Matthew 7:11 “If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!”

The privilege of having God claim you as his own child is something he wants for everyone, but which is known to only a special few. Even now, after God has called us to faith and made us his children, we still don’t deserve such a distinction. Jesus says that you and I are “evil.”

Does that seem a little strong of him? We usually reserve the word “evil” for pathological criminals, the kind of twisted people who abuse children, or torture others, or display no conscience whatsoever. Jesus is speaking here to Christians! In fact, he is talking to the future Apostles of his church. We will admit nobody’s perfect. We can go along with being called sinners. But evil? God obviously considers even our sins a serious offense, while we are tempted to excuse or minimize them.

And yet, the wonder is that evil people like you and me can still call God our Father. How can this be? God has graciously adopted us as his children. When my children were little, we used the book Little Visits with God for our family devotions. One of the devotions told the story of a little boy named Jerry who had been adopted by his parents. When he found out he was adopted, he said to his father, “You love me a lot, don’t you?” “We do,” his father said, “but what makes you say that?” “Well,” said Jerry, “you made me your son even though I wasn’t really your son. You didn’t have to do that.”

So it is with us. God made us his children even though we weren’t really his children. He didn’t have to do that. And what makes our adoption so much more wonderful is the sacrifice our Father made in order to make us his children. Paul assures us in Galatians, “When the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those who were under law, that we might receive the adoption as sons” (Gal. 4:5-6, NKJV). God did have one Son who was a natural part of the family, his only-begotten Son Jesus. God so loved us, he so desired to adopt us as his children, that he was willing send his only Son to live and die to pay for the sins that kept us from being God’s children. And though Jesus himself had to sacrifice his life to make us part of God’s family, the author of Hebrews assures us even Jesus is not ashamed now to call us his brothers.

Our adoption was sealed when the Lord brought us to faith and gave us his Holy Spirit. Paul wrote the Romans, “For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, ‘Abba, Father.’ The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.”

This truth was impressed upon former Jehovah’s Witness David Reed in a very moving way. Mr. Reed spent years having it pounded into his head that the only proper way to address God was as “Jehovah God.” After studying the Bible on his own, he came to realize that Jesus is God himself. He began to break away from his former faith. One morning as he began to pray to God in his car on his way to work, the name “Father” just came tumbling out of his mouth. It was then he remembered, “you have received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” He then realized what an intimate relationship we have with our heavenly Father because of Jesus!

Do you see what this has to do with our prayers? Since God himself has made us his children, since he invites us to call on him as our Father, we don’t have to be afraid to approach him in prayer. We ought to have the highest respect for him, this is true. He is still God, and he is not anyone for us to trifle with. But since we know that God is our heavenly Father, we have a child’s confidence in prayer.

1 John 3:2 “Dear friends, now we are the children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.”

We don’t know everything about the future that is waiting for us on the other side of the grave. “What we will be has not yet been made known.” So what follows is just a glimpse, just a taste, based on what we know of our Jesus who lives again.

To be like Jesus is to be holy. That is the only way that we could stand to see him as he is. Otherwise, in all his heavenly glory, the sight of Jesus would destroy us.

Have you been itching to become holy? Holiness is one of those features of the life to come we might describe as an “acquired taste.” There aren’t any unbelievers seeking it. Generally, they want just the opposite. Is it something even we set our hearts on, something we strive for with all our might? “Lord, let me love each person perfectly, only serve others, be ever patient and never feel hurt or irritated by them, totally given over to helping everyone else.” If you are like me, such a desire has not consumed your every waking moment.

Even as faith warms our hearts to such an idea, we find it doesn’t come so easily to us now. When we are “like him,” then it won’t be a struggle, or a fight, or an effort to be so. Holiness will be as natural as breathing (even more so if you struggle from asthma or allergies now), or as natural as sleeping (even more so if you suffer from insomnia now).

If we are like Jesus, we will be powerful. That does not mean that we will be almighty like God is. In part, it means fully realizing the potential God built into human beings when he first designed us. It is said that we use only about 10 percent of our brains at the present time. The world’s great geniuses perhaps double that. Imagine what it would be like to have and use the whole thing.

