The Jerusalem Sinner Saved

Beginning at Jerusalem. (Luke 24:47)

The whole verse reads: “And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.”

Christ spoke these words after he rose from the dead. They are told here in the manner of a history, but they contain a formal commission, with a special clause in it. The commission, as you see, is for the preaching of the gospel, and Matthew and Mark set it down very plainly in the holy record: “Go … teach all nations …” (Matt 28:19); “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature” (Mark 16:15). Only Luke, though, specifically mentions this clause. He tells us that just as Christ wanted the doctrine of repentance and remission of sins preached in his name among all nations, so he wanted the people of Jerusalem to have the first offer of it. Preach it in all nations, Christ says, but begin at Jerusalem.

So the apostles had a commission large enough to give them warrant to go and preach the gospel in all the world. Yet by this clause they were limited as to where their ministry should begin: they were to begin this work at Jerusalem. “Beginning at Jerusalem.”

Before I draw an observation from these words, I must touch briefly on two things: first, I will show you what Jerusalem was at that time; and second, I will show you what it meant to preach the gospel to them.

1. Jerusalem may be considered in three ways: first, with respect to the descent of her people; second, with respect to her being preferred and exalted; or third, with respect to her present state, that is, her decay.

(1) As to her descent, she came from Abraham through the sons of Jacob, a people God singled out from the rest of the nations to set his love on them.

(2) As to her being preferred and exalted, she was the place of God’s worship. She had in her and with her the special tokens and signs of God’s favor and presence, above any other people in the world. That is why the tribes went up to Jerusalem to worship. There was God’s house, God’s high priest, God’s sacrifices accepted, and God’s eye and God’s heart, continually (Ps 76:1-2; Ps 122; 1 Kgs 9:3).

(3) But we must also consider Jerusalem in her decay. For when we consider her that way, she is the proper object of our text, as I will show more fully by and by.

Jerusalem, as I told you, was the place and seat of God’s worship, but now she had decayed, degenerated, and fallen away. The Word, the rule of worship, they had rejected, and in its place they had set up their own traditions. They had also rejected the weightiest ordinances and put their own little things in their place (Matt 15; Mark 7). So Jerusalem had now badly backslidden, and had become the place where truth and true religion were much defaced.

It had also now become the very sink of sin and seat of hypocrisy, the gulf where true religion was drowned (Matt 15:7-9; Mark 7:6-8). Here presumption now reigned, and a groundless confidence in God, which is the ruin of souls (Matt 3:7-9; John 8:33, 41). Among its rulers, doctors, and leaders, envy, malice, and blasphemy poured out against the power of godliness wherever they spotted it, and against those who promoted it as well (Matt 27:18; Mark 3:30). Yes, even their Lord and Maker could not escape them.

In a word, Jerusalem had now become the slaughter-yard, the very butcher’s shop for saints. This was the place where the prophets, Christ, and his people were most horribly persecuted and murdered (Matt 23:35; Matt 23:37; Luke 13:33-34). Yes, Jerusalem was so hardened in her sins at this time that she was not afraid to commit the biggest sin of all, and by her own wish to bind herself under its guilt and damning evil. For when she had murdered the Son of God, she said, “His blood be on us, and on our children” (Matt 27:25). And though Jesus Christ tried, by his doctrine, his miracles, and the holiness of his life, to put a stop to their villainies, they shut their eyes, stopped their ears, and did not rest until, as I hinted before, they had driven him out of the world. Yes, so that they might, if possible, wipe out his name and drive his doctrine out of the world, they went against all reason and defied heaven, its mighty hand, and the undeniable proof of his resurrection. They hired soldiers to invent a lie, saying that his disciples had stolen him away from the grave (Matt 28:11-15). They did it on purpose, so that people would not count him the Savior of the world or trust in him for the remission of sins.

They were, as Paul says, “contrary to all men.” For they not only shut the door of life against themselves, but forbade it to be opened to anyone else. “Forbidding us,” he says, “to speak to the Gentiles, that they might be saved, to fill up their sins alway” (1 Thess 2:14-16).

This is the city, and these are the people. This is their character, and these are their sins, and their equal cannot be found anywhere in this world. No, what world, what people, what nation could ever be compared to Jerusalem for sin and transgression, or can be now? Especially if you add to the bare facts the light they sinned against and the patience they abused. On this account the wickedness they committed was infinite.

After all their abuse of wise men and prophets, God sent them John the Baptist to bring them back, and then his Son to redeem them. But they would be neither brought back nor redeemed, and they persecuted both of them to death. Nor did they stop there, as I said. Afterward they persecuted the holy apostles to death as well, as many of them as they could, and the rest they drove away to the farthest corners.

2. I come now to show you what it meant to preach the gospel to them. It was, Luke says, to preach to them “repentance and remission of sins” in Christ’s name; or, as Mark puts it, to tell them to “repent and believe the gospel” (Mark 1:15). Not that repentance is a cause of remission; it is a sign that we have received it from the heart. Repentance is put here, then, to show that no professed faith in the gospel is any good if repentance does not go with it. Christ does this on purpose, because he does not want them to deceive themselves. For with what kind of faith can anyone expect remission of sins in Christ’s name if he is not heartily sorry for them? Or how can a man give others a satisfying account of his sincere submission to the gospel while he still remains unrepentant?

That is why repentance is joined here with faith in the way the gospel is received. Faith is the thing without which the gospel cannot be received at all, and repentance is the thing without which it cannot be received sincerely. So when Christ says he wants repentance and remission of sins preached in his name among all nations, it is as if he said, “I want everyone everywhere to be sorry for their sins and to accept mercy at God’s hand through me, so that they do not fall under his wrath in the judgment.” For, as I have said, whatever claim to faith people make, without repentance they cannot escape the wrath to come. That is why Paul says that God commands “all men everywhere to repent” (Acts 17:30), that is, in order to be saved, “because he hath appointed a day, in the which he shall judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained” (Acts 17:31).

And now to come to this clause, “Beginning at Jerusalem.” That is, Christ wanted Jerusalem to have the first offer of the gospel.

1. This cannot have been commanded because they now had any more right to it in themselves than any of the nations of the world had. Their sins had stripped them of all claim to deserve anything.

2. Nor was it because they stood on higher ground than the worst sinners among the nations. No, the sinners of the nations stood on higher ground than they did. For long before Jerusalem added this iniquity to her sin, she was worse than the very nations that God cast out before the children of Israel (2 Chr 33).

3. It must follow, then, that this clause, “Beginning at Jerusalem,” was put into this commission out of pure grace and compassion, from the very overflowing of the heart of mercy. For they really were the worst, and so in the most pitiful condition of any people under heaven.

So whatever their relation was to Abraham, Isaac, or Jacob, and however much they had once been the people among whom God had placed his name and worship, they had now degenerated from God more than the nations had from their idols. They had become guilty of the highest sins that the people of the world were capable of committing. Indeed, of all sins that are still pardonable, no one can commit greater ones than those they committed against their God when they killed his Son and persecuted his name and his Word.

From these words, then, explained in this way, we gain this observation: that Jesus Christ would have mercy offered, in the first place, to the biggest sinners.

