Living our lives we feel amiss, our conscience pricks us, reminding us of our sinfulness.
There is a belief of Jesus love for sinners that our Christian faith speaks of especially when in a state of despair and self-hate.
The need is just to reach to the Lord and experience His love and forgiveness.
Why is Jesus Love for Sinners Essential
To err is human and for us humans to sin is our trait. Nobody as he or she lives, is without a sin.
This isn’t what we humans ought to be known for with our sinful lives, we are “called to be saints” as written in the Holy Bible.
We have been “sanctified in Christ Jesus” says the Scriptures.
Sanctified means we are set apart or declared holy.
This may not seem easy for us humans, we have not trained ourselves for being thus.
If we cannot be a saint, we can at the least strive to live a life with the living nature of a saint.
They can be simple minimalist forms of living, a life with a sense of holiness.
Jesus engagements with the sinners found in the Bible is a testimony of His deep empathy and mercy towards them.
The Holy Bible especially the New Testament has many an instances showing Jesus’ love for sinners.
In the Bible the striking feature of Jesus ministry is His compassion for sinners as found in Luke 5:32.
Jesus love for sinners found in the Bible is a story of conversion of sinners and His grace.
Jesus Love for Sinners in the Bible
Jesus Forgives And Heals the Paralysed Man
From the Holy Bible, Mark 2: 1-12
Jesus told the paralytic, “Child, your sins are forgiven”
Some teachers of the law were also present when Jesus forgive the sins of the paralytic man and healed him of his disability.
Over here Jesus by forgiving the sins manifested Himself who He was.
And as the teachers of law protested that only God could forgive sins, these same teachers were too blind in their minds to even recognize if what they said of only God forgiving sins, then here indeed was God who was forgiving the sins.
Jesus judged not the man’s sins and also did not for a moment condemn him, but healed him because of the faith of this paralyzed man and his friends who got him down from the roof.
A Sinful Woman washes Jesus feet
From the Holy Bible, Luke 7: 36-50
When a sinful woman bathed Jesus’ feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair, Jesus said, “Your sins are forgiven” (Lk 7:48);
Here again it’s the faith and the remorse of the woman who felt burdened by her sins that saved her and all her sins were forgiven by Jesus.
Jesus connects a sinful heart that regrets, for the sins committed.
Jesus showed mercy to the sinful woman and did not judge her like the others for her sinful life.
By forgiving her sins, Jesus gave her a second chance, a new life to begin.
Jesus by forgiving her sins had healed her soul and also the wounds of self-hate and inferiority she felt of herself. She was a renewed person now with a God loving spirit.
Woman caught in adultery
From the Holy Bible, John 8 : 1-11
Jesus instructed the condemners of the adulteress woman to cast the first stone at her if they had never committed a sin ever or weren’t still in sin, asking them not to judge her but judge thyself first.
The adulteress woman was brought to be stoned, where was the Man?
Maybe that’s what Jesus scribbled on the floor asking them, maybe Jesus also wrote the sins of all those who prepared to stone her, starting from the old to young thus the order of their departure.
Jesus then told the woman that she is not condemned even by Jesus, meaning He has forgiven her sins but also told her to sin no more.
Thus, Jesus Loves Sinners but not their sins.
Jesus and the Good Thief
From the Holy Bible, Luke 23 : 39-43
There were two criminals hung on each side of Jesus, one criminal mocked Jesus but the other, a thief rebuked him for talking ill to Jesus and also realized his own sinful life as he was dying on the cross.
His talking to the lord, as he hung on cross next to Jesus seemed like asking mercy for his sins from Jesus.
Merciful Jesus granted him forgiveness with the words that you will be with me in paradise.
The criminal thief became the good thief now with the grace and mercy of our lord Jesus.
Jesus will not see our sins, he will see your faith and your hope in Him to be saved.
Does Jesus Love For Sinners Means We Can Sin
Jesus loves sinners but He hates sin.
Thus on the night after the last supper and before he was arrested Jesus prayed at the garden at Gethsemane and here Jesus Christ underwent agony in this garden as He prayed and His sweat were like drops of blood falling to the ground.
He experienced great anguish and prayed to be delivered from His impending suffering that were to follow, while also prayed that He would still accept the will of His Father and not His own will.
Was Jesus afraid of the suffering, the passion that was to follow?
NO… Jesus was not afraid of the passion, He surely was afraid…
Afraid of that moment when He being without a stain of sin all His earthly life was going to take upon Himself all the sins of all the human generations that lived from the start of the earth, to the present and till the very end of the earth.
He would bear all upon Himself. And the consequence of sin being death, He was going to die for all their sins.
Still the suffering and death on result of this sin was still not that made Jesus sweat drops of blood in agony, but that because of this sin He was going to part away with His Father, God.
To be with God is to be without sin and Jesus was going to be separated now with His Father.
Thus Jesus Loves Sinners, but not their sins.
