And if I by Beelzebub cast out devils, by whom do your children cast them out? therefore they shall be your judges.
After He gave sight and speech to a blind and mute man possessed by a devil, so that the crowd wondered if He was the Son of David, the Pharisees charged that He drove out devils only by the prince of the devils, and knowing their thoughts He answered by asking by what power their own children and followers cast them out. If His work were by the evil ruler, their own exorcists would stand condemned by the same charge, so their inconsistency is exposed and those Jewish exorcists will condemn the unjust judgment as judges against the accusers. His relieving of the afflicted was not from Satan but a manifestation of the holy power of God that could not be evaded or explained by natural causes. To ascribe what the Holy Spirit has done to Satan is the sin against the Holy Ghost, for which there is no forgiveness, because it wilfully rejects and cuts off the channel by which God works on the heart and communicates blessing, leaving the soul where repentance and faith cannot reach it. Speaking against Jesus Himself without discerning His divine character can still be forgiven, for through the Spirit the sinner can yet be brought to see error, repent, and have guilt washed away in His blood.
Setting and Argument
The saying was spoken after Jesus healed a man possessed with a devil who was blind and dumb, so that he both spoke and saw, and this was the second such healing. At that sight the people wondered whether He was the Son of David, while the Pharisees repeated the charge that He cast out devils only by Beelzebub, the prince of the devils. Knowing their thoughts, Jesus turned the charge back on them by asking by whose power their own children, people, and followers cast out devils.
Those Jewish exorcists will condemn the unjust judgment and stand as judges against the accusers. If the charge against Jesus were true, their own children who cast out devils would also be acting by Beelzebub. This exposes the inconsistency of condemning in Jesus what they accept in their own people.
His work of relieving the afflicted was not from Satan but was a manifestation of the holy power of God, in contrast to Beelzebub and Satan's work. The healings and expulsions done before them could not be evaded or explained by natural causes, and no man had done or could do such works. The Pharisees made the charge without any reason from Him, though inwardly convinced that divine power attended Him. They persisted in unbelief because accepting the evidence would have required confessing their sin, and so deliberately resisted the truth and chose deception.
News of this accusation reached Jesus' brothers together with reports that He spent whole nights in prayer, was thronged all day without time even to eat, and was wearing Himself out by incessant labor. It was also reported that He took an unaccountable attitude toward the Pharisees and was feared by some to have lost reason. Feeling the reproach, astonished, dismayed, and alarmed at His bold statements and denunciation of the scribes and Pharisees amid the tumult, they decided to persuade and constrain Him to stop this labor. They induced Mary to join them in prevailing on Him through love for her to be more prudent.
Sin Against the Spirit
To call the casting out of devils by Christ the work of Beelzebub is to ascribe to Satan what belongs to God and what the Holy Spirit has done, and this is the sin against the Holy Ghost, for which there is no forgiveness. The healings and expulsions of devils were done openly before the accusers and could not be evaded or explained by natural causes, and no man had done or could do such works, showing them to be a manifestation of the holy power of God. Yet in unbelief the leaders claimed He healed through the devil and was in league with hell, though He had given them no reason for that charge, and they persisted in unbelief because to accept the evidence would have required them to confess their sin. By stubbornly, sullenly and ironheartedly determining to close the eyes to all evidence and attributing God's holy power to satanic agencies, they sinned against the Holy Ghost and committed the unpardonable sin, and the same sin is committed by those who say the shut door is of the devil.
To speak against Jesus Himself without discerning His divine character can still be forgiven, because through the Holy Spirit the sinner can yet be brought to see the error and repent. Whatever the sin, if the soul repents and believes, the guilt is washed away in His blood. But willfully to reject the work of the Holy Spirit and declare it to be from Satan cuts off the channel by which God works upon the heart and communicates with men, and cuts men off from the fountain of blessing. It places the soul where repentance and faith cannot come to it, so that when the Spirit is finally rejected there is nothing more that God can do for the soul.
