To Encourage You

1 Timothy 1:15-16 “The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost. But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life.”

The prerequisites for heaven are the exact opposite of what most people believe. Have you ever noticed how many funerals are full of remembrances of how good the person who had died had been in their lives?  The pastor talks about the love of the person, and the kindness. Then various relatives and friends stand to talk about what a wonderful person so and so was. They would do anything for you. They recall specific acts of kindness or encouraging words that they had experienced at the hands of that person.  Then the idea is so often expressed that such a good person is now looking down on us from heaven. All the suffering is over and they are now at peace.  And while this person may very well have been a “good person” as we like to say, if that is all that person was ever known for (and in particular to himself or herself), it is likely – and this may be a shock – that that person is not in heaven. 

So why would I say this?  It’s because the Bible tells us clearly in the verse above that “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.”  The fact of the matter is that if a person has never seen himself or herself as a sinner, then they will never turn to the Great Physician, Who alone has the remedy for that sin. 

In Mark 2 we are given the account of the scribes and Pharisees, i.e., the “good people,” if you will, criticizing Jesus for spending time with the “bad people” of the world in that day and age.  It says this: “And as He (i.e., Jesus) reclined at table in his (i.e., Levi the tax collector’s) house, many tax collectors and sinners were reclining with Jesus and His disciples, for there were many who followed Him. And the scribes of the Pharisees, when they saw that He was eating with sinners and tax collectors, said to His disciples, ‘Why does He eat with tax collectors and sinners?’ And when Jesus heard it, He said to them, ‘Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.’” 

Similarly, we have the account of the two men praying one day in the synagogue in Luke 18. The scene is described in the following way: “He (i.e., Jesus) also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt: ‘Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.’” 

Again, it is the “good man” that Jesus rejects in this account, and the sinner, who knew and confessed that he was a sinner, found justification unto eternal life.  It’s always that way.  If a person never sees himself or herself as a sinner, one who is no better than anyone else, one who, like the apostle Paul, saw himself as “the foremost sinner” in the passage above from 1 Timothy 1, they will never turn to the Lord for the healing from that sin that He and He alone can bring.  If our eyes are always on the others around us, and if we are prone to justify ourselves by comparing ourselves with others who we deem to be worse sinners than we are, then we will never enter the kingdom of God. 

You see, Jesus came to call sinners to repent of that sin and turn to Him for forgiveness and the gift of eternal life.  But unless a person comes to the end of himself and sees himself in the dreadful contrast there is between them and the perfectly holy Lamb of God, the Lamb of God can’t take away their sin, for they haven’t even admitted that they have it. 

You see, God’s mercy and His grace are very awesome things. It is more than we deserve, for we don’t deserve it at all.  Nevertheless, He so loved the people of this sinful world that He gave His one and only Son so that anyone who would believe in Him could be saved.  But again, it is the sinners, and the sinners alone, who will ever come to Him, for Jesus came “not to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance” (Luke 5:32).