In 12:50 the Lord goes on to say, “But I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how I am pressed until it is accomplished!” The word “baptism” here reminds us of the Lord’s word to James and John in Mark 10:38: “Are you able to drink the cup which I drink, or to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?” Both the cup and the baptism refer to the Lord’s death. The cup signified that His death was the God-given portion for Him to take for the sinners whom He would redeem for God. Baptism denoted that His death was the God-ordained way for Him to pass through for the accomplishment of God’s redemption for sinners.
The Greek word rendered “pressed” in Luke 12:50 may also be translated “constrained.” The Lord was constrained in His flesh, which He put upon Himself in His incarnation. He needed to die, to be baptized, in physical death so that His unlimited and infinite divine being with His divine life might be released from His flesh. His divine life, after being released through His physical death, became the impulse of His believers’ spiritual life in resurrection.
In 12:51 the Man-Savior says, “Do you think that I came to give peace on the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division.” Here the Lord asks if the disciples thought that He came to give peace on the earth. In a sense, the Lord did come to give peace. When He came, peace came, for He brought peace to mankind. When He was born, the multitude of the heavenly army praised God and said, “Glory in the highest places to God, and on earth peace among men of His good pleasure” (2:14). Hence, the coming of the Savior rendered glory to God in the heavens and brought peace to men on earth. In Ephesians 2:14 Paul even says that Christ is our peace. But, in another sense, the Lord did not come to give peace but rather division. This division is due to the satanic life in the unbelievers struggling against the divine life in the believers—a conflict between the satanic kingdom and the kingdom of God.
The Lord spoke a similar word in Matthew 10:34: “Do not suppose that I came to bring peace on the earth; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.” The whole earth is under Satan’s usurpation (1 John 5:19). The Lord Jesus came to call some out from his usurpation. This certainly arouses Satan’s opposition, and he instigates the ones under his usurpation to fight against those called by the Lord. To be sure, the Lord’s coming did not bring peace but a sword.
The conflict between the satanic life and the divine life is actually a warfare between the kingdom of Satan and the kingdom of God. A kingdom is a matter of life; that is, a certain kind of kingdom has a certain kind of life. For example, we may speak of the vegetable kingdom. The vegetable kingdom depends on the vegetable life. In the same principle, the human kingdom depends on the human life, and the kingdom of God depends on the life of God. Since we have the life of God, we have the reality of the kingdom of God, and we are in this reality. But the unbelievers, who live by the life of Satan, are in another realm, another kingdom. This means that they are in the reality of the satanic kingdom. The kingdom of God and the kingdom of Satan certainly do not agree but are contrary to each other. Hence, there is a struggle between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of Satan, and this struggle causes division.
In Luke 12:52 the Lord continues, “From now on there will be five in one house divided, three against two, and two against three.” This kind of division has taken place again and again throughout the last nineteen centuries.
In verse 53 the Lord goes on to say, “They will be divided, father against son, and son against father; mother against daughter, and daughter against the mother; mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law, and daughter-in-law against the mother-in-law.” Here Luke characteristically mentions the details. The kind of division described here is not pleasant, for it is due to the struggle between two lives, the divine life and the satanic life.
We have seen from 12:51-53 that there will be division caused by the satanic life in the unbelievers struggling against the divine life in the believers. We have pointed out that this is a conflict between the satanic kingdom and the kingdom of God.
Now that we understand the thought conveyed in these verses, we should not do anything to start a war in our family. We should never go to those in our family and say, “I have the divine life, but you don’t have this life. Because I have the divine life, there will be war between me and you. Even though I don’t want to be against you, you will be against me.” To say something like this would be very foolish. Instead of doing anything to provoke conflict with our family, we should live a life that is humble, peaceful, and submissive, and allow the Lord to work in the situation.