselves from God and repeat today the same unbelief that brought ruin upon Jerusalem.
His Own People Identified
He came to the Jewish nation as to His own, the chosen and highly favored people whom God acknowledged as His peculiar treasure. They were the people He Himself had brought out of Egyptian bondage, leading them in the pillar of cloud, preparing their way with mighty miracles, and communicating light to Moses. To them He had entrusted His oracles and commandments, among them He lived in the flesh, and on His coming their hopes had long centered. Their failure to recognize and acknowledge Him as Messiah was therefore especially striking, for world-loving hearts and greed for money and worldly gain blinded them to the beauty of His character and mission.
His own means also the world He Himself made as Creator, for He was the eternal Word through whom all things were made, who came in human form to dwell among men in the world of His own making. Though He was in the world He had made as the true Light lighting every man, the world did not know Him and His own did not receive Him. By creation and by redemption at infinite cost He holds a just claim and deed of possession to every human being. Those who do receive Him by believing on His name stand in contrast to this rejection, being given power and right to become sons and daughters of God.
His own included in particular His brethren and relatives, who judged He could not be the Messiah, found fault with His manner of working, judged Him by human standards, misunderstood His motives, tried to make Him conform to their ideas, and wounded Him with unbelief, prejudice and reproach. They included His neighbors at Nazareth and the common people of Judea, many of whom might have accepted Him but were afraid of what the leaders might do. Above all they were the priests and rulers, scribes and Pharisees and elders, who sat in Moses' seat, professed to know God and His will, and prided themselves on being God's chosen people while filled with self-righteousness. These leaders hunted Him from place to place, stayed on His track, opposed His work, denied His wonderful works, distorted and misconstrued His gracious words, treated rejoicing over His compassion and healings as a personal slight, stirred fear in the people, and at last sought opportunity to kill Him to preserve their own influence.
They had waited more than a thousand years for the Saviour's coming, resting their brightest hopes on that event and enshrining His name in song and prophecy and in temple rite and household prayer. Their ceremonies and sacrifices and offerings had pointed forward to Him as the Lamb of God and illustrated His atonement. He came at the appointed time and in the manner foretold by the prophets, as the promised Light prefigured in their types, with sufficient evidence in prophecy for the unprejudiced to know Him as the Son of God and Saviour. Yet pride and expectation of royal power and worldly honor blinded them when He came as a poor child and a stranger, meek and lowly in humiliation and suffering, so they would have none of Him, counted Him an impostor, continued their offerings after He had come, and led Him to be killed like a lamb going to slaughter.
Manner of His Coming
He came as the eternal Word who was with God and was God, by whom all things were made and in whom was life as the light of men. He was made flesh and dwelt among men in the world He Himself had made, full of grace and truth, with glory as of the only begotten of the Father. He came from the heavenly courts to represent God in human form, sent from the throne of the Infinite with a prepared body to do God's will, the child born and Son given called Wonderful, Counsellor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. He is the true Light which lights every man, come to earth as the Light of the world to a guilty world, yet the world did not know Him. In Him the Father's glory, character, law, love and life were revealed, for He is the image of the Father who cannot be truly represented by man's art, and though in human form He spoke with the authority of true greatness by commission from the Excellent Glory, calling for submissive attention while God summons the world to listen and receive every word He utters as law and life. He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, from whose fullness all who receive Him receive grace for grace, grace in the soul flowing out to others while more flows in to be given back to God in willing offerings.
He came in humility without outward display of heavenly power, laying aside His royal state and majesty and taking human nature, His divinity veiled in human flesh. He laid aside heavenly display of His true princely character with armies of angels and came in the garb of humanity as one of poor parentage. He made His light available to people of every rank, and the common people heard Him gladly. He suffered with humanity all temptations wherewith man is tempted, tempted in all points as human beings are yet without sin, in order to reveal that it is possible to be victorious overcomers, one with Him as He is one with the Father. He stood before His own nation's rulers to be condemned and patiently endured their abuse, and His humble coming condemns grand display in preaching, medical missionary work, buildings, dress and adornment, requiring instead economy, careful study according to the Saviour's plan, self-denial, cross-bearing, following Him, and purifying the soul by obeying the truth in preparation for the mansions He has gone to prepare.