Maybe there will be new powers. After he rose from the dead Jesus’ body could pass through walls. He could materialize and disappear from a place at will. Will getting around be different for us? So many of the pictures of Jesus in the book of Revelation depict him shining in his heavenly glory, illuminating heaven so that there is no need for the sun. The last chapter of Daniel promises that we will shine like the brightness of the heavens, and like the stars, forever and ever.

If we are like Jesus, then we know we will be immortal and imperishable. Since every pain or discomfort we suffer is a consequence of sin, a symptom of death, can you imagine what this will be like? To be sure, the great agony and torture and suffering will all be gone. But even the little discomforts and twinges will have all disappeared. You know that grogginess you feel in your head when you get up in the morning, and you didn’t get a great night’s sleep? Never again. Those sore eyes that are hard not to rub at the end of a long day. You will forget what that was like. You will drink something ice cold and refreshing, but never get brain freeze. If you eat something piping hot and delicious, you will never burn your tongue. Mosquito bites won’t itch, because I presume there won’t be mosquitoes, or if there are, they won’t bite. You won’t feel the ache that makes you want to stretch after you have been sitting or standing in one place too long. Before you start singing, you won’t have to clear your throat, and you will never have that little “tickle” that just won’t go away.

Obviously this isn’t an exhaustive list. It isn’t even the tip of the iceberg. It’s just a taste, a glimpse, of what we will be because we will be like him, the risen Jesus, and see him as he is.

And if it has whet our appetite, and given us a faith that hungers for more, then this gospel taste has done its work.

Psalm 119:42-46 “May your unfailing love come to me, O Lord, your salvation according to your promise; then I will answer the one who taunts me, for I trust in your word. Do not snatch the word of truth from my mouth, for I have put my hope in your laws. I will always obey your law, for ever and ever. I will walk about in freedom, for I have sought out your precepts. I will speak of your statutes before kings and will not be put to shame” (Psalm 119:42-46).

When we consider that God has given us his grace and salvation, is it hard to understand why the psalmist says: “then I will answer the one who taunts me…” “Do not take our word of truth from my mouth…” “I will speak of your statutes before kings and not be put to shame…”? If God has done so much for me, doesn’t that give me courage to speak up for him?

A friend of mine visited members of another congregation some time ago. He attended church with them on Sunday but was not impressed with their pastor’s preaching. The pastor’s speaking skills were poor. The message seemed unorganized. My friend mentioned his criticisms to his hosts, and he was surprised by their passionate defense of their pastor.

These people pointed out that their pastor was a faithful shepherd of his flock. He visited his members regularly. He was not afraid to confront people with their sins, but he did so with a sincere desire to restore them, and he was quick to share the gospel, too. His people could trust him with their problems. When tragedy had struck this very family, the pastor spent long hours beside them in the hospital comforting them with God’s word. Since this family had received such love from the pastor, they were bold to speak up for him and defend him. If people are moved by such earthly service and love, how much more does our Savior’s grace make us bold to speak up for him!

Look at how closely Scripture connects faith and the mouth. Jesus says, “Out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks” (Matthew 12:34). Paul writes to the Corinthians, “I believed, therefore I have spoken” (2 Cor. 4:13). Paul writes in Romans, “If you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved” (Romans 10:9). God’s grace makes me bold to speak!

This does not mean everyone will be a gifted preacher, missionary, or evangelist. Those are gifts that our Lord gives to specific people. But what does it say about our faith if we will not speak about him at all? Can such a faith be healthy? He has only one way of spreading the gospel to others: through the mouths of his people. If we will not preach his gospel and share his grace, then God may take it away from us and give it to a people who will.

The answer for cramped hearts and closed mouths that will not speak, the solution for our cowardice and lack of love, is found in the same grace that the psalmist so desired for himself. There we find the forgiveness that removes our guilt for Christ’s sake and restores our relationship with God. This sin, too, has been paid for at the cross. Then God’s grace fills our hearts with faith and love. I don’t need more advice about how to be a better witness. I need my heart to be overcome by the grace that makes me bold.

In 1530 the fathers of the Lutheran Church used the words of verse 46 to introduce their faith to the Holy Roman Emperor in the Augsburg Confession: “I will speak of your statutes before kings and will not be put to shame.” Whether we are speaking to kings or next door neighbors, may his grace make us so bold, too

Psalm 119:41-42 “May your unfailing love come to me, O Lord, your salvation according to your promise; then I will answer the one who taunts me, for I trust in your word.