That these Jerusalem sinners were the biggest sinners who ever lived in the world, I think no one will deny who believes that Christ was the best man who ever lived in the world, and was also their Lord God. And that they were to have the first offer of his grace, the text is as clear as the sun. For it says, “Beginning at Jerusalem” (Luke 24:47). “Preach,” he says, “repentance and remission of sins” to the Jerusalem sinners: to the Jerusalem sinners in the first place.

The Jerusalem sinners were the worst and greatest sinners, Christ’s greatest enemies. They had not only despised his person, his doctrine and his miracles, but a little before had had their hands up to the elbows in his heart’s blood. Since that was so, one would have thought that he should rather have said, Go into all the world, and preach repentance and remission of sins among all nations; and after that, offer the same to Jerusalem. Yes, it would have been infinite grace if he had said so. But what grace is this, or what name shall we give it, when he commands that this repentance and remission of sins, which is designed to be preached in all nations, should first be offered to Jerusalem: in the first place to the worst of sinners!

Nor was this the first time that the grace in the heart of Christ showed itself to the world in this way. For while he was still alive, even while he was still in Jerusalem, he perceived, even among these Jerusalem sinners, which of them were the vilest. And in his preaching he still signified that he desired that the worst of these worst should come to him in the first place. He shows this where he says to the better sort of them, “The publicans and the harlots go into the kingdom of God before you” (Matt 21:31).

Also, when he compared Jerusalem with the sinners of the nations, he commanded that the gospel should for the present be confined to the Jerusalem sinners. “Go not,” he says, “into the way of the Gentiles, and into any of the cities of the Samaritans enter ye not; but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (Matt 10:5-6). Go rather to them, for they were in the most fearful plight (Matt 23:37). These, therefore, must have the cream of the gospel, that is, the first offer of it, in his lifetime. Yes, and when he departed out of the world, he left this as part of his last will with his preachers, that they too should offer it first to Jerusalem. He had a mind, a mind full of care, as it seems, to privilege the worst of sinners with the first offer of mercy, and to take from among them a people to be the firstfruits to God and to the Lamb.

Luke 15 is also famous for this. There the Lord Jesus takes more care, as appears by three parables, for the lost sheep, the lost coin and the prodigal son, than for the other sheep, the other coins, or the son who said he had never transgressed. Yes, he shows that there is joy in heaven, among the angels of God, over one sinner who repents, more than over ninety-nine just persons who need no repentance. In this way, then, the mind of Christ was set on the salvation of the biggest sinners in his lifetime.

But join to this the clause he carefully put into the apostles’ commission to preach when he departed from here to the Father, and then you will see that his heart was intensely set upon it. For these were part of his last words with them: Preach my gospel to all nations, but see that you begin at Jerusalem.

Nor did the apostles overlook this clause when their Lord had gone into heaven. They went first to the people of Jerusalem and preached Christ’s gospel to them. They also stayed there for a season and a time, and preached it to nobody else, for they had regard to the commandment of their Lord.

And it should be observed that the first sermon they preached after the ascension of Christ was preached to the very worst of these Jerusalem sinners, even to those who were the murderers of Jesus Christ (Acts 2:23). For these words are part of the sermon: “Ye took him, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain him.” Yes, the next sermon, and the next, and also the one after that, was preached to these very same murderers, so that they might be saved (Acts 3:14-16; Acts 4:10-11; Acts 5:30; Acts 7:52).

But we will return to the first sermon that was preached to these Jerusalem sinners. If it is duly considered, more than great grace will be made plain by it. Peter and the rest of the apostles, in their exhortation, persuaded these wretches to believe that they had killed the Prince of life. They duly fell under the guilt of their murder, saying, “Men and brethren, what shall we do?” Then Peter replied with a universal offer to them all in general, considering them as Christ’s killers: if they were sorry for what they had done, and would be baptized in his name for the remission of their sins, they would receive the gift of the Holy Ghost (Acts 2:37-38).

He said this to them all, though he knew they were such sinners. Yes, he said it without the least hitch or stop, or pause of spirit, as to whether he had better say so or not. No, Peter was so far from making an objection against any one of them that, by a particular clause in his exhortation, he labors that not one of them may escape the salvation offered. “Repent,” he says, “and be baptized every one of you.” In effect he says: I shut out not a single one of you; for I am commanded by my Lord to deal with you, as it were, one by one, by the word of his salvation.

But why does he speak so particularly? Oh, there were reasons for it! The people the apostles now had to deal with were murderers of our Lord, and were to be charged in general with his blood. But they also had their various and particular acts of villainy in that guilt, now lying on their consciences. And the guilt of these various and particular acts of wickedness could not, perhaps, be reached and removed except by this particular application: Repent, every one of you; be baptized, every one of you, in his name, for the remission of sins; and you shall, every one of you, receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.

Objector. But I was one of those who plotted to take away his life. May I be saved by him?

Peter. Every one of you.

Objector. But I was one of those who bore false witness against him. Is there grace for me?

Peter. For every one of you.

Objector. But I was one of those who cried out, “Crucify him, crucify him!” and wanted Barabbas the murderer to live rather than him. What will become of me, do you think?

Peter. I am to preach repentance and remission of sins to every one of you, says Peter.

Objector. But I was one of those who spat in his face when he stood before his accusers. I was also one who mocked him when he hung bleeding on the tree in anguish. Is there room for me?

Peter. For every one of you, says Peter.

Objector. But I was one of those who, in his extremity, said, “Give him gall and vinegar to drink.” Why should I not expect the same when anguish and guilt are upon me?

Peter. Repent of these wickednesses of yours, and here is remission of sins for every one of you.

Objector. But I railed at him, I reviled him, I hated him, I rejoiced to see him mocked by others. Can there be hope for me?

Peter. There is, for every one of you. “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.”

Oh, what a blessed “Every one of you” is here! How willing Peter was, and the Lord Jesus by his ministry, to catch these murderers with the word of the gospel, so that they might be made monuments of the grace of God! How unwilling, I say, he was that any of these should escape the hand of mercy! Yes, what an amazing wonder it is to think that above all the world, and above everybody in it, these should have the first offer of mercy! “Beginning at Jerusalem.”

But was there not something weighty in this clause of the commission? Do you not think Peter saw a great deal in it, that he should begin with these men in this way, and offer this grace so particularly to each particular man of them?

But, as I told you, this is not all. These Jerusalem sinners must have this offer again and again; every one of them must be offered it over and over. Christ would not take their first rejection as a refusal, nor their second rebuff as a refusal; he will have grace offered once, and twice, and three times, to these Jerusalem sinners. Is this not amazing grace? Christ will not be put off. These are the sinners who are sinners indeed. They are sinners of the biggest sort, and so they are the kind whom Christ, if they are converted and saved, can best use to serve his ends and designs. More on that shortly.

But what a height of grace this is! Christ intends to amaze the world, and to show that he does not act like the children of men. This is what he said long ago: “I will not execute the fierceness of my wrath, I will not return to destroy Ephraim; for I am God and not man” (Hos 11:9). This is not the way of men. Men are shorter-winded; men are quickly moved to take vengeance, and to set themselves right by way of wrath and indignation. But God is full of grace, full of patience, ready to forgive, and one who delights in mercy. All this is seen in our text. The biggest sinners must first be offered mercy; they must, I say, have the cream of the gospel offered to them.

