Who is Jesus? That’s what the scribes, the experts in the Law of Moses, were wondering. Because He didn’t agree with their pet interpretations of the Sabbath commandment, they couldn’t bring themselves to believe that His power came from God. But at the same time, they couldn’t deny that He was doing the Lord’s work, healing people and casting out demons. So, they came to the only conclusion that acknowledged Jesus’ obvious supernatural power while preserving their own understanding of righteousness: His power must have been demonic.

How ridiculous. As Jesus Himself pointed out to them, what sense would it make for Him to cast out Satan by the power of Satan? After all, civil war could be no more effective in hell than it is on earth. In contrast, Jesus makes an obvious point: the only way to rob any strong man is first to tie him up so that he cannot stop you. In the same way, when Jesus cast out Satan’s demons, that was an obvious sign that Jesus’ power was much greater than Satan’s – and the only way that could be true was for Jesus to be the Son of God.

But it wasn’t just the ancient scribes who allowed their beliefs and preferences to blind them to Jesus’ true identity. After all, many modern people reject the claims of Christ precisely because His teachings conflict with the sexual revolution and the freedom it promises. But because Christians point out that this “freedom” comes at a high cost to both women and children, because Christians uphold God’s plan for marriage, urging men to fulfill their God-given responsibilities as husbands and fathers, the opponents of Christ condemn His Church as nothing more than a bunch of hateful bigots.

Now, Jesus said that those who could look at Him, someone so obviously filled with the power of the Holy Spirit, and see only the power of Satan could never be forgiven. They had simply gone too far down the road to hell to turn back. So, what will Jesus say about those modern devotees of the sexual revolution, those who look at His promises of life and peace and prefer only chaos and death? Could their blindness any less complete than that of those ancient scribes?

Mark 3:22-30 (NASB))

22 And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem were saying, “He is possessed by Beelzebul,” and “He casts out the demons by the ruler of the demons.”
23 And He called them to Himself and began speaking to them in parables, “How can Satan cast out Satan?
24 “And if a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand.
25 “And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand.
26 “And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but he is finished!
27 “But no one can enter the strong man’s house and plunder his property unless he first binds the strong man, and then he will plunder his house.
28 “Truly I say to you, all sins shall be forgiven the sons of men, and whatever blasphemies they utter;
29 but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin” –
30 because they were saying, “He has an unclean spirit.”