Matthew 21:29
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Ezekiel 18:28-32
28Because he considers, and turns away from all his transgressions that he has committed, he shall surely live. He shall not die. 29Yet the house of Israel says, ‘The way of the Lord is not fair.’ House of Israel, aren’t my ways fair? Aren’t your ways unfair?
30“Therefore I will judge you, house of Israel, everyone according to his ways,” says the Lord GOD. “Return, and turn yourselves from all your transgressions, so iniquity will not be your ruin. 31Cast away from you all your transgressions in which you have transgressed; and make yourself a new heart and a new spirit. For why will you die, house of Israel? 32For I have no pleasure in the death of him who dies,” says the Lord GOD. “Therefore turn yourselves, and live!
Daniel 4:34-37
34At the end of the days I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted up my eyes to heaven, and my understanding returned to me; and I blessed the Most High, and I praised and honored him who lives forever, for his dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom from generation to generation. 35All the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing; and he does according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth; and no one can stop his hand, or ask him, “What are you doing?”
36At the same time my understanding returned to me; and for the glory of my kingdom, my majesty and brightness returned to me. My counselors and my lords sought me; and I was established in my kingdom, and excellent greatness was added to me. 37Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and extol and honor the King of heaven; for all his works are truth, and his ways justice; and those who walk in pride he is able to abase.
Jonah 3:2
2“Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and preach to it the message that I give you.”
Isaiah 1:16-19
16Wash yourselves. Make yourself clean. Put away the evil of your doings from before my eyes. Cease to do evil. 17Learn to do well. Seek justice. Relieve the oppressed. Defend the fatherless. Plead for the widow.” 18“Come now, and let’s reason together,” says the LORD: “Though your sins are as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool. 19If you are willing and obedient, you will eat the good of the land;
Jonah 3:8-10
8but let them be covered with sackcloth, both man and animal, and let them cry mightily to God. Yes, let them turn everyone from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. 9Who knows whether God will not turn and relent, and turn away from his fierce anger, so that we might not perish?”
10God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way. God relented of the disaster which he said he would do to them, and he didn’t do it.
5 more
Matthew 21:31
31Which of the two did the will of his father?” They said to him, “The first.” Jesus said to them, “Most certainly I tell you that the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering into God’s Kingdom before you.
Acts 26:20
20but declared first to them of Damascus, at Jerusalem, and throughout all the country of Judea, and also to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, doing works worthy of repentance.
Ephesians 4:17-19
17This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind, 18being darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardening of their hearts. 19They, having become callous, gave themselves up to lust, to work all uncleanness with greediness.
2 Chronicles 33:10-19
10The LORD spoke to Manasseh and to his people, but they didn’t listen. 11Therefore the LORD brought on them the captains of the army of the king of Assyria, who took Manasseh in chains, bound him with fetters, and carried him to Babylon.
12When he was in distress, he begged the LORD his God, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers. 13He prayed to him; and he was entreated by him, and heard his supplication, and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the LORD was God.
14Now after this, he built an outer wall to David’s city on the west side of Gihon, in the valley, even to the entrance at the fish gate. He encircled Ophel with it, and raised it up to a very great height; and he put valiant captains in all the fortified cities of Judah. 15He took away the foreign gods and the idol out of the LORD’s house, and all the altars that he had built in the mountain of the LORD’s house and in Jerusalem, and cast them out of the city. 16He built up the LORD’s altar, and offered sacrifices of peace offerings and of thanksgiving on it, and commanded Judah to serve the LORD, the God of Israel. 17Nevertheless the people still sacrificed in the high places, but only to the LORD their God.
18Now the rest of the acts of Manasseh, and his prayer to his God, and the words of the seers who spoke to him in the name of the LORD, the God of Israel, behold, they are written among the acts of the kings of Israel. 19His prayer also, and how God listened to his request, and all his sin and his trespass, and the places in which he built high places and set up the Asherah poles and the engraved images before he humbled himself: behold, they are written in the history of Hozai.
1 Corinthians 6:11
11Some of you were such, but you were washed. You were sanctified. You were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and in the Spirit of our God.
