Day of Praise

Th, Oct 25 "Day of Praise"

"On hearing this, Jesus said to them, 'It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.'" - Mark 2:17

Tricky. So please bear with me.

In today's verse, Jesus says that he didn't come to call the righteous. However, God's own word in the Bible book of Romans tells us that no one is righteous, except God.

So when Jesus says that he didn't come to call the righteous, there is an implicit phrase, namely, "those who think they are." So what Jesus is saying is that he didn't come to call [those who think they are] righteous [but really aren't because no one is righteous, except God].

The heart of this matter is this: the people who think they are righteous (but really aren't because God alone is righteous) are people who have a confidence problem. Oh, yes, they have confidence, but their confidence is seriously misplaced.

God makes it clear that our confidence is to be placed in God.

Having a great day and a great life is directly tied to how much you put your faith and confidence in God and his Son, Jesus Christ.

Here's a few Bible passages to illustrate.
2 Chronicles 32:8
With him is only the arm of flesh, but with us is the LORD our God to help us and to fight our battles." And the people gained confidence from what Hezekiah the king of Judah said.

Nehemiah 6:16
When all our enemies heard about this, all the surrounding nations were afraid and lost their self-confidence, because they realized that this work had been done with the help of our God.

2 Corinthians 3:4
Such confidence as this is ours through Christ before God.

Ephesians 3:12
In [Christ] and through faith in him we may approach God with freedom and confidence.

Praise God!



Pastor Chris
"The gospel is the story of Jesus [what God's only Son has done for us that we can't do for ourselves], spoken as a promise." - Robert Jenson