'The Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost."
MAN is lost. This is a fact. He is not only a sinner, but a lost sinner; he is not only wandering from God, but has so far wandered as to be lost. He is so completely lost, that he does not, cannot, find the way back to God. Another was needed to bring him there. Man is then far from God—"gone astray"—outside the sense of God's presence. Law could not bring him back—it only proved him to be a transgressor. "By the law is the knowledge of sin." Like the prodigal in the "far country," in ruin and filth, the hungry soul finds nothing to meet his craving but the husks in the swine's trough. Yet in this lost and loathsome state, even when we were dead in sins, God's eye pitied, and God's heart loved. God only could bring the lost wanderer back to Himself; and this only could be done through the death of His beloved Son. Sin must be judged, the sinner must be purged, ere he can be happy in God's presence, and an infinitely holy God happy with him. God therefore sent His only-begotten Son into the world that we might live through Him. He came to save. He died for the ungodly. He suffered for sins, the Just for the unjust, to bring us to God. This is divine love, love to sinners, lost sinners. "God commendeth His love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us." (Rom. 5:88But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8).) This is love. It sprang up in God's heart, it manifested itself to us in giving His only begotten Son, that we might not perish, but have everlasting life. Hence Jesus said, "The Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost," God then is the mover, the source, and accomplisher of eternal salvation through the death of His Son. He loved, He gave, and Jesus seeks and saves; but he saves not good people but bad people, not occasional sinners, but lost sinners, those who are dead in sins, so morally gone astray that they "cannot please God." It is such He still seeks, such He still saves. He publishes a present and everlasting salvation, present forgiveness of sins, present justification, the present possession of everlasting life, and therefore present "peace with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ." (Rom. 5:11Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: (Romans 5:1); Acts 13:38, 3938Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins: 39And by him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses. (Acts 13:38‑39).)
Dear Reader, have you bowed to God's verdict of your "utterly unclean," utterly "undone," "lost" condition. It is God who speaks of man as lost, and because we were lost, He sent His Son to seek and to save. Only for one moment reflect, and you will see that you cannot bring one thing connected with your whole history that could in any wise make you acceptable to God; nor can' you do anything to save yourself, and this simply because you are spiritually dead and lost. Oh then, take the place, dear reader, before God, of a lost one needing a Savior, and you will find a perfect Savior, and a full and everlasting salvation in Jesus at God's right hand. He still seeks and, blessed be His name, still saves the lost.
Look then, dear reader, to the Lord Jesus, approach God only by Him, trust only in Him, rely only on His precious word; for He is able to save them to the uttermost (for evermore) that come unto God by Him, seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for them." (Heb. 7:2525Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them. (Hebrews 7:25).)