HOW many there are who have a mistaken idea of God! They think that He wishes to judge, forgetting His own word, which says He is ready to pardon, and that judgment is His “strange work.”
We know too, that this does give Him pleasure. Can you read Luke 15, and still doubt it?
We never read in God’s word that a repentant sinner was turned away. Take the thief, for instance. He deeply felt his guilt and confessed it. Did the Lord turn away from him and refuse his request because he was such a sinner?
Listen to His gracious answer, “Verily, I say unto thee, To-day shalt thou be with Me in paradise.” Luke 23:4343And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, To day shalt thou be with me in paradise. (Luke 23:43). Ah! He does indeed “exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think.”
But perhaps you are like the Pharisee (Luke 18:1111The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. (Luke 18:11)) and think you are better than many you see around you. If that is the case, may God open your eyes to see your lost condition, that you may cry like the publican, “God be merciful to me a sinner.’ And then it will not be long before you see that Christ died, “the Just for the unjust.’’ 1 Peter 3:1818For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit: (1 Peter 3:18).
A king once visited a prison with the intention of releasing one prisoner. He asked several of them why they were there; three laid the blame on others, and one on the jury; but one confessed that he deserved the punishment, and the king said to him, “You are the man I will release” so he let him go free.
Those who take that ground, and confess that they deserve punishment, receive God’s pardon and go free.
Messages of God’s Love 5/17/1908