He came personally on a mission of mercy to save the fallen race, part of God's provision to save sinners. He came in person to His own world to give His life to rescue sinful men and women from a life of transgression to a life of obedience and righteousness, to ransom man from the power of the destroyer. By becoming the Sin-bearer He broke the power of Satan and declared He will become the center of the redeemed world. His work in coming was to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself on the cross of Calvary, taking humanity's transgression upon Himself as its substitute and surety and bearing sin's penalty so that people may be freed through faith and share in the redemption He made available. By perfect obedience He perfected a human character after the divine likeness, overcoming by prayer and strong supplication, and thus procured redemption for all who will be obedient. He is the way, the truth, and the life, the true Light, the Bread of life, the Sun of Righteousness come to an earth covered with darkness and gross darkness that would be left in eternal night without His beams, and the Lamb of God who takes away sin, come to heal, comfort, deliver and restore and to give life and the richest reward heaven can bestow, even the inheritance of life eternal.
He came when rebellion against God's law had become widespread and evil was in unceasing activity, and the world had chosen Satan's side of the question. He foreknew that only a few would receive Him as the Son of God and nearly all would hate and reject Him, yet He came. He left all His glory in heaven, appeared on earth as a man, humbled Himself as a man, and stood between the wrath of His Father and guilty man, bearing iniquity and scorn and gathering the penalty upon Himself. He became acquainted by His own experience with human temptations so He would know how to succor those who are tempted, and finished His work as a teacher. He was delivered into the hands of men, being spat upon and suffering almost every cruelty Satan could inspire wicked men to inflict, with dreadful mental agony greater than bodily suffering under the weight of the sins of the whole world. He died the cruelest death hung between heaven and earth as a guilty sinner, through which God's love for sinners was expressed and the way to everlasting life was given, then rose again the third day and ascended to His Father to intercede for wayward, guilty man.
History of His Rejection
The rejection was general but not universal, for the light shone into darkness and the darkness did not understand it, yet not all were indifferent to the gift of heaven. The Creator came in person into the world He had made, but the world did not recognize Him and His own people did not receive Him, though prophecy had declared how He would come. Nearly all hated and rejected Him as the Son of God, and only a few received Him and showed respect and reverence to His name. Unlike senseless heathen idols that could give no blessing and do men no good, He could bestow blessing, yet men did not honor Him as even ancient heathen honored their false gods with days devoted to self-purification by offering of sacrifices, contemplation, self-denial, solemnity and ceremony to recognize their dignity and gain favor. A Roman centurion, despite lacking Israel's privileges, showed greater faith and appreciation of Him than Israel did.
Among the Jews there were those dissatisfied with formal religion who longed for what was spiritual and uplifting, and in different nations there were earnest thoughtful men seeking in literature and science and heathen religions for the soul's treasure. When He was revealed to such longing, praying seekers they received Him with gladness, as seen in His chosen disciples among the Jews and in Cornelius and the Ethiopian eunuch among the Gentiles.
From infancy He found no rest or safety among those He came to save, but leaving His heavenly home and taking human nature to save fallen humanity He met insult, hatred and abuse rather than the worship and love His self-sacrifice deserved. His rejection began even in infancy when He had no safety among the world's inhabitants, driven from Bethlehem and rejected at Nazareth and condemned without cause at Jerusalem, and ended with His death at the hands of the very people He came to benefit and save. God sent angels to protect Him until His saving mission was complete. He was hunted from place to place and had to go from city to city to preserve His life until His work was done and the appointed time came, leaving Judea and walking in Galilee and not in Jewry because the Jews sought to kill Him.
His own people, the Jews, with priests and rulers and the mob, rose up against Him when truth came down from heaven in Jesus as the truth itself, the true Light and Creator in the world He had made, and though the world did not know Him they who belonged to Him turned Him away, shouting for Him to be taken away and crucified and choosing a robber and murderer before Him. The people who professed to know God's will clung to religious forms and symbols, followed their own ways, refused heaven's messages and counsel, and crucified and mocked Him as the Light given by the Father and the leader who guided ancient Israel. The Father had sent prophet after prophet who were beaten and stoned, saying They will reverence My Son, but hearts had grown hard by rejection of light and stubborn resistance, so they said This is the heir; come, let us kill Him, and let us seize on His inheritance, and the work of rejecting light resulted in the murder of their Lord. The scribes and Pharisees and priests and teachers were His most diligent enemies, filled with hatred, prejudice and blindness, bearing false witness while thinking they did God service, and by counterworking Him they kept the common people who would have listened and stood with Him from taking their position with Him. Though He went through all Canaan and did mighty works in Chorazin, Bethsaida and Capernaum, those cities did not believe on Him, which brings sadness to the heart.
