Here’s a parable that ought to be remembered–especially those verses which are usually ignored.
A certain nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom, and to return… But his citizens hated him, and sent a message after him, saying, We will not have this man to reign over us. [When the nobleman returns as king, he rewards his servants who put his money to good use while he was gone, and punishes the one servant who didn’t. And then he sees to another matter.] But those mine enemies, which would not that I should reign over them, bring hither, and slay them before me.
(Luke 19:12, 14, 27)
These verses came vividly to my mind yesterday, when I saw the news story about the feminists pantomiming the “abortion” of the baby Jesus: they will not have this man to reign over them. Nor are they the only ones.
God so loved the world, the world that He created, that He sent His only begotten Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ, to save it. The worldly authorities of this fallen world crucified the Son–because, as they themselves confessed, they had no king but Caesar. They rejected forgiveness of sins, reconciliation with God, and eternal life. Like, who needs all that, when Caesar can reward you here and now? Only here and now doesn’t remain here and now for very long.
Those who will not be ruled by Jesus Christ will receive the harshest punishment that God can give: He will let them have their wish. They will not be admitted into Christ’s Kingdom, and will have the rest of eternity to wish it were otherwise. But God will have already granted their wish: no taking it back.
For them the good news is that they can humble themselves before God and ask forgiveness for their sins–and claim it, too, by the grace of God through faith in Jesus Christ, whose blood has already purchased our forgiveness. They can be admitted into the kingdom of salvation today, for the asking.
That’s the good news, even for them–if they can only believe it.
It really is an astounding rejection on the part of these people. It’s bad enough to ignore the Christ, rejecting passively the salvation that is offered, but these people are going a step beyond that and are proactively wishing that Jesus had never been born. They are not only rejecting salvation for themselves, they are, in essence, rejecting salvation for the entire human race. If they don’t want their savior to be born then they don’t want my savior to be born. Where does that place a person on the spectrum of mass murderers?
You are absolutely spot on, Unknowable. That’s Satan’s wish – to destroy man, created in the image of God. And yes, Satan IS a mass murderer. These people are, wittingly or unwittingly, his emissaries.
The utter ignorance of these people is astounding. If not for the Lord, they would not exist. Scripture tells us that He was Creator, and that without Him, there would be nothing. I guess it is a death wish for themselves. He holds all things together by the power of His word, so that would have left us all out of everything.
One thing that strikes me with regard to all this is the self-destructive nature of so much of today’s society. They seem to hate themselves, hate everything mankind has accomplished and hate much of the human race. I don’t claim to understand it, but there’s obviously something very wrong.
The only thing I can think of as an explanation is that their rejection of their Creator has placed them in this state. I don’t believe for one moment that He is cursing them from on high, but I think that built into the human psyche is an element that requires us to love goodness or suffer an emotional penalty. If one hates goodness for too long, our psyche eventually turns its hatred inward.