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People who are only religious (and
not necessarily real followers of Jesus Christ) sometimes find
it difficult to be open and genuine friends with known sinners.
At least they don't want to mix with sinners out in the open.
The world often accuses all
Christians of being hypocrites, and self-righteous bigots.
A real Christian believer, however, has no interest in merely
pretending to follow Jesus while secretly living a life of sin.
But who can always tell the merely religious apart from the
genuine believers?
Jesus genuinely cares about all
people. And He often tried to make it clear that all of us
need to be forgiven of sin. While prostitutes, thieves and
cheats already knew they were sinners, many of the religious
leaders were offended when Jesus spoke of their need for God's
forgiveness. They felt that their memberships and
participation in religious congregations and national
organizations made them "good enough" for God and His kingdom.
Had Jesus not cared very much for
sinners of all kinds, He would have ignored the needs of the
common and well-known sinners all around Him. Instead He
sat and talked with them, ate with them, walked with them and
helped them to better understand God and His love for all
people. Had Jesus not cared much for religious sinners, He
would not have challenged them so often and so sharply,
confronting their false religious assumptions, and exposing even
their innermost thoughts and desires.
Jesus cares about sinners. He
cares so much that He willingly went to suffer and die on a
cross. It was a horrible way to die. Why did He do
it? What did it accomplish? To fully understand, you
will need to really know the Bible's teachings, from beginning
to end. But any of us can know this much: Jesus died for
our sins, so that any of us and all of us can have an open door
into heaven. Jesus took our place, as it were, suffering
for our sins, so that we can share His place in eternal glory
with God the Father.
Jesus is a Friend to sinners.
If you know that you are a sinner, then you should also know
that Jesus will not ignore you or push you away when you ask Him
to help and to forgive you. He has the power to make
everything right in your life. Everything.
Want
to make things right with God? More...
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