Many were kept from accepting Him by fear of their leaders, who opposed His work, denied His miracles, distorted His words, and treated the people's joy over His works of compassion and healing as a slight to themselves. Even His loving appeals and convincing arguments stirred hatred in those who had refused the light. They rejected Him despite three years of public labor of self-denial, purity and devotion, and despite His self-denying life of poverty and suffering and His love for the nation He came to save and bless, whose people had departed from God, misunderstood and misrepresented Him, and did not recognize His mission. In Nazareth they rejected His explanation of the prophets' words about Himself and saw Him only as a carpenter's son, and even after witnessing His miracles and hearing of His wisdom and power they clung to prejudice, pride and earlier decision to reject Him.
They would not accept the evidence that He was the Messiah and Redeemer, and their rejection hardened into hatred and jealousy and efforts to keep others from hearing Him, despite His humble and godly life. Though God had chosen Israel and blessed the nation with the law, deliverance from Egypt, passage through the Red Sea and Jordan, and victory at Jericho, pride, ambition and love of display blinded them to who He was when God sent Jesus as His greatest gift. Though He healed, rebuked injustice, showed power over death, and brought works of healing, deliverance and power over death with the privilege of His presence in the flesh, prejudice led His own chosen nation to scorn Him and refuse the mercy He offered.
In this rejection the sacrificial types met their fulfillment in Him as the sinless and spotless sacrifice who bore the world's iniquities, and His coming fulfilled the bruising of the heel of the seed of the woman. Their sacrifices and offerings had pointed forward to Him as the Lamb of God and illustrated His atonement and ransom of humanity, yet blinded and deceived by Satan through generations to miss the prophecies, they rejected Him and led Him to be killed like a lamb going to slaughter. They continued offering sacrifices while awaiting a Messiah who had already come, relying on their own ideas of virtue and purity instead of learning from Him, though the prophecies gave unprejudiced people sufficient evidence that He was the Son of God and Saviour and they treated Him as an impostor. Because they did not recognize Him as the true sacrifice and only mediator, they could not receive the benefits of His mediation when He entered the heavenly sanctuary after His ascension, and the former system of sacrifices and offerings could no longer give them access to God. For a time success appears to be with the majority while Satan with evil angels conspiring with evil men concentrates all the energy of apostasy to counterwork missionaries and champions of truth and destroy their influence, as churches and the world walk together in spirit following their leader, making void the law of God and rejecting truth for error.
His rejection, trial and crucifixion were part of His earthly ministry from heaven to save humanity, followed by His resurrection and ascension as humanity's Advocate.
Causes of His Rejection
He came to the world He Himself had made, yet the world did not know Him and His own people did not receive Him, for darkness did not comprehend the light. The Word who is the light and life of men came as life and light, with all spiritual light also spiritual life coming together from Him alone, but those He came to did not accept and walk in that light, remaining dead in trespasses and sins, spiritually ignorant, depraved, wretched and blinded to His worth, mission and divine character. Divinity clothed in humanity embodied the law of God and imaged the Father in purity and benevolence, with divinity flashing through humanity in softening light, yet because of depravity, moral darkness, unbelief and attention to temporary things men did not recognize Him as the Son of God despite overwhelming evidence. This stands in contrast to those who receive Him by faith as the Son of God, believing on His name, who are given power to become God's children with eternal life and hope.
They trusted the promises given to them as a people and expected their Saviour and King to come clothed with majesty and power to rule and to compel all Gentiles to obey Him. Because Jesus came meek and lowly in humiliation and suffering, as one of poor parentage, a peasant and carpenter of obscure origin and impoverished appearance, they stumbled, were disappointed, and would not acknowledge Him as the Saviour of the world who came to give them life. Had He appeared in splendor and assumed the authority of the world's great men instead of taking the form of a servant, they would have received and worshiped Him with worldly splendor and authority. Their understanding of the prophecies had been blinded so that they refused to accept Him as their Saviour.
