Like Fingernails on a Blackboard; Like the Sweetest Music

Reading in Philippians 2.9-11, this morning. I heard a testimony once from Mary Poplin, who was a radical feminist, before she got saved. She said that hearing the name of Jesus before she got saved, was like hearing fingernails on a blackboard to her. The reason that the name of Jesus is like fingernails on a blackboard to some, and like the sweetest music to others, is explained in these verses. There will come a day when, at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. This will be to God's glory. If you do not believe in Christ, you will bow; if you do believe in Christ, you will bow. The first will bow out of compulsion, the second out of love and honor.

As the Bible Speaks Today commentary points out: A confession made for the first time in response to the visible manifestation of his glory will not be a saving confession, but a grudging acknowledgment wrested by overmastering divine power from lips still as unbelieving as they were through their whole earthly experience. All will submit, all will confess, but not all will be saved.