Christ's works showed God's love and offered sinners the way to everlasting life, so to assign to satanic agency works of divine power and miracles done in His name is a serious rejection of the evidence for His work. In unbelief the leaders spoke of the Son of God as a mere human being and used their talent of speech to abuse the world's Redeemer. Their words are written by the recording angel in the books of heaven.
Warning and Obedience
The charge that healing deliverance came by the prince of devils exposed what appears when a heart is separated from God and no longer under the subduing power of the Holy Spirit, the attributes of Satan himself made manifest. Such a condition sends forth an influence contrary to truth and justice and righteousness, and its fruit is oppression of fellow men. It is seen in the relation of workers to one another and in the desire of one institution to control all others.
The question by whose power their own people cast out devils belongs to Christ's rebuke of the Jews who opposed Him, turning their accusation back upon them. The same oppressive, rebellious spirit is shown by men entrusted with weighty responsibilities who have no living connection with God. Like Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, they indulge the very spirit of those opposers, doing despite to the Holy Spirit even after warnings from God have come again and again. The warning therefore applies to all who resist repeated warnings and oppose the Holy Spirit.
To call the shut door of the devil commits the same sin of ascribing to Satan what belongs to God. Those who do so make a mighty effort yet come into close quarters, lost in foggy terrible fear and seized with anguish of spirit, daring not admit the door is shut. At last they admit the charge is against their own lives, and they shall die the death. Escape is to look at the Pattern and follow Him, for He is meek and lowly in heart, shutting the eyes to everything but present saving truth.
Fanaticism is Satan's counterfeit of God's work, set over against Christ's work which is from God and not from Beelzebub. It cannot truly imitate heaven's work. When its fruit ripens the difference between the two becomes unmistakable.
Christ's instruction in this rebuke must be held as firm as a rock, while those who hold it remain meek and lowly and tenderhearted. Every word He speaks must be strictly heeded and not one lost sight of, because His counsel is life eternal and the truth abides forever. Trusting any lie or pretense instead of His teaching costs eternal life. Straight paths must be made for the feet lest the lame be turned out of the way, and those who mislead the lame from safe paths are accountable for setting at naught His life-giving counsel for words of deception originating with the father of lies.
After He gave sight and speech to a blind and mute man possessed by a devil, so that the crowd wondered if He was the Son of David, the Pharisees charged that He drove out devils only by the prince of the devils, and knowing their thoughts He answered by asking by what power their own children and followers cast them out. If His work were by the evil ruler, their own exorcists would stand condemned by the same charge, so their inconsistency is exposed and those Jewish exorcists will condemn the unjust judgment as judges against the accusers. His relieving of the afflicted was not from Satan but a manifestation of the holy power of God that could not be evaded or explained by natural causes. To ascribe what the Holy Spirit has done to Satan is the sin against the Holy Ghost, for which there is no forgiveness, because it wilfully rejects and cuts off the channel by which God works on the heart and communicates blessing, leaving the soul where repentance and faith cannot reach it. Speaking against Jesus Himself without discerning His divine character can still be forgiven, for through the Spirit the sinner can yet be brought to see error, repent, and have guilt washed away in His blood.
Setting and Argument
The saying was spoken after Jesus healed a man possessed with a devil who was blind and dumb, so that he both spoke and saw, and this was the second such healing. At that sight the people wondered whether He was the Son of David, while the Pharisees repeated the charge that He cast out devils only by Beelzebub, the prince of the devils. Knowing their thoughts, Jesus turned the charge back on them by asking by whose power their own children, people, and followers cast out devils.
Those Jewish exorcists will condemn the unjust judgment and stand as judges against the accusers. If the charge against Jesus were true, their own children who cast out devils would also be acting by Beelzebub. This exposes the inconsistency of condemning in Jesus what they accept in their own people.
His work of relieving the afflicted was not from Satan but was a manifestation of the holy power of God, in contrast to Beelzebub and Satan's work. The healings and expulsions done before them could not be evaded or explained by natural causes, and no man had done or could do such works. The Pharisees made the charge without any reason from Him, though inwardly convinced that divine power attended Him. They persisted in unbelief because accepting the evidence would have required confessing their sin, and so deliberately resisted the truth and chose deception.