Pride and self-righteousness kept them from receiving Him, for He did not come in a way to suit their opinions and ideas and His lessons of humility, compassion and love rebuked their show of piety. Trusting in their own standard of righteousness and satisfied with self-righteousness, they did not recognize their need of His righteousness nor appreciate God's love in giving Christ as Mediator, representative, intercessor and Advocate. The priests and rulers were too proud to admit their ideas were incorrect and needed remodeling, and would not consent that they needed repentance and conversion in order to obtain salvation. Rather than acknowledge this they counted Christ an impostor because His teachings were not in harmony with their own, and the same spirit is seen when professed Christians reject truth from heaven because it conflicts with errors they have accepted. Estranged from the pure spirituality formed by obedience to God's law, they had lost sight of the character He would reveal and the manner of His coming though plainly described in Scripture, and continued to teach human commandments as doctrine while professing to look for the Messiah.
Their world-loving hearts kept them from seeing the beauty of His character and mission, for greed for money and worldly gain blinded them despite His leading them out of Egypt in the pillar of cloud, preparing their way with mighty miracles, and communicating light to Moses. Although blessed with the law, deliverance from Egypt, passage through the Red Sea and Jordan, and victory at Jericho, they failed to use their privileges faithfully, and when God sent Jesus His greatest gift, pride, ambition and love of display blinded them though He healed, rebuked injustice and showed power over death. The natural heart is carnal and does not love Christian graces, so they did not receive or value heaven's gift of the Bread of life in a world corrupted by sin where hatred of God, impiety and injustice were widespread. Envy and jealousy made them implacable and determined not to receive Him, leaving their lives surrounded with darkness as the darkness of midnight.
That rejection was worked by Satan, who after failing to lead Christ into sin gathered his human agencies in the religious world and instilled into them his own enmity against the Champion of truth, seeking to blind their understanding and fill them with unbelief, envy, jealousy and hatred to make His earthly life bitter. Under Satan's control they would not receive the Messiah but expelled the Prince of truth from His territory and sought opportunity to kill Him, foreshadowing the abuse of God's innocent servants by religious hatred. His righteous, self-denying life was a continual rebuke to those who professed piety but lived corrupt lives, so the chief priests and elders from jealousy feared He would become higher than they and king of the Jews, denied His works, distorted His words, sought false witness, and cried for His condemnation though innocent. The scribes, Pharisees, priests and teachers became His most diligent enemies, filled with hatred, prejudice and blindness and thinking they did God service, keeping the common people who would have listened from taking their stand with Him, so He had to leave Judea to walk in Galilee and go from city to city to preserve His life until His work was done. His murderous rejection only seemed to prevail for a time, for God overruled it to make Him Redeemer of mankind and ruler over the whole world, who still freely receives and pardons all who come repentant confessing their sins.
They misread the Scriptures entrusted to them and clung to human traditions and forms, mixing divine precepts with commandments of men and corrupting God's law. They had lost the true sense of the Old Testament prophecies, studying the prophets to support ambitious hopes rather than sincerely seeking truth, neglecting to let God's word be its own interpreter and to compare scripture with scripture. They applied to His first coming the glory foretold for His second, resented that He had not learned from their religious teachers though He knew the Jewish system of worship as represented in Scripture and lived God's law without discouragement, and treated evidence of His divinity as evidence against Him. Though the common people heard Him gladly and some priests and rulers believed, prejudice kept the chief leaders from becoming His disciples, and because the people had been taught from childhood to revere these leaders and defer to their authority, their example led the nation to reject and abuse the Teacher sent from heaven and make plans to crucify Him despite convincing evidence.
The authorities of a nation that claimed to know God rejected Christ when He came in human form, revealing that human wisdom and reason cannot form a correct idea of God through Christ's way and works.
Gift to Those Receiving
Against the refusal stands the promise to all who welcome him and trust his name, that they are granted authority and ability to become sons and daughters of God. The one who formed the world came among his own people and was not received, yet his coming brought redemption and the provision to save sinners for everyone who responds by faith in him as Son of God. That reception is set in contrast to rejection as the way overcoming is understood and worked out, with gladness by earnest seekers when he is revealed. From his fullness, which is full of grace and truth, they receive grace for grace.
