Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
There is a man in the Bible who could have committed the Unpardonable Sin, but thank God he did not. If he had, it would have been a very spectacular one, for it would have reduplicated on earth the "original" sin of Lucifer in heaven--jealousy of Christ.
"Jealousy [is] as cruel as the grave; its flames are flames of fire" (Song of Solomon 8:6); it was the sin of Lucifer against Christ, and it became for Satan the sin against the Holy Spirit (cf. Isa. 14:12-19; Eze. 28:12-19).
The man who was tempted but overcame was, of course, John the Baptist. He had known the thrill of preaching the true message under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit; but then it seemed the bottom fell out and the Holy Spirit left him for somebody else, as he saw the crowds abandon him and go over to the Man from Nazareth.
To make his heart burden more difficult, he found himself captured by Herod and thrust into a dungeon, and the weary days and weeks dragged by with no word from Jesus; it seemed that He had forgotten all about him in the euphoria of His happy ministry in the bright sunshine of success. John was abandoned, it seemed, in gloomy shadows.
He struggled with temptation, and Heaven looked on with concern, but the new "Elijah" stood the test. John's disciples even taunted him, "'Rabbi, He who was with you beyond the Jordan, to whom you have testified--behold, He is baptizing, and all are coming to Him!'" But John replied: '"He who has the bride is the bridegroom: but the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom's voice. Therefore this joy of mine is fulfilled'" (John 3:26ff.).
Let's say you love a one-and-only woman; but you end up as "best man" and watch her given to another man. How could "self" be more painfully crucified? But John was rewarded by a great report in the Bible; and a day yet to come.
--Robert J. Wieland
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: June 16, 2006.
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