The other feature common to the human category being focused on regardless of whether they are outwardly respectable or plainly criminal is indifference to truth. Their adoptive father was described by Jesus as the “father of lying”757 so those he masters are pathological in that trait. Having no working conscience, they will only speak the truth if it is convenient for the purpose in hand: there will be no other incentive. Anyone who is of God may lie but will never feel entirely comfortable about it unless, perhaps, it is a white lie to avoid hurting another, which on at least one occasion is commended in Scripture758. Those who are indwelt by the Spirit and already united to Christ will be highly sensitized in this area, wishing to avoid even so much as a hint of exaggeration. For truthfulness is integral to holiness, which is why the promises of God are so dependable even if He fulfils them in unexpected ways.
Children of the devil in Jesus’ ministry
Jesus portrayed starkly contrasting attitudes to the people he encountered during His earthly ministry, all of whom were in measure sinful. It will be surprising to some that in calling his disciples there is little if any reference to their sinfulness. These were ordinary 753 E.g. Jn8:44
754 Mt9:36
755 Mt6:23 – “How great is the darkness” not “that darkness” (many translations), obscuring the fact that divine light is provided innately, albeit still leaving man in a measure of darkness unless aided by grace. The third category whose “eye” is evil have extinguished that light provided to all men (Jn1:9) to be left entirely in the dark
756 Cf. Rom8:21
757 Jn8:44
758 Jam2:25 cf. Josh2:1-5
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working men: Simon Peter was conscious of his own unworthiness when he became aware of his Lord’s divinity759, but Jesus’ only recorded comment concerning the moral state of His new recruits was a positive one regarding Nathanael: “Behold, an Israelite indeed in whom there is no guile”760. Nathaniel was something of a cynic761, so not perfect - but those who
are perfect such as the incarnate Word look for the good in people and love them for it762.
He did not ask His disciples to “acknowledge their lost estate”, simply to follow Him763.
Unscrupulous tax collectors on the other hand were required to turn their lives around (repent) and make restitution. Note Zacchaeus’ childlike exuberance:
“Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord: “Look Lord! Here and now I give half my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount”. Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house
because this man too is a son of Abraham”764
The Man who has been appointed to judge the world was remarkably tolerant towards the human weakness of His disciples and ate and drank congenially with tax collectors and sinners, much to the contempt of the religious leaders. Consider His gracious dealings with the woman accused of adultery. Having challenged her accusers with “Let he who is without sin among you cast the first stone”, He asks the woman: “Did no one condemn you? Neither do I condemn you. Go and offend no more”765. Yet when faced with wickedness and hypocrisy amongst religious leaders, the tone sharpened noticeably:
“Serpents, brood of vipers! How can you escape the condemnation of hell?”766
Jesus was addressing certain scribes and Pharisees who are confirmed as occupying the seat of Moses; in view of which, He said, they should continue to be obeyed by His followers. Their position of authority was one reason Jesus was so scathing: they of all people were without excuse. As He told them:
“If you were blind, you would not be guilty, but since you say, “we can see”, your guilt remains767
These wicked tenants of God’s vineyard had refused John’s baptism unlike the majority who had acknowledged him to be the “prophet of the Most High” and an
“esteemed preacher of righteousness”. In so doing, these leaders had thwarted God’s purposes for them768. For if they had been good tenants, teaching and pasturing God’s people in the ways of righteousness, these erudite and revered religious leaders would logically have been the ones to take the work of the Kingdom forward. Yet in rejecting these 759 Lk5:8
760 Jn1:47
761 Jn1:46
762 Mk10:19-23
763 Mt4:19
764 Lk19:8-9
765 Jn8:11
766 Mt23:33
767 Jn9:41
768 Lk7:30
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leaders of His people, Jesus did not there and then “turn to the Gentiles”. That was to be Paul769; that was to be later; that was God’s secret plan770.
