Ryle on Mark 3:22-30

Imported boundary: J. C. Ryle's Expository Thoughts on Mark from the Internet Archive DjVu OCR for the 1858 Robert Carter St. Mark volume. Title pages, preface, contents, running heads, page numbers, OCR boilerplate, and indexes are not mirrored. The source includes Ryle's printed Scripture text and exposition; this scan-derived text remains needs-verification.

Primary passage: Mark 3:22-30.

Source Text

22 And the Scribes which came down from Jerusalem said, He hath Beelzebub, and by the prince of the devils casteth he out devils. 23 And he called them unto him, and said unto them in parables, How can Satan cast out Satan ? 24 And if a kingdom be divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. 25 And if a house be divided against itself, that house cannot stand. 26 And if Satan rise up against himself, and be divided, he cannot stand, but hath an end. 27 No man can enter into a strong man's house, and spoil his goods, ex- cept he will first bind the strong man ; and then he will spoil his house. 28 Verily I say unto you, All sins shall be forgiven unto the sons of men, and blasphemies wherewith soever they shall blaspheme : 29 But he that shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost hath never forgiveness, but is in danger of eternal damnation : 30 Because they said, He hath an unclean spirit. We all know how painful it is to have our conduct misunderstood and misrepresented, when we are do- ing right. It is a trial which our Lord Jesus Christ had to endure continually, all through His earthly ministry. We have an instance in the passage before us. The " Scribes which came down from Jerusalem" saw the miracles which He worked. They could not deny their reality. What then did they do ? They accused our blessed Saviour of being in league and union with the devil. They said, " He hath Beelzebub, and by the prince of the devils casteth he out devils." In our Lord's answer to this wicked accusation, there are expressions which deserve special attention.

Let us see what lessons they contain for our use. "

We ought to notice, in the first place, how great is the evil of dissensions and divisions. This is a lesson which is strongly brought out in the beginning of our Lord's reply to the scribes. He snows the absurdity of supposing that Satan would " cast out Satan/' aud so help to destroy his own power. He appeals to the notorious fact, which even his enemies must allow, that there can be no strength where there is division. " If a kingdom be divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand." This truth is one which does not receive sufficient con- sideration. On no point has the abuse of the right of private judgment produced so much evil. The divisions of Christians are one great cause of the weakness of the visible church. They often absorb energy, time, and power, which might have been well bestowed on better things. They furnish the infidel with a prime argument against the truth of Christianity. They help the devil. Satan indeed is the chief promoter of religious divisions. If he cannot extinguish Christianity, he labors to make Christians quarrel with one another, and to set every man's hand against his neighbor. None knows better than the devil, that " to divide is to conquer."

Let us resolve, so far as in us lies, to avoid all differ- ences, dissensions, and disputes in religion. Let us loathe and abhor them as the plague of the churches. We cannot be too jealous about all saving truths. But it is easy to mistake morbid scrupulosity for conscientiousness, and zeal about mere trifles for zeal about the truth. Nothing justifies separation from a church but the sepa- ration of that church from the Gospel. Let us be ready to concede much, and make many sacrifices for the sake of unity and peace.

We ought to notice, in the second place, what a glori- ous declaration, our Lord makes in these verses about the forgiveness of sins. He says, " all sins shall be forgiven to the sons of men, and blasphemies wherewith soever they shall blaspheme." These words fall lightly on the ears of many persons. They see no particular beauty in them. But to the man who is alive to his own sinfulness and deeply sensible of his need of mercy, these words are sweet and precious. " All sins shall be forgiven." The sins of youth and age - the sins of head, and hand, and tongue, and imagination - the sins against all God's commandments - the sins of persecutors, like Saul: - the sins of idolaters, like Ma- nasseh - the sins of open enemies of Christ, like the Jews who crucified Him - the sins of backsliders from Christ, like Peter - all, all may be forgiven. The blood of Christ can cleanse all away. The righteousness of Christ can cover all, and hide all from God's eyes. The doctrine here laid down is the crown and glory of the Gospel. The very first thing it proposes to man is free pardon, full forgiveness, complete remission, without money and without price. " Through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins ; and by Him all that believe are justified from all things." (Acts xiii. 39.) Let us lay hold on this doctrine without delay, if we never received it before. It is for us, as well as for others. We too, this very day, if we come to Christ, may be completely forgiven. " Though, our sins have been as scarlet, they shall be white as snow." (Isaiah i. 18.) Let us cleave firmly to this doctrine, if we have re- ceived it already.

We may sometimes feel faint, and unworthy, and cast down. But if we have really come to Jesus by faith, our sins are clean forgiven. They are cast behind God's back - blotted out of the book of His remembrance - sunk into the depths of the sea. Let us believe and not be afraid.

We ought to notice, in the last place, that it is possible for a mail's soul to be lost for ever in hell. The words of our Lord are distinct and express. He speaks of one who " hath never forgiveness, bat is in danger of eternal damnation." This is an awful truth, beyond doubt. But it is a truth, and we must not shut our eyes against it. We find it asserted over and over again in Scripture. Figures of all kinds are multiplied, and language ef every sort is employed, in order to make it plain and unmistakeable. In short, if there is no such thing as " eternal damna- tion." we may throw the Bible aside, and say that words have no meaning at all. We have great need to keep this awful truth steadily in view in these latter days. Teachers have risen up, who are openly attacking the doctrine of the eternity of punishment, or laboring hard to explain it away. Men's ears are being tickled with plausible sayings about " the love of God," and the impossibility of a loving God per- mitting an everlasting hell. The eternity of punishment is spoken of as a mere " speculative question," about which men may believe anything they please. - In the midst of ajl this ilood of false doctrine, let us hold firmly the old truth. Let us not be ashamed to believe that there is an eternal God - an eternal heaven - and an eternal hell. Let us recollect that sin is an infinite evil. It needed an atonement of infinite value to deliver the believer from its consequences - and it entails an infinite loss on the unbeliever who rejects the remedy provided for it. Above all, let us fall back on plain scriptural statements, like that before us this day. One plain text is worth a thousand abstruse arguments.

Finally, if it be true that there is an " eternal damna- tion," let us give diligence that we ourselves do not fall into it. Let us escape for our lives, and not linger. (Gen. xix. 16, 17.) Let us flee for refuge to the hope set before us in the Gospel, and never rest till we know and feel that we are safe. And never, never let us be ashamed of seeking safety. Of sin, worlclliness, and the love of pleasure, we may well be ashamed. But we never need be ashamed of seeking to be delivered from an eternal hell.*

* There is an expression in the passage now expounded, which appears to demand special notice. It is confessedly one of the hard things of Scripture, and has often troubled the hearts of Bible readers. I refer to the saying of our Lord, " He that blaspheme th against the Holy Ghost hath never forgiveness." It seems that there is such a tiling as an unpardonable sin. Some interpreters have endeavored to cut the knot of the diffi- culty, by maintaining that the sin here referred to was entirely con- fined to the time when our Lord was on earth. They say that when the Scribes and Pharisees saw the evidence of our Lord's miracles, and yet refused to believe in Him as the Messiah, they committed the unpardonable sin. Their assertion that our Lord worked miracles through Beelzebub, was blasphemy against the Holy Ghost. There might be something in this view, if the passage under con- sideration stood entirely alone - though even then he would be a bold man who would assert that there were no hardened Scribes and Pharisees among the three thousand converted and forgiven on the