I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.
— Luke 5:32
In the Gospels, we read that Jesus ate and talked with sinners. . . . His critics and enemies saw Him there and asked, "What kind of a religious person are you? How can you eat and talk with sinners?" Our Lord had an answer. He told them three stories, which are really all one story. Jesus told them of the 99 sheep in the fold and of the search by the shepherd for the one that was lost. The shepherd would not rest until he had found the lost sheep. Jesus told them of the woman who treasured a piece of jewelry made up of 10 silver coins. But one of the coins somehow turned up missing, so she got a candle and a broom, and she searched the house everywhere. Suddenly her efforts were rewarded. "I have found it!" she exclaimed with jubilance.
thought
God reaches out to those who know themselves to be sinners, who realize they are lost. They are objects of God's pursuit. Then, there are those who consider themselves "righteous" and as never having been lost. They are heart-deaf to the Shepherd's call.
prayer
O Great Shepherd, give me a shepherd's heart and wisdom that I may go and seek lost sheep for You.
And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.
— Hebrews 11:6
There has to be a personal application of these truths. Redemption has flowed down to mankind from the heart of God through His Son by the Spirit. But salvation, to be effective, must be appropriated and confessed. Redemption is an objective thing. It is something outside of us. Redemption is something that took place on a cross, but salvation is something that takes place and becomes known inside of us! Salvation is redemption appropriated by faith. The three persons of the Godhead continue to call the lost to salvation. In the Gospels, we read that Jesus ate and talked with sinners. He knew why He was there. He was not approving their wickedness. He was there because it was His nature to offer help and forgiveness and salvation. . .
.thought
Redemption provided by Christ's sacrificial death for sinners is available to all. Faith appropriation makes it personally effective, resulting in the experience of salvation. God has opened His arms to us. It remains for us to come to Him.
prayer
Lord, thank You for redeeming me. Thank You for giving life to me. I come to You and I keep coming. Transform me, Lord!
How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!
— Hebrews 9:14
We must ask our Lord to help us comprehend what it meant to the Trinity for the Son to die alone on the cross. When the holy Father had to turn His back on the dying Son by the necessity of divine justice, I believe the pain for the Father was as great as the suffering of the Savior as He bore our sins in His body. When the soldier drove that Roman spear into the side of Jesus, I believe it was felt in heaven. There is another misconception that has been taught through the years.
We have been taught that only one person of the Trinity took part in the plan of redemption. But Hebrews 9:14 tells us that Father, Son and Holy Spirit all had a part. The Father received the offering of the Son through the Holy Spirit. And what was the offering? It was the blameless and sinless Son, offered as the Lamb of God, without spot and without bthought
God so loved fallen humankind that He gave God to die for humankind. God the Father gave the Son but God the Son willingly gave Himself and God the Holy Spirit was involved in it all. It was a God thing!
prayer
What costly love You have demonstrated, O Triune God. Thank You Father, Son and Holy Spirit!lemish. The redemptive price was paid by the Son to the Father through the Spirit.
This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.
— First John 4:10
I suspect that many preachers and evangelists have left the false impression in our churches that Christ won God over to our side by dying for us. We have been encouraged to think of the Father as the angry God standing with the club of vengeance, about to destroy sinning mankind. But suddenly Jesus rushes in and takes the blow, allowing us to escape. That may be good drama, but it is poor theology! Here is the truth of the matter. The Father in heaven so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. It was the love of the Father that sent the Son into our world to die for mankind.
The Father and Son and Spirit were in perfect agreement that the eternal Son should die for the sins of the world. We are not wrong to believe—and proclaim—that while Mary's Son, Jesus, died alone, terribly alone, on that cross, the loving heart of God the Father was as deeply pained with suffering as was the heart of the holy, dying Son.
thought
We cannot begin to imagine what it was like for the Father to give the Son or for the Son to lay aside the exercise of His divine prerogatives to identify with us and to be sin for us (2 Corinthians 5:21). This is God Love!
prayer
Your love, O God, is so deep and wide!
But you, O Lord, are a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness.
— Psalm 86:15
thought
The Triune God is compassionate, gracious, abounding in love and faithfulness. He is slow to anger but He does become angry with sin and He is a God of judgment. Let's flee to Him rather than from Him!
prayer
O God, how patient and gracious You have been with me. I want to hide in You.
What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us?
— Romans 8:31
The Scriptures tell us the whole story. Not only have we sinned, but our moral revolt has alienated us from God. Some people still like to protest God's right to banish the transgressor from His presence forever. They insist upon forming and holding their own humanistic views of God. For that reason I say, let's clear away some of these weeds! First, there is the old idea that Jesus Christ, the Son, differs from God the Father. People conceive Christ to be a loving Jesus on our side while an angry Father God is against us. Never, never in all of history has there been any truth in that notion. Christ, being God, is for us. The Father, being God, is for us.