But we will go on a little. In the third chapter of Acts we find that those who escaped being converted by the first sermon are called upon again to accept grace and forgiveness for the murder they committed upon the Son of God. You have killed, yes, “ye denied the Holy One and the Just, and desired a murderer to be granted unto you; and killed the Prince of life” (Acts 3:14-15). Notice that he falls again upon the very men who actually were, as you have it in the chapters that follow, his very betrayers and murderers, as one loath that they should escape the mercy of forgiveness. And he exhorts them again to repent, so that their sins might “be blotted out” (Acts 3:19-20).

Again, in the fourth chapter, he charges them afresh with this murder (Acts 4:10), but at the same time tells them that salvation is in no one else. Then, like a heavenly decoy, he puts himself among them too, to draw them the better under the net of the gospel, saying, “There is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).

In the fifth chapter you find them railing at him because he kept on preaching salvation among them in the name of Jesus. But he tells them that this very Jesus, whom they had slain and hanged on a tree, God had raised up and exalted “to be a Prince and a Saviour, to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins” (Acts 5:29-31). He was still hinting that though they had killed him, and to that day rejected him, yet his business was to bestow repentance and forgiveness of sins upon them.

It is true that after they began to kill again, and when nothing but killing would satisfy them, those who were scattered abroad went everywhere preaching the word. Yet even some of them so hankered after the conversion of the Jews that they preached the gospel only to them. The apostles also still made their home at Jerusalem, in hopes that they might let down their net for another haul of these Jerusalem sinners. Even Paul and Barnabas, who were God’s ministers to the Gentiles, offered the gospel in the first place to those Jews who, for their wickedness, were scattered like vagabonds among the nations. Yes, and when they repaid the apostles’ service and love with rebellion and blasphemy, Paul and Barnabas replied that it was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken to them (Acts 1:8; Acts 13:46-47).

Nor was this preaching of theirs unsuccessful among these people. The Lord Jesus so worked with the word spoken in this way that thousands of them came flocking to him for mercy. Three thousand of them embraced him at the first, and afterward two thousand more; for now they numbered about five thousand (Acts 2:41; Acts 4:4). Before sermons were preached to these murderers, by contrast, the number of the disciples was not above “a hundred and twenty” (Acts 1:15).

Also, among these people who flocked to him for mercy in this way, there was “a great company of the priests” (Acts 6:7). Now, the priests were the greatest of these biggest sinners. They were the ringleaders; they were the inventors and ringleaders in the mischief. It was they who set the people against the Lord Jesus, and who were the cause of the uproar increasing until Pilate had passed sentence on him. “The chief priests and elders,” says the text, “persuaded (the people) the multitude, that they should ask Barabbas, and destroy Jesus” (Matt 27:20). And yet, look: the priests, yes, a great company of the priests, became obedient to the faith.

Oh, the greatness of the grace of Christ, that he should be so in love with the souls of Jerusalem sinners! That he should be so delighted with the salvation of the Jerusalem sinners! That he should not only will that his gospel be offered to them, but that it be offered to them first, before other sinners were admitted to hear it! Begin at Jerusalem.

If this doctrine were well believed, where would there be room for a doubt, or a fear of the damnation of the soul, if the sinner is penitent, however bad a life he has lived and however many his sins? But this grace is hidden from the eyes of men. The devil hides it from them, for he knows it is alluring; he knows it has a drawing power in it. For this is what, above all arguments, can draw the soul to God.

I cannot help letting fall one more word. The first church, the Jerusalem church, from which the gospel was to be sent into all the world, was a church made up of Jerusalem sinners. These great sinners were here the most shining monuments of the exceeding grace of God.

So you see that I have proved the doctrine. I have done so not only by showing you that this was the practice of the Lord Jesus Christ in his lifetime, but also that it was his last will when he went up to God, saying, Begin to preach at Jerusalem. Yes, it is made still plainer in that, when his ministers first began to preach there, he joined his power to the word, to the converting of thousands of his betrayers and murderers, and also many of the ringleading priests, to the faith.

I will now go on to show you, first, the reasons for the point; and second, I will make some application of the whole.

The observation, as you know, is this: Jesus Christ would have mercy offered first of all to the biggest sinners, to the Jerusalem sinners: “Preach repentance, and remission of sins, in my name, among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.”

These are the reasons for the point:

Reason 1: The Biggest Sinners Have the Greatest Need

1. Because the biggest sinners have the most need of it.

Reason says that the one who has the most need should be helped first. I mean when a helping hand is offered, and it is offered now, for the gospel of the grace of God is sent to help the world (Acts 16:9). But the biggest sinner has the most need. Therefore, in reason, when mercy is sent down from heaven to men, the worst of men should have the first offer of it. “Begin at Jerusalem.”

This is the reason the Lord Christ himself gives for why, in his lifetime, he left the best and turned to the worst; why he kept himself so free of the righteous and stuck so close to the wicked. “The whole,” he says, “have no need of the physician, but the sick. I came not to call the righteous, but the sinners to repentance” (Mark 2:15-17).

Just before this you read that the scribes and Pharisees said to his disciples, “How is it that he eateth and drinketh with publicans and sinners?” Alas, they did not know the reason! But the Lord gives them one, and a reason both natural and compelling. These people, he says, have need, the most need. Their great necessity requires that I be most friendly to them and show my grace to them first.

Not that the others were sinless, and so had no need of a Savior. But the publicans and their companions were the biggest sinners. To outward view they were worse than the scribes, and therefore, in reason, they should be helped first, because they had the most need of a Savior.

Men who are at the point of death have more need of the physician than those who are only now and then troubled with a fainting fit. The publicans and sinners were, as it were, in the mouth of death; death was swallowing them down. And therefore the Lord Jesus receives them first and offers them mercy first. “The whole have no need of the physician, but the sick. I came not to call the righteous, but the sinners to repentance.”

The sick man, as I said, is the biggest sinner, whether he sees his disease or not. He is stained from head to foot, from his heart to his life and conduct. In every man’s judgment, this man has the most need of mercy. Nothing goes with him from bed to table, and from table to bed again, but the visible marks and obvious symptoms of eternal damnation. This, therefore, is the man who has need, the most need; and therefore, in reason, he should be helped first.

So it was with the people the text is concerned with. They were the worst of sinners, Jerusalem sinners, sinners of the biggest size, and therefore such as had the greatest need. That is why they must have mercy offered to them before it is offered anywhere else in the world. “Begin at Jerusalem”: offer mercy first to a Jerusalem sinner. This man has the most need. He is furthest from God and nearest to hell, and so he is one who has the most need. This man’s sins are the most in number, the loudest in their cry, the heaviest in weight, and consequently they will sink him soonest; so he has the most need of mercy. This man is shut up in Satan’s hand and bound fastest in the cords of his sins. He is one whom justice is sharpening its sword to cut off. Therefore he has the most need, not only of mercy, but that it should be extended to him first.

But let me go a little further to show you the true nature of this reason, namely, that Jesus Christ would have mercy offered first to the biggest sinners.

First, mercy arises from the heart and its compassion, from pity, and from a feeling for the condition of those in misery. “In his love, and in his pity, he redeemed them” (Isa 63:9). And again, “The Lord is pitiful, very pitiful, and of tender mercy” (Jas 5:11).

Now, where there is pity and compassion, there is a yearning of the heart; and where there is that, there is a readiness to help. And I say again, the more pitiful and dreadful the condition is, the more directly do the heart and its compassion turn toward such people and offer them help and deliverance. All this flows from our first scripture proof: I came to call those who have need, and to call them first, while the rest look on and murmur.

