In the synagogue there was a man possessed by the spirit of an unclean demon, and he cried out with a loud voice, “Let us alone! What business do we have with each other, Jesus of Nazareth? Have You come to destroy us? I know who You are — the Holy One of God!”

— Luke 4:33-34

Demons are fallen angels. This means they have taken Satan’s side in the great conflict between God and Satan, a war that predates human history, even. Demons do not bid God’s favor; rather, they are antagonistic to His will. They are unholy, ungodly, and horribly arrogant. Yet…and don’t miss this…they openly concede His position as the “Most High God”, and Jesus, “the Son of God”.

Even the demons know and accept God’s position in the Universe. They also accept Jesus as His Son, the Christ. Yet they are fallen. They are unclean. In fact, one third of all angels are Satan’s own (Revelation 12:4).

You might be asking yourself, “How can any creature made by the Creator, knowing these basic facts about Him and themselves, ever oppose Him?” It’s easy, they are arrogant. You may have, in the past, said to yourself, “Well, maybe some of God’s creatures (including man) just don’t understand who God is…if they only knew!” But here’s my point exactly - they do!!! That’s how powerful arrogance can be.

Submission to authority and concession of its existence are two separate issues. Arrogant creatures often understand and accept God as sovereign, but they refuse to submit to His authority. Demons are a perfect example of this phenomenon, as noted in scripture. In their encounters with Jesus, the God-man, they immediately understood who He was, even understood His power over them, and yet still only obeyed Him when there was literally no other option, by force.

Seeing Jesus from a distance, [a man with an unclean spirit] ran up and bowed down before Him; and shouting with a loud voice, he *said, “What business do we have with each other, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I implore You by God, do not torment me!”

— Mark 5:6-7

All arrogant creatures share the same trait. While they concede certain facts about authority in their lives, they don’t always submit to them. Nowhere is this more dangerous than with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. While many people, often calling themselves “Christians”, will accept who Jesus is, they reject the idea of submitting to Him, to God. Jesus warned those He taught about the result of this kind of arrogance.

And He summoned the crowd with His disciples, and said to them, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it. For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and forfeit his soul? For what will a man give in exchange for his soul? For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will also be ashamed of him when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.”

— Mark 8:34-38

The fundamental difference between a saved person and an unsaved person is, minimally, an issue of submission, not knowledge. While an arrogant person seeks things for fleshly advantage, a humble person seeks the righteousness of God.

But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

— Matthew 6:33

There’s a reason why God the Holy Spirit inspired so many accounts of demons interacting with Jesus Christ. It’s because we readers of the Bible can learn an awful lot from the demons. Arguably the most profound conclusion is one that applies to mankind as well.

Admission isn’t the same thing as submission. A person can admit that a certain authority exists in their life, but that doesn’t mean they will ever submit to it, from the heart (by force doesn’t count).

But what does it say? “THE WORD IS NEAR YOU, IN YOUR MOUTH AND IN YOUR HEART” — that is, the word of faith which we are preaching, that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.

— Romans 10:8-10

God chooses to save those whose hearts are right towards Him. He sent His Son to describe what that means to man. “Jesus *said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me’” (John 14:6). And just like the demons, many human beings, while accepting who Jesus is and what He accomplished on His cross, remain arrogant, rejecting the idea of submission altogether. In their hearts, they say, “Gimme what’s good for me, like a free ticket to Heaven, but keep your lordship, for I am captain of my own ship.”

It seems untenable that one of God’s creatures would maintain an arrogant posture in the presence of the admitted “Most High God”, yet that is precisely what many do. The Bible tells us that demons (and by now I hope you’re making the connection to mankind) knew that Jesus was “the Christ”. Christ means “Messiah”! This implies that the demons who met up with Jesus understood the fullness of His mission, even, that as Savior to the world! And still, they refused to submit to Him! Sound like anyone you know??? Look around, family and friends included, and you’ll see the same spiritual condition in unsaved man.

Admission isn’t the same thing as submission.

While the sun was setting, all those who had any who were sick with various diseases brought them to Him; and laying His hands on each one of them, He was healing them. Demons also were coming out of many, shouting, “You are the Son of God!” But rebuking them, He would not allow them to speak, because they knew Him to be the Christ.”

— Luke 4:40-41

Why would any creature buck a known authority? It isn’t an issue of ignorance, but rather, arrogance. From the sophomoric teenager to the puffed up intellectual, God has made Himself known to them. Every creature, whether they choose to admit it or not, knows this to be true, even the starkest of atheists. They are “without excuse”. They will “die in their sins” (John 8:24) as a result.

For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened.

— Romans 1:20-21

My fear is that there are a lot of so-called “believers” out there that have admitted, but not submitted, and so remain in their sins, unsaved. My fear is that today’s “Christianity” is a cesspool of accommodation - something neither Jesus nor His disciples ever promoted. But, you see, we are two thousand years beyond the greatest event in human history, the Cross, and man has invented myriad ways to “get to Heaven” in order to hedge his bets in his own favor, as if that were the primary cause for consideration in the first place (it isn’t - the sin issue is - see my previous blog entry titled, “Repentance: An Issue of Life and Death”). In his ingenuity (a euphemism for arrogance), man has perverted the Gospel of Jesus Christ, even, supposing that merely knowing what the demons already know is sufficient cause for God to save them.

Salvation is a heart issue, not merely a mental one. The demons help us understand this. Admission is not submission, not even close…

Not everyone who says to Me, “Lord, Lord,” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. Many will say to Me on that day, “Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?” And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.’

— Matthew 7:21-23

Love in Christ,
​
Ed Collins