Psalm 119 is a meditation on the value and importance of God’s Word, but it isn’t an academic exercise. It is not a study for those who like ancient texts, or appreciate Hebrew poetry, or enjoy historical documents. The things it teaches us are more than theoretical positions we ought to defend. Here we come face to face with the living and enduring Word of God. What the psalmist wants is not just chapter and verse. He longs for, he prays for the grace and salvation we find in the Word. “May your unfailing love come to me, O Lord, your salvation according to your promise.”

Note the psalmist’s choice of words to describe God’s grace to us. There are two things his choice emphasizes. The English speaks of “love.” But the Hebrew term behind this word emphasizes that God’s grace or love is faithful, it will not change or end. The God whom we worship is not going to wake up in a bad mood some morning and grumble at us. He is not going to have a bad day at work, come home grumpy and direct his frustrations at us. Nothing can change his gracious and loving way of dealing with us because he is faithful.

What can we compare such grace and love to? Is there anything else so steady and changeless? We are so accustomed to people whose behavior toward us changes every day, sometimes hour by hour. They are unsteady and unreliable. We have accepted that our possessions are constantly wearing out and breaking. Our cars and homes require constant maintenance. There is nothing else like the unchanging, faithful love and grace of our Lord on which we can always depend.

The Hebrew word here also emphasizes that God’s grace and love is heartfelt. He does not treat us as he does because his grace is a cold principle of theology. It’s not just a law of the universe he is forced to follow. Our God is not a bookkeeper whose only interest is in how the numbers add up, whose only concern is making sure that we have kept our accounts with him paid up. Nor is he a government bureaucrat in a distant office writing welfare checks for people he doesn’t even know when he distributes his gifts to you and me.

Our God loves us from the heart. He cares for his children passionately. We know this best from the gift of his Son Jesus Christ that we have been given. What else would lead him to make the ultimate sacrifice, and give up his own Son, his only Son, the Son he loved in order to save us? What else would lead him to let his Son be falsely accused, and mocked and beaten, and crucified for the crimes that we have committed? The only reason he let this happen is that his heart desired to possess us as his very own. This gift, this grace, reveals my heavenly Father’s tender heart.

Is it hard to see why this changes our lives right now, not just how God regards us, not just our eternal future? Is it hard to see why God’s grace makes me bold? Siegbert Becker once described the powerful effect of God’s grace on our hearts this way:

“It is impossible to see ourselves as sinners deserving eternal damnation in hell, then to come to the conviction that the suffering and dying Christ has procured full and free forgiveness for us by taking our guilt upon himself and by giving us his own righteousness as a free gift of his love—it is impossible to come to that conviction without coming to love him who gave himself into death that we might have everlasting life. It is impossible to confess honestly that Jesus Christ has redeemed me, not with gold or silver but with his holy precious blood and his innocent sufferings and death, without realizing that this was done that I might be his own and live under him in his kingdom and serve him in everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness…. ‘To know him is to love him’ is more applicable to our Savior than to anyone else.’”

Once God’s grace has filled our hearts with such faith and love, it changes everything about our lives. In his introduction to the book of Romans, Luther discusses the change that faith born of God’s grace makes in our relationship to the people around us. “Faith is a living and daring confidence in God’s grace so sure and certain that a man would stake his life on it a thousand times. This confidence in God’s grace and knowledge of it makes men glad and bold and happy in dealing with God and all his creatures.”

This confidence that God loves me, that his love is faithful, that his love is sincere and heartfelt, is why God’s love makes me bold.

Ephesians 1:22-23 “God has placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.”

Many things challenge our faith that Jesus has everything under his control, don’t they. Every day it seems as though the forces of evil are gaining the upper hand. Do any of us really believe we can reverse the moral decay that has taken hold of our country? Sometimes Christianity itself seems to be crumbling from the inside. Church after church caves in to our secular culture. They give up their Biblical heritage. Does that look like everything is under Jesus’ power? Can we really believe that Jesus has secured our little planet, much less the entire universe?

Add to that Paul’s description of Jesus’ as “head over everything,” and we find ourselves in a real quandary. God has “appointed him to be head over everything.” What does a head do? The head is the leader, isn’t it? The head calls the shots. If Jesus is the head, then he is the one who is running our world and making the events in my life happen the way that they do.