“How shall I give thee up, Ephraim?” Ephraim was a rebel against God, a man who had given himself up to devilry; he was a company of men, the ten tribes, who worshiped devils while Judah kept with his God. But “how shall I give thee up, Ephraim? How shall I deliver thee, Israel? How shall I make thee as Admah? How shall I set thee as Zeboim?” And yet you are worse than they were, and Samaria has not committed half your sins (Ezek 16:46-51). “Mine heart is turned within me, my repentings are kindled together” (Hos 11:8).

But where do you find that the Lord’s heart ever churned like this within him for and after any self-righteous man? No, no. It is for the publicans and harlots, the idolaters and Jerusalem sinners, that his heart yearns like this and tumbles about within him; for, alas, poor worms, they have the most need of mercy!

Did not the good Samaritan have more compassion for the man who fell among thieves than we read he had for anyone else? And that was though the man’s fall came about through his going from the place where they worshiped God to Jericho, the cursed city. His wine was for him, his oil was for him, his beast was for him; his penny, his care, and his bandages were for him; for, alas, the poor wretch had the most need (Luke 10:30-35).

Take Zacchaeus the publican, the chief of the publicans, one who had made himself richer by wronging others. At that time the Lord singled him out from all the rest of his fellow publicans, and did it in the face of many Pharisees, and proclaimed in the hearing of them all that salvation had come to his house that day (Luke 19:1-9).

The woman, too, who had been bound down by Satan for eighteen whole years: his compassion moved him to it, and he set her loose, though those who stood by snarled at him for doing so (Luke 13:11-13).

And why the woman of Zarephath, and why Naaman the Syrian, rather than the widows and lepers of Israel, except that their conditions were more pitiful, since they were the most forlorn and the furthest from help (Luke 4:25-27)?

But I ask, why all these that are named in this way? Why do we not have a list of some holy men who were holy in their own eyes and in the judgment of the world? Alas, if any of them are ever mentioned, how coldly, it seems, the record of Scripture presents them to us! Nicodemus, who professed by night, and Simon the Pharisee with his fifty pence, we find touched on now and then, along with their great ignorance of the ways of grace.

Mercy seems to be out of its proper channel when it deals with self-righteous men; but it runs with a full stream when it extends itself to the biggest sinners. As God’s mercy is not regulated by man’s goodness, nor obtained by man’s worthiness, so it is not much displayed by saving any such people. But more of this shortly.

And here let me ask my reader a question. Suppose that as you are walking beside some pond, you spot four or five children in it, all in danger of drowning, and one in more danger than all the rest. Judge which has the most need to be helped out first. I know you will say, the one who is nearest to drowning. Why, this is the case: the bigger the sinner, the nearer to drowning; therefore, the bigger the sinner, the more need of mercy, yes, of help by mercy, and first of all. And our text agrees with this when it says, “Beginning at Jerusalem.” Let the Jerusalem sinner, says Christ, have the first offer, the first invitation, the first tender of my grace and mercy; for he is the biggest sinner, and so has the most need of it.

Reason 2: Saving Great Sinners Spreads Christ’s Fame

2. Christ Jesus would have mercy offered first to the biggest sinners because when any of them receive it, it does the most for the fame of his name.

Christ Jesus, as you may see, has taken for himself the title of a physician, a doctor for curing diseases; and you know that applause and fame are things that physicians greatly desire. That is what brings them patients, and it is also what helps their patients commit themselves to their skill for a cure with more confidence and peace of mind.

And the best way for a doctor or physician to make a name for himself is, first of all, to take in hand and cure some whom everyone else has given up for lost and dead. Physicians get neither name nor fame by pricking pimples or picking out thistle prickles, or by putting plasters on the scratch of a pin; every old woman can do that. But if they want a name and a fame, and if they want it quickly, they must, as I said, perform some great and desperate cures. Let them bring back to life one who was dead; let them restore to his wits one who was mad; let them make one who was born blind to see; or let them give a fool a ripe wit. These are notable cures. And the one who can do this, if he does it first, will have the name and fame he desires; he can lie in bed till noon.

Why, Christ Jesus forgives sins for a name, and so wins himself a good report in the hearts of the children of men. And therefore, in reason, he must be willing, as he also commanded, that his mercy should be offered first to the biggest sinners. I will forgive their sins, iniquities, and transgressions, he says, “And it shall be to me a name of joy, a praise and an honour, before all the nations of the earth” (Jer 33:8-9). And that is why, when he first appeared, he took it on himself to do such mighty works. He gained a fame by them; he gained a name by them (Matt 4:23-24).

When Christ had cast the legion of devils out of the man you read of in Mark 5, he told him to go home to his friends and tell it. “Go home,” he says, “to thy friends, and tell them how great things God hath done for thee, and hath had compassion on thee” (Mark 5:19). Christ Jesus seeks a name and desires a fame in the world. And therefore, or the better to obtain it, he commands that mercy should first be offered to the biggest sinners, because by saving one of them he makes all men marvel. So it is said of the man just mentioned, whom Christ cured near the beginning of his ministry: “And he departed,” says the text, “and began to publish in Decapolis how great things Jesus had done for him; and all men did marvel” (Mark 5:20).

When John told Christ that they had seen someone casting out devils in his name, and had forbidden him because he did not follow with them, what is Christ’s answer? “Forbid him not; for there is no man which shall do a miracle in my name, that can lightly speak evil of me” (Mark 9:39). No, such people will rather cause his praise to be heard and his name to be magnified, and so put glory on the head of Christ.

But let us follow our metaphor a little. Christ, as I said, has taken the title of a physician. Consequently he desires that his fame for the salvation of sinners may spread abroad, so that the world may see what he can do. And to this end he has not only commanded that the biggest sinners should have the first offer of his mercy, but has also, as physicians do, put out his handbills and published his doings, so that these things may be read and talked about.

Yes, and what is more, in these blessed bills of his (I mean the holy Scriptures) he has put in the very names of persons, the places where they lived, and the great cures he has worked on them by means of his salvation, for this very end. Here it says, “Item: such a one, by my grace and redeeming blood, was made a monument of everlasting life; and such a one, by my perfect obedience, became an heir of glory.” And then he produces their names. “Item: I saved Lot from the guilt and damnation that he had brought on himself by his incest. Item: I saved David from the vengeance that belonged to him for committing adultery and murder.” Here also Solomon, Manasseh, Peter, Magdalene, and many others are mentioned in this book. Yes, here are their names, their sins, and their salvations recorded together, so that you may read and know what a Savior he is, and do him honor in the world.

For why are these things recorded like this, except to show sinners what he can do, to the praise and glory of his grace? And it is worth noticing, as I said before, that we have very little about the salvation of little sinners in God’s book, because that would not have served the purpose, namely, to bring glory and fame to the name of the Son of God.

What do you think is the reason Christ so easily takes a refusal from the great ones who were the grandeur of the world, and struggles so hard for hedge-creepers and highwaymen, as that parable seems to show he does (Luke 14), except to display the riches of the glory of his grace, to his praise? This, I say, is one reason, to be sure. Those who had their land, their yokes of oxen, and their marriage joys were invited to come; but they made their excuses, and that settled the matter (Luke 14:18-20).

