1Tim. 1:15 This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief.
One of the ministries in our church is a restoration ministry for young women struggling in this life called Mary’s Song. It has been a surprising pleasure to see these ladies “get it”, as far as the gospel is concerned, and experience the beauty of transformation that comes from the gospel. Not only do they find the blessing of forgiveness but also the metamorphosis that issues from the grace of God. Their stories are serving as testimony to the power of God’s grace. Their changing lives have effected our church, their families, and some of them have actually entered into powerful ministries themselves proclaiming the very gospel that changed their lives. Christ did not come to this earth for the righteous, He came in search of the lowest and neediest among us. Christ died to save sinners!!! A. B. Simpson speaks powerfully of this truth, check it out.
“God loves to take the worst of lost men and make them the most magnificent memorials of His redeeming love and power. He loves to take the victims of Satan’s hate and the most fearful examples of his power to destroy and use them to illustrate and illuminate the possibilities of divine mercy and the creativity of the Holy Spirit. He loves to take the things in our own lives that have been the worst, the hardest and the most hostile to God, and to transform them so that we shall be the opposites of our former selves. The sweetest spirits are made from the most stormy and self-willed; the mightiest faith is created out of the wilderness of doubts and fears; the divinest love is transformed out of stony hearts of hate and selfishness. The grace of God is equal to the most uncongenial temperaments and to the most unfavorable circumstances. Its glory is to transform a curse into blessing and show to men and angels of ages yet to come that where sin abounded, grace did much more abound.”
Paul called himself the chief of sinners because of his sin against the body of Christ before his conversion. His story became the prototype of sinners saved by grace. Maybe you or someone you know seems “beyond hope”. Actually, there is no such thing. Those in the “beyond hope” category are the ones the Lord has in His sights. He loves to display the beauty of redemption in the greatest of sinners, that’s just what He does.
