“When Jesus heard it, he saith unto them, They that are whole have no need of the physician, but they that are sick: I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” – Mark 2:17
This might seem like a really strange statement, but in order to go to heaven you need to be a sinner. To put it another way, in order to go to heaven, you need to be saved. You need to receive Jesus Christ as your Saviour in order to be saved and Jesus Christ only saves sinners.
“This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.” (1 Timothy 1:15).
You see, what we are saved from is our sins. It is sin that brings condemnation and judgement. The good news is that when Jesus Christ died on the cross, He, being the sinless Son of God, bore the condemnation and judgement of our sins for us. Thus, He bought our salvation; He paid for our deliverance and He then, can redeem us from our sins and give us eternal life.
But you see, unless you realize that you have sinned against a holy God, you never admit your need of a Saviour and His salvation.
When Jesus said, “They that are whole have no need of the physician,” He was pointing out that those who are not sick don’t need a doctor. Likewise, those who are perfectly righteous, don’t need a Saviour. The problem is you can be sick without even knowing it.
I know a man who just recently learned that he has cancer. The sad thing is, he learned it too late and is now terminal. He had the cancer long before he knew it. Our society has soothed our conscience to the point that we rarely acknowledge or feel that we have done anything wrong at all. We have normalized and justified every type of behaviour and no one wants to call anything people do sinful or evil unless it is disgustingly so. However, when we go to the Bible and we read God’s law and we learn the holy character of God it is like getting a spiritual MRI and all of the sudden we are diagnosed as a sinner.
I myself was diagnosed with cancer a while back. Thankfully it is a slow-growing kind. It took a biopsy to confirm it, but the truth is before the doctor gave me the news, I knew there was something wrong. Perhaps you don’t want to face up to the fact that you are a sinner; you don’t want to go to church or read the Bible, afraid that you’ll get some bad news, but you already know down in your conscience, there’s something wrong, something broken, something sinful in you.
I have good news, Jesus Christ is the Saviour of sinners. Go to Him in faith and He can heal and redeem your sinful soul. He did mine, and He will save you too, if you admit your sin and trust Him by faith.
Tom Kline is the pastor of Castlegar Baptist Church.
READ MORE: FAITH: God is watching