Here the challenges to our faith reaches its peak. It might be easier to believe that Jesus has all that power, if we could believe that he chooses not to get involved, or doesn’t care about the details and just lets things go their own way. But if Jesus is actively running the show as the head, and he claims that he loves me, would he let my kid land in the hospital and the starter on my car die in the same week when I have two big projects due at work and a family funeral to attend?

The answer to our trial of faith is not to be found in greater demonstrations of Jesus’ power. Power alone doesn’t win converts. Rather, we find our faith, our joy, our peace in his promises and in his love.

The Church over which Jesus is the head is not some impersonal institution he wants to succeed for reasons of personal pride, or to please the shareholders, or to pad his resume. This is his people. This is his family. This is you and I. For a moment, let’s look away from how he has been running our lives and look at how he ran his own.

Jesus has always been for the church, hasn’t he? Why did he leave heaven and become one of us? He wasn’t improving his own living conditions by doing so. He did it to save us. Why did he expend so much of his time and energy healing the sick? He didn’t do it to pad his own pockets like so many faith-healers today. He did it out of genuine compassion and mercy. Why did reach out to the outcast and the sinners and the poor? It didn’t improve his personal social standing. He did it because he sincerely wanted them to be his people, too. Why did he let his body be used as a punching bag, and let them rip the skin from his body with whips, and die an agonizing death on a cross? He owed no debt to society that needed to be paid. He did it because he loved us, the church, and gave himself up for her to make her holy so that he could present her to himself as a radiant church without any stain or wrinkle or any other blemish. Jesus has always been for his people.

That hasn’t changed now that he has returned to heaven and secured the universe under his power. God placed all things under his feet and appointed him head over everything for the church. Although it’s true that his own living conditions have improved immensely since he has returned to heaven, he hasn’t forgotten us. Just as he once gave it all up for his people, now he has taken it all back. But still does so for his people. He uses all that power on our behalf.

I may not understand why he runs the world the way he does. But then, I don’t have to. I don’t understand why he suffered hell so that an unappreciative, self-centered sinner like me wouldn’t have to, either. It is enough to know that whether he is making the ultimate sacrifice, or securing and running the universe, he does it for me and for you and for everyone else who belongs to him by faith.

Blankets and teddy bears, popular best friends and hefty bank accounts, well-equipped soldiers and a strong military can’t give us lasting security. But Jesus can. He has secured the entire universe under his power and that gives real security to the people who know his love.

Acts 1:4-11 On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about.  For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”  So when they met together, they asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”  He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority.  But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”  After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.  They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them.  “Men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.”

As I think about my own departure, my last “goodbye” at the end of my life, there are two parts to preparing those I leave behind. One: I am leaving them a will. It determines how my gifts will be distributed. My remaining property will help to take care of the family that survives me.

Two: I have taken an interest in what my surviving children do with their own lives after I am gone. I have tried to model a Christian life. I have led them to the feet of the same Savior I follow. As much as I want them to be good citizens and contributing members of society, I want them to have faith and live a Christian life.

For three years Jesus taught the twelve men who followed him. He modeled for them what it means to live a life of love. He didn’t try to cram it all into the last few days. But as his last moments with them face to face were winding down, a few instructions rose to the top. In the last moments before he ascended, we hear parting instructions from his own lips.

Maybe the first thing we hear comes as a surprise: “Wait!” “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised….you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you…” Wait for the Spirit. Living life as a Christian isn’t all about frantic activity. It isn’t a life of constant motion, always doing, always moving, never pausing, never resting. There is a time to wait for the Spirit. For the men in front of Jesus on this day, of course, this was the ten-day wait until Pentecost, ten days spent in prayer and worship, until the Holy Spirit came pouring down out of heaven with fire and the sound of a rushing wind, and new courage and new words to preach the gospel to people of every language.

For us, it is the quieter, less dramatic Pentecost Jesus pours out on us when we gather around his word, or when we pause in our little room at home to read, to sing, to meditate on his word, and to pray. Streams of his Spirit still pour down on his quiet, listening people. He still gives them power for the things he wants them to do.

Only after this does Jesus tell them, “Go!” and “Speak!” “You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” Jesus gives us the words and the power to speak. He gives us the entire population of planet earth as our audience. If that seems overwhelming, don’t start with the billions spread all across the globe. Start with the person nearest to you. Tell him about the good things God has done for you.