In the meantime, the inauguration of God’s Kingdom remained a strictly Jewish affair. Jesus appointed a motley crew of small businessmen, fishermen, a physician and a tax official for His immediate circle and prepared them to build the Kingdom of God in His temporary absence. Those more established leaders who had expected to be the princes of God’s Kingdom rejected Jesus and all He stood for. It was largely through their influence771
that many of the palm-waving crowds that had been heralding King Jesus as He triumphantly entered Jerusalem would become a baying mob calling for the Messiah’s crucifixion a short time later.
For it is in the nature of lost sheep easily to be led astray. Jesus was handed over to Pilate “because of envy”772. Ordinary Jewish folk were hardly envious of Jesus, but their religious leaders were, because their flock were looking to Him rather than to them, and under Jesus they knew they were to be axed. In their teaching these blind guides were
“straining out gnats and swallowing camels”; neglecting to teach or practice the weightier matters of the Law – justice, mercy and faithfulness773. There was a stark contrast between the attitude of these Jewish leaders and many of the people they led. It is typified in this verse concerning Jesus’ daily preaching in the Temple:
“Every day He was teaching at the temple. But the chief priests, the teachers of the Law and the leaders among the people were trying to kill Him. Yet they could not find any way to do it because all the people hung on His words”774
Most people Jesus encountered were excited by His ministry, and not only the miracles, but as Luke affirmed, they hung on His every word of teaching. This reality needs to be grasped: had they not been so cajoled by their leaders, the Jewish people would have welcomed Jesus as their messianic king, whereas many of those leaders whom gospel writer John unhelpfully labels “the Jews” wanted Him dead, and since that was in accordance with the divine plan, they soon got their wish. Little did these leaders realize they were being used; for through divine ingenuity the satanic seed were playing into God’s hands as they always do. For a section of the religious leaders who conspired against the Messiah were the devil’s children, and as is their wont they went on to ensnare sufficient people who looked up to them to bring about, humanly speaking, the most perverse injustice in human history, enacted at the place of the skull. Their Victim was aware of these leaders’ origins:
“You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do.
He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth, because there is
no truth in him” 775
Note again how the devil, like his children, is defined by what he does not possess:
“there is no truth in him”. Likewise, his children are devoid of truthfulness, moral restraint, 769 Acts13:46
770 Eph3:9-12
771 Mk15:11
772 Mt27:18
773 Mt23:23
774 Lk19:47-48
775 Jn8:44
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remorse or pity. In contrast to many of their leaders, Jesus received respect, love and honour from a good number of Jewish people He encountered during His ministry as Luke also observed:
“Jesus increased in wisdom and stature and in favour with God and man” 776
The majority were of God; desiring a Good Shepherd to lead them but easily deceived and led astray; as were many such people including a good number within the Christian community nineteen hundred years later, adoring and cheering their political messiah in Germany who went on to leave much of Europe in ruins. “God has at last given the German people a pious and faithful ruler in the person of Adolf Hitler” affirmed the Protestant group calling themselves “the German Christians” in the 1930s; and a good number of Catholics were equally deceived. Likewise, during the time of Christ’s earthly ministry, if it were not for the devil working in the minds and hearts of those that he controls inciting the Jewish people against their true Messiah and a devilish disciple betraying Him, Jesus would never have been crucified.
But then God’s plan for humanity would not have been fulfilled, for the crucifixion was according to “the definite plan and foreknowledge of God”777 and Satan’s seed were an essential part of it. For it was necessary not only that the Son of God should die for mankind’s sin, but that He died when He did and how He did within the narrative of the Israel project and its transmutation into the Church project. The children of the devil had unwittingly played their part in bringing about the ultimate victory of God assured through the cross, and they continue to play a role in the world including the churches, mosques, synagogues and temples, especially keen to pervert religion and the meaning of holy writ for their own destructive ends – “for offences must come, but woe to the ones by whom they come”778. The reason such offences must continue for a little longer is outlined in the final chapter.
