Why Jesus Christ Came into the World
“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.” — Timothy i: 15.
OUR subject to-night is one that has engaged the thoughtful and earnest attention for years not only of theologians but also of sociologists, historians, political philosophers and reformers. Some tell us that “Christ Jesus came into the world to proclaim the great truths of the Father¬ hood of God and the Brotherhood of Man” Others say that “Christ Jesus came into the world to carry to completion God’s original thought in the creation of man.” Still others tell us that “He came into the world to reorganize society on new lines, to establish a new form of human society, the kingdom of God on earth.” Not a few tell us that “Jesus Christ came into the world simply as the proclaimer of new ethical principles by which men were to mould their lives.”
But there is no need that we speculate or guess or argue as to why Jesus Christ came into the world; for God Himself has seen fit to tell us in the most plain and explicit words just why Jesus Christ came
HOW TO BE SAVED
into this world. You will find God’s own statement of why Jesus Christ came into the world in I Tim. 1:15, “This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.” No one can mistake the meaning of those words. Listen again: “This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.” When we stop to reflect upon the exact meaning and full force of this statement it will seem incredible. These words unmistakably declare that it was an interest in sinners, in the vile outcast, in rebels against God, in blasphemers, persecutors, perjurers, thieves, robbers, harlots, thugs, bandits, murderers, that induced the glorious Son of God to leave heaven’s joys and glories and to come down into this world. And these words furthermore tell us that Christ Jesus came into the world not to punish sinners as the holy executioner of God’s wrath against sin, nor to study them as a great philosopher. No, no, He came to save them. Does it look credible that the Son of God should step down from the throne of His glory, lay that infinite glory aside, consent to enter this world through the lowly door of Bethlehem’s manger and leave it through the shameful and dreadful door of Calvary’s Cross to save sinners? No wonder that Paul felt it necessary to preface this astounding statement with the words, “This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation” Paul well knew that philosophers and thinking men generally would not be ready to accept this state¬ ment of the purpose of the coming of that infinitely glorious person, Jesus Christ, into this world, and therefore he will call their attention to the fact that as incredible as this statement appears to be, it was God’s own word and therefore worthy of man’s un¬ questioning and absolute confidence and of all acceptance. Yes, this is why Christ Jesus came into the world, this is the great central purpose of His coming, to save sinners. “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.”
I. In Whose Behalf it was that Christ Jesus Came Into the World
Notice first of all, please, in whose behalf it was that Christ Jesus came, in the behalf of “sinners.” “Sinners” is not a nice word, and the fact for which it stands is even worse than the word. Sin is the foulest, hatefullest, most hideous, most loath¬ some thing in all the universe. Disease, leprosy, death, corruption, rottenness, putridity, and all other repulsive and disgusting things are one and all merely inadequate types of sin and its hideousness and repulsiveness. The sinner is the personal embodiment of all this foulness and vileness and repulsiveness, and yet Jesus Christ the Holy Son of God came into the world in behalf of sinners.
Men and women who were sinners and who were conscious of the fact seemed to be the only people in whom Christ Jesus took any interest when He was here on earth. He “received sinners,” He “called sinners,” He “ate with publicans and sinners.” He announced as His program, “I came not to call the righteous, but sinners” (Matt. 9: 13), and again, “The Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10). A
HOW TO BE SAVED
very prominent and eminently respectable and profoundly pious leader among the Jews came in a very deferential way to Christ Jesus one night to ask Him a few important questions, and He practically slammed the door in his face by saying “you must be born again.” He would not even reason with him, but kept saying “you must be born again.” In the very next chapter a loose, abandoned woman strays His way and He tells her all about the water which if a man drink thereof he will “never thirst again,” and about the true way to worship, and about His own Messianic office.
In the 1 8th chapter of Luke a most attractive young man came to Jesus Christ, a young man who had led a most exemplary life, a life of morality and piety and generosity and culture, and Christ sends him away sorrowful by an uncompromising demand that he sell all his honestly gotten possessions and give the proceeds to the poor, and in the very next chapter He tells a notorious, money-grasping old sin¬ ner named Zacchaeus that He wants to put up at his house.
