Luke 11:52 Commentary and Bible Study

Hypocrisy and self-righteousness are also the enemies of salvation. What a devastating charge this was! Here were the teachers of God’s word, who were supposed to be the shepherds of the people, the instructors and protectors of those who were ignorant and did not know which way to go to find the Lord. These were the experts in God’s law, who had made it their business to study the Scriptures which are able to give life. Naturally the people respected them, and assumed they knew more than they did; naturally they deferred to their knowledge. How tragic it is to see the needy putting their trust in those who cannot help them, or would even deceive them. They looked up to them as guides who could lead them into the truth, but like a tense drama in which the victim unknowingly turns to his assailant for help, or the vulnerable person confides in the very one who is plotting to do him harm, so the common people trusted in those who had no intention of being faithful teachers. The lawyers would not enter the kingdom of heaven themselves. They saw very clearly that they did not want that. They understood the terms of discipleship, and they hated a message that told them they were lost and on no better footing than anyone else. That meant that all the imagined advantages which their status in Jewish society had given them were worth nothing. This was what they counted as everything. They were certainly not going to give up so much for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. Better to deny themselves salvation and peace with God; better to cast away eternity and the possibility of forgiveness which was preached to them in the gospel, than to come on such terms and humble themselves as a little child. So, they were quite clear that they were not going to recognise this Messiah and come to him on such demeaning terms.But having refused salvation themselves, they were certainly not going to allow anyone else to have it. To do that would be to admit that they were wrong. To do that would be to have others overtake them in the spiritual race. It was not that they sincerely believed the gospel was false. It was that they were not prepared to pay the necessary price to have it. Salvation is free, and we can do nothing to earn it, and yet a man must be willing to lose all that he has in order to gain it, all his reputation in this world, all the pleasures of sin, all his future ambitions in this world. Having refused God’s salvation, then the hypocrites start to argue against it, and to justify his refusal. He makes himself the enemy of the gospel, and he wants all others to accept his verdict on the gospel. It is an affront to him if any others receive what he has refused to receive, and so prove him to be a fool in not coming himself. Therefore every possible strategy is employed to stop others entering the kingdom of heaven; every possible hindrance is put in the way. This includes denigrating the gospel. setting up false religion, teaching works-based salvation rather than grace, and in short, becoming the ambassador of the devil. The devil will reward his faithful servants by abandoning them to death and eternal punishment, but that will not stop them serving him.