The Holy One of God: The Holiness of Jesus

Dr. Lawson returned to the pulpit, taking Mark 1:21-28 as his text. There is no more dangerous place to be than where truth confronts false or dead religin. Satan is aroused, demons awakened, hell mobilized. There is peace in the house of death and they'd like to keep it that way. But as soon as light shines into the kingdom of darkness trouble begins. The truth is a great threat to Satan. This is where Jesus finds himself in this passage. The synagogue at Capernaum had rules but no relationship with God. The religious crowds were those who most opposed Christ. False, dead relgion was one of his greatest enemies (still is). Jesus here advances directly into one of Satan's strongholds. It was a takeover. Capernaum would become the headquarters of his Galilean ministry. He began to teach in this synagogue with all his considerable talents and authority. His hearers were amazed--the light shines into their darkness and it overwhelms. At this point a man appeared in the synagogue who had an unclean spirit--a demon. "What is there to you and us?" is the literal rendering of what he says. In other words, what do we have in common? Nothing, of course. The demon recognizes how alien Jesus is to him. Actually, there were a plurality of demons. The unclean spirit discloses the identity of Jesus as "the Holy One of God." It recognized Jesus' absolute holiness, a high confession for such unholy lips (James 2:19). Holy in all his ways and being. The phrase is a title for God himself, seen in Isaiah (see also John 6:69). A title of supremacy. God has come down to be among men. Jesus rebuked the demon, perhaps for interrupting his teaching the crowd, and cast it out. His observers were doubly amazed by all this: A new teaching, an authority they'd never heard, and the obedience of demons.