News of this accusation reached Jesus' brothers together with reports that He spent whole nights in prayer, was thronged all day without time even to eat, and was wearing Himself out by incessant labor. It was also reported that He took an unaccountable attitude toward the Pharisees and was feared by some to have lost reason. Feeling the reproach, astonished, dismayed, and alarmed at His bold statements and denunciation of the scribes and Pharisees amid the tumult, they decided to persuade and constrain Him to stop this labor. They induced Mary to join them in prevailing on Him through love for her to be more prudent.
Sin Against the Spirit
To call the casting out of devils by Christ the work of Beelzebub is to ascribe to Satan what belongs to God and what the Holy Spirit has done, and this is the sin against the Holy Ghost, for which there is no forgiveness. The healings and expulsions of devils were done openly before the accusers and could not be evaded or explained by natural causes, and no man had done or could do such works, showing them to be a manifestation of the holy power of God. Yet in unbelief the leaders claimed He healed through the devil and was in league with hell, though He had given them no reason for that charge, and they persisted in unbelief because to accept the evidence would have required them to confess their sin. By stubbornly, sullenly and ironheartedly determining to close the eyes to all evidence and attributing God's holy power to satanic agencies, they sinned against the Holy Ghost and committed the unpardonable sin, and the same sin is committed by those who say the shut door is of the devil.
To speak against Jesus Himself without discerning His divine character can still be forgiven, because through the Holy Spirit the sinner can yet be brought to see the error and repent. Whatever the sin, if the soul repents and believes, the guilt is washed away in His blood. But willfully to reject the work of the Holy Spirit and declare it to be from Satan cuts off the channel by which God works upon the heart and communicates with men, and cuts men off from the fountain of blessing. It places the soul where repentance and faith cannot come to it, so that when the Spirit is finally rejected there is nothing more that God can do for the soul.
Christ's works showed God's love and offered sinners the way to everlasting life, so to assign to satanic agency works of divine power and miracles done in His name is a serious rejection of the evidence for His work. In unbelief the leaders spoke of the Son of God as a mere human being and used their talent of speech to abuse the world's Redeemer. Their words are written by the recording angel in the books of heaven.
Warning and Obedience
The charge that healing deliverance came by the prince of devils exposed what appears when a heart is separated from God and no longer under the subduing power of the Holy Spirit, the attributes of Satan himself made manifest. Such a condition sends forth an influence contrary to truth and justice and righteousness, and its fruit is oppression of fellow men. It is seen in the relation of workers to one another and in the desire of one institution to control all others.
The question by whose power their own people cast out devils belongs to Christ's rebuke of the Jews who opposed Him, turning their accusation back upon them. The same oppressive, rebellious spirit is shown by men entrusted with weighty responsibilities who have no living connection with God. Like Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, they indulge the very spirit of those opposers, doing despite to the Holy Spirit even after warnings from God have come again and again. The warning therefore applies to all who resist repeated warnings and oppose the Holy Spirit.
To call the shut door of the devil commits the same sin of ascribing to Satan what belongs to God. Those who do so make a mighty effort yet come into close quarters, lost in foggy terrible fear and seized with anguish of spirit, daring not admit the door is shut. At last they admit the charge is against their own lives, and they shall die the death. Escape is to look at the Pattern and follow Him, for He is meek and lowly in heart, shutting the eyes to everything but present saving truth.
Fanaticism is Satan's counterfeit of God's work, set over against Christ's work which is from God and not from Beelzebub. It cannot truly imitate heaven's work. When its fruit ripens the difference between the two becomes unmistakable.
Christ's instruction in this rebuke must be held as firm as a rock, while those who hold it remain meek and lowly and tenderhearted. Every word He speaks must be strictly heeded and not one lost sight of, because His counsel is life eternal and the truth abides forever. Trusting any lie or pretense instead of His teaching costs eternal life. Straight paths must be made for the feet lest the lame be turned out of the way, and those who mislead the lame from safe paths are accountable for setting at naught His life-giving counsel for words of deception originating with the father of lies.