In the 7th chapter of Luke, Jesus Christ hits a very respectable and highly esteemed and hospitable gentleman named Simon a slap in the face, and al¬ most in the same breath tenderly says to a disreputable woman of the town “Thy sins are forgiven — go in peace.”
All of His interest was in sinners, all His tender¬ ness was for sinners, all His infinitely gracious invitations were for sinners. Oh, how wondrously kind and gentle He was to sinners. But how merci¬ less He was to moralists, to all who boasted of their own goodness, of their religion and their righteousness, stripping off the veneering of decency that covered the real rottenness within, calling them “white¬ washed sepulchres,” “hidden graves,” enclosures of rottenness and corruption and dead men’s bones, “generation of snakes.”
Christ Jesus came to save sinners. Do you wish Christ Jesus to take an interest in you and to save you? Well, then, you must take your place before Him as a sinner, just a commonplace, unadorned, un¬ varnished, inexcusable, self-confessed sinner. Not a respectable sinner, no; nor a genteel sinner, nor a cultivated sinner, no; nor an attractive sinner, no; nor an amiable sinner, no; but just a plain, unadorned sinner; a poor, miserable, vile, guilty, worthless, hell¬ deserving sinner. Do you know that more people are shut out of Jesus Christ’s saving grace and out of pardon and out of heaven and out of eternal life be¬ cause they won’t get right down before Christ Jesus as sinners, plain, ugly, wretched sinners, than by any¬ thing else? Far more people are shut out of heaven by the pride that keeps them from crying “God be merciful to me a sinner,” than are shut out by the enormity of their sins or by the stubbornness of their infidelity. It is as true to-day as it was when Jesus Christ first said it to the moralists of His own day, “the publicans and harlots go into the kingdom of heaven before you” (Matt. 21:31).
One night in an after-meeting in Chicago, as I passed through the innermost inquiry room, a lady of large culture sat there among the inquirers. This woman had taken two or three university degrees, she was in professional life and was one of the most
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highly cultured women who attended our church. As I passed by she said, “Mr. Torrey, will you speak with me?” I replied, “If you will wait a few moments until I speak to these poor creatures over yonder,” looking toward some poor outcasts grouped together in a corner of the room, “I will come back and speak with you.” These poor outcasts knew that they were sinners and they accepted Jesus Christ. Then I came back to the lady and drawing up a chair sat down in front of her and asked her “What can I do for you?” She replied, “Mr. Torrey, I have not a satisfactory Christian experience.” I replied, “I do not think you have any Christian experience at all.” “Why,” she replied, “I am a church member.” I answered, “Unfortunately that does not prove anything. I am sorry to say that I have known many church members whom I could not believe were really saved.” “But,” she said, “I am a Sunday-school teacher.” I said, “Unfortunately that does not prove anything, I am sorry to say I have known not a few Sunday-school teachers of whose salvation I was not at all sure.” “But,” she replied, “I am the widow of a minister,” “Well,” I said, “unfortunately even that fact does not prove anything. I do not read anywhere in the Bible that anyone is saved by marrying a parson.”
“Now,” I said, “I do not believe that you ever in all your life came to God as a poor, vile, worth¬ less, miserable, hell-deserving sinner, not essentially better than those poor creatures over in the corner.” She immediately straightened up and her eyes flashed as she replied, “No, I never did, for I am not.” I looked at her and quietly said, “You are about as full of spiritual conceit as anyone I ever met.” She gasped out, “Mr. Torrey, you are cruel.” “No,” I replied, “I am kind. It is not cruel, it is kind, to tell people the truth.” “Now,” I said, “you are a physician, are you not?” She said, “Yes, I am.” “Suppose you had a patient who had a great big tumor and you took a sharp knife and cut it out. Would that be cruel?” “No,” she answered, “that would be the kindest thing I could do.” “Well,” I said, “you have a great big tumor of spiritual pride and by the grace of God I will cut it out to-night.” The woman had sense even if she was proud. She immediately dropped on her knees and came to God as a poor, vile, worthless, miserable, hell-deserving sinner, and she got “a satisfactory Christian experience.” But there are some of you who have never done it, and some of you who are determined that you never will do it. Well, you will or else you will spend eternity in hell.