If we truly love Jesus then we will not sin. To sin means to hurt Jesus, it’s like we are ungrateful for all the sacrifices of the Son Of God.
In all the above stories from the Bible we see a common thread following that of Jesus having compassion on all the sick in health and spirit and healing them each of their shortcomings and sicknesses but in the end told them each, to sin no more.
It’s His love for the sinners that He wants that they sin no more as Jesus wants them all to be cleanse of all their sins and unite with God.
Sin is the blockage, the wide gap, the obstruction, the barrier, the restraint that is between human and God.
To break this divide Jesus, the only begotten son had come to earth.
He came so we could all be saved, saved from being in damnation forever, because of sin.
Like as mentioned at the very start,
We have been “sanctified in Christ Jesus”
Sanctified means we are set apart or declared holy.
Holy in communion with our Lord Jesus Christ.
And this communion is holy because it is with Jesus, thus there is no place for sin in it. We can have no sin in us.
To further believe that we have a merciful Jesus forgiving us our sins each time we commit it, is not only that we are misusing His grace and mercy, but we are also hurting a relationship or we are not loyal to a love of Jesus which is unconditional in its mercy and forgiveness.
Jesus love for sinners should advocate in us virtues of making a new beginning each time I fall into a sin and correcting ourselves to follow His commandment and will, so His sacrifice of dying for our sins be honored.
We should live a life of no sin.
What Does Jesus Love for Sinners Means for Me, A Sinner
Jesus when on earth was 100% Divine and also 100% Human.
Being human, Jesus too knew the shortcomings of all the humans, their temptations, their will and their hindrances in encountering the sins of earth.
Thus Jesus love for sinners was his mercy and understanding towards them.
He healed them physically and in spirit and also advised them to sin no more so they are not entrapped in the lies and the consequences of the evil one and his sins.
We will occasionally fall in the traps of sins, we need to read between the right and the wrongs, thus sin.
We need to get up and walk away from the sin and not lay in comfort of the honey traps and cushions of sins.
We can arm ourselves to always remain protected from the snares of the enemy.
The protection is Jesus, we need to rise up and walk towards the lord in our mind and spirit, asking Him forgiveness first for the sin committed and seek His endurance and will so that we do not fall into the same trap of sin again.
Ask Jesus to help you if the sin is an addiction or a passing temporary gain.
We need to have more of Jesus walking besides us most part of the day.
Judas the apostle, who betrayed Jesus, so to have Him handed over to the officials to be crucified for some monetary gains had committed a sin and when he realized the consequence and his own wrongdoings, he killed himself by hanging on a tree.
Also Peter an apostle of Jesus had committed a sin by denying of knowing Jesus, and he denied Him three times. Even he regretted and cried for his sins.
The difference between Judas and Peter was that Peter on knowing of his sins regretted and went back to Jesus in spirit, seeking His forgiveness and mercy and He was forgiven.
But Judas though he regretted cheating Jesus, chose the thoughts of the evil one to go and kill himself for his deeds and not return back to Jesus seeking His forgiveness and mercy.
Would not Jesus who on cross asked His Father to forgive all the wrong doings of the people who crucified Him, not forgive Judas who betrayed Him for the greed of money.
Jesus surely would have forgiven Judas a sinner now, because of Jesus’ love for sinners.
So we as humans are bound to commit a sin, and many a sins each day but we need to have Peter as a role model for us as when he had sinned, he regretted and went to Jesus asking forgiveness for his sins.
Jesus loves us as humans first, as His children, His friend and more. He is a shepherd to us as we are the lost sheep.
We need to always when grazing (living our earthly lives) have our eyes set to find the shepherd, Jesus, as His staff will always guide and protect us.
Trust in the shepherd as He will always lead us to pastures that are green.
Will Jesus Love For Sinners Forgive Us Our Repeated Sins
Peter asks if forgiving seven times is appropriate, and Jesus responds “not seven times, but seventy times seven” (Matthew 18:22).
Jesus says we should forgive someone seventy times seven in response to a question from Peter about how many times to forgive a brother who sins or does wrong against against him.
It would mean innumerable times, rather without keeping a count.
Trust Jesus alone, to practice what He preaches.
We may commit sins that are too many times.
But we need to repent for our sins and the repentance should be from your heart and spirit and a will of not committing the sins again and not mere words before the Lord.
If still you feel weak and realize the sin, as an untying knot that cannot be broken, remember and more trust in Jesus for nothing is impossible or no sin is ever bigger than the grace and mercy of Jesus.
He will break them all into shatters that they never be built again.
Jesus told the sinners he healed, telling them their faith has healed them. Build that faith in Jesus.
Your faith must be the size of a mustard seed now but it’ll with perseverance and prayers and the companionship of Jesus be built to be the size of a huge banyan tree.
Jesus should be a hope for us sinners as the life banner reads
Jesus loves sinners…
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If sinner was judged, he would be lost forever.