And know that the time we have is limited. Jesus wants us to remember that he has not said, “Goodbye,” forever. He is coming again. Expect his return.

On the one hand, that gives us a sense of urgency. We don’t know how much time we get to tell our friends. We don’t know how much time we have to send a missionary. The time to say something, the time to send someone, is now.

On the other hand, this gives us a sense of relief. It is hard to live as Jesus’ witnesses. Not everyone appreciates our words or Christian witness. Not everyone wants to tolerate us Christians at all. Don’t get discouraged. Jesus will return to take us home soon enough.

Until then, he has left each of us with something to say and work to do.

Ephesians 4:7-13 “But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it.  This is why it says: ‘When he ascended on high, he led captives in his train and gave gifts to men.’ (What does ‘he ascended’ mean except that he also descended to the lower, earthly regions?  He who descended is the very one who ascended higher than all the heavens, in order to fill the whole universe.)  It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming.  Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ.”

From time to time our family plays host to guests from around the nation and around our world. There was the seminary student from Germany who wanted to see the Southfork Ranch while he was in the United States. There was the theologian and his wife from Sweden who became my friends when I visited their country. They made the long drive to see me when they were visiting relatives in our country. There have been visiting pastors and professors who stayed in our home when they came to preach or lecture at some special service or seminar.

Many of our guests have had the practice of leaving behind a parting gift as a gesture of their thanks. They are generally nothing extravagant–maybe a little nick-knack or wood carving that reflects something of the art and tastes of their own culture. Maybe it is little jar or bottle of something with flavors unique to the place they come from. On my own travels I have also scattered little gifts around the United States and Northern Europe to thank my hosts for their hospitality.

The Apostle Paul says that when Jesus left us and returned to heaven, he also left us parting gifts. But Jesus’ gifts are no mere trinkets! He left us people, servants who feed us his word and build up our faith. “Apostles…prophets…evangelists…pastors…teachers” are the representative list Paul gives us in Ephesians chapter 4. Some of the titles, and the shapes of their ministries, might have changed over the last couple of thousand years, but this gift has never worn out or been used up. It is a gift that constantly reproduces itself, as each generation produces even more servants of the gospel.

What makes them gifts is not their pedigree, their personalities, nor the list of diplomas, awards, and accolades with which they come to us. It is the loving service they offer to the body of Christ. Paul says that through such people God is building us up to maturity. Christian faith and life is never a do-it-yourself project. It isn’t self-improvement. It may wound my pride to think that I haven’t reached maturity, or that I can’t just grow myself, but that is the biblical fact. The Savior doesn’t address us as “children of God” for nothing. Then let our pride be wounded, and let us hear the gospel our pastor’s preach, and the word our teachers teach. That gospel is the power of God for salvation, and that word planted in you can save your soul.

Salvation, spiritual safety, is nothing to take for granted or scoff at. We ignore the gifts of preachers and teachers Jesus left behind for us at our own peril. Every day our souls are battered by a spiritual hurricane of lies and temptations. Some blow at us from the outside, from a world with twisted ideas about God and what is right. That world knows no sin, and so it knows no Savior. Some storms whirl around inside my heart, which is not yet so mature that it likes only what God likes, and thinks only how God thinks. If you are sailing your ship through a hurricane, do you want to try to make it with a one-man crew? Can you man the rudder, secure the rigging, navigate the maps, and run the bilge pump all by yourself? Or will you take on board all the help you can get to steer your ship safely to the shore?

That is why, when Jesus ascended into heaven, he left behind his parting gifts. He left us messengers of his word who expose the dangers of sin, and who never let us lose sight of the beacon of God’s grace. It always beams, “Your sins are forgiven! Your sins are forgiven! Your sins are forgiven!” Then God is growing us up in our faith, growing us together in love, and leading us safely home.

John 17:24 “Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.”

Inevitably, the time must come to say, “Goodbye.” The holidays are over, and the visit must come to an end.  After four years of school together, graduation day has arrived, and classmates will all be going in different directions. Junior is all grown up now, he has his first job, and it is time for him to start living on his own, anyway. After 45 or 50 years in the workforce, you are ready hang up your spurs and start drawing on your retirement accounts. The time has come to say, “Goodbye.”