776 Lk2:52
777 Acts2:23
778 Mt18:7
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It is the understanding of many Christians that the cruelty, injustice, broken relations, sickness and death that have become an inescapable aspect of life on earth are the result of an act of disobedience by the first human couple. Non-Christians presented with such a concept are inclined to regard it as facile, and with some justification, for it is only a third of the story when understood from a more enlightened Christian perspective such as that possessed by the apostle Paul. But before coming to the providential dimension to which the apostle alludes, he also affirms that there is a realm of evil extraneous to humanity that took the lead in that apparent catastrophe; a sophisticated principality of wickedness that endures as a force in the world to the present day:
“For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places”779
The verse is addressed to Christian believers, but the One who remembers the needs of sparrows is aware that the activity and influence of this evil realm impinges upon the whole human family and all created life. It will appear to many that we are in fact wrestling against flesh and blood for the diabolical activity that Paul was referring to is largely exercised through the human agencies under its control. These are the human seed considered in the previous chapter – they are the darnel poisoning the wheat that must remain until harvest. Of course, the rest of humanity sins and causes plenty of trouble as well, the more so for being led astray and corrupted by Satan who deceives the world through the people he controls. But God holds Satan rather than mankind personally accountable for the world being in the state it is. Because it is he who led the world astray, Satan will pay by far the greater price, as will his agents. [There is a categorical distinction between those who sin and those who lead others into sin. Many Christians don’t distinguish it – God and the Bible does.]
A still more profound mystery is why these wicked beings continue to thrive, influence and offend. As one traces events back to the Fall, one should discern that it is not entirely a matter of free will that resulted in wickedness being retained on the earth but divine decree. Yet evil originated from a malign exercise of the free will that the Creator is bound to give to any being to whom He wishes intimately to relate, starting with the angelic realm. However, it must be acknowledged that the extent to which a created being having chosen a course of evil is then permitted to continue practicing it and hurting others is a matter of divine prerogative, or else impotence or indifference which is certainly not the case here.
Adam and Eve had been warned that if they disobeyed God, they would die that very day. That warning did not refer to physical death for they continued for centuries, nor what would happen to their souls after they died, but to the disruption in their relationship with 779 Eph6:12
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God whilst they were in the body780. Yet this pair could have been eliminated there and then, feasibly with a better outcome for humanity, for they had been created pure in soul and body and unlike fallen man were potentially capable of full obedience. God was not obliged to establish His human creation through such corrupted progenitors; He was aware of the dire outcomes when He chose to reject what might appear to human minds to have been the logical rebooting option. Yet this incident in the Paradise Garden and the inscrutable way that God chose to handle it is in fact the most staggering aspect of His love for humanity, especially in view of the personal cost to Himself and His only begotten Son.
As for His earthly creation, many were now to be subjected to a life that was frustrating, vain and unfulfilled781. For the bulk of humanity that has been the case: their lives have certainly not been without purpose or a measure of fulfilment and joy, but the primary intention for which they had been created was not fulfilled during their earthly lifetime.
That had been to experience a living relationship with God and His Christ, described in the Bible as possessing eternal life782.
Very shortly after the incident in Eden the divine prerogative was exercised again with the first man to be born of woman. Cain had become entirely alienated from God783, yet He still ensured that this psychopath and his seed survived. Again, he could have been eliminated for his fratricide and insolence towards God but instead was provided with a mark for his protection such that he and his accursed seed would continue up until the time of the Flood. The book of Enoch relates how the spirit of Abel petitioned God for Cain’s seed to be annihilated, which duly occurred through the worldwide flood. This clarifies Gen4:10
and Heb12:24 concerning the reference to Christ’s blood speaking better things than Abel.
This inspired book also expands on Gen6:1,2 alluded to in Jude1:6 concerning satanic unions with women and the irretrievable corruption it caused.