Study
Matthew 21:29
I will not: This response must have offended Jews who learned from a young age to show respect for the authority of a father (see Matthew 8:21–22).
Matthew 21:28–32
This parable continues to emphasize why John is important.
Matthew 21:28–22.14
Three parables expose the guilt of those who rejected the Messiah and lost their special status as God's chosen people. God now considers only those who accept Jesus as the Messiah as his people.
Section overviews (2)
Matthew 21:23–22.46
This section focuses on how Jewish leaders challenged the authority of Jesus. Each time, the wisdom of Jesus revealed their lack of spiritual understanding. These debates also revealed the status of Jesus as the Messiah and the consequences of rejecting him. Sadly, the leaders became more resistant with each encounter and plotted to kill Jesus (Matthew 21:23, 46; 22:15–17, 23, 34, 41).
Matthew 21:1–28.20
Jesus entering Jerusalem starts Matthew's story of how the Messiah's suffering and resurrection establish salvation.
21:29
He answered and said, I will not--TRENCH notices the rudeness of this answer, and the total absence of any attempt to excuse such disobedience, both characteristic; representing careless, reckless sinners resisting God to His face.
21:28-32
Matthew 21:28-32
Matthew 21:28-32
28. But what think you? [29] A man had two sons, and, coming to the first, he said, Son, go work today in my vineyard. 29. And he answering said, I will not; [30] but afterwards he repented, and went. 30. And coming to the other, he spoke in the same manner. But he answering said, I[[go,] Sir, and went not. 31. Which of the two did what his father wished? [31] And they say to him, The first. Jesus saith to them, Verily I say to you, That the publicans and the harlots will go before you into the kingdom of God. 32. For John came to you by the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him; but the publicans and the harlots believed him. And you, when you had seen it, were not moved by repentance [32] to believe in him.
This conclusion shows what is the object of the parable, when Christ prefers to the scribes and priests those who were generally accounted infamous and held in detestation; for he unmasks those hypocrites, [33] that they may no longer boast of being the ministers of God, or hold out a pretended zeal for godliness. Though their ambition, and pride, and cruelty, and avarice, were known to all, yet they wished to be reckoned quite different persons. And when, but a little ago, they attacked Christ, they falsely alleged that they were anxious about the order of the Church, as if they were its faithful and honest guardians. Since they attempt to practice such gross imposition on God and men, Christ rebukes their impudence by showing that they were at the greatest possible distance from what they boasted, and were so far from deserving that elevation with which they flattered themselves, that they ranked below the publicans and the harlots For as to the profession which they made of being eminent in observing the worship of God, and of being zealots of the Law, Christ tells them that it is quite as if a son were, in words, to promise obedience to his father, but afterwards to deceive him. [34] So far as regards the publicans and the harlots, he does not excuse their vices, but compares their dissolute life to the obstinacy of a rebellious and debauched son, who at first throws off his father's authority; but shows that they are greatly preferable to the scribes and Pharisees in this respect, that they do not continue to the end in their vices, but, on the contrary, submit gently and obediently to the yoke which they had fiercely rejected. We now perceive the design of Christ. Not only does he reproach the priests and scribes with obstinately opposing God, and not repenting, though so frequently admonished, but he strips them of the honor of which they were unworthy, because their ungodliness was worse than the lasciviousness of the harlots.
30. I, Sir. [35] This phrase is borrowed from the Hebrew language; for, when the Hebrews wish to offer their services, and to declare that they are ready to obey, they speak in this manner, "Here I am, Sir," It is a laudable virtue in itself, as soon as God has spoken, to yield to Him ready and cheerful obedience; and Christ does not here give the commendation to slowness. But as both are improper--to delay before doing your duty, and to promise what you do not perform--Christ shows that this hypocrisy is less to be endured than the fierceness which, in process of time, is subdued.
32. For John came. As John was a faithful servant of God, whatever he taught Christ ascribes to God himself. It might have been more fully expressed thus: God came pointing out the way of righteousness by the mouth of John; but as John spoke in the name of God, and not as a private individual, he is most properly named instead of God. Now this passage gives no small authority to the preaching of the word, when those persons are said to have been disobedient and rebellious against God, who despised the pious and holy warnings of a teacher whom tie had sent.
