Christ Came To Save Sinners

I've been working my way through Walter Marshall's The Gospel Mystery Of Sanctification recently. Thus far it has been a fantastic book, one in which I will likely find myself reading again (and again). Marshall has been paving a road between those who would add works to faith and those who seem to have a total disregard for the works of faith, and he does so through the lens of our union to Christ. It would take a better man than me to do justice in summarizing this book, but tonight's reading brought back a simple truth of the gospel to the forefront of my mind: Christ came to save sinners.

"Christ would have us to believe on him that justifieth the ungodly; and therefore he doth not require us to be godly before we believe. He came as a Physician for the sick, and doth not expect that they should recover their health, in the least degree, before they come to him." (p.88)

As Christians, I think that we take this for granted. It is true that there is a want of holiness in our churches corporately and in our lives individually, and the church should surely be a place where the saints encourage each other toward holiness and admonish and exhort one another. But I also think that we need to remember, it is the encounter with a loving God that regenerates sinners, and it is the encounter with our Heavenly Father that sanctifies us.

The gospel is good news for the world because it offers them forgiveness of sins; it offers to wash them with regeneration. When we deal with the lost, we ought never expect them to shape up or behave before we invest in their lives. We ought not join them in sin, but we need not treat them as lepers that will make us unclean. Do not expect the ungodly to love God; be the love of God for the ungodly.

The gospel is also good news for the church because it reminds us that salvation started by grace alone through faith in Christ alone, and it will end by grace alone through faith in Christ alone. We are those who have been washed by the Spirit in baptism, and we are empowered by the Spirit to obey the law and walk in righteousness, but we fail to live in the Spirit every single day. As one who has had a battle with spiritual depression for well over a decade, I know how easy it is to beat yourself down and want to withdraw from your Father. One must indeed have righteousness that exceeds that of the Pharisees to see God (Just to be clear, hypocrisy aside, they were VERY righteous. The bar is set high, not low). A failure to achieve this righteousness often produces guilt so strong that it would keep us away from the remedy for our sin provided for the bride: the means of grace. The presence of sin in the believer's life is a reason to attend worship, to sit under the Word preached and feast on the Word in the Supper.

"Therefore, it is no affront to Christ, or slighting and condemning the justice and holiness of God, to come to Christ, while we are polluted sinners; but rather it is an affronting and contemning the saving-grace, merit, and fullness of Christ, if we endeavour to make ourselves righteous and holy before we receive Christ himself, and all righteousness and holiness in him by faith." (p.88)

There is a wide neglect of the law in our churches, but we ought to never forget the good news of the gospel. We should place no barriers between the lost sinners and Jesus Christ the author of our faith. Sinners cannot clean themselves and to demand that they clean up their act before they come to Christ is a cruel and fruitless endeavor and keeps them from the one who justifies the ungodly. We should also place no barriers between the sinner-saint and Jesus Christ the finisher of our faith. The Christian life is the life of putting off the flesh and putting on the Spirit, and we fail to do this daily. To keep away from the presence of God and the means of grace is to keep ourselves from the one who sanctifies those he loves. The solution for sin is the same for the lost sinner and the sinner-saint: faith in Christ, the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Let us remember the words of our Lord:

“Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price...Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." (Isaiah 55.1, Matthew 11.28)