This sonship is a birth from God, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man. Grace is neither inherited nor gained by human power nor inherent in people, but received by faith in Christ. So a very bad father may have a godly son, and a Christian father may have a wayward or profligate son. For a mother with a godless husband this makes her work plain in a household where evil works through the father to secure the children: to hold her children as the purchase of Christ's blood, to seek the Lord in faith and humility for their salvation and her husband's repentance, to let her light shine and win them not by talking and pleading for sympathy but by living the life of Christ in words, spirit, character, meekness, patience, forbearance and cheerfulness as a signpost pointing the heavenward path.
To receive him is to come to Christ as the only hope and personal Saviour, laying open the inmost soul to him because he owns every person by right of creation and by redemption, and trusting his pardoning love. It must continue day by day by receiving and confessing him, being kept by the power of God in humility, acknowledging lack of sufficiency in self and depending on the Holy Spirit alone for guidance into truth. True reception is not surface, casual acceptance but emptying the soul of everything that defiles and making room for Jesus in the soul temple, that he may be all and in all, with the mind's eye seeing only Jesus the crucified One and every word of praise directed away from self. Israel's responsibility was especially great because he was the light of the world, and the people needed not only to receive the light but to live by it in belief and obedience to truth, and the discouraged are encouraged to come to Jesus who will receive them when they receive him.
This gift proves he never gives a command without furnishing power to obey, so the command to be perfect even as the Father in heaven is perfect is not impossible, and every lesson God gives can be brought into life practice through the holy privilege and high dignity he confers. Under the Abrahamic covenant which is the covenant of grace where salvation is by grace, to become sons of God means to become obedient children obedient to all his commandments, and obedience is proof of love for him. Those who receive and acknowledge him as Saviour, born of God and partakers of the divine nature and energized by his Spirit, are enabled to overcome the assaults of Satan and escape the corruption in the world through lust, and saved to the uttermost as they look unto Jesus, catch divine light, copy his purity and goodness and pleasantness, and walk as obedient children in the fear of God. Adoption into God's family brings transformation by the Spirit, changing self-love into self-denial and supreme love for God, and revealing his happiness, love, justice and mercy so others are drawn to the Saviour, though many still refuse to come, choosing darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil.
Those who receive him are called out of darkness into marvelous light to go forth showing his praises and representing Christ and the spiritual character of his kingdom, giving up forms and customs to reach minds while surrendering no vital truth. He raises fallen people to spiritual life, quickening them with his life and filling them with hope and joy, in contrast to the eternal night without his beams as the way, the truth, and the life and the Sun of Righteousness come to an earth covered with darkness and gross darkness. To those who accept him as Redeemer he gives power to become sons of God and offers the richest reward heaven can bestow, even the inheritance of life eternal and hope. The verse points people away from reliance on human wisdom and toward Jesus, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, for to turn from him is to reject infinite truth, love and righteousness, shut the heart to heavenly light, and welcome darkness and despair, while accepting him brings light, peace and joy.
Results of Rejecting Him
By coming in human flesh to the nation He had made, He stood to be judged by His own people, and when the Jewish rulers and nation rejected Him they separated themselves from God. The old temple order was coming to an end, its glory departing when Heaven's gift was put away. The removal of the candlestick signified that they were becoming a people no longer acknowledged as God's church. The vineyard's privileges and work were entrusted to others, and the word of life offered to them and refused was taken to the Gentiles. He grieved over that rejection and over Jerusalem's coming desolation, for they repaid good with evil and love with hatred, even as the vineyard tenants seized the heir and killed the Son.
Envy and jealousy made them implacable and determined not to receive Him, and their refusal left their lives surrounded with darkness as the darkness of midnight. The foretold doom then came upon them through their own uncontrolled fierce passions and rebellious stubborn pride, for in blind rage they destroyed one another and brought upon themselves the wrath of their Roman conquerors. Jerusalem was destroyed, the temple was laid in ruins with its site plowed like a field, the children of Judah perished by the most horrible forms of death, and millions were sold to serve as bondmen in heathen lands. They refused the One who could have healed Jerusalem and saved it from ruin, choosing their own course and bringing ruin upon themselves. Their history in rejecting Him and the salvation message sent from heaven warns those living before His second advent not to reject the great light and opportunities given them.
