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Luke 9:37-43; Galatians 1:3-10
When the Lord descended from the mountain after the Transfiguration, accompanied by three of His disciples, “much people met Him.” A man approached, pleading for the Lord to cast out a demon from his son. He added, I besought thy disciples to cast him out; and they could not. Then the Lord cried out, O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you, and suffer you?
To whom was this directed? Was it to those who, through unbelief and sin, gave demons power over themselves? Or was it to those who, having only a form of godliness, lacked its power and thus could not help the afflicted? Most likely, it was addressed to both. Yet, despite this, He helps them both. He inspires faith in the father of the demon-possessed boy, He delivers the boy, and He instructs His disciples on how to attain the strength necessary to cast out demons.
Well, and the Lord cried out, probably because He had just descended from the heights of Mount Tabor. There, was the glory of the Transfiguration; here was the great fall of those created to partake of glory and blessedness.
At the end of His earthly life, the Lord gave Himself for this very “faithless and perverse generation,” thereby laying a firm foundation for deliverance “from this present evil world” (Gal. 1:4). Yet, if we have not experienced the stark reality of demonic possession as did the healed boy and his father, then the message of deliverance may not strike us with sufficient force. We may fail to feel the immediate, living sense of liberation, and instead ponder out of curiousity: “From whom did the Lord redeem us? To whom did He offer Himself as a sacrifice?”
And we will be offered various answers. Some, who know little about Christianity, will say that He sacrificed Himself to Satan; others, that He offered Himself to the Father to satisfy His dignity offended by human sin. But it is strange to think that the Lord would offer Himself to Satan, considering He cast out legions of demons. It is equally strange to imagine an enraged God the Father thirsting for blood and demanding vengeance.
There is no need to invent or imagine anything here. The Word of God answers this question—not merely to satisfy curiosity, but as always, to inspire us toward righteous action: Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children; and walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savour (Eph. 5:1–2).
This was not to satisfy some “offended dignity” but as a sweet-smelling savour. For there is no love without sacrifice, and God is love (1 John 4:8). At the same time, it is said that He gave Himself for us, for our sins, for the people (John 11:50), for the ungodly (Rom. 5:6), and for us all (Rom. 8:32). It is written that we are redeemed with the precious blood of Christ (1 Peter 1:18–20).
It is as if I were sitting on death row, awaiting inevitable execution, and He came and said: “Go free. I will suffer and die in your place.” What would I do? Would I leap for joy and rush back to the company of the evil and perverse generation? Or would I remain to share in His temporal suffering, so that I might enter with Him into eternal life?
