Friday Reading: Luke 5:31-32
Key Verse: Luke 5:31
31 And Jesus answered and said to them, Those who are sound do not need a physician, but those who are sick.
Devotion:
Jesus said these words during one of the many times that He was with sinners and the Scribes and Pharisees were close by murmuring and complaining that He was with outright sinners instead of with believers. Jesus answer to them all was very simple: “I did not come to call the righteous to repentance, but sinners”. He came to earth to save us from our sins. He did not come to complain to us that we were not doing what was right but to call all sinners to repentance.
If we were in His place we may well have started complaining that the very people who were supposedly on our side were not trying to get more people on our side. We would be upset by those same people not doing what we thought they should be doing. We would even turn our backs on some people just because they were working against us. Christ on the other hand did not of this. He came to show people that His love for us crosses all those boundaries and that He wants us by His side. He came to show His grace and mercy far exceeds what we can understand!
Only Christ could have come forward to the tax collectors and tell them that they had the chance of the same forgiveness as the ones who had followed His word all along. He is the one who has paid for the sins of the whole world; for murderers, tyrants, thieves and even for people who tell lies. Doesn’t sound so good when we get put into the same category as murderers does it? Christ wants us to know that He is working for us and that He will continue to uphold His laws no matter whether we are murderers or just slackers – we all face those same laws and we all have to answer to Him and Him alone. He is willing to forgive us all and we need to remember that when we face others.
Points to Ponder:
What would you say the worst thing you have ever done is?
Do you know Christ has paid for that?
