Calling Sinners

 

“But go and learn what this means: I desire mercy, not sacrifice. For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

—Matthew 9:13

“Sometimes, when I observe the inner peace and great joy that Christians seem to have, I long to experience that in my own life. But then, I realize I simply am not good enough to become a Christian.”

I was startled by the comment of my seatmate on the flight from Hartford, Connecticut, to Los Angeles, California. It was a long, cross-country flight. I usually tried to put on headphones and read to forego any conversation with the person sitting next to me in First Class. (As a Delta Airlines “Million Miler,” I was usually able to upgrade to First Class, especially on longer flights.)

But, in this case, I had taken my headphones off when the meal came. It was at this point that my seatmate began to talk to me. She commented about the title of the book I was reading. It happened to be The Purpose Driven Life by Pastor Rick Warren. She indicated that she had heard about the book and then made the comment I quoted above.

My heart was moved by her comment. I tried to gently and very carefully explain that no one was worthy of God’s mercy, grace, and love. We are all sinners—stained by the sin we inherited from Adam and guilty of the sins we’ve committed in our own lives. That’s part of the great miracle of salvation. It’s for sinners, not for “saints.”

Jesus shared these words with His disciples, as recorded in Matthew 9:13:

But go and learn what this means: I desire mercy, not sacrifice. For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.

Every single one of us whom God has chosen to belong to Himself have come to Him as sinners. Through His great love and the death of His Son, Jesus, on the cross, we have become sinners saved by God’s grace. God has sought us, while we were completely unworthy, to be His dearly loved children.

As we begin a new day, let’s never forget that we are no better than any other human being. We are all sinners.

God longs to save those whom He calls. And, as the Scripture above teaches us, God calls sinners.

He calls them so He can give them His righteousness. No one—no one—is ever worthy of God’s love. It is He, and He alone, who makes us worthy by His calling us to Himself.

Let’s take great comfort from the reality that we are unworthy, yet made worthy. And, that is truly good news.

 

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