Mark 2:17 When Jesus heard it, he said to them, They that are whole have no need of the physician, but they that are sick… I. SINNERS IN THEIR NATURAL STATE HAVE NEED OF REPENTANCE. This duty is often urged in Scripture (Isaiah 55:7; Matthew 3:8; Acts 2:38). 1. Without repentance none can be saved. 2. Let all, therefore, lay held on it without delay. II. SINNERS CANNOT REPENT OF THEMSELVES. They must be called to it by Christ. III. ONE MAIN END OF CHRIST'S COMING INTO THE WORLD WAS TO CALL AND CONVERT SINNERS, AND BRING THEM TO REPENTANCE. 1. This should encourage sinners to come to Christ by faith, and by true repentance and humiliation for their sins, in hope of mercy and pardon. Since He came for this purpose, He will not reject any who accept His invitation and hearken to His call. 2. How excellent a work it must he — since Christ Himself came to begin it — to be the means of converting sinners, and drawing them to repentance. This is not merely the duty of ministers: all Christians may take part in it. 3. If Christ came to call sinners to repentance, then He did not come to give liberty to any to live in sin, or to commit sin. Repentance is the beginning of a new life — a life of emancipation from the power as well as the penalty of sin. (G. Petter.)All the lessons of this word could not be even named here, but these are certainly in it. I. Sin is sickness of the worst kind. II. Repentance and forgiveness are the healing of the soul. III. Christ is the soul's Physician, skilled to heal all its diseases. IV. The more grave our case is, the more eager Jesus is to cure it. What should we have done had this not been the ease? Happily He still stoops to closest, tenderest fellowship with sinners. He pities most the guiltiest, and is ever nearest to the neediest. (R. Glover.) Parallel Verses KJV: When Jesus heard it, he saith unto them, They that are whole have no need of the physician, but they that are sick: I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. |
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