Come, my genial, upright, polished, perfect gentle¬ man, you must get down and take your place as a sinner, if Jesus Christ is to take any interest in you and save you. Come, my fine lady, with fair and attractive life and beautiful character and generous culture and winsome personality and an honoured place in society, you, too, have got to get down in your right place before God as a sinner if Christ Jesus is to save you. Yes, you must get down right alongside your sister from the slums, for “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” and He saves nobody else. Are you one? Are you a real, genuine sinner? If not, Christ did not come for you. Oh, we have thousands in our churches to-day
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who have never taken their places as lost sinners be¬ fore Jesus Christ, and, of course, they have never been saved.
Over the door of the Moody Church in Chicago, when I was pastor, these words were engraved in the stone, “Welcome to this house of God are strangers and the poor.” I fear that motto kept a good many people away from that church. They preferred to go where the rich and cultured were especially welcome. But suppose that motto had read, “This church is for sinners.” Would you like to have gone to that church? But if this church in which we are met to-night is to be a true church of Jesus Christ that is whom it is for, for “sinners”: “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners”
But while this great and wonderful text takes away all hope from the mere moralist, while it says to every man and woman who is unwilling to take their places before Christ as sinners, “Christ Jesus is not for you, the Gospel is not for you, the Bible is not for you, heaven is not for you,” on the other hand, how wide this text throws open the door for all who are sinners and who know it. Yes, even for the vilest. Listen again, “This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.” How many a man and woman there is to-day who is say¬ ing, “Christ Jesus is not for me, salvation is not for me, eternal life is not fqr me, the inheritance incorruptible, undefiled and that fadeth not away is not for me.” Why not? “Oh, I am so great a sinner.” Listen, “This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.” Do you hear that? It was in be¬ half of sinners that Jesus Christ came into this world, and because you are just what you are, a “sinner,” a grievous, way-down, miserable, hopeless, helpless, hell-deserving sinner, it is just that fact that makes Christ Jesus for you, and heaven for you, and salvation for you, and eternal life for you: “This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.” I see passing before me as I speak a long, long line of men and women whom I have met in different parts of the world who seemed utterly beyond hope, and who considered themselves utterly beyond hope, because they had gone so deep into sin and remained so long in sin, but who by the power of this text were led to put their trust in the Saviour who came into the world to save “sinners” Yes, “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” and He does it. And He can do it for anyone here to-night who will take his place as a lost sinner. But He cannot do it for anyone else.
II. What Was the Purpose of Christ Jesus
Concerning Sinners?
We see then it was in behalf of sinners that Christ Jesus came into the world, but What Was His Purpose Concerning Sinners? To Save. “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.” As already suggested, He did not come into the world to punish sinners. Neither did He come to condemn sinners. He did not come to upbraid sinners. He did up¬ braid certain classes of sinners sometimes but that
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was not what He came for, that was merely an incident. He did not come to reform sinners. That is a hopeless and worthless task. It is like painting the cheeks of a corpse. It will not keep the corpse from rotting. He did not come to help sinners, to help them to do better. Ah, friends, a sinner’s case is so desperate that he needs something more than help, something that goes far deeper than help. He came to save sinners, to redically, thoroughly and eternally save sinners. To save them freely, fully, and forever.
i. First of all, He came to save sinners from the guilt of their sins. There is a Holy God up yonder, an infinitely Holy God, and when a man once sins he is a guilty sinner before yonder Holy God. His sins avert the face of that Holy Being from him, his sin separates between him and that Holy God, and the wrath of that Holy God is kindled against him, though that God loves him. Christ Jesus came into the world to save us from our guilt, to save us from the wrath of God, and to give our guilty consciences peace.
