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Luke 11 v 26. “….And the final condition of the man is worse than the first.”

I am presuming that as you read these comments you are also reading the Scriptures referred to. In this passage Jesus makes a very important point. It is not enough to have the demon cast out. Something must come to take its place.

When the Word of God takes effect in our lives the demon may leave. So the person is left clean but empty. The danger is that the demon may return to its old home and discover it all clean and orderly but uninhabited. So he returns with seven worse demons and occupies the house (heart) once again, and the latter existence of the person is worse than the first.

Jesus was using a picture to illustrate to us how inadequate it is to have a personal reformation without a personal regeneration. We need to have the Holy Spirit in residence in our hearts to fill us and guide us and lead us, which is what Jesus was referring to in Luke 11 vs 9-13. Read these words again and compare them with the consequence of believing a false gospel message in 2Peter vs 17-22.

Many people were overwhelmed by Christ’s words which was why the woman mentioned in verse 27 cried out: “Blessed is the mother who gave you birth and nursed you”. That was a typical Oriental way of speaking but notice Christ did not deny it. However his reply indicated that wonderful though it may have been to be his mother, that of itself would not save anybody. It is a spiritual relationship to Christ, not a physical one that really matters. So he replies in v 28: “Blessed rather are those who hear the Word of God and obey it”.

It is not simply hearing the Word of God that saves us. It is doing it, obeying it, embracing it for our lives. In this way we prove that the Holy Spirit has indeed taken up residence within us and our lives are not a mere clean and swept out, empty shell, but rather filled with His glorious presence.