Next week is Thanksgiving and I am so thankful for all that God has blessed me with. He has given me far more than I ever deserve and there is no way I could ever pay Him back. He has shown me love when I was unloving. He died for me while I was still sinning how wonderful is that? (For by Grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast ~Ephesians 2:8-9) God has given me a free gift and there is nothing I can do to earn it. He has given me Grace for my sins; there is nothing that I can do to earn this grace, the gift cost more than I could ever earn. Yes, the gift has a price just as all gifts do but I didn’t pay the price; the price of the gift was paid for by the giver, Jesus Christ. (For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him ~2 Corinthians 5:21) I have sinned and broken God’s laws and the bible says (the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord ~Romans 6:23a) I have received the gift of eternal life not because of what I have done; but I have received the gift of eternal life despite all I have done.
In talking to people I have found that most people think that they are good people; now there are a few that think they’re bad but very few. Well if you are a good person than this gift may not be for you. Jesus said: “For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance” ~Matthew 9:13b. To paraphrase, Jesus said: “If you think you’re a good person I didn’t come to save you I came to save those that know they are bad people”. Jesus walked up to people that considered themselves to be bad people and told them one thing “Follow Me”. (After these things He went out and saw a tax collector named Levi, sitting at the Tax office. And He said to him, “Follow Me.” So he left all, rose up, and followed Him ~Luke 5:27-28.) Now Levi was a bad dude and he knew he was a bad dude. He was an extortionist; he himself was a Jew and he was extorting money from the Jewish people and he was using the Roman government to do it. Not only had he abandoned his own people to become rich but he was taking from the poor as well and doing it for the love of money. Now this is the dude Jesus walks up to and says “Follow me”? Then he tells the religious people of the time; the scribes and Pharisees who were trying to live a righteous life “For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance”. So couldn’t you just here these guys saying “now he claims to have come from God and he chooses to hang out with sinners and tax collectors instead of us”. What’s up with that? Not only does he hang out with the bad of the bad but if they choose to follow Him he promises them eternal life (see Luke 18:30) So Jesus the son of God offers bad people eternal life if they will follow him and offers good people nothing.
You see there is a problem with thinking you’re a good person and it is something that Jesus knew and it is the reason Jesus said: “For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance”. What Jesus knew is that there are no good people. Yes that’s what I said there are no good people. The bible and Jesus Christ himself say this. The bible says: “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” ~Romans 3:23. Jesus said: “No one is good but One, that is God ~Luke 18:19. Now when people say they are good that’s because they compare themselves to other people and when comparing themselves to other people they always pick someone worse than themselves. The problem with this is God doesn’t judge us in comparison to other people he judges us in righteousness compared to his law (see Exodus 20). There is one thing that Levi the tax collector knew that the scribes and the Pharisees didn’t know that caused Jesus to say to Levi “Follow Me” and that is that Levi knew he was not good. Jesus is saying to you the same thing He said to Levi “Follow Me”. Today not tomorrow but today for you don’t know if you have until tomorrow but today do what Levi did; leave all, rise up and follow Jesus.
God Bless and peace be with you,
Mike Peek
