“A FRIEND of sinners,” — what a word, what a title to give any one! What man in the world would not count it a reproach, a shame, to be called “a friend of sinners”? And yet this was what they called Jesus when He was here upon earth. And notice too, in Luke 7:34,34The Son of man is come eating and drinking; and ye say, Behold a gluttonous man, and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners! (Luke 7:34) it is the Lord Jesus Himself who says they called Him, “A Friend of sinners.” Who was it who gave Him this title? Not those who were openly known as sinners, but those who thought themselves better than others, and who put on, and kept up, an outward appearance of religiousness, and who, speaking of the Lord Jesus, said, “He receiveth sinners, and eateth with them.”
But although this is the title they gave Him, — they, the outwardly respectable, religious people of that day, and they did it only to express their scorn and hatred of Him, — how true it was then! and how true it is to this very day! They little thought what a reality His friendship for the sinner was, — they knew nothing of their own individual need of His friendship and His help; they hated Him, because His presence and His words proved them, to themselves, to be sinners indeed, and that their covering or cloak of religiousness was a greater sin than all else, for it tried to hide up what could not be hidden from God’s all-seeing eye.
No, it was a word of truth, a great and glorious truth, wrung from the hearts and lips of the scorners of His grace, the despisers of His friendship and His services. And who needs a friend, like the poor lost and helpless sinner? And how has the Lord Jesus shown and proved Himself to be “a Friend of sinners”? Ah! it is an old story — a story the world is tired of hearing repeated. Just as in the days when Jesus was here on earth, they found fault with all He said and did, calling Him even a glutton and a drunkard (only think of such words being applied to Him!), and never rested until they had nailed Him to the cross, mocking Him as He hung there, — so now, men hate the name of Jesus, and the world wearies of the repetition of the old story of His love and His goodness, the way in which He has truly proved Himself to be the sinner’s Friend.
Reader, are you a sinner? I do not mean a sinner like every one else, for most will say, “We are all sinners, and one is as bad as another.” But are you one who knows himself to be a sinner, — not looking at others, but at yourself? If so, here is a Friend for you, and the story of His love and His friendship will not be wearisome to you. His own blessed words best tell the tale. He begins with God — Himself the gift of God—“God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” Thus He speaks to us of God — to us, in our sins, of God in His grace and mighty power. And then He speaks of Himself, “I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” “The Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.” Mark the words, — not only to save, but to seek and to save. “The Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister and to give His life a ransom for many.” Here we have His own words, His own declaration of the mind and heart of God in His coming, and of His own mind and heart too; adding the way in which He makes it good to man — a sinner in his sins.
And if we turn again to the record given us by God in His Word, we find that same Jesus, that same Son of Man, delivered into the hands of men, that they might have their way with Him. Alas! not they, but we, as children of Adam, as human beings here in this world, in our sins. And when so delivered into our hands, we took Him, and we condemned Him to death by means of false witnesses whom we knew to be false, and we spat upon Him, and we nailed Him to the cross, and we mocked Him as He hung there! Sinner, have you upon you a sin of deeper dye than this? You can look back over all your past life, and see many and many a black stain, a hideous sin there, which you cannot get rid of, but this is the history God tells us of the way we have treated His Son, His own beloved Son.
And how did He answer to this treatment? There upon the cross, a spectacle to men and angels, He took the sinner’s place, — that place of wrath, condemnation, and judgment that is justly the sinner’s on account of his sins, He took in grace, and love, and goodness, and mercy tards the sinner. And there He was forsaken of God. Scripture tells us, “He died, the Just for the unjust, to bring us to God.” There that bitter cry was wrung from Him, “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” There He shed His blood — His precious blood — which “cleanses from all sin,” and “without shedding of blood is no remission.” He offered Himself without spot unto God — the only Man in the world who ever could do so; and God accepted His sacrifice, the sacrifice of Himself, fully, and raised Him from the dead, and seated Him at His own right hand in heaven. Doubting, trembling soul, think of that! Your Friend, the One who took your place under the judgment due to you, and who died in your stead, is now risen, from the dead, ascended, and glorified, “crowned with glory and honor” at God’s right hand in heaven! And God now says, what He declared in Jerusalem nearly nineteen hundred years ago, “Neither is there salvation in any other; for there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved.” Is not this proving Himself “a Friend of sinners”?
Fellow-sinner! can you not rest in Him — the One who took the sinner’s place, and suffered in the sinner’s stead? God’s Word is, “WHOEVER believeth on Him.” “There is no difference; for all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” “God commends His love to us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” Jesus is the Saviour — the only Saviour. When born into this world as Man, a Babe in the manger, the angels announced Him to the shepherds in the field by night as “a Saviour, Christ the Lord.” He has proved Himself a “Friend of sinners” by dying for them, by thus being their Saviour, by bearing the wrath and judgment, due to them, in His own body on the cross. Could He be a better Friend to them than this? Is not this just what the sinner needs? Alas! this is what man, religious man, refuses, and scornfully charges Jesus with being. But whatever the world may think, or man may say, this is just what suits the sinner — a Saviour, Christ the Lord — a Friend of sinners. The more he knows of Him, the more blessed and wonderful, and yet simple, it all is.
Reader, does this suit you? “Yes,” you say, “it does, but how am I to be sure about it?” What is it you want to be sure about? Is it yourself you are doubtful about, or Him? Or is it your sins you doubt about? Ah! you can have no doubt about them. There they are, black and awful enough to terrify the hardest, the boldest. Are they not so vile and so heavy that you can do nothing with them yourself, but must come to Jesus, the Saviour, about them? Is it Him and His love you want to be sure about? How can you doubt Him or His love? God so loved, that He gave Jesus to die for sinners. Jesus gave Himself — uncared for, unasked, undesired by man; He gave Himself for sinners, as we have seen. What more can He do to prove His love? It is there at the cross — His cross — that He, and the vilest most sin-laden sinner meet. There is nothing left for you to do, for He has done it all — all, and forever.
If you, a sinner in your sins, have not a Saviour in His grace, the fault is yours, not His. “Ye will not come to Me that ye might have life,” He had to say to the unbelieving Jews when here on earth. He offers Himself to you as One who is willing and able to save to the uttermost. The poor leper said to Him, “Lord, if Thou wilt, Thou canst make me clean.” He owned His power, but he doubted His love; so “Jesus put forth His hand and touched him, and said, I will, be thou clean. And immediately the leprosy left him.” No gradual process, as some would try to make out, for the leper is the figure of the sinner, — He spoke, and it was done.
If you or I could get the very least bit better in ourselves, we should not need Him. He is a Friend who does it all, and who delights to do it all, and who alone can do it all. He has done it, and done it all for thousands as bad as you and I; I do not say “worse than we,” because they could not be worse. It is not, “Are you good enough to be saved?” but, “Are you bad enough to be saved by Jesus, and by Him alone?” If so, here is a Friend for you. Will you have Him? It is not He that wants your help, but you that need His help; and this He offers you freely, in the fullness of His love, and in the riches of His grace.
P. A. H.