“Jesus Came To Seek And To Save The Lost”

Romans 5: 6-10

6) For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.

7) For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die.

8) But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

9) Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.

10) For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.

Luke 19:10

10) For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.

Preface

W

e cannot overemphasize the importance of man knowing and accepting the significance and purpose of Jesus coming for us. Outside of this, His coming is in vain.

Main Thought

In our previous message, we cited redemption as being one “...purpose of Jesus’ coming.” Today, our message points to Jesus seeking out and saving the lost.

What we must remember about this is that those for whom Jesus “seeks” do not necessarily know that they are lost. Therefore, He does not seek them out as if they know. The reason they must be sought (by Him) is because they feel as if they are “ok.” So, why does our “opinion” differ from what Jesus really “knows?” These two differ because Man has his own opinion and view of salvation.

The Jews of Jesus’ time did not like the fact that He condemned them of sin. After all, they were the “religious” of their time. How could they possibly not be “right?” Jesus’ point to them was that they had put restrictions and laws upon the people that they, themselves, never could have fulfilled.

This situation is not peculiar to the Jews, alone. Man, in general, has had no clear understanding of salvation because in that he is a human being by birth, all information taken in is “mixed” with human emotions, perceptions and experiences. This is how we have ended up with no “agreement” as to what constitutes salvation.

Man’s “mistake” in trying to “understand” salvation has been just that—trying to understand it. When we get our minds and understanding involved, we will come up with a confused “mess.” You see, the standard of salvation is set by the Spirit and therefore, must be dealt with in and understood by the Spirit.

One of the biggest impediments to “reforming” Man to “life in the Spirit” is getting him to “let go” of what he thinks “works.” We spend most of our lifetime attempting to prove that we do have good judgment and we can make something “work.” If the Lord would ever allow us to succeed (that is, allow anything we do to “work in our favor”), we would never realize nor acknowledge our need of Him. Even in this sense, Man must accept that he is lost and without a means of survival in this world. Unless he does, the Lord’s “seeking” of him will not benefit him.

All too often, rather than our concern being to serve the Lord, we fear losing the “respect” (if we should decide to “get our lives together”) of those we believe respect us. Therefore, we will “hedge” on the Lord, stopping short of “declaring” ourselves concerning our commitment to Him. One thing that we must understand is that anyone who considers himself a “servant of the Lord” will be forced to declare himself.

It seems that Man used to understand that part of one’s “declaration” of himself to the Lord was to be done through his faith. Today, it often seems as if Man is almost counseled against faith. Even those who have been redeemed have fallen into the “trap” of technology, believing that “fallible” man can in-fallibly determine not only the state of one’s body, but also, whether he will live or die.

Once one has been “found,” he must continue with God, not retuning to his former “ways” or “ways of thinking.” No one can teach a man how to be saved (meaning: no one can be taught to be spiritual). The “secret” to “success in salvation” is to learn to do what must be done because one trusts God. This (as well as many other things in salvation) remains “mysterious” because it is revealed spiritually—and man is not spiritual. Consider this: when Peter was told to walk on water, if he had waited until he understood how he was going to be able to do it, he never would have done it! We, as Peter did, are just to do as He says!

Our “identification” with God must involve our declaration of whose “side” we are on. We cannot declare Him one day and the next, attempt to protect ourselves. The unmistakable mark” of flesh is that it will always attempt to preserve itself. Since this is impossible, it is yet another attempt of the enemy to keep us focused upon ourselves—which is exactly what Man does.

The fact that “Jesus came to seek and to save the lost” is a measure of the boundlessness of His love. Though the love. itself, is boundless, we impose boundaries through unbelief and disobedience. We show our mistrust of His love through our fear of how others treat us.

This is something that really affects our joy. You see, we often equate happiness (to us, equal with joy) with how we are treated by others. Through this, we are “controlled,” for we then become dependent upon others for our happiness. Jesus has come that we might be liberated from the opinions of the world and awakened to the fact that any esteem that we might amass in this world will come only through our knowing who we are in Jesus. If we are only willing to live according to the Spirit, we will be forever unmoved by human cares and concerns.

“Jesus came to seek and to save...” His creation—the man of the flesh. His goal is accomplished not through changing a group of people, but through changing one person at a time. Each individual man has his own “reckoning” to do with the One Who created him and knows him best. For this, He offers us the gift of salvation, which is available to us only through the death of Jesus. Now, rather than this death being our “ticket” into heaven; that is, rather than us gaining heaven because Jesus died, through it, we can access heaven because we die with Him!