But what cannot be perceived without reference to Enoch yet is needed to understand the rationale behind the universal flood is that these satanic collaborators had
imparted knowledge to humanity that the Lord had intended mankind gradually to discover over many centuries. As with Adam and Eve and the forbidden fruit from the tree of knowledge, humanity in its infancy was not ready for such knowledge which would lead to their destruction, yet could never be unlearnt, hence the need for a radical universal cleansing by water. Enoch19:1 explains that these rebellious sons of God who left their appointed habitation784 and were responsible for the global contamination and the thwarting of God’s plans for mankind’s development were able to assume different forms to carry out their illicit unions785. Through the mercy of God, the bulk of humanity who ignored Noah’s warning and perished in the Flood has subsequently had the Good News preached to them by Jesus Himself786, as, the apostle Peter indicates do all the dead have opportunity to hear the Good News so that although having been punished in the flesh
“they might live according to God in the spirit”787. This is yet another “problem verse” that 780 Cf. 1Pet4:6
781 Rom8:20
782 Jn17:3
783 Gen4:14
784 Cf. Jud1:6
785 Re: objections raised by Mt22:30
786 1Pet3:19-20
787 1Pet4:6
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becomes more intelligible once one understands the context of gospel salvation within God’s broader reconciliatory plans. These imprisoned spirits were given the opportunity to repent and acknowledge Christ’s lordship; they were not to be betrothed as His eternal Bride, nor did they escape punishment for they had been imprisoned for centuries.
Satan’s delegated authority
Although all who came off the ark were blessed by God, one of the sixteen seeds stemming from Noah’s sons was cursed, leading to the wickedness of Sodom, Gomorrah and the Canaanite territories resulting in their partial annihilation. Of course, wickedness continued through till the time of Christ and until the present day, and that is not surprising in view of the role Satan himself has been permitted:
“Then the devil taking (Jesus) up on a high mountain showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. And the devil said to him, all this authority I will give you and their glory for this has been handed over to me and I give it to whomever I wish; therefore, if You will worship before me all will be yours”788
Satan is a liar, but he had no hope of deceiving the Son of God on such a matter, nor did Jesus deny Satan’s claim to have been given authority over the world’s kingdoms, rather He would later affirm it. Jesus described Satan as the “leader of the world order”789, whilst Paul refers to him (more intriguingly) as the “prince of the power of the air”790 and John as holding the whole world under his control791. Unlike in the coming age of the Kingdom of Christ, Satan is not currently prevented from deceiving the world792 but despite a measure of salt and light provided by the worldwide churches and many people of good will outside them, he continues to preside over a principality of wickedness that impacts upon nations and their governance, greatly adding to people’s suffering. This prince had not been cast out after the resurrection of Christ793 – it looked initially as though that was being indicated by the short-lived witness of expelled demons and miraculous healings, but the Adversary’s final ignominy has been deferred. The Great War and Jewish Holocaust of the last century reinforce the fact that Satan’s influence has scarcely been eroded nineteen centuries into the Christian era.
Yet God is Love personified and He knows what He is doing. Suffering is no accident:
“I form the light and create darkness; I make peace and create calamity. I the Lord do all these things”794. Spiritual masters have proposed solutions in the past: Thomas Aquinas asserting that “God permits evil so as to bring out of it a greater good”. More specifically he proposed that “diverse grades of goodness occur in things, many of which would be lacking if no evil existed; indeed, the good of patience could not exist without the evil of 788 Lk4:5-7
789 Greek: archon tou kosmou
790 Eph2:2
791 1Jn5:19: Greek “en to ponero keitai” is not inferring that “the whole world is in a state of wickedness” (e.g. King James Bible) but that the world is under the authority of the Evil One 792 Rev12:9
793 Cf. Jn12:31
794 Cf. Is45:7
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persecution"795. Without evil and the dysfunctional practices associated with it, there would be no place for virtue, or it would not so clearly be seen to be virtuous and something to delight in; not only in human affairs but in the worshipful admiration of God Himself. If Satan had not been permitted his triumphs, there would have been no victory for God and His Christ for there had been nothing to conquer. How could God have demonstrated the extent of His love and grace if He could have spared His only Son? If Adam had not sinned or the humanity project rebooted, there would have been no need for a Saviour. And what a Saviour: O felix culpa, quae talem ac tantum meruit habere Redemptorum796.
