Reformed Doctrine Daily Devotions

 ²⁷  and He will say, ‘I tell you, I do not know where you are from;   DEPART FROM ME, ALL YOU EVILDOERS.’ ”  Luke 13:25-27.  (Emphasis added.)

When something is repeated in Scripture, we should pay more attention to it and meditate on it in accordance with the repetition.  I will often make it the focal point of the devotion.  Such is the case today with Jesus’ statement:  “I do not know where you are from”. 

There is a deeper meaning to “know” than knowledge of facts about a person.  Obviously, Jesus did know facts about these people and did recognize them as they point out:  ‘We ate and drank in Your presence, and You taught in our streets’.

In Jesus’ use of this “know”, it carries a meaning of intimate familiar love.  We read Scripture such as Psalm 1:6:  “For the LORD knows the way of the righteous, But the way of the wicked will perish.”  In contrast to “knowing” the righteous, there is a distant lack of familiarity and lack of love with the wicked (“I do not know where you are from”) such as in Psalm 1:5:  “Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, Nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.”

But, this intimate familiar love, this “know” is not based on any condition (such as righteousness, works, or will) supplied by man.  In Ephesians 1:4-6, we read:  “just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him.  In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.”

“For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren;  and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified.”  Romans 8:29-30.

We can rebel against this “narrow door” of unconditional election.  We can say:  “Let us tear their fetters apart And cast away their cords from us!”  Psalm 2:3.

Or, we can embrace the narrow door as the only provision for salvation.  We can “Strive to enter through the narrow door”.  Luke 13:24. 

For those who rebel against this “narrow door” of unconditional election, saying,  “Let us tear their fetters apart And cast away their cords from us!”, “He who sits in the heavens laughs, The Lord scoffs at them.”  Psalm 2:4.  “…  I do not know where you are from;   DEPART FROM ME, ALL YOU EVILDOERS.’ ” Luke 13:27.