Matthew 25:12 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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Matthew 25:12

Comments

At this point the parable begins to change into the reality which it represents: the state of the kingdom of God at the time of the second coming. The language begins to move away from the homely picture of an ancient marriage feast in Palestine and to be transformed into something much more solemn and final. This climax to the parable prepares the way for the crucial warning which Christ wishes to deliver.It is hard to imagine a bridegroom literally acting and speaking in this hostile way to young girls who, though careless and needing to learn to prepare, could be forgiven for their mistake. But the answer becomes wholly appropriate if the focus shifts away from a Judean wedding to the scene at the second coming of Christ. Their pleadings fall on deaf ears, for, as he has warned us, the time will come when he will no longer respond to our cries. At that time men will be driven to plead for their lives by the terror of the situation, but they will be denied the ability to ask sincerely for the Spirit will have ceased to work in any man’s heart. They will not be enabled to ask as those who are willing to leave their sin behind and in true repentance and faith to turn to Christ. They will come only for deliverance from hell. The same one who could have been their eternal Saviour if they had come to him earlier will be unmoveable in his resolve to shut them out of his kingdom.But there is something more here, for Christ solemnly and finally declares, ‘Truly I say to you, I do not know you’. These words make no sense unless we see in them the language of election. He has already used this language, but in an even more decisive way. ‘Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? ²³ And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you’ (Matthew 7:22-23). What is here in the present tense, is there in the past tense together with the word ‘never’. If Christ had ever known them in the past, he would know them now, for he can never forget his own.

Application

For him to know us is to know us as his chosen ones, those to whom he is committed forever, those whom he will go to hell in order to deliver. This is more than just, ‘You have been foolishly preoccupied with this world’s pleasures and have not given due time to God’, nor is it, ‘You have failed to repent soon enough and have come to me for salvation too late.’ This is telling the lost, to their horror, that there is a far more basic reason why they have not come to him; they have been passed over by God from all eternity. Christ has never known them, in the sense that from all eternity they were never those who were loved by him. This will be the greatest source of distress to the lost on that day, that though they are wholly responsible for their condemnation and final eternal doom, God’s secret purpose behind all the events of their lives never intended that they should enter that door into the marriage supper of the Lamb. With these words the noose that leads them to eternal destruction will have tightened and they will be led away.

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Matthew 25:12 Commentary and Bible Study