But when he comes to deal with the worst, he tells his servants to go out and bring them in here. “Go out quickly … and bring in hither the poor, the maimed, the halt, and the blind” (Luke 14:21). And they did so. And he said again, “Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled” (Luke 14:23). These poor, lame, maimed, blind hedge-creepers and highwaymen must come in, must be forced in. These, if they are saved, will make his merit shine.

When Christ was crucified, and hung up between earth and heaven, there were two thieves crucified with him; and look, he lays hold of one of them and will have him away with him to glory! Was this not a strange act, and a display of unthought-of grace? Were there none but thieves there, or were the rest of that crowd out of his reach? Could he not, do you think, have stooped from the cross to the ground and laid hold of some more honest man, if he had wanted to? Yes, no doubt. Oh, but then he would not have displayed his grace, nor so pursued his own purposes, namely, to win himself a praise and a name. But now he has done it to good purpose. For who can read this story without confessing that the Son of God is full of grace? He left behind him a proof of its riches when, on the cross, he took the thief away with him to glory.

Nor can this one act of his be buried; it will be talked about to the end of the world, to his praise. “Men shall speak of the might of thy terrible acts; and I will declare thy greatness. They shall abundantly utter the memory of thy great goodness, and shall sing of thy righteousness … They shall speak of the glory of thy kingdom, and talk of thy power; to make known to the sons of men his mighty acts, and the glorious majesty of his kingdom” (Ps 145:6-12).

When the Word of God came among the conjurers and soothsayers you read of in Acts 19, and had prevailed with some of them to accept the grace of Christ, the Holy Spirit records it with a boast, because it would bring him praise: “Many of them also which used curious arts brought their books together, and burned them before all men; and they counted the price of them, and found it fifty thousand pieces of silver. So mightily grew the Word of God, and prevailed” (Acts 19:19-20).

It wrenched out of Satan’s clutches some of those he thought himself surest of. “So mightily grew the Word of God.” It grew mightily; it encroached on the kingdom of the devil. It pursued him and took the prey; it forced him to let go his hold! It carried away captive, like prisoners taken by force of arms, some of the most valiant men of his army. It fetched back, as it were, from the very borders of hell some of those who were his most trusted servants, and who had made an agreement with hell. It made them come and confess their deeds and burn their books before all men. “So mightily grew the Word of God, and prevailed.”

So you see why Christ will have mercy offered first to the biggest sinners: they have the most need of it, and this is the readiest way to exalt the name of him “that rideth upon the heavens” to our help.

Reason 3: Their Salvation Encourages Others to Come

3. Again, Christ Jesus would have mercy offered first to the biggest sinners because by their forgiveness and salvation, others, hearing of it, will be encouraged the more to come to him for life.

For the physician who cures the most desperate cases first not only gets himself a name, but also stirs up encouragement in the minds of other sick folk to come to him for help. So you read of our Lord that after he had, in his tender mercy, cured many of great diseases, his fame spread abroad: “They brought unto him all sick people that were taken with divers diseases and torments, and those which were possessed with devils, and those which were lunatic, and those that had the palsy, and he healed them. And there followed him great multitudes of people from Galilee, and Decapolis, and Jerusalem, and Judea, and from beyond Jordan” (Matt 4:24-25). See here: first, by his works, he gets himself a fame, a name, and renown; and then men take encouragement and bring their sick to him from every quarter, helped by what they had heard to believe that their sick would be healed.

Now, as he did with those outward cures, so he does in the offers of his grace and mercy. He offers them first to the biggest sinners, so that others may take heart to come to him to be saved. I will give you a scripture or two to show you that Christ, by commanding that his mercy should be offered first to the biggest of sinners, has a purpose in it: to encourage and provoke others to come to him for mercy too.

“God,” says Paul, “who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ (by grace ye are saved); and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” But why did he do all this? “That in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness towards us through Christ Jesus” (Eph 2:4-7).

See, here is a purpose. God lets out his mercy to Ephesus by design, namely, to show the ages to come the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness to them through Christ Jesus. And why show the ages to come the exceeding riches of his grace through Christ Jesus by means of these people, except to draw them, and their children too, to come to him and share the same grace through Christ Jesus?

But what were Paul and the Ephesian sinners? (We will speak of Paul shortly.) These Ephesian sinners were men dead in sins, men who walked according to the dictates and promptings of the devil, worshipers of Diana, that effeminate goddess. They were men far off from God, aliens and strangers to all good things; such as were far off from that, as I said, and consequently in a most pitiful condition. As the Jerusalem sinners were of the highest sort among the Jews, so these Ephesian sinners were of the highest sort among the Gentiles (Eph 2:1-3, 11-12; Acts 19:35).

So, just as he had a purpose in saving the Jerusalem sinners first, to provoke others to come to him for mercy, the same purpose is set going again here in his calling and converting the Ephesian sinners: “That in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace,” he says, “in his kindness towards us through Christ Jesus.”

There is still one hint left. It is said that God saved these people “for his great love”; that is, as I take it, for the setting forth of his love, for the commending of his love, for the advancing of his love in the hearts and minds of those who would come after. It is as if he were saying, God has had mercy on you and been gracious to you so that he might show others, for their encouragement, that they have ground to come to him to be saved.

When God saves one great sinner, it is to encourage another great sinner to come to him for mercy. He saved the thief to encourage thieves to come to him for mercy; he saved Magdalene to encourage other Magdalenes to come to him for mercy; he saved Saul to encourage Sauls to come to him for mercy. And Paul himself says this: “For this cause,” he says, “I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show forth all long-suffering, for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting” (1 Tim 1:16). How plain the words are! In saving me, Paul is saying, Christ has given the world a pattern of his grace, so that they may see, and believe, and come, and be saved; so that those who are yet to be born may believe on Jesus Christ to life everlasting.

But what was Paul? Why, he tells you himself. I am, he says, the chief of sinners. I was, he says, a blasphemer, a persecutor, and an injurious person; but I obtained mercy (1 Tim 1:13-14). “Yes, that is well for you, Paul; but what do we gain by it?” Oh, a great deal, he says; for “for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show forth all long-suffering, for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting” (1 Tim 1:16).

So you see that this third reason is a strong one, namely, that Jesus Christ would have mercy offered first to the biggest sinners because, by their forgiveness and salvation, others, hearing of it, will be encouraged the more to come to him for mercy. It may well be said to God, therefore, You delight in mercy, and mercy pleases you (Mic 7:18).

But who believes that this was God’s purpose in showing mercy in former times, namely, that we who come after might take courage to come to him for mercy? Or that Jesus Christ would have mercy offered first to the biggest sinners to stir up others to come to him for life? This is not the way of men, O God!

But David saw this early. So he makes this one argument with God for blotting out his transgressions and forgiving his adultery, his murders, and his horrible hypocrisy. Do it, O Lord, he says, do it, and “then will I teach transgressors thy ways, and sinners shall be converted unto thee” (Ps 51:7-13).

He knew that the conversion of sinners would be a work highly pleasing to God, since it was what he had planned before he made mountain or hill. So he comes and says, “Save me, O Lord. If you will only save me, I will fall in with your design; I will help bring to you whatever sinners I can. And, Lord, I am willing to be made a preacher myself, because I have been a horrible sinner. So if you will forgive my great transgressions, I will be a fit man to tell others of your wonderful grace. Yes, Lord, I dare promise that if you will have mercy on me, it will serve the glory of your grace and also the increase of your kingdom; for I will tell it, and sinners will hear of it.” And nothing suits the sinner who hears so well as mercy, and being told that God is willing to bestow it on him. “I will teach transgressors thy ways; and sinners shall be converted unto thee.”