Their unbelief was a bitter spirit of prejudice that cut His heart, judging He could not be the Messiah and finding fault with His manner of working, even among His own brethren and relatives and former followers who turned from Him. He was rejected and despised because His righteous, self-denying life rebuked corrupt conduct and those who professed piety but lived corrupt lives. The chief priests and elders opposed Him from jealousy because His greater works drew the people from them and threatened their authority, fearing He would become king of the Jews, so they took Him privately, sought false witness, would not accept Him as king, and cried for His crucifixion though He was innocent and guilty of no wrong. That rejection did not prove His mission a failure, did not destroy His truth, and did not make Him a false teacher or an impostor. God overruled even murderous rejection to make Him Redeemer of mankind, Saviour of the fallen race, and ruler over the whole world, as Joseph's sale by his own brethren made him saviour of his father's family.
Joseph illustrates this rejection, sold to his enemies by his own brethren for a small sum as the Son of God was sold to His bitterest enemies by one of His own disciples, stripped of his coat of many colors as the executioners cast lots for the seamless coat, hated and falsely accused and imprisoned though innocent as Jesus was hated for faithfully reproving sin and condemned on hired false testimony. Though despised, mocked, and put to a shameful death, He meekly forgave His murderers, rose from the dead, ascended to His Father, received all power and authority, and still freely receives into favor and pardons all who come to Him repentant confessing their sins, exalting them if true to His throne as heirs of the inheritance purchased with His blood. He came as the Word who is the light and the life of men, with all spiritual light also spiritual life coming together from Him alone, yet those He came to did not accept and walk in that light but remained dead in trespasses and sins, spiritually ignorant and depraved and wretched, not comprehending that the greatest blessing possible was offered to them. As Substitute and Surety He suffered the penalty of sin to enlighten and give them life, shedding His bright rays upon them. Their casting Him aside as worthless, even by those who live in God's house and daily receive His favors, amazes the angels and continues the course of the world ever since Cain lifted his hand against Abel in rejecting every provision Heaven has made for restoration.
For their sake He lived self-denial, poverty, and suffering, unappreciated, unacknowledged, despised, and rejected, often weary and hungry and filled with sorrow in the consciousness of unrequited love, because they departed from God and constantly misunderstood and misinterpreted Him and did not recognize His mission. After the Father had sent prophet after prophet who were beaten and stoned, saying they would reverence the Son, their hearts had grown hard by rejection of light and stubborn resistance, so they said this is the heir, come let us kill Him and seize His inheritance, and the work of rejecting light resulted in the murder of their Lord. The scribes and Pharisees and priests and teachers were His most diligent enemies, filled with hatred, prejudice and blindness, bearing false witness while thinking they did God service, and by counterworking Him they kept the common people who would have listened and stood with Him from taking their position with Him. Though He went through all Canaan and did mighty works in Chorazin, Bethsaida and Capernaum, those cities did not believe on Him, and He had to leave His own and go from city to city to preserve His life until His work was done, walking in Galilee and not in Jewry because the Jews sought to kill Him, which brings sadness to His heart. Looking at Jerusalem and the punishment to come upon it He wept because they would not be gathered, His soul filled with grief over the backsliding of Israel, leaving their house desolate.
His rejection came at the time of their greatest responsibility, privilege, and blessing, making it their greatest sin. They rejected Him as a merciful, sin-pardoning Saviour who offered redemption and life, whose they were by creation and redemption, and made themselves responsible for Jerusalem's destruction. When judgment came they would long for the Deliverer they had refused, but it would be too late.
Warning and Example Today
The same history that left the Creator unrecognized and unreceived in the world He had made is being repeated today and will be repeated again and again before He comes in the clouds of heaven. When that time comes the deceptions of Satan will be upon those who dwell on the earth, the enemy will claim to be Christ, and all will be deceived except those who are steadfast and true to God. Churches that would reject Him now if He came in the same humble manner are warned by this, for pride and self-glorification that left the Jewish people unready at His first advent can leave a people no better prepared and unready for His second advent. The failure came from unbelief and moral darkness that could not comprehend the life and light brought to scatter that darkness, and that same spirit of refusing to acknowledge Christ and to recognize light sent from God continues and is not extinct in the last days. Those who repeat it now are less excusable than the Jews, because they have before them the example of the Jews rejecting Christ and His apostles and the warning not to fall after the same example of unbelief.
