Devil or God?

Devil or God?

"Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand: and if Satan cast out Satan, he is divided against himself; how shall then his kingdom stand?" (Luke 11:17)

In all these explanations, the important fact is that His enemies admitted the supernatural powers of the Lord Jesus Christ.  They could not explain Him on natural grounds.  The keenest minds of His day, sharp and critical, were forced to admit that He was outside the common run of men.  The explanation of the Pharisees was that the power of Jesus Christ was Satanic power.  What He had done they could not deny, so they said that it was done by the power of the prince of the demons.  This explanation is as foolish as those that leave out the supernatural.  We would be amazed at the stubborn willfulness of unbelief had we not been warned by our Lord of the deep seated reasons for this denial—reasons which lie buried in the recesses of the sinful human heart.  Every once in a while, we meet just such arguments in our dealings with men today - with an airy gesture of contempt, they would dismiss the whole question and say with a firm tone that it can’t be so simply because such things are not so.

Indeed, men have refined the processes of explanation during the course of the centuries that have followed one another since this day when the Pharisees attempted to account for Christ in this way; but though the explanations have changed, the process remains the same, deep down underneath.  It is the attempt of unbelief to account for the living Lord Jesus Christ.   But the Lord Jesus, God’s King, was claiming to be the Kingdom of God.  "In Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily" (Colossians 2:9).  This was the explanation of His power.  Where He acted, it was God acting, when He spoke, it was God speaking.

Dr. Barnhouse reminds that although the arguments sound more sophisticated, the root is still the same.  Rebellious sinners refuse to submit to the King.

Further Reading: Luke 11:14-23