PERSIST IN WHAT?

© 2020 by Tom Boynton (editing by Kathy Boynton)

“And, behold, they cried out, saying, What have we to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God? art thou come hither to torment us before the time?” (Matthew 8:29)

This passage introduces a dark spiritual reality.  Those speaking are devils!  Just before this, the disciples watched the Lord Jesus Christ display immense power.  He’d been with them in a ship crossing the Sea of Galilee.  A violent storm had arisen which threatened the lives of all aboard.  Jesus rebuked that storm which immediately ceased.  Now they had landed at their destination in the country of the Gadarenes.  There they found two men possessed with devils.  These devils were the ones speaking in the passage above.  They knew that a future time had been appointed for them to enter their eternal doom.  They and their master, Satan, would be cast into the lake of fire (Matthew 25:41).  They apparently feared that this powerful man, Jesus, the Son of God, might send them there early.

God never provided forgiveness for fallen angels.  Though their doom is certain, they, amazingly, persist without repentance in their vicious wickedness.  They incorrigibly hate God and all mankind who were created in His image.

In contrast, God provides salvation to all humans who repent and trust Christ as Lord and Savior.  However, most don’t.  Most dead hearts are not prevented from persisting in their choice to follow Satan to his condemnation.  Many do this with religious fervor!  Jesus accused many religious people in the temple of this:

“Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.” (John 8:44)

Do you, or others you know, persist in the path of devils?  There’s absolutely no hope for devils.   But, when God breathes life into a dead human heart, He graciously provides salvation through faith in Christ’s sacrificial death, burial, and resurrection.  Jesus said,

“All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.” (John 6:37)

Do those in your life know about this?

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