Nor will Christ Jesus miss his purpose in offering mercy first to the biggest sinners. You know what a work the Lord did among the people of Samaria by laying hold of the woman there. They knew that she was a town sinner, an adulteress; yes, one who had lived in uncleanness, in the most brazen way, with a man who was not her husband. But when she went into the city, moved by a turn in her heart, and said to her neighbors, “Come,” oh, how they came! How they flocked out of the city to Jesus Christ! “Then they went out of the city, and came to him” (John 4:30). “And many of the Samaritans of that city (people, perhaps, as bad as herself) believed on him for the saying of the woman, which testified, He told me all that ever I did” (John 4:39). That word, “He told me all that ever I did,” was a great argument with them. From it they gathered that though he knew her to be vile, he still did not despise her, nor refuse to show how willing he was to share his grace with her. And this won over first her, then them.

This woman, as I said, was a Samaritan sinner, a sinner of the worst sort, for the Jews abhorred having anything to do with the Samaritans (John 4:9). So no one was fitter than she to be made one of the decoys of heaven, to bring others of these Samaritan wildfowl under the net of the grace of Christ. And she did the work to good purpose. Many, and many more, of the Samaritans believed on him (John 4:40-42). The heart of man, though set on sin, will incline to come to Jesus Christ for life once it comes to be persuaded that God is willing to have mercy on us. Witness those turn-aways from God that you also read of in Jeremiah. After they had heard three or four times over that God had mercy for backsliders, they broke out and said, “Behold, we come unto thee; for thou art the Lord our God” (Jer 3:22). Or witness those in Hosea, who said, “For in thee the fatherless findeth mercy” (Hos 14:1-3).

Mercy, and the revealing of it, is the only antidote against sin. It is of a thawing nature. It will loosen the heart that is frozen up in sin; yes, it will make the unwilling willing to come to Jesus Christ for life. Why do you think Jesus Christ told the adulterous woman, and that in front of so many sinners, that he had not condemned her, if not to draw her, along with those who were present, to hope to find favor at his hands? As he also says in another place, “I came not to judge, but to save the world” (John 12:47). For might they not most reasonably conclude from this that if Jesus Christ would rather save a harlot than damn her, there was encouragement for them, though they were great sinners, to come to him for mercy?

I once heard a story from a soldier who, with his company, had laid siege to a fort. He said that so long as the besieged were persuaded their enemies would show them no favor, they fought like madmen. But when they saw one of their fellows taken and received into favor, they all came tumbling down from their fortress and delivered themselves into their enemies’ hands. I am persuaded that if people believed there is such grace and willingness in the heart of Christ to save sinners as the Word implies there is, they would come tumbling into his arms. But Satan has blinded their minds so that they cannot see this thing. Nevertheless, as I said, the Lord Jesus, so that others might take heart and come to him, has given out a commandment that mercy should be offered first of all to the biggest sinners. “Begin,” he says, “at Jerusalem.” And so I end the third reason.

Reason 4: Converting Them Weakens Satan’s Kingdom

4. Jesus Christ would have mercy offered first of all to the biggest sinners because that is the way, if they receive it, most to weaken the kingdom of Satan, and to keep it lowest in every age of the world.

The biggest sinners are Satan’s colonels and captains, the leaders of his people, and the ones who most stoutly rise up against the Son of God. So let these be conquered first, and his kingdom will be weak. When Ishbosheth had lost his Abner, his kingdom was made weak, and from then on he sat only tottering on his throne (2 Sam 3). So when Satan loses his strong men, those who are mighty to work iniquity and skillful at leading others in it, then his kingdom is weak. Therefore, I say, Christ offers mercy to such people first, the more to weaken Satan’s kingdom. Christ Jesus was glad to see Satan fall like lightning from heaven, that is, suddenly, or headlong. And surely it was by casting him out of his strong possession, and by recovering some notorious sinners out of his clutches (Luke 10:17-19).

When Samson wanted to pull down the Philistines’ temple, he took hold of its two main pillars, and when he broke them, down came the house. Christ came to destroy the works of the devil, and to destroy them by converting grace as well as by redeeming blood. Now, sin swarms and lies by legions and whole armies in the souls of the biggest sinners, as in garrisons. So the way, the most direct way, to destroy it is to deal first with such sinners by the word of his gospel and by the merits of his passion.

Let me give you an example, though only a homely one. Suppose a family is badly infested with lice, and one or two of the family are the chief breeders. The way, the quickest way, to clear that family, or at least to weaken the swarming of those vermin, is first to clean the skin, head, and clothes of the chief breeders. Then, though the whole family may be apt to breed them, their number, and so the size of that plague there, will be all the more reduced. Why, there are some people who are the devil’s chief sin-breeders in the towns and places where they live. The place, town, or family where they live must be horribly lousy, eaten up, as it were, with vermin. Now let the Lord Jesus first cleanse these great breeders, and those swarms of sins that used to be committed throughout the town, house, or family where such sin-breeding people lived will be given a nip.

I speak from experience. I was one of these lousy ones, one of these great sin-breeders. I infected all the young people of the town where I was born with all kinds of youthful vanities. The neighbors counted me so, and my practice proved me so. So Christ Jesus took me first, and by taking me first, the contagion was greatly checked all over the town. When God made me sigh, they would listen and ask, “What’s the matter with John?” They also gave their various opinions of me. But, as I said, sin cooled and slackened from its full gallop. When I went out to seek the bread of life, some of them would follow, and the rest were left deep in thought at home. Yes, at first almost the whole town would at times go out to hear at the place where I had found good. Young and old alike had some reformation on them for a while. And some of them, seeing that God had had mercy on me, came crying to him for mercy too.

But why should I give you an example of poor me? I will come to Manasseh the king. As long as he was a ringleading sinner, the great idolater, the chief in devilry, the whole land flowed with wickedness. For he made them sin (2 Chr 33), and do worse than the heathen who lived round about them, or who had been cast out from before them. But when God converted him, the whole land was reformed. Down went the groves, the idols, and the altars of Baal, and up went true religion in much of its power and purity. You will say, “The king reformed the land by his power.” I answer: no doubt, and by his example too, for people watch their leaders; as their fathers did, so did they (2 Kgs 17:41). This, then, is another reason why Jesus would have mercy offered first of all to the biggest sinners: because that is the best way, if they receive it, most to weaken the kingdom of Satan, and to keep it poor and low.

And do you not think now that if God would only take hold of the hearts of some of the most notorious people in your town, in your family, or in your part of the country, you would see this very thing proved before your eyes? You would, you would! It would bring joy to you who are godly; it would make hell sigh; it would greatly suppress sin, and bring glory to Christ and joy to the angels of God. So ministers, in order that this work may go on, should take every opportunity to plead with the biggest sinners to come in to Christ, according to my text and their commission, “Beginning at Jerusalem.”

Reason 5: Converted Great Sinners Strengthen the Church

5. Jesus Christ would have mercy offered first of all to the biggest sinners because such, when converted, are usually the best helps in the church against temptations, and fittest for the support of the feeble-minded there.