How did Jesus save sinners from their guilt? Listen to God’s own answer to that question, “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us: for it is written. Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree” (Gal. 3: 13). He saved us from the guilt of sin by taking our guilt upon Himself, by bearing our penalty in His own body on the Cross, of Calvary. The curse was your due and mine; but Jesus Christ, God manifested in the flesh, took that curse upon Himself. Listen again, “All we, like sheep, have gone astray; we have turned everyone to his own way; and Jehovah hath made to strike on Him (that is, on Jesus Christ) the iniquity of us all” (Isa. 53:6, literally translated). By His atoning death Jesus Christ put away the sin that stood between you and God. By His atoning death, by the shedding of His blood, God’s wrath at my sin and at your sin was settled and settled forever. By His death my guilty conscience finds peace. Let me say that this is with me not a mere matter of theological opinion but a matter of glad and certain experimental knowledge. Christ Jesus saves from the guilt and penalty of sin, I know that. I do not merely think so or hope so, I know it. I know that Christ Jesus “has power on earth to forgive sins” because He has forgiven my sins, and they were very many and they were very great. And I know that through His atoning death, which I have accepted as the whole ground and the sole ground of my salvation, every sin of mine has been blotted out forever, and that there is not a cloud between me and the Infinitely Holy God in whose presence the very seraphim veil their faces and their feet.
2. But Christ Jesus came not merely to save the sinner from the guilt of his sins and from the penalty of his sins, but to save him also from the power of sin. Jesus Christ does save from sin’s guilt and from sin’s punishment, He does save from a guilty conscience and from hell, but thank God that is not all, He saves from sin’s power. Our Lord’s own words bring this out with great clearness and force, He Himself says in Jno. 8:34, “Every one that committeth sin is the slave of sin.” Now
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we all know this is true. Oh, how many of us know to-night from bitterest experience the slavery of sin, the slavery, e. g., of intemperance, or the slavery of lust, or the slavery of the greed for gold, or the slavery of a bad temper, or the slavery of an unruly tongue, or the slavery of a mean dis¬ position, or the slavery of unclean thoughts. Yes, we have all known something about the bondage of sin, but listen to what Jesus Christ says two verses further on, “If therefore the Son shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed” (Jno. 8:36). Jesus Christ the Son of God, the Saviour who died on Calvary’s Cross to make pardon possible, rose from the dead, and is to-day a living Saviour, and has “all power in heaven and on earth” (Matt. 28: 19) and is therefore able to save to the uttermost, not merely from the uttermost but to the uttermost all those who come unto God through Him (Heb. 7:25); and He saves us from all the slavery of sin. He saves us from sin’s power as well as from sin’s guilt. That is what He came to do, that is what He does do.
Paul, who wrote the words of my text, knew from personal experience the power of Christ Jesus to save not merely from the guilt of sin but to save from the power of sin as well. Paul had known the bondage of sin, the awful, grinding slavery of sin. Pie gives us a leaf from his autobiography in the 7th chapter of Romans. He tells us of how he had found the law of God, and how earnestly he had tried to keep it, and how utterly he had failed. He had tried to break away from sin. The struggle as described in Romans seven was a hard one, a determined one, but it resulted in utter failure. Paul tells us that the more he tried to break away from sin the more helpless he found himself until at last, in utter despair, he cried, “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me out of the body of this death?” He seemed to himself like one chained for¬ ever to the “dead,” stinking “body” of sin, but when he cried, “Who shall deliver me from the body of this death” he got his answer at once. You will find the answer in the next verse, “I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Rom.
7:24, 25).
Christ Jesus came into the world in behalf of sinners. He came to save sinners. He came to save them from the guilt and penalty and power of sin. He does save from the guilt and penalty and power of sin whoever comes to Him and puts his trust in Him. He will save any sinner who will believe on Him, who will just put their case in His hands. He will save them right now. He will not save anyone who will not come to Him and come as a sinner, but He will save, at once, freely, and fully and forever, every man, woman, and child who will come to Him and confess that they are sinners and put their trust in Him as their Saviour from the guilt and power of sin. He will save them freely, fully, and for¬ ever. Will you let Him save you? If any man, woman, or child, goes out of this building to-night unsaved, you will have no one to blame but your¬ self. “This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.” Let Him save you right now.