The ultimate purpose of human suffering
But this is not the whole story: evil is a temporary yet essential component within the plan of human destiny. Suffering is neither a result of divine impotence nor a miscalculation. As well as being the backdrop to highlight the beauty and loveliness of the good and therefore of God Himself, its principal purpose is to prepare humanity for the next phase of her development. That is not mere philosophical speculation, it is a biblical reality that again has been historically eluded through a failure to grasp both the context of gospel salvation within broader providence and the nature of the age to come. Human beings created to be a little lower than the angels and currently possessing bodies originating from dust797 are destined for glory and service at least as splendid as that of the angels798.
Suffering and consequently the existence of evil is a necessary part of deification which requires human beings to be, as it were, stretched or go beyond themselves to be fitted for such a destiny. The Son of Man set the pattern: He tasted death for every man for our salvation, but there is something else we are told about His death:
“Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that
was set before Him, endured the cross and despised the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God”799
The highlighted phrase is not the one on which one would normally focus. The Godhead’s love for humanity and the Son of God’s obedience and suffering to deal with our sin are rightly the usual focal points. But Jesus’ awareness of the joy and glory awaiting Him is nevertheless referred to and it hints at what is being adduced in this chapter: the divine principal that suffering is beneficial, indeed necessary for those who are to be glorified.
Jesus might appear to be the exception, for He is worthy of glory through divine birth right.
Nevertheless:
“It was fitting for Him, for whom are all things and by whom are all things, in
bringing many sons to glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through
suffering, for both He who sanctifies and those who are being sanctified are all of one, for which reason He is not ashamed to call them brethren”800
795 Thomas Aquinas: De Potentia https://quotes.yourdictionary.com/author/thomas-
796 Catholic Easter hymn: “Oh happy fault, which gained for us so great a Redeemer!”
797 Cf. Gen2:7
798 Cf. Heb1:14
799 Heb12:2
800 Heb2:10-11
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And later in Hebrews:
“Though He were a Son, He learned obedience by the things which He suffered, and having been perfected He became the author of eternal salvation for all who obey Him”801
In Jesus’ case His suffering could have nothing to do with personal purification, for He was without sin. It pertained to His personal capacity and office, especially that of High Priest:
“Therefore, in all things (Jesus) had to be made like His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make a propitiation for the sins of the people, for in that He Himself has suffered, being tempted, He is able to aid those who are tempted”802
His awareness and personal experience of human suffering also prepares Him for His role as Supreme Judge of humanity. It set a pattern and example for those who as co-heirs must support Him as priests, kings and judges; they are to share in Christ’s glory but must firstly share His suffering:
“Now if we are children, then we are heirs: heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ;
if indeed we share in His sufferings in order that we may also share in His glory”803
Here is an advantage that human beings have over the angels of heaven: a personal day-to-day experience of sin and suffering. Such might not be advantageous if human destiny were to be confined to the spiritual realm: a blissful stasis beholding the vision of God’s glory, wonderful though that may be for those who have “fallen asleep” as Scripture describes the temporary separation of body and spirit in heaven. But the emphasis from the Old Testament prophesies, the gospels, the epistles and Revelation as far as the next age is concerned is for the elect of God to be “the children of the resurrection”804. For the believer’s destiny once resurrected does not merely consist in beholding but participating with God in eternal union with His Son. But as with any marriage, howsoever the Bridegroom may relate to His Father through eternity so must His Bride for they are now in union; and whatsoever His Son’s activity and domain, so shall His co-heirs share in it805.