There are some who give a more ingenious exposition of the word righteousness, and I allow them to enjoy their own opinion; but, for my own part, I think that it means nothing more than that John's doctrine was pure and right; as if Christ had said, that they had no good reason for rejecting him. When he says that the publicans believed, he does not mean that they assented in words, but that they sincerely embraced what they had heard. Hence we infer, that faith does not consist solely in a person's giving his assent to true doctrine, but that it embraces something greater and loftier, that the hearer, renouncing himself, devotes his life wholly to God. By saying that they were not moved even by such an example, he presents an aggravated view of their malice; for it was an evidence of the lowest depravity, not even to follow the harlots and the publicans. [36]
Footnotes:
[29] "Mais que vous en semble?" -- "But what think you of it?"
[30] "Je n'y veux point aller;" -- "I will not go to it."
[31] "Lequel des deux feit la volont? du pere?" -- "Which of the two did the will of the father?"
[32] "Vous n'avez point eu de repentance apres;" -- "you had not repentance afterwards."
[33] "Car il oste a ces hypocritesssss le masque duquel ils se couvroyent;" -- "for he takes away from those hypocrites the mask with which they covered themselves." "Et puis qu'il l'abusast, it n'en feist rien;" -- "and afterwards deceived him, and did nothing of it."
[34] "Et puis qu'il l'abusast, et n'en feist rein;" -- "and afterwards deceived him, and did nothing of it."
[35] "Seigneur, j'y vay;" -- "Sir, I go to it."
[36] "Car c'a este un signe de gens du tout depravez et desesperez, de ne suyvre point, ? tout le moins quand les peugers et les paillardes leur monstrent le chemin;" -- "For it was a mark of people altogether depraved and desperate, not to follow, at the very least, when the publicans and the harlots point out to them the road."
21:29
He answered and said, I will not,.... Which answer fitly expresses the language and practice of openly profane and unregenerate sinners, who will not come to Christ, that they may have life; nor will they serve the Lord, but are bent upon indulging their lusts; nor will they be subject to the law of God; nor will they hear and receive the Gospel of Christ, or submit to his ordinances, and are averse to every good work: where is man's free will? this is the true picture of it; man has no will naturally to that which is good,
But afterward he repented, and went: a change of mind was wrought in him, and this produced a change of life and conversation: so, many of the publicans and sinners repented of their sins of disobedience, and rebellion against God, under the ministry of John the Baptist, Christ, and his apostles; not of themselves, men do not naturally see their sin, or need of repentance; their hearts are hard and obdurate; nor have they any spiritual sense and feeling: nothing will bring them to repentance, not the most powerful ministry, the severest judgments, or the kindest mercies, without the grace of God: but it was of God, and owing to his powerful and efficacious grace, that they repented: it was his will they should come to repentance: he called them to it, and gave it to them, as a free grace gift of his: and they repented not in a mere legal way, with a legal repentance, which lies in a mere conviction of the outward acts of sin; in an external sorrow for it, in horror and terror of mind about it, and in shedding tears for it, accompanied with a cessation from the grosser acts of sin, and an outward reformation of life and manners: but they repented in an evangelical manner, as such do, who are really converted, and spiritually instructed; who are true believers in Christ, have views, and, at least, hopes of pardoning grace and mercy; and have the love of God shed abroad in their hearts by the Spirit: the repentance of such lies in a spiritual sight and sense of sin, of the evil nature of indwelling sin, and the exceeding sinfulness of it, as well as of the outward actions of life; in a hearty, godly sorrow for it, because committed against a God of purity, grace, and goodness; in a loathing it, and themselves for it; in a holy shame, and blushing, on account of it; and is attended with an ingenuous confession of it, and forsaking it: the consequence of which is, that such go readily and cheerfully into the Lord's vineyard; hear the word with all diligence, receive it with gladness; walk in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord; and are taught, by the grace that has appeared to them, to live soberly, righteously, and godly in this world.
21:29
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