Stubborn Resistance and Sweet Submission

Read Matthew 11:20-30

      Jesus says it will go worse for some than for others on the Day of Judgment, and that wickedness done in ignorance will weigh lightly against the guilty compared to stubborn persistence in unbelief despite an abundance of God’s self-revelation.  It’s a sobering thought for anyone who has grown up in the “Christian” west, for those who were almost persuaded but in the end turned away, for those who had fallen under conviction of sin at one time but gotten over it. 

      But if you have come to know Jesus as God’s Son, and his Father as your own, yours is not a restless soul, but a restful one.  To enter Jesus’ life-training is nothing like the being burdened down by unattainable, frustrating, oppressive Pharisaical rules and regulations.  It is to come under the loving authority of a gentle master who reproduces his character in us.  The old resistance gives way to a new submission, to our blessing, and Christ’s glory.