Weekly Devotion: WIthout a Cause

“But this cometh to pass, that the word might be fulfilled that is written in their law, They hated me without a cause.” John 15:25

Time and time again, Jesus proved that he is Messiah; this time, it is by fulfilling an Old Testament prophesy that is found in both Psalm 35:19 and 69:4. The writer John, under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, is careful to preserve the phrase that David spoke over 1000 years earlier about his enemies, who he said, “hate me without a cause”. Christ, by the way, is called the “Son of David” many times, and it is the preciousness of his words that not only support his Deity, it also supports the Bible’s inspiration. Earlier in Psalm 35, David speaks of his enemies and uses the phrase “without cause” twice, as a foreshadowing of Christ, “For without cause have they hid for me their net in a pit, which without cause they have digged for my soul.” Psalm 35:7

Ever heard someone quoted, and immediately you knew who they were talking about, because it sounded just like something they would say? The reason that a word or a phrase from someone we know sounds familiar, is because they often use certain words or phrases. God is like that too, he has favorite words and phrases that he uses in the Bible that allows us to better understand his word when we listening carefully. “Without a cause” / “without cause” is one of those favorite phrases that God uses, in order to help us understand the Devil’s tactics, as can be seen from its first mention, “And the LORD said unto Satan… thou movedst me against him, to destroy him without cause.” Job 2:3

Job, like David and Jesus, was innocent, yet he suffered persecution causeless. Job 9:17 shows us that he knew these things were happening to him undeservedly when he said, “For he breaketh me with a tempest, and multiplieth my wounds without cause.” As we have already seen, several of the Psalms are called “Messianic Psalms” because they clearly contain prophecies of the coming Messiah. John 2:17 records the fulfillment of Psalm 69:9, when Jesus cleansed the temple of those who are making his Father’s house a house of merchandise. Psalm 109:3 says, “They compassed me about also with words of hatred; and fought against me without a cause.” A few verses later in Psalm 109:8 is a prophesy about Judas Iscariot, that was fulfilled in Acts 1:20. Psalm 119 has two more verses that connect the Psalmist with Christ; “Let the proud be ashamed; for they dealt perversely with me without a cause: but I will meditate in thy precepts.” (Psalm 119:78). “Princes have persecuted me without a cause: but my heart standeth in awe of thy word.” (Psalm 119:161).

Our application comes a few verses prior to the first verse above, in John 15:18, 19, “If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you… because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.” Since Christians belong to Christ, we will be persecuted and often for no reason, 2 Timothy 3:12 says, “Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.” But Christians aren’t rebels without a cause, we are redeemed with a cause. Although Christ was hated without a cause, he has a “cause”; and it’s to redeem transgressors through his death, burial and resurrection! Friend, Jesus is the mediator of the New Testament, and is calling whosoever will, to receive the promise of eternal inheritance, how do you respond to that call?

“And for this cause he is the mediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance.” Hebrews 9:15