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Friend
Of Sinners
`Jesus
did not consider heaven a place to be desired while we were
lost.' (MH105)
`This
glorious being loved the poor sinner and took upon Himself the
form of a servant, that He might suffer and die in man's
behalf. Jesus might have remained at His Father's right hand,
wearing His kingly crown and royal robes. But He chose to
exchange all the riches, honour, and glory of heaven for the
poverty of humanity, and His station of high command for the
horrors of Gethsemane and the humiliation and agony of
Calvary. He became a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief,
that by His baptism of suffering and blood He might purify and
redeem a guilty world.' (DA121)
`Our
Saviour manifested for us a love that the love of man can
never equal. When we were bruised and dying, He had pity upon
us. He did not pass us by on the other side, and leave us,
helpless and hopeless, to perish. He did not remain in His
holy, happy home, where He was beloved by all the heavenly
host. He beheld our sore need, He undertook our case, and
identified His interests with those of humanity. He died to
save His enemies.' (COL381/2)
He
`did not refuse to work for those who made mistakes; His works
of mercy were done for every class, the righteous and the
unrighteous, for all alike.' (WM86)
And
so it is today, `He does not give us up because of our sins.'
(3SM149)
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`Those
who hunger and thirst after righteousness will be filled, for
Jesus has promised it. Precious Saviour! His arms are open to
receive us, and His great heart of love is waiting to bless
us.' (FW37) |
`Jesus
loves to have us come to him just as we are, sinful, helpless,
dependent. We may come with all our weakness, our folly, our
sinfulness, and fall at His feet in penitence. It is His glory
to encircle us in the arms of His love and to bind up our
wounds, to cleanse us from all impurity.' (SC52)
He
`longs to have care-worn, weary, oppressed human beings come
to Him. He longs to give them the light and joy and peace that
are to be found nowhere else. The worst sinners are the
objects of His deep, earnest pity and love. He sends His Holy
Spirit to yearn over them with tenderness, seeking to draw
them to Himself.' (COL226)
His
`heart is cheered by the sight of those who are poor in every
sense of the term: cheered by His view of the ill-used ones
who are meek, cheered by the seemingly unsatisfied hungering
after righteousness, by the inability to begin. He welcomes as
it were the very condition of things that would discourage
many ministers.' (EV49)
`The
Saviour cannot withdraw from the soul that clings to Him,
pleading its great need.' (DA198)
Knowing
how much He loves us, we can declare with utmost
confidence . . .
`My
intercessor is my friend as my eyes pour out tears to God; on
behalf of a man he pleads with God as a man pleads for his
friend.' (Job 16:20,21)
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