1058. The Critical Scribes

The Critical Scribes

"But there were certain of the scribes sitting there, and reasoning in their hearts,

"Why doth this Man thus speak blasphemies? who can forgive sins but God only?" (Mar_2:6-7).

1. "There were certain of the scribes sitting there." It is always so! Some come to hear and heed; some come to criticise.

Think of it–the very men to whom God had committed the Oracles of God, condemning the Son of God!

Granting that they withstood Christ in ignorance and unbelief, yet they had no right to be either ignorant or unbelieving. They were ignorant because they were selfish and filled with pride. Their eyes were blinded by their jealousies. They would not brook the advent of One Who claimed any authority that interfered with their "rights" as teachers of the Jews.

2. They were "reasoning in their hearts." Here was the root of the trouble–their hearts were wrong; their hearts were deceitful above all things and desperately wicked; their hearts were far from God, and they "reasoned in their hearts."

These scribes were a bad set. They guarded with all care the tradition of the elders, but they thought it nothing to transgress the commandments of God. They drew nigh to God with their mouths, and honored Him with their lips, but they kept their hearts from Him.

God save us from whited sepulchers; men who go about enlarging the borders of their garments and making broad their phylacteries, while they carry a hidden knife with which to slay the Son of God.

God save us from long prayers;–men who will encompass sea and land to make a proselyte; and make him twofold more a child of hell; men who garnish the tombs of the Prophets, but who have no room for the Risen and Ascended Lord.

3. They were reasoning thus: "Why doth this Man thus speak blasphemies? who can forgive sins but God only?"

(1) They wholly denied and denounced the Deity of Christ. In this the scribes of old do not stand alone. There are many in the pulpit to-day who refuse every claim that Christ ever made as to His Deity. They deny His Virgin Birth; they denounce that He came down from the Father; they decry that He was God manifest in the flesh.

These men seek leadership in denominational gatherings; they wish to man the professorships of church, colleges and seminaries; they dictate to churches their policies and their creeds.

(2) They accused the Lord of blasphemy. In this the scribes of old were more consistent than the "scribes" of to-day. If Jesus Christ was not all that He claimed, then the scribes were right. If Christ were not God, He could not forgive sins; if Christ were not God He was a blasphemer; if Christ were not God, He was the greatest impostor who ever lived.

The "scribes," critics of to-day, are wholly inconsistent. They are more than inconsistent, they are obnoxiously untrue. They join with the critics, the vipers of old, in denying the Deity of the Lord; but in order to save their faces, they put all consistent deduction behind their backs, and try to say that Christ was the greatest man of His age, or of any age.

We admire the bluntness of the olden scribes far more. Why do not twentieth century critics come out into the lime light and confess the results of their blatant denials? Why do they not admit that Christ was either God or a blasphemer? Their progenitors crucified the Son of God, because He said He was the Son of God making Himself equal with God–let them do likewise.

Let the modernist carry his denials to their only logical conclusions–Christ was God or else He blasphemed.

Autor: R.E. NEIGHBOUR