Jesus frequently used parables to explain God’s kingdom to the people. These are brief tales of commonplace occurrences with a deeper, more profound significance. The disciples of Jesus received an amazing response when they questioned Him about why He told parables.
“The kingdom of God’s secret has been revealed to you; for those outside, everything is explained in parables so that they may hear but not understand and see but not turn and be pardoned.”
(Mark 4:11-12, see also the parallels in Matthew 13:10-15 and Luke 8:9-10).
A different effect on different hearers
Jesus makes a distinction between two listener groups. “You,” His disciples and followers who posed the question, make up the first group. These folks are excited to learn from Jesus. Jesus claims to have given them “the secret of the kingdom of God,” which He gradually reveals to them via parables. Even if it may not be immediately clear what the deeper meaning of the parables is, they will search for and discover insight.
“Those outside” make up the second group. Those who do not get a deeper grasp of God’s kingdom are not the disciples. It appears like Jesus is using parables to explain Himself so that people won’t grasp what He is teaching! Here, he paraphrases parts of Isaiah 6:9, claiming that those people will hear but not comprehend, failing to turn from their sins and accept pardon.
Who are these people, and why does Jesus not want His teaching to be fully and clearly understood by them?
Who are “those outside”?
We get a peek of Jesus’ audience in Mark 3:22. Among them are Jerusalem’s scribes, or the religious establishment, who declared that Jesus was possessed by demons—the gravest charge imaginable after they were forced to concede that He was capable of performing miracles.
A few lines earlier, in Mark 3:5–6, we read about how the Pharisees, or another faction of the religious establishment, planned Jesus’ execution after He had performed a Sabbath healing. These folks had obviously come to oppose Jesus and were not willing to consider His teachings. It’s important to note that Jesus responds to their resistance in these verses by expressing his anger and grief at their lack of compassion.
We learn more about the people to whom the Isaiah passage refers in the gospel of John: “Even after He had performed so many signs before them, they still did not believe in Him” (John 12:37; also see John 6:63–66).
These verses demonstrate that not everyone in Jesus’ audience was genuinely interested in learning about [God’s kingdom]. Not everyone did accept Him as real. Even if some had witnessed numerous unmistakable indications and may have delighted in Jesus’ miracles, they remained unconvinced. With regard to Jesus’ teachings, they did nothing. Others disseminated false information about Him or actively opposed Him.
These are the ones who chose to stay “outside” and refused to acknowledge Jesus as their Lord. As such, they were not privy to the kingdom’s reality. Those who disapproved of the information they had previously been given were now kept from learning the truth, and they would disregard Jesus’ teachings as being impossible to understand.
Understanding Jesus’ parables requires careful listening
In Mark 4:9, for example, Jesus adds the line “He who has ears to hear, let him hear” to the parable about the sower. We must listen intently and with spiritual awareness if we are to comprehend the deeper spiritual significance found in Jesus’ parables. We must be prepared to allow the truth to transform us. In order to truly listen, we must “do,” “process,” and allow Jesus’ teachings to have an impact on our lives.
Spiritually apathetic people who are more drawn to miraculous healings than to Jesus’ teachings will not be able to understand the spiritual lessons of God’s kingdom. “The things of the Spirit of God are foolishness to the natural person, and he cannot understand them because they are spiritually discerned,” according to 1 Corinthians 2:14.
But why does Jesus not want them to understand?
All of this being said, the fundamental query is still open. Does Jesus wish to keep some people in the dark regarding the reality of His kingdom? And if so, how does this relate to His expressed desire in Ezekiel 18:23, Mark 1:15, 1 Timothy 2:3–4, and 2 Peter 3:9 for everyone to be rescued and know the truth? If God is all-powerful, [why doesn’t He force everyone to believe in Him]?
These are challenging inquiries. Our comprehension of God is too restricted for us to provide definitive answers on His will. However, there are a few Bible texts that might help us understand this. As we see in Ezekiel 18:23, the Bible makes it quite evident that God does not take pleasure in the deaths of the wicked.
But, as we can see from Deuteronomy 28:63, God acts on occasion! The two sons of the priest Eli are one instance of this. These individuals were vile and immoral, desecrating the sanctuary of God. “They would not listen to the voice of their father [rebuking them], for it was the will of the Lord to put them to death,” according to 1 Samuel 2:25.
Similarly, God gave the Israelites a spirit of stupor so that they were hardened and did not repent (Romans 11:7-8), even though God urges people not to harden their hearts (Hebrews 3:8; 3:15; 4:7). Therefore, even if God desires for everyone to be saved—so much so that Jesus was prepared to die in order to atone for humanity’s sin—when people reject repentance, it may also be His intention to destroy them (2 Thessalonians 2:11–12).
Is God’s will at war with itself?
This suggests that God both wills and teaches that a particular condition of events should occur in addition to dictating one.
Jesus’ death is the best illustration of this dilemma. God manifestly opposes murder. He prohibits being unrighteous. He want for everyone to accept Jesus as their Lord and believe in Him. He loves His own Son with great affection (Matthew 3:17).
However, it was [God’s will] that Jesus Christ should suffer, be crucified, and be taken captive. Acts 4:26–28 states that all of these terrible occurrences were “predestined to take place.” Although it was obviously wrong to crucify Christ, millions of people were given eternal life as a result of His death, hence it was also a positive thing that it happened.
After considering all of these Bible verses and the example, I believe John Piper is correct when He says that, despite His “desire” for everyone to be saved, God wills not to rescue everyone because, if He used His sovereign power to save everyone, something else would be lost. More important than redeeming everyone is God’s desire to show off all of His glory in wrath and mercy (Romans 9:22–23) and to humble man so that he can gladly give God the glory for his redemption (1 Corinthians 1:29).[1]
Jesus will never reject someone who honestly searches for Him
God’s will is beyond our comprehension. Why He delivers some individuals from the agony of sin and allows others to continue rejecting Him is a mystery to us. However, one thing is certain: a sincere seeker of God will never be turned away. The words of Jesus in Matthew 7:7-8:
“Knock and it will be opened for you; ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find.” Because everyone who knocks will have their door opened, everyone who begs will get, everyone who seeks will find, and so on.
[1] John Piper, “Is It God’s Will for Everyone to Be Saved?” Crossway, Wheaton (2013), p. 39. You can get this book for free at www.desiringgod.org.