To reject Christ in the person of His delegated messengers is to repeat His rejection by His own. It is to refuse the gracious light of truth sent for salvation, especially when after a first rejection a second opportunity is given by the Divine Messenger, by hardening the heart in prejudice and pride and encasing the self in pride. Those who do this close their hearts against Jesus while supposing they preserve their dignity as free men with the right to think and act and believe or doubt for themselves, but they place themselves in bondage to Satan and, like the despisers in apostolic times, wonder and perish. The same darkness that surrounded the Jews when they refused Him as light sent through God's beloved Son surrounds any soul that rejects the reproof of the Holy Spirit of sin and righteousness and judgment, even when that reproof comes through agents God uses. This was seen at Battle Creek, where professed believers in the truth were in the same unbelieving condition as the Jewish church at the first advent, contradicting profession by works of selfishness, pride and love of the friendship of the world, refusing the picture of neglected duty, pleading good and great things and wonderful works as title to exaltation, so that had Christ appeared among them few would have recognized Him as the Lord of glory and they would have rejected His reproof. It was seen at Minneapolis and in rejection of the law and the Sabbath, where messages and messengers of blessing bringing light were despised and the working of the Holy Spirit was resisted, which is disgraceful treatment of Jesus Christ Himself, for those who resisted the Spirit would have treated Christ as the Jews treated Him when He came to His own.
The world's rejection of its Creator proves that the world's beliefs and practices are not a safe guide for His followers, whom the world likewise does not know. Yet rejection gives no cause to fail or be discouraged, for amid abounding sin and refusal by Israel as His own people He still recognized the grace of God at work and His confidence in His Father was not impaired. He came to save fallen people and to give life, but His own nation treated His mercy with contempt, met Him with indignity, and at last killed Him, yet He did not turn away from fallen humanity. His perseverance in doing good under contempt, ingratitude and opposition is the model for missionaries and for all who obey, who are to arm themselves with the mind of Christ and keep helping others even when many efforts meet rejection, including rejection by those closest to them.
Having abundant opportunities to know the truth does not ensure welcome to Christ, for carelessness, selfishness and choosing one's own way can repeat that rejection. True reception is not a surface, casual acceptance but emptying the soul of everything that defiles and making room for Jesus in the soul temple, that He may be all and in all, with the mind's eye seeing only Jesus the crucified One and every word of praise directed away from self. Studying His rejection together with the promise to as many as receive Him by believing on His name of power to become sons of God melts and subdues the heart under every fresh manifestation of His rich grace. That grace produces sincere, sanctified love for the saints as the purchase of His blood and the objects of His tenderest care, knitting believers more closely to one another as members of Christ's body, of His flesh and His bones, with deep interest and love because one Spirit animates the whole, each keeping individuality while united in one faith, and followers must guard against prejudice, pride and unbelief lest they refuse light. This divine birth is from God and not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of man, so grace is not inherited and a very bad father may have a godly son while a Christian father may have a wayward son. Therefore a mother with a godless husband is to hold her children, though they have a godless father, as the purchase of Christ's blood, to seek the Lord in faith and humility for their salvation and her husband's repentance, and to win them not by talking and pleading for sympathy but by living the life of Christ in words, spirit, character, meekness, patience, forbearance and cheerfulness as a signpost pointing the heavenward path, for steadfastness in truth and growth in grace may lead spouse and children to follow Christ.
He who came to His own is the same Creator who in the beginning gave Eve to Adam as a helpmeet and formed marriage as a sacred institution He Himself made, along with the Sabbath. He came to our world to rectify man's mistakes and restore the moral image of God in man, to correct wrong sentiments about marriage that made its sanctity of none effect, and to give His decided sanction to the marriage He had sanctioned in Eden. By commencing His public ministry at the marriage festival and witnessing there, He announced that marriage when kept pure and undefiled is sacred and one of the greatest blessings given to the human family, and that He will not refuse His presence on marriage occasions. His coming to His own place in the Review and Herald Office is likewise to be recognized, and His Spirit is to imbue every worker serving Him there.