The Holy Spirit, being God, is for us! That is one of the greatest thoughts we can ever hope to think. That is why the Son came to die for us. That is why the risen Son, our great High Priest, is at the right hand of the Majesty on high, praying for us. Christ is our advocate above. The Holy Spirit dwelling in our hearts is the advocate within. There is no disagreement between Father, Son and Spirit about the Church, the body of Christ.
thought
God is for us! God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. But He has not made us robots. We may respond to His love or reject it. It is the Triune God who reaches out to us.
prayer
You are for me, Lord, You are for me! Thank You.
For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.
— Romans 1:21
Probably we all have wondered at some time or another why our gardens do not produce red tomatoes and yellow corn and green beans without great care and cultivation on our part. Left to themselves, our garden plots will bring forth their own crops of weeds, thistles and briars. This they will do without any help from anyone. Why? Because the world has been upside down since Adam?s fall. God had to say to Adam,
Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, . . . By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food. . . . (Genesis 3:17–18). We are grateful to God for the historical insights of Genesis 3. Adam and Eve fell from their first holy and lofty estate, sinning by transgressing the Word of their God. That is a statement of fact. But even without the inspired record, we know that the progeny of those first parents are sinners. It is a self-demonstrating truth. The news in our morning paper is proof enough. Hatred is everywhere. Greed surrounds us. Pride and arrogance and violence rule our race. The issue is murder, war and a long list of continuing offenses against one another and against God.
thought
Turning to God opens us to light and life. Turning from Him brings darkness and judgment. It is a choice God gives us within the parameters of His omnipotence. What and who are we choosing today?
prayer
Thank You, Lord, for Your grace and patience and love! Today and tomorrow I would choose You.
Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name ["name" is singular] of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit . . .
— Matthew 28:19
When Jesus was to launch His earthly ministry, He went to John at the Jordan River to be baptized. The record speaks of the Trinity?s involvement. As Jesus stood on the bank of the river following His baptism, the Holy Spirit descended as a dove upon Him and the voice of God the Father was heard from heaven saying "This is my Son, whom I love." Similar references remind us of the Trinity?s involvement in the glory of Christ's resurrection. During His ministry, Jesus spoke of His coming death. "Destroy this temple," Jesus said, referring to His body, "and I will raise it again in three days." Jesus also declared that the Father would raise Him up on the third day.
We are accustomed to saying that the Father raised Jesus from the dead. But in Romans 1 we read that the Spirit of God declared Jesus to be the Son of God with power "by his resurrection from the dead." Throughout the Bible record, we have the ever-recurring instances of the persons of the Godhead, the Trinity, working together in perfect harmony. I rejoice in the scriptural assurances of the ministries of the holy Trinity. But I know there are many who confess to problems with the concept of and the teaching concerning the thought
"For there is one Person of the Father: another of the Son: and another of the Holy Spirit. But the Godhead of the Father, of the Son, of the Holy Spirit, is all one: the Glory equal; the Majesty coeternal" (Athanasian Creed).
prayer
O Lord, increase my understanding of You, the One God in Three Persons, each deeply involved in the salvation of humankind yet with differing roles.Trinity. If we are going to grasp and appreciate this truth, it will mean diligence on our part. We may need to "pull the weeds" in order that the truth will have soil in which to mature.
As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, 'This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.'
— Matthew 3:16–17
Hebrews 9:14 informs us that Christ, who is God the Son through the divine Spirit, offered Himself to God, the heavenly Father. Thus we have in the act of redemption the involvement of the Trinity, the Godhead. Keep in mind that the persons of the Godhead cannot fulfill their ministries separately. We may think of them separately, but they can never be separated. The early church fathers recognized this wholeness of God's person. They said we must not divide the substance of the Trinity, though we recognize the three persons. Critics often have declared that the Bible contradicts itself in matters relating to the Trinity.
For example, Genesis speaks of God creating the heavens and the earth. The New Testament declares that the Word—God the Son—created all things. Still other references speak of the Holy Spirit?s work in creation. These are not contradictions. Father, Son and Spirit worked together in the miracles of creation, just as they worked together in the planning and effecting of human redemption. The Father, Son and Holy Spirit are consubstantial—going back to the statement of the early church fathers. They are one in substance and cannot be separated.
thought
One definition of the Trinity is this: "God eternally exists as Three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and each person is fully God and there is one God" (Wayne A. Grudem, Systematic Theology, 226).
prayer
Forgive me, O God, for departmentalizing You. You are three persons each fully God but You are one God.