Some goodbyes are more permanent than others, humanly speaking. The holidays will come around again next year. Class reunions will gather the old gang together again from time to time. But death is “goodbye” for the last time on earth. It is a “goodbye” that provokes some serious thoughts. What do I want to say? What do I want to leave behind? Maybe you remember the Michael Keaton movie “My Life.” A terminally ill father-to-be is video-taping himself in all kinds of activities, with all kinds of messages, for the son who will never know him face to face. What might our parting wishes be for the people we leave behind?

Jesus’ parting prayer takes place the night before the cross. He and his disciples have finished the Last Supper. The conversations around the table are over, and they are about to leave the upper room for Gethsemane. In less than twenty-four hours, Jesus will be dead. Before they go, he prays for them.

Jesus prayed for their faith that night. “Protect them from the evil one…Sanctify them by the truth.” He prayed for their unity, “…that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you.”

But near the end, Jesus prays that those who have trusted and loved him on earth might see him again in glory. “I want those you have given me to be with me where I am.” “Bring them home,” Jesus prays. His desire in calling you to faith and uniting you to himself was never just about squeezing some cheap labor out of you here, while you are alive. You are so much more to him than just a workforce–a nameless, faceless labor force he will never know or care about as the CEO of this organization.

You are his friend, his brother or sister, and he wants you home. It is why he came. It is why he lived. It is why he died. He wants to see you and be with you as much as he wants to rule over you. He wants you to share the heaven he enjoys, to see the glory he received, as his everlasting guest at the feast that never ends.

Samuel Johnson once noted, “I know of no thought that more wonderfully clarifies a man’s mind than the thought that he must hang in the morning.” Jesus understood the urgency of the moment and the shortness of his time in a way we rarely do. He prayed about the most important things as death drew near—not for himself, but for those he would be leaving behind. The next day he made it possible that death would not be the last time anyone saw him, or we see each other. His death removed sin and defeated death.

Who knows which day will be our last in this world? “Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom,” Moses prays in Psalm 90. Give your attention to God’s grace today, and God’s word will make you the answer to Jesus’ prayer.

1 Timothy 1:15 “Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners–of whom I am the worst.”

Why did Jesus come into the world? He didn’t come to end all wars. He didn’t come to wipe out poverty or hunger. He didn’t come to prevent global warming. He didn’t come to teach us how to eat right. He didn’t come to tell us what kinds of cars to drive. He didn’t come to help us with time management. He didn’t come to manage our portfolios. He didn’t come to pass pro-life legislation. He didn’t come to prevent same-sex marriages. He didn’t come to end discrimination. He didn’t come to make us rich.

Don’t get me wrong. All of those may be good things. Those who follow him may experience many of those things, or they may work at many of those things, as a result. But nowhere in Scripture does it say that that is why Jesus came.

“Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.” This is why Jesus kept the commandments for us perfectly. This is why Jesus’ reached out to the poor and the outcast. This is why he carried the responsibility for our sins to the cross. This is why he suffered and died. This is why he rose again on the third day. He didn’t come to be a guru, a politician, a motivational speaker, or a philanthropist. The title of Max Lucado’s popular book of devotions on Good Friday is to the point: No wonder they call him the Savior. He came to save us–to rescue us from sin and death. He is not nearly so interested in making our earthly lives happier as he is in rescuing us from this world and taking us to heaven.

Isn’t that clear in the kind of people Jesus saves? Paul calls himself the worst of sinners. That doesn’t necessarily mean that he is the very worst sinner of all time. But this isn’t just an exaggeration or false humility, either. He opposed God in a very direct way. He tried to stamp out God’s way of saving the world. He was trying to drive souls away from Jesus and into the jaws of hell. He was certainly the worst kind of sinner.

This also makes Paul a wonderful example of God’s saving grace. “But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his unlimited patience as an example for those who would believe on him and receive eternal life.” Could Jesus forgive you? Aren’t some of my sins so disgusting, so unbelievably mean, so regularly repeated, that they would just be too much for someone so kind and loving as Jesus to get past?

Look at Paul’s example. Look at the long list of Bible characters and their stories of personal failure. Jesus has unlimited patience. His purpose for coming is to forgive you, to save you, to claim you for himself. He is the grace-driven Savior.