by Kevin Burton
What the scribes and Pharisees spat out as an accusation against Jesus, I now cling to for all I’m worth.
We turn to a passage in the book of Luke. Jesus was teaching in public as was His custom. The Jewish religious leaders of the time criticized Jesus for the company He was keeping.
“Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near Jesus to listen to Him. And both the Pharisees and the scribes began to complain, saying, ‘This man receives sinners and eats with them.’
“And so He told them this parable, saying, ‘What man among you, if he has a hundred sheep and has lost one of them, does not leave the other ninety-nine in the open pasture and go after the one that is lost, until he finds it? And when he has found it, he puts it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, because I have found my sheep that was lost!’”
“’I tell you that in the same way, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous people who have no need of repentance’” (Luke 15: 1-7 NASB).
My double amazement and double gratitude comes today from the fact that Jesus not only received, but sought out sinners and that He did not have to do it.
God the Son’s having regard for “a wretch like me,” is the thought on the mind of Alistair Begg, speaker on the Truth For Life radio Ministry in a recent message.
“Observe the condescension of this fact,” Begg writes. “Jesus, holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners, who towers above all other men – this man receives sinners.
“This Man, who is no other than the eternal God, before whom angels veil their faces – this Man receives sinners.”
“It requires an angel’s tongue to describe such a mighty stoop of love,” Begg writes. “That any of us would be willing to reach the lost is nothing wonderful – they are, after all, our own race. But that He, the offended God, against whom the transgression has been committed, should take upon Himself the form of a servant and bear the sin of many and be willing to receive the worst of sinners–this is marvelous.”
If Jesus did not receive sinners, I would be a dead man walking, a marcher in the most hideous of parades, with its origins in futility and it’s destination oblivion and eternal damnation.
But God, knowing my cosmic predicament, had mercy on me.
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life,” (John 3:16 KJV).
“This man receives sinners; not in order for them to remain sinners,” Begg Writes, “but He receives them in order that He may pardon their sins, justify their persons, cleanse their hearts by His purifying word, preserve their souls by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, and enable them to serve Him, show forth His praise, and have communion with Him.”
“Into His heart’s love He receives sinners; He takes them from the refuse pile and wears them as jewels in his crown. He snatches them like branches from the fire and preserves them as costly monuments to his mercy,” Begg writes.
“None are so precious in Jesus’ sight as the sinners for whom he died.”
This I will never grasp with my human, sin-soaked mind. I have a very hard time ascribing any sense of value to myself.
Worthless? I’d have to go some to reach the state where I am merely worthless. “A wretch like me” makes everything he touches worse; not just a degenerate but a degenerant.
Now “degenerant” is not an actual word, but you get it, right? A “degenerant” is that which tends to cause others to be degenerate.
But God doesn’t see me that way. The Bible spells out in great, loving detail that in Jesus, He sees me as one of His own.
So for me, grace is way, way beyond amazing. And it comes from the heart of God.
“When Jesus receives sinners, He does not have an outdoor reception, no public square where he charitably entertains them in the way men treat passing beggars, but He opens the golden gates of His royal heart and receives the sinner right into Himself,” Begg writes.
“He admits the humble penitent into personal union and makes him a member of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones.”
“There was never such a reception as this! This fact is certain,” Begg writes.
“Even this evening, He is still receiving sinners: It is our prayer that sinners will receive Him.”
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