This is why you usually find some such people at the first planting of churches, or soon after. Churches would fare only poorly if Christ Jesus did not put such converts among them. They are the monuments and mirrors of mercy. The very sight of such a sinner in God’s house, yes, the very thought of him where the sight of him cannot be had, often greatly helps the faith of the feeble.

When the churches that were in Judea, says Paul, heard this about me, that the man who had persecuted them in times past now preached the faith he once destroyed, “they glorified God in me” (Gal 1:20-24). “Glorified God”: what does that mean? Why, they praised him, and took courage to believe the more in the mercy of God, because he had had mercy on so great a sinner as Paul. They glorified God “in me”: they wondered that grace should be so rich as to take hold of such a wretch as I was, and for my sake they believed in Christ the more.

There are two things that great sinners are acquainted with which, when they come to make them known to the saints, are a great relief to the saints’ faith: (1) the struggles they usually have with the devil when they part from him, and (2) their knowledge of his secrets in his workings.

(1) The biggest sinners usually have great struggles with the devil at their parting from him, and this is a help to the saints. For ordinary saints find afterward what the vile ones find at first. But when hearts are opened and the one finds himself to be just as the other, the one is a comfort to the other. The lesser sort of sinners find little of this until they have been some time in their profession of faith, but the vile man meets with his at the very beginning. So when the other is down, he is ready to tell him that he has met with the same thing before; for, I say, he has had it before.

Satan is loath to part with a great sinner. “What, my true servant,” he says, “my old servant, will you forsake me now? Having so often sold yourself to me to work wickedness, will you forsake me now? You horrible wretch, don’t you know that you have sinned yourself beyond the reach of grace, and do you think you will find mercy now? Aren’t you a murderer, a thief, a harlot, a witch, a sinner of the greatest size, and do you look for mercy now? Do you think that Christ will dirty his fingers with you? It is enough to make angels blush,” says Satan, “to see so vile a one knock at heaven’s gates for mercy, and will you be so abominably bold as to do it?”

“This is how Satan dealt with me,” says the great sinner, “when I first came to Jesus Christ.”

“And what did you reply?” asks the tempted one.

“Why, I granted that the whole charge was true,” says the other.

“And what, did you despair, or what?”

“No,” he says. “I said, I am Magdalene, I am Zacchaeus, I am the thief, I am the harlot, I am the publican, I am the prodigal, and one of Christ’s murderers; yes, worse than any of these. And yet God was so far from rejecting me, as I found afterward, that there was music and dancing in his house for me, for joy that I had come home to him.”

“Oh, blessed be God for grace,” says the other, “for then, I hope, there is favor for me.”

Yes, as I told you, such a one is a continual spectacle in the church, in whom everyone standing by may behold God’s grace and wonder at it.

(2) And as for the secrets of Satan, such as suggestions to question the existence of God and the truth of his Word, and being harassed with devilish blasphemies, no one is more acquainted with these than the biggest sinners at their conversion. So in this way, too, they are prepared to be helps in the church, to relieve and comfort the others.

I might also tell you here of the struggles and battles such people are engaged in, in which they feel the buffetings of Satan more than any other of the saints. At that time Satan assaults the soul with darkness, fears, and frightful thoughts of apparitions. Now they sweat, pant, cry out, and struggle for life. The angels now come down to behold the sight, and rejoice to see a bit of dust and ashes overcome principalities and powers, and might, and dominions. But, as I said, when these become a little settled, they are prepared to be helps to others, and are great comforts to them. Their great sins encourage the devil to assault them, and Christ takes advantage of these temptations to make them all the more helpful to the churches.

When the biggest sinner is converted and comes into the church, he says to them all by his very coming in, “Look at me, all you men and women of a low and timid spirit, you whose hearts are narrow because you never had the opportunity to know the largeness of the grace of God, since your sins are few. Look, I say, and see in me the exceeding riches of his grace! I am a pattern set before your faces, on whom you may look and take heart.” This, I say, the great sinner can say, to the exceeding comfort of all the rest.

So, as I have hinted before, when God intends to stock a place with saints, and to make that place flourish excellently with the riches of his grace, he usually begins with the conversion of some of the most notorious sinners thereabouts. He sets them up as an example to draw others, and to build others up once they are converted. It was Paul who must go to the Gentiles, because Paul had been the most outrageous of all the apostles in his unconverted days. Yes, Peter must be the one who, after his horrible fall, was thought fittest, once he was restored, to comfort and strengthen his brethren (Luke 22:31-32).

Some must be pillars in God’s house. And if they are to be pillars of cedar, they must stand while they are stout and sturdy trunks in the forest, before they are cut down and planted or placed there. No man, when he builds his house, makes its main parts out of weak or feeble timber, for how could such timber bear up the rest? He makes them of great and able wood. Christ Jesus also goes to work this way: he makes the biggest sinners bearers and supporters of the rest. This, then, may serve as another reason why Jesus Christ gives the commandment that mercy should be offered first of all to the biggest sinners: because such people, when converted, are usually the best helps in the church against temptations, and the fittest for the support of the feeble-minded there.

Reason 6: Those Forgiven Much Love Much

6. Another reason why Jesus Christ would have mercy offered first of all to the biggest sinners is because they, when converted, are apt to love him most.

This agrees with both Scripture and reason. Scripture says so: the one to whom much is forgiven loves much, and “To whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little” (Luke 7:47). Reason says so. For just as it would be the most unreasonable thing in the world to repay love with hatred and forgiveness with contempt, so it would be just as ridiculous to think that receiving a little kindness should lay the same obligation on the heart to love as receiving a great deal. I would not disparage the love of Christ. I know that the smallest dram of it, when it reaches as far as forgiveness, is great above all the world. But comparatively speaking, the love of Christ extends further to one than to another. He who has the most sin, if he is forgiven, partakes of the greatest love, of the greatest forgiveness.

I also know that there are some who, from this very doctrine, say, “Let us do evil that good may come” (Rom 3:8), and who turn the grace of our God into lasciviousness. But I am not speaking of these. These will be ruled by neither grace nor reason. Grace would teach them, if they knew it, to deny ungodly ways; and so would reason too, if it could truly sense the love of God (Titus 2:11-12; Rom 12:1).

Does it look as if it has any agreement with reason or mercy for a man to abuse his friend? Because Christ died for men, shall I therefore spit in his face? The bread and water that Elisha gave to his enemies, who had come into the land of Israel to seize him, had so much influence on their minds, heathens though they were, that they returned to their homes without hurting him. Yes, it kept them from coming again in a hostile way into the borders of Israel (2 Kgs 6:19-23).

But I will hold off illustrating this until later. One reason why Christ Jesus shows mercy to sinners is to win their love, so that he may move their base affections from base objects to himself. Now, if he loves to be loved a little, he loves to be loved much. But no one is capable of loving much except those who have had much forgiven them. That is why it is said of Paul that he labored more than all of them, that is, with a labor of love, because he had been more vile against Christ by sin than all of them (1 Cor 15). It was he who “persecuted the church of God, and wasted it” (Gal 1:13). Of them all, he alone was the raving madman against the saints. “And being exceeding mad,” he says, “against them, I persecuted them even unto strange cities” (Acts 26:11).

This raving madman, who once was so, is the one who now says, I labored more than all of them, more for Christ than all of them. But Paul, what moved you to do this? The love of Christ, he says. It was not I, but the grace of God that was with me. It is as if he should say: Oh, grace! It was such grace to save me! It was such marvelous grace for God to look down from heaven on me and to secure me from the wrath to come, that I am captivated with the sense of its riches. This is why I act; this is why I labor. For how could I do otherwise, since God not only separated me from my sins and companions, but separated all the powers of my soul and body to his service? So I am driven on by this exceeding love to labor as I have done; yet not I, but the grace of God with me.

Oh, I shall never forget his love, nor the circumstances I was in when his love laid hold of me. I was going to Damascus with letters from the high priest, to make havoc of God’s people there as I had made havoc of them in other places. These bloody letters were not forced on me. I went to the high priest and asked him for them, and yet he saved me (Acts 9:1-2)! I was one of the men, one of the chief men, who had a hand in the blood of his martyr Stephen; yet he had mercy on me! When I was at Damascus, I stank so horribly like a bloodsucker that I became a terror to everyone thereabouts. Yes, Ananias, good man, interceded with my Lord against me; yet he would have mercy on me. Yes, he joined mercy to mercy, until he had made me a monument of grace. He made a saint of me, and persuaded me that my transgressions were forgiven me.

When I began to preach, those who heard me were amazed and said, “Is not this he that destroyed them that called on this name in Jerusalem, and came hither for that intent, that he might bring them bound to the high priest?” (Acts 9:20-21). Hell knows that I was a sinner; heaven knows that I was a sinner; the world also knows that I was a sinner, a sinner of the greatest size. But I obtained mercy. Shall this not lay an obligation on me? Is not love of the greatest force to oblige? Is it not strong as death, cruel as the grave, and hotter than the coals of juniper? Does it not have a most vehement flame? Can the waters quench it? Can the floods drown it? I am under its force, and this is my continual cry: What shall I render to the Lord for all the benefits he has bestowed on me?

Yes, Paul! This is something. You speak like a man, like a man moved and carried away with the love and grace of God. Now this sense, this affection, and this labor give Christ the love he looks for. But he might have converted twenty little sinners and still not found, for the grace bestowed, as much love in all of them together. I wonder how far a man might go among the converted sinners of the smaller size before he could find one who so much as looked anything like this. Where is the one who is under such pangs of love for the grace bestowed on him by Jesus Christ? Except for only a few, you may walk to the world’s end and find none.

But, as I said, there are some, and so there have been in every age of the church: great sinners who have had much forgiven them, and who love much on this account. Jesus Christ, therefore, knows what he is doing when he lays hold of the hearts of sinners of the biggest size. He knows that such a one will love more than many who have not sinned half his sins.

I will tell you a story I have read about Martha and Mary. I have forgotten the name of the book, I mean of the book in which I found the account, but the thing went like this.

Martha, says my author, was a very holy woman, much like Lazarus her brother; but Mary was a loose and wanton creature. Martha seldom missed good sermons and lectures when she could get to them in Jerusalem, but Mary would frequent the places of sport and the company of the vilest of men for lust. And though Martha had often asked her sister to go with her to hear her preachers, yes, had often begged her with tears to do it, she could never prevail. For Mary would still make her excuses, or reject her with disdain for her zeal and strictness in religion.

After Martha had waited a long time and tried many ways to bring her sister to good, and all had proved useless, at last she comes to her like this: “Sister,” she said, “please come with me to the temple today to hear a man preach a sermon.”

“What kind of preacher is he?” Mary asked.

Martha replied, “It is one Jesus of Nazareth. He is the handsomest man you ever saw with your eyes. Oh, he shines in beauty, and he is a most excellent preacher!”

Now, what does Mary do? After a little pause, she goes up to her room and, with her pins and her patches, decks herself out as finely as her fingers can make her. This done, off she goes, not with her sister Martha, but as unnoticed as she could, to the sermon, or rather, to see the preacher.

The hour and the preacher having come, and she having noticed where the preacher would stand, she goes and seats herself in the temple so that she might be sure to have a full view of this excellent person. So he comes in, and she looks, and the first glimpse of his person pleased her. Well, Jesus turns to his sermon, and she looks earnestly at him.

Now at that time, says my author, Jesus preached about the lost sheep, the lost coin and the prodigal child. And when he came to show what care the shepherd took for one lost sheep, and how the woman swept to find her coin that was lost, and what joy there was at their finding, she began to be taken by the ears. She forgot what she had come for, wondering what the preacher would make of it. But when he came to the application, and showed that by the lost sheep was meant a great sinner, by the shepherd’s care was meant God’s love for great sinners, and by the joy of the neighbors was shown what joy there is among the angels in heaven over one great sinner who repents, she began to be taken by the heart. And as he spoke these last words, she thought he fixed his innocent eyes right on her and looked as if he were speaking what was now said to her. So her heart began to tremble, shaken with affection and fear; then the tears ran fast from her eyes. She was forced to hide her face in her handkerchief, and so she sat sobbing and crying all through the rest of the sermon.

The sermon being over, up she gets and away she goes, asking as she went where this Jesus, the preacher, was dining that day. Someone told her, “At the house of Simon the Pharisee.” So away she goes, first to her room, and there she strips off her wanton clothes; then she falls on her knees to ask God’s forgiveness for all her wicked life. This done, she goes in modest dress to Simon’s house, where she finds Jesus seated at dinner. So she gets behind him and weeps, and drops her tears on his feet like rain, and washes them, and wipes them with the hair of her head. She also kissed his feet with her lips and anointed them with ointment.

When Simon the Pharisee saw what the woman did, being ignorant of what it is to be forgiven much (for he had never been forgiven more than fifty pence), he began to think to himself that he had been mistaken about Jesus Christ, because he allowed such a sinner as this woman was to touch him. “Surely,” he said, “if this man were a prophet, he would not let this woman come near him, for she is a sinner known to the whole town.” So ignorant are all self-righteous men of Christ’s way with sinners.

But so that Mary would not be discouraged by some boorish behavior from this Pharisee, and so abandon her good beginnings and the new steps she had now begun to take toward eternal life, Jesus began with Simon like this: “Simon,” he says, “I have somewhat to say unto thee. And he saith, Master, say on. There was,” said Jesus, “a certain creditor which had two debtors; the one owed five hundred pence, and the other fifty. And when they had nothing to pay, he frankly forgave them both. Tell me, therefore, which of them will love him most? Simon answered, and said, I suppose that he, to whom he forgave most. And he said unto him, Thou hast rightly judged. And he turned to the woman, and said unto Simon, Seest thou this woman? I entered into thine house, thou gavest me no water for my feet; but she hath washed my feet with tears, and wiped them with the hairs of her head. Thou gavest me no kiss; but this woman, since the time I came in, hath not ceased to kiss my feet. My head with oil thou didst not anoint, but this woman hath anointed my feet with ointment. Wherefore, I say unto thee, Her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much; but to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little. And he said unto her, Thy sins are forgiven” (Luke 7:36-48).

So there you have the story. If I fall short in any detail, I beg pardon of those who can correct me. It is twenty-three or twenty-four years since I saw the book; yet I have given you the account of the matter as far as my memory will allow. However, Luke, as you see, here presents you with the substance of the whole.

Alas! Christ Jesus gets but little thanks for saving little sinners. “To whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little.” He does not get