Christ Is The Great Saviour Of Sinners!
“This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.” -I Timothy 1:15 [KJV]
Several years ago, my dear friend, Don Bell, preached a message from the above text that, to this day, I have not forgotten. His two points were very simple: I am a great sinner, and Jesus Christ is a great Savior. Brother Don made the point that these are two things we learn over and over in our Christian life – we never get past them.
I asked Brother Scott Richardson, not long before he died, if things had gotten easier as he had gotten older. Did his struggle with self and sin get easier, etc. He said, “Not with me it hasn’t.” Scott was still learning what Brother Don Bell had preached in that message – “I am a great sinner.” Scott told us all something else, “As I am convinced that I am a sinner, it gives me more reason to look to the One who is the Savior of sinners.”
I am seventy-three years old. I have been on this way for over fifty years. Sin and sense molest me as much now, if not more, as it did when I first began. I am as great a sinner in my own eyes now as I have ever been. And yet I have never experienced more of the peace of God, and the joy of the Lord than I do now. It seems to me that the good hope my gracious God gave me fifty years ago is almost ready to be realized. And my hope is simply this, “That Jesus Christ came into this world to save sinners.” He saves them by His living and dying and living again. And where He is, I soon hope to be. And when I am there, I will do what I long to do here but have never been able: To worship Him with un-dimmed eyes and an un-sinning heart.
John Newton said, “When I was young, I was sure of many things. But now that I am old, there are only two things of which I am sure: One is that I am a miserable sinner! The second is that Christ is an all-sufficient Savior!” He is well taught who learns these two lessons!
-preacher Bruce Crabtree
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