During this Advent season I've been asking the question WHY HAS JESUS COME?
Once again I'd like to ask:
WHY HAS JESUS COME?
Luke 5:27 After this he went out and saw a tax collector named Levi, sitting at the tax booth. And he said to him, “Follow me.” 28 And leaving everything, he rose and followed him.
29 And Levi made him a great feast in his house, and there was a large company of tax collectors and others reclining at table with them. 30 And the Pharisees and their scribes grumbled at his disciples, saying, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?” 31 And Jesus answered them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. 32 I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.”
WHY HAS JESUS COME?
I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.
I. THE CALL TO REPENTANCE
Many pastors, churches and denominations preach a brand of Christianity without repentance.
But remember Jesus' words in Luke 24:
44 Then he said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” 45 Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, 46 and said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, 47 and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. 48 You are witnesses of these things. 49 And behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.”
Any so-called gospel that leaves off repentance is no true gospel. Such gospels may make people feel good about Jesus and about themselves. People may indeed have some kind fuzzy, feel-good faith in Jesus, but such faith is not a saving faith. They can be very sincere but very wrong. Such faith may leave people with assurance – a false assurance leads them unwittingly into the lake of fire, where they won't feel good at all.
And to clarify, Jesus' call to repentance doesn't only include repentance from sin as we often think of it (e.g. - lying, stealing, adultery, covetousness, anger, malice, obscene talk and so on) – but it also includes repentance from our vile sin of self-righteousness (e.g. - "I am good because I tithe and I don't dance or drink or smoke or engage in promiscuous sex." Or, "God loves me because I ran our VBS program last summer." Or, "I play on the worship team every Sunday." Or, "I'm set with God because I write awesome blogs." Or, "I have a daily quiet time.") Ouch is right!
Both types of sins are heinous in the eyes of a holy God, and we can't help but see that Jesus is particularly emphasizing the latter in his dealing with the Pharisees and scribes here and we know he did so quite often.
And Jesus answered them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.
I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.”
Apart from the Holy Spirit's enlightening us, we will run amok and read what we want to into the Scripture. We can make the error of forgetting that in addition to God being a God of love, He is also a God of light, a utterly holy God who cannot abide sin in His presence. The glory of the God and the glory of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is that a holy, righteous God has been loving, gracious and merciful and has made a way for sinners to be saved: by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. As we leave off either the holiness of God or the love of God, we rob God of His all-due glory.
And so if we keep looking primarily at God as a God of love, we can miss that Jesus' call to repentance runs throughout His entire ministry from His first public appearance all the way through His words to the churches in the book of Revelation.
Matthew 4:17 From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, REPENT, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
Revelation 2:5 Remember therefore from where you have fallen; REPENT, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you REPENT.
And in between the Gospels and Revelation, we see that the proclamation of the Gospel in the book of Acts includes that same clear call to repentance.
Acts 2:38 And Peter said to them, REPENT and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Far too many churches are seeker-friendly. They don't want to offend people, they water down the call to repentance, if they speak of repentance at all. They exchange true repentance for easy-believism. But here is the reality: the cross and the preaching of the Gospel and the call to repentance are offensive; they always have been and they always will be. There's no way of getting around that. The preaching of Christ and Him crucified and the call to repentance is foolishness to the world, but to those who are being saved it is the power of God (I Cor. 1-2). We cannot ever compromise on the Gospel message.
Are we to be seeking to please God or men? Are we interested in saving souls or saving face? Are we seeking the approval of God or the world? Are we seeking to build the Kingdom or build the membership rolls?
Notice the clear message of repentance and forgiveness which was preached by the New Testament church:
Acts 5:27 And when they had brought them [the apostles], they set them before the council. And the high priest questioned them, 28 saying, “We strictly charged you not to teach in this name, yet here you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching, and you intend to bring this man's blood upon us.” 29 But Peter and the apostles answered, “We must obey God rather than men. 30 The God of our fathers raised Jesus, whom you killed by hanging him on a tree. 31 God exalted him at his right hand as Leader and Savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. 32 And we are witnesses to these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him.”
The early church was not witnessing of a Jesus who makes us feel good or is our boyfriend. They were not preaching a prosperity gospel. They were not preaching a self-help gospel. They were preaching a Gospel of repentance and remission of sins. That is the crux of the Gospel message. And it does offend; notice the response of the religious leaders:
33 When they heard this, they were enraged and wanted to kill them.
People don't like to be told their own righteousness isn't good enough. They don't like to be told they are sinners in need of salvation. They don't like being told they are sinners who must repent to receive forgiveness through Jesus Christ. But it doesn't matter what people like. We cannot be ashamed of preaching the message of remission and repentance of sins through faith in Christ because:
•Jesus told us to preach a Gospel of repentance and remission of sins:
Luke 24:44 Then he said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” 45 Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, 46 and said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, 47 and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. 48 You are witnesses of these things. 49 And behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.”
• God commands all people to repent:
Acts 17:30 The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, 31 because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.
• The Gospel of Christ is the
power of God unto salvation:
Romans 1:16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. 17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”
There is no other way for men to be saved apart from the right preaching of the Gospel. If we are not preaching the Gospel in its fullness, including a clear call to repentance, who then will be saved?
When Jesus hears your church's sermons and teachings, does He hear that clear call to repentance?
When Jesus hears your words, does He hear that clear call to repentance?
When Jesus looks at your life, does He see an ongoing life of repentance?
Have you ever repented of your sin and received forgiveness of sins?
Jesus IS coming again to judge the living and the dead. Will you be ready?
Nahum 1
2 The LORD is a jealous and avenging God;
the LORD is avenging and wrathful;
the LORD takes vengeance on his adversaries
and keeps wrath for his enemies.
3 The LORD is slow to anger and great in power,
and the LORD will by no means clear the guilty.
His way is in whirlwind and storm,
and the clouds are the dust of his feet.
4 He rebukes the sea and makes it dry;
he dries up all the rivers;
Bashan and Carmel wither;
the bloom of Lebanon withers.
5 The mountains quake before him;
the hills melt;
the earth heaves before him,
the world and all who dwell in it.
6 Who can stand before his indignation?
Who can endure the heat of his anger?
His wrath is poured out like fire,
and the rocks are broken into pieces by him.
God will by no means clear the guilty. Who are the guilty?
We have all been declared guilty before God (e.g. - see Romans 1-3), yet God has graciously provided the way for all to be saved: through faith in Jesus Christ.
God is holy and righteous and He must pour out His just wrath on sin.
For those who've trusted Christ, God's wrath was has been fully borne by our Savior on the cross.
But for those who've never trusted Christ, they must fully bear the wrath of God on themselves for all eternity in the lake of fire.
Our sin separates us from a holy God. Have you repented of your sin and taken refuge in Jesus Christ as your righteousness? That is the only way any of us can stand before a holy God in the day of judgment.
7 The LORD is good,
a stronghold in the day of trouble;
he knows those who take refuge in him.
The LORD knows those who take refuge in Him.
Have you taken refuge in Him? Have you ever repented of your sin and received forgiveness of sins and Christ's righteousness by faith?
I've talked in general about the call to repentance, but now I'd like to talk more about the distinction Jesus made between sinners and the righteous.
I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.
II. THE CALL TO SINNERS, NOT THE RIGHTEOUS
Back to the Luke 5 passage. See how the Pharisees and scribes reacted to the calling of Levi:
29 And Levi made him a great feast in his house, and there was a large company of tax collectors and others reclining at table with them. 30 And the Pharisees and their scribes grumbled at his disciples, saying, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?” 31 And Jesus answered them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. 32 I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.”
So, what's happening there? Why are these religious folk reacting here like this? And if you've read the Gospel accounts, you know that this is not an isolated incident. We see the religious authorities treating Jesus with continuing contempt because of His heart for and fellowship with sinners. We saw that violent reaction to the preaching of the Gospel in the early church. As he addressed the Sanhedrin, Stephen characterized this attitude well and minced no words, “You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit."
Jesus told the parable of the prodigal son as a commentary on the religious authorities' reaction to his welcoming sinners:
Luke 15:1 Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him. 2 And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.”
In the parable the older son reacted with disdain to his younger brother's repentance and return home in much the same way the Pharisees and scribes reacted to Jesus' eat and drinking with tax collectors and sinners. The older son stood outside, he was angry and did not want to join his father and his brother in making merry in celebrating his brother's return. The older son is a picture of those who are trusting in their own righteousness to save and are blinded to their need to repent and receive Christ's righteousness by faith.
Do you warmly welcome those prodigal sons back home or do you refuse to join in the celebration? Are you more like the father of the prodigal son or his older brother?
The Pharisees and scribes thought they could earn salvation through their own works and so they looked down on "sinners." That's that same resisting the Holy Spirit of which Stephen spoke. In the same way, whenever we trust in our own righteousness and remain unrepentant, whenever we refuse to repent and receive the free gift of righteousness God offers us by faith in Jesus Christ, we are resisting the Holy Spirit. And when we do that, along with many of the Jews, we are stumbling over the precious cornerstone, Jesus Christ.
Are you resisting the Holy Spirit? Are you trusting in your own righteousness, in your own good works to save you?
Have you admitted to God that you are a sinner and have you acknowledged your own righteousness is unable to save you? Have you repented of your sin of self-righteousness and trusted in Christ to save you?
What is your attitude toward tax collectors like Levi? Do you judge others' sins as more sinful than yours?
If we do not receive Christ's righteousness by faith, we will remain eternally separated from God by our sin. Jesus came to call sinners to repentance and bring us back to God. We can never come to God through our own righteousness but only through Christ's righteousness being counted to us by faith. Trusting in our own righteousness will never save us.
Here's what the Bible says about us and our own righteousness and our own good works, our own efforts at being righteous.
Isaiah 64:6 But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags;
Romans 3:9 What then? Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all. For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin, 10 as it is written:“None is righteous, no, not one;11 no one understands;no one seeks for God.12 All have turned aside; together they have become worthless;no one does good,not even one.” ...
19 Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. 20 For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.
And continuing on in Romans 3, we see God's provision of righteousness received by faith in Jesus Christ:
21 But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— 22 the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. 26 It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
And, in case you think justification by faith is a Pauline concept, look at Jesus' own teaching:
Luke 18:9 He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt: 10 “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 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. 12 I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ 13 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!’ 14 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.”
Here was the grave sin of the religious authorities, a sin that will have eternal ramifications, unless it is repented of. Like the Pharisee in the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector: these men continued to trust in themselves. They were not willing to admit in and of themselves dwelt no good thing. They did not repent and receive the righteousness that comes by faith alone.
And so the repentant sinner is justified, but the unrepentant sinner is not justified, no matter how many good works he's done, no matter how righteous he appears to the world. That's what Jesus was talking about when He said:
I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.
All who continue to trust in their own righteousness can never be saved. So long as we hold onto our own righteousness, how can we receive Christ's righteousness by faith? We must become like little children, we must become like that tax collector who dared not even lift his eyes to heaven, who beat his breast, and stood afar off and pleaded for mercy, so we too might be justified.
If we remain proud Pharisees and scribes, if we continue to boast in our own works and look down on "sinners," we may feel good about ourselves, but we will remain unjustified and eternally condemned.
We are all tempted to justify ourselves, to say we are not that bad, or if we say we're bad, we'll often begin to argue that we're not all that bad, not tax collector bad, not Hitler bad, not Saddam Hussein bad, not abortion doctor bad and so on. But anytime we start making gradations of sin like that we are putting ourselves right into the sandals of the Pharisees and scribes. That's a dangerous road to head down. We must take heed, lest we fall. May God give us grace to humble ourselves, may He be kind to us so we might live a life of continuing repentance and never lapse into trusting in our own righteousness and putting confidence in the flesh. The apostle Paul called people who did that dogs and evildoers.
True fellowship with God is impossible for those who remain unrepentant and for those who continue to trust in their own righteousness. Jesus Christ became sin for us so we might become the righteousness of God in Him. So any attempts at trying to come to God or please God by our own works are abominable to God. God has already made the perfect provision for us through Jesus Christ once for all. May God give us grace to stop trusting in ourselves and our own righteousness, to repent and to lay aside our pride and our filthy rags so we might receive Christ's robe of perfect righteousness to cover us and all our sin once for all.
Jesus has fellowship with repentant tax collectors and sinners! Amen! But He cannot have fellowship with unrepentant Pharisees and scribes, the righteous who continue to trust in themselves.
Are you continuing to boast in and celebrate your own righteousness or can you boast in and celebrate with me a Savior who is our righteousness? Can you celebrate a Savior who proclaims
I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.
III. "COME YE SINNERS, POOR AND WRETCHED" ~ JESUS' CALL TO SINNERS
I want to emphasize that we don't need to clean up and get our acts together in the hope that perhaps we might be able to approach Jesus to seek fellowship. That was the leaven of the Pharisees! No! Jesus Christ has done it all. He IS our all-sufficient righteousness! God calls us to repent and receive forgiveness of sins and Christ's righteousness by faith. We need to give up any and all our attempts at being righteous and any guise of our own righteousness as being sufficient. That's what the apostle Paul was emphasizing in Philippians 3. He spoke of all the ways he had considered himself as righteous by his own works, but by the grace of God, he saw the light, he came to see all of that was worth nothing at all in the eyes of God – and what really counted was the righteousness of Christ he received by grace alone through faith alone.
7 But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. 8 Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— 10 that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.
Joseph Hart (1759) wrote of our Savior who calls repentant sinners, like the tax collector, men and women and boys and girls who realize they have nothing in themselves to commend themselves to God and realize they can do nothing to earn or buy their salvation, but who appeal to Christ's mercies alone to save them. My prayer is that you would hear Jesus' call,
I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.
and you would cast off your own righteousness, see yourself as a sinner, admit your need of Christ and run to Him to receive the perfect righteousness God has provided for you.
1. Come, ye sinners, poor and wretched,
Weak and wounded, sick and sore;
Jesus, ready, stands to save you,
Full of pity, joined with power.
He is able, He is able;
He is willing; doubt no more.
2. Come ye needy, come, and welcome,
God's free bounty glorify;
True belief and true repentance,
Every grace that brings you nigh.
Without money, without money
Come to Jesus Christ and buy.
3. Come, ye weary, heavy laden,
Bruised and broken by the fall;
If you tarry 'til you're better,
You will never come at all.
Not the righteous, not the righteous;
Sinners Jesus came to call.
4. Let not conscience make you linger,
Nor of fitness fondly dream;
All the fitness He requireth
Is to feel your need of Him.
This He gives you, this He gives you,
'Tis the Spirit's rising beam.
5. Lo! The Incarnate God, ascended;
Pleads the merit of His blood.
Venture on Him; venture wholly,
Let no other trust intrude.
None but Jesus, none but Jesus
Can do helpless sinners good.
Related:
My previous posts in this series:
First Week of Advent: The Most Scandalous Bailout Ever
Second Sunday of Advent: FAQ about Santa Claus and the Gospel of Christ
the story of Christmas ~ the story of Holy disruption
Bible Reading: The Forgotten Bible/Josiah and the Book of the Law
Bible Reading: Things To Look for in a Church: What We Find in Solomon's Temple, #5
6th Sunday after Epiphany: Characteristics of true religion, # 2, part 1-honesty & sincerity
Ash Wednesday: Do you despise yourself? | Job 42
What is Biblical mourning? (Ash Wednesday)
Biblical mourning, assurance and false guilt
postcards from England: "Flower in the Crannied Wall" (Tennyson)
Postcards from God in England: the frisking at Heathrow
Have you forgotten? Will you REMEMBER and REPENT?
God's Mercy to the Worst of Sinners
Bible Reading: Luke--God's Kingdom Economy: Losers Who Win, or Grace Is Amazing Only to Those Who See Themselves as Wretched....
you say you want Jesus
God's people ought to be welcoming "Hookers & Robbers"
"What must we do, to be doing the works of God?" (Labor Day)
Labor Day: Do you know the blessedness of not working? (Romans 4:1-8)
reflections on George Tiller (What do we really believe about sin & the atonement?)
Links to my posts on true and false religion and legalism
O, Church, to whom are we listening: the frogs or the nightingale?
the shepherds' confession: may Christ and His Gospel become a joy and delight to us once more
Scripture quotations are taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. Copyright ©2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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