In Luke chapter 4 we read of that wonderful incident when Christ stood up in the Synagogue and read from the book of the prophet Isaiah chapter 61 ‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.’ We then read that, ‘he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him. And he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.’ In this incident Christ indicated that He was the anointed Redeemer, but He also indicated the character of those He came to save – the needy. In his book Christ in the Old Testament vol.4 Robert Gordon cautions any against staying from closing with Christ because they do not, in their own estimation, feel sufficiently impressed with their unworthiness. He says:
‘They do not reflect that their condition was all that the Scriptures represent it to be, long before they saw or would believe the humbling truth. They do not consider, that however much alive they may be to their spiritual destitution, or however deeply they may be impressed with a sense of their unworthiness, they are not more destitute and not more unworthy than they formerly were while utterly insensible to their real character and condition. And they forget that the offer of pardon and reconciliation with God was made to them, not because they felt their need, but because they needed it.’ (Robert Gordon, Christ in the Old Testament vol. 4 p.28)
Christ came to seek and to save the lost precisely because they were lost and in grave need of a Saviour. It is not because we feel our need, but because we have it. The reality of the need should raise a cry for mercy to the ear of Christ. How wrong to say, “I will only cry to Christ for mercy when I feel my need more than I do now!” We read in Psalm 50:15 ‘call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me.’ The reality of our need should ever bring us to cry for mercy to the Saviour.
G B Macdonald
Sydney FP Church Blog 