Today I heard a message on Matthew 8:5-13, which talks about a centurion's sick servant. Jesus
marvelled, and said to them that followed, Verily I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel.
He continued, saying,
And I say unto you, That many shall come from the east and west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven. But the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
In the past, I studied verses about "weeping and gnashing of teeth" and decided that people who were not saved were cast into the hell and there they were weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Today, though, the phrase "outer darkness" gave me a pause: Is outer darkness the hell or somewhere else? Who were the people that "shall be cast out into outer darkness", where there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth?
John MacArthur answered similar questions at
http://www.biblebb.com/files/macqa/70-13-17.htm:
Question
I have a question from Matthew 8:12. It says, “the sons of the kingdom should be cast into outer darkness, where there’s weeping and gnashing of teeth.” I came from an organization where they teach that there are born-again Christians who, because they don’t live a holy, godly, Christian life, can forfeit the kingdom and wind up in this place of outer darkness. Do you believe in this? Or do you believe that all Christians will get into the kingdom, no matter how they live?
Answer
First of all, I don’t believe that kind of stuff, that Christians are going to wind up cast out of the kingdom, weeping, with gnashing of teeth. Jesus said, “All that the Father gives to Me will come to Me, and I have lost none of them,” John 6. None of them are going to be lost--none of them. Paul said, “Being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you, will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.” Paul said, “What shall separate you from the love of God? Nothing. Life, death, principalities, powers--nothing,” Roman 8, “shall separate you.” Nothing. And, you’re saved because you were chosen in Him before the foundation of the world, that you might become like Jesus Christ. That is not going to be interrupted.
Now, you can’t lose your salvation. That’s clear as it can be in scripture. Second point: a Christian, by very nature, and by very desire, longs to live a holy life. That’s not the perfection of His life, but that’s the direction of it. So, a Christian--a true Christian--isn’t going to choose to live like that, or he’s not a true Christian. Right? Because a true Christian loves God, hates sin, and desires to obey. Doesn’t love God as fully as he should, doesn’t hate sin as much as he should, doesn’t obey as often as he should, but that’s the desire of his heart or her heart. If you’re truly saved, you’re going to pursue the right thing, you’re going to pursue the things of God, and you can’t lose your salvation.
Question (continued)
Just one more question? Who are the “sons of the kingdom” there in Matthew 8:12--who’s that talking about?
Answer (continued)
Jews. Jews, who had every right by birth into the line of Israel to inherit the kingdom promised to Israel, but they were going to wind up cast out of the very kingdom which was their inheritance and their birthright because they rejected the Messiah. They rejected Jesus Christ.
Matthew Henry said of this passage:
(2.) As to others. Christ takes occasion from hence to make a comparison between Jews and Gentiles, and tells them two things, which could not but be very surprising to them who had been taught that salvation was of the Jews.
[1.] That a great many of the Gentiles should be saved, v. 11. The faith of the centurion was but a specimen of the conversion of the Gentiles, and a preface to their adoption into the church. This was a topic our Lord Jesus touched often upon; he speaks it with assurance; I say unto you, "I that know all men;’’ and he could not say any thing more pleasing to himself, or more displeasing to the Jews; an intimation of this kind enraged the Nazarenes against him, Lu. 4:27. Christ gives us here an idea, First, of the persons that shall be saved; many from the east and the west: he had said (ch. 7:14), Few there be that find the way of life; and yet here many shall come. Few at one time, and in one place; yet, when they come altogether, they will be a great many. We now see but here and there one brought to grace; but we shall shortly see the Captain of our salvation bringing many sons to glory, Heb. 2:10. He will come with ten thousands of his saints (Jude 14), with such a company as no man can number (Rev. 7:9); with nations of them that are saved, Rev. 21:24. They shall come from the east and from the west; places far distant from each other; and yet they shall all meet at the right hand of Christ, the Centre of their unity. Note, God has his remnant in all places; from the rising of the sun, to the going down of the same, Mal. 1:11. The elect will be gathered from the four winds, ch. 24:31. They are sown in the earth, some scattered in every corner of the field. The Gentile world lay from east to west, and they are especially meant here; though they were strangers to the covenant of promise now, and had been long, yet who knows what hidden ones God had among them then? As in Elijah’s time in Israel (1 Ki. 19:14), soon after which they flocked into the church in great multitudes, Isa. 60:3, 4. Note, When we come to heaven, as we shall miss a great many there, that we thought had been going thither, so we shall meet a great many there, that we did not expect. Secondly, Christ gives us an idea of the salvation itself. They shall come, shall come together, shall come together to Christ, 2 Th. 2:1. 1. They shall be admitted into the kingdom of grace on earth, into the covenant of grace made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; they shall be blessed with faithful Abraham, whose blessing comes upon the Gentiles, Gal. 3:14. This makes Zaccheus a son of Abraham, Lu. 19:9. 2. They shall be admitted into the kingdom of glory in heaven. They shall come cheerfully, flying as doves to their windows; they shall sit down to rest from their labours, as having done their day’s work; sitting denotes continuance: while we stand, we are going; where we sit, we mean to stay; heaven is a remaining rest, it is a continuing city; they shall sit down, as upon a throne (Rev. 3:21); as at a table; that is the metaphor here; they shall sit down to be feasted; which denotes both fulness of communication, and freedom and familiarity of communion, Lu. 22:30. They shall sit down with Abraham. They who in this world were ever so far distant from each other in time, place, or outward condition, shall all meet together in heaven; ancients and moderns, Jews and Gentiles, rich and poor. The rich man in hell sees Abraham, but Lazarus sits down with him, leaning on his breast. Note, Holy society is a part of the felicity of heaven; and they on whom the ends of the world are come, and who are most obscure, shall share in glory with the renowned patriarchs.
[2.] That a great many of the Jews should perish, v. 12. Observe,
First, A strange sentence passed; The children of the kingdom shall be cast out; the Jews that persist in unbelief, though they were by birth children of the kingdom, yet shall be cut off from being members of the visible church: the kingdom of God, of which they boasted that they were the children, shall be taken from them, and they shall become not a people, not obtaining mercy, Rom. 11:20; 9:31. In the great day it will not avail men to have been children of the kingdom, either as Jews or as Christians; for men will then be judged, not by what they were called, but by what they were. If children indeed, then heirs; but many are children in profession, in the family, but not of it, that will come short of the inheritance. Being born of professing parents denominates us children of the kingdom; but if we rest in that, and have nothing else to show for heaven but that, we shall be cast out.
Secondly, A strange punishment for the workers of iniquity described; They shall be cast into outer darkness, the darkness of those that are without, of the Gentiles that were out of the church; into that the Jews were cast, and into worse; they were blinded, and hardened, and filled with terrors, as the apostle shows, Rom. 11:8–10. A people so unchurched and given up to spiritual judgments, are in utter darkness already: but it looks further, to the state of damned sinners in hell, to which the other is a dismal preface. They shall be cast out from God, and all true comfort, and cast into darkness. In hell there is fire, but no light; it is utter darkness; darkness in extremity; the highest degree of darkness, without any remainder, or mixture, or hope, of light; not the least gleam or glimpse of it; it is darkness that results from their being shut out of heaven, the land of light; they who are without, are in the regions of darkness; yet that is not the worst of it, there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 1. In hell there will be great grief, floods of tears shed to no purpose; anguish of spirit preying eternally upon the vitals, in the sense of the wrath of God, is the torment of the damned. 2. Great indignation: damned sinners will gnash their teeth for spite and vexation, full of the fury of the Lord; seeing with envy the happiness of others, and reflecting with horror upon the former possibility of their own being happy, which is now past.