Clearly the spouse concept is mystical in the sense of the “wife” being a corporate identity, but so is Christ’s bride-in-waiting the Church, which functions as His Militant Body on earth; each person playing his or her role as a member of that spiritually directed administration.
Paul also affirms that eternity will comprise numerous ages806 and, no doubt, many surprises.
If the Church thinks she can be clear about the precise nature and procession of eternity, she must surely think again. For this few millennia of human history on this pinprick we know of as earth is in terms of time and space a grain of sand within the desert of eternity. Who knows what plans God has for the limitless theatre that is His universe? For 801 Heb5:8-9
802 Heb2:17-18
803 Rom8:17
804 Lk20:36
805 Cf. Dan7:18
806 Eph2:7
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God’s Word became flesh; Jesus being from two natures, human and divine, yet essentially one subsistent nature as the incarnate Word of God. Humanity has therefore been permanently incorporated into the Godhead, indicating future physicality and terrestrial activity as well as the prospect of beholding the divine Glory that historically has tended to be the focus and expression of the Christian’s future hope. Yet the faithful shall not be disappointed, for being in eternal union with the One “in whom dwells the fullness of the Godhead bodily; the Head of all principalities and powers, we shall be complete in Him”807
Yet it is the whole human family that suffers in the present through the devil’s malevolence, and for a similar purpose; for all the scattered seed of God will in due time enjoy future communion with the divine glory; it is a question of staging and capacity - the faithful of the Church being the first fruits. For when Jesus comes again:
“He shall be glorified in His saints and be marvelled at by those that believe on that day, just as our testimony among you was believed”808
This is re-affirmed in Paul’s letter to the Corinthians:
“For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive; but everyone in
his own class809: Christ the first fruits; afterwards those who are Christ’s at His coming”810
“Christ the first fruits” refers to the Church811 which on one occasion Paul simply refers to as Christ812 for it is, after all, His mystical Body on earth. Christians are the first fruits of creation813. Jesus is also described as the first fruit but He was never “dead in Adam” in the Pauline sense being Himself the Second Adam; and He cannot be a “class of those in Christ” for He is the Christ. Moreover, Paul is referring to those who would be made alive in the future which cannot include Christ Himself but to Christ’s elect and those who believe at His coming.
The above aligns with Old Testament prophecy that all who shall call on the name of the Lord will be delivered from perdition. Logically the same principle applies to those who have died having never had the opportunity to know the Saviour, and that is substantiated on two occasions in the first epistle of Peter814. On the other hand, those alive at His coming who are not of God and refuse to obey the gospel of Christ will in Paul’s language be set ablaze815, removed from God’s presence and everyone else’s. By “not obeying the gospel” is meant refusing to acknowledge the Lordship of Christ even after His identity has been manifested. For one can only obey or refuse to obey what has been clearly presented and understood. So, when Christ re-appears on earth and indeed wherever He has presented Himself in person, there can be no excuse for those who reject Him. Likewise, if a universally agreed announcement of the coming Kingdom of Christ were provided to the world from a 807 Col2:9-10
808 2Thes1:10
809 Greek: hekastos de en to idio tagmati
810 1Cor15:22-23
811 Jam1:18
812 1Cor12:12
813 Jam1:18
814 3:18-20 and 4:6
815 2Thes1:8
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re-unified Church it would be a clarion call that would seriously need to be heeded816. And such would be the roll call: Who is on the Lord’s side; who will serve the King?
The Church as the Kingdom of Christ on earth is involved in a spiritual battle with satanic forces but cannot eradicate them. World peace and Christian dominion cannot occur in this age. The darnel will grow till the end of the age, then the reapers (God’s angels not the Church) will remove it and destroy it817. The Pilgrim Church was never intended to be in the business of “ruling the nations with a rod of iron”818. That refers to what is to be done in the next age such that when all earthly authorities have been subjected to the Arbitrator819, His Kingdom will be handed over to His Father for whatever subsequent ages may hold in store within a restored universe820.