CHRIST'S CALL FOR SINNERS
Arman Borja
Text: Mark 2:13-17
Sinners are notoriously evil people as well as those who refused to follow the law. In the Bible, the term was commonly used of tax collectors, adulterers, robbers and the like. A sinners life is a life separated from God and is heading towards destruction. Jesus call sinners to accept his offer of salvation and a meaningful life.
Christ's call for sinners is a call to follow Christ.
To follow Christ means to be his disciple.
Sinners remain sinners because they do not know the truth. Jesus is the way the truth and the life. By following him, sinners can be lead to live a changed life.
May each of us be like Matthew in instant and unquestioning obedience. It might seem like a great sacrifice at the time, but in eternity it will be seen as no sacrifice at all.
As the missionary martyr Jim Elliot said, “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep, to gain what he cannot lose.”
Christ's call for sinners is the motive for befriending them.
We should not shut ourselves up in Christianized communities. Rather we should seek to befriend the ungodly in order to introduce them to our Lord and Savior.
In befriending sinners, we should not do anything that would compromise our testimony, nor allow the unsaved to drag us down to their level.
We should take the initiative in guiding the friendship into positive channels of spiritual helpfulness.
It would be easier to isolate oneself from the wicked world, but Jesus didn’t do it, and neither should His followers.
The teachers of the law criticized Jesus' association with sinners. They are self-righteous, which means they are righteous only to their own eyes.
They want to condemn sinners using the law and do not give importance to grace and mercy.
These people are hypocrites. They show they are righteous but deep inside they are rotten. Matthew 6:2-15; Mark 7:5ff; Mark 12:38-40.
Christ's call for sinners is a call to be spiritually healed.
The tax-collectors and sinners admitted their guilt and their need of help. Jesus came to call sinners like them -- not self-righteous people.
Christ sees sinners as sick people who need help.
People need to face the truth that they are spiritually sick and they need the healer Jesus Christ by whose wounds we are healed.