Calling All Sinners
Roscoe Brong
ONLY SINNERS ARE CALLED TO SALVATION-GOOD PEOPLE
ARE NOT EVEN INVITED
"They that are whole have no need of a physician, but they that are sick; I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." Mark 2:17.
Christians fail to represent Christ if they fail to attract sinners. The context here informs us that "many publicans and sinners sat also together with Jesus and His disciples: for there were many, and they followed Him." True, Jesus was not always a popular preacher. Sometimes the crowds left Him, and even professed disciples rejected some of His teaching and walked no more with Him." John 6:60-66. A time came when His closest disciples forsook Him, and when the multitude howled for His blood. Mark 14:50; 15:11-14.
ATTRACTING SINNERS
So His true followers may sometimes have to stand alone with God, and through the centuries millions of true believers have died for their testimony to Him who laid down His live to redeem them. But as Jesus lifted up on the cross "will draw "to Himself; John 12:32, so the blood of His martyrs has persuaded sinners of the truth of His testimony where milder means have failed.
Yet it remains true, generally speaking, that there was something about the life and teaching of Jesus that attracted sinners, so that "the common people heard Him gladly." Mark 12:37. As it is wrong for a disciple to lack courage to stand alone when duty demands it, it wrong also to lack the love and compassion that may attract sinners, not merely to us, but to our testimony and to the Savior who has made us who we are – so far as we partake of His divine nature. II Peter 1:4.
If sinners in our generation are attracted or distracted to all kinds of false religion rather than to the testimony of Jesus Christ, can we be sure that the fault is all theirs? Is it not possible that we may be partially to blame, because we are such poor examples of the life and love that comes from above?
NOT ONE RIGHTEOUS
"The Righteous" of our text do not in fact exist upon earth. Of course, there are many people who think they are righteous, but God has declared of the whole human race, "There is none righteous, no, not one." Romans 3:10.
Be assured, if you are disposed to think of yourself as righteous, that Jesus calls only sinners to repentance. If you are all right, there is no need to change. But if, as Jesus taught, God is right and you are wrong, then He calls you to repentance – to a change of mind – to a complete change in your way of thinking, about self about sin, and about God.
Jesus came "not to call righteous persons, but sinners to repentance." Note that there is no definite article here in the Greek or in correct translation. Jesus was not suggesting that there are some righteous persons in the world. He simply stated that the kind of people He came to call to repentance are not righteous, but sinners.
Plenty of people in the world are righteous in their own eyes but sinners in the sight of God, while others (not too many) are sinners in their own eyes but (for Christ’s sake) accounted righteous in the sight of God. Nevertheless, the judgment of God’s Holy Word upon a world of sinners still stands: "There is no righteous no, not one."
GOD COMMANDS REPENTANCE
Jesus’ call to sinners to repentance is therefore as far-reaching as the command of God the Father, Who "mow commandeth ALL MEN EVERYWHERE to repent." Acts 17:20. What the Son invites as a matter of mercy, the Father commands as a matter of judgment.
Sinners who despise the loving invitation of Jesus while He offers them mercy will one day fall under His wrath in judgment, since it is in Him that God, "will judge the world in righteousness" in that appointed day. Acts 17:31.
You may think what and how you will, and no doubt you think pretty well of yourself; yet in the judgment of God, "My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord." Isaiah 55:8.
As matter of simple fact, our natural minds share in the sinful corruption of Adam’s fallen race, and our thinking needs to be corrected by the Spirit of our Creator and Redeemer. This correction in our thinking, this revolutionary change of mind, is New Testament repentance, and this is God’s command now to men everywhere.
REPENTANCE UNTO LIFE
Repentance is not an end in itself, but a means to an end. There is not necessarily any virtue in experiencing a change of mind - especially if the change is from good to bad, from bad to worse, or from one error to another. The repentance to which Jesus calls and which God commands of all men is toward God, Acts 20:21, from sin, Revelation 9:21, from dead works, Hebrews 6:1, and from unbelief to faith in the gospel of Jesus Christ, Mark 1:15.
Even gospel repentance not an end but a beginning of eternal life and salvation, as appears in Acts 11:18.
"Then hath God also to the Gentiles granted REPENTANCE UNTO LIFE."
We may be reminded of Ephesians 2:8: "By grace ye have been saved through faith, and this thing" (that is, the whole experience of being saved by grace through faith) "not from yourselves: the gift is from God."
So repentance, which is completed in faith and without which faith is impossible, is "granted" or given from God. He not only commands it: He grants it; and none apart from His gracious provision would repent. But it remains a human responsibility, and "Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish." Luke 13:3, 5.
JESUS CALLS YOU
Our text informs us that Jesus came to call sinners to repentance. Since you are a sinner, He came to call, and does call, you. For the very reason that He knows your soul's sickness, the great Physician invites you to put your case into His hands, with the assurance that He never loses a case so committed to his care.
"God commanded his love toward us, in that we while were yet sinners, Christ died for us." Romans 5:8
Because you recognize yourself a sinner, because you know you need a Savior, "repent and believe the Gospel" that that Christ died for our sins" - for YOUR sins - "according to the scriptures; and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the scriptures." I Corinthians 15:1-4
"Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely." Revelation 22:17. If you will, THIS MEANS YOU. Jesus invites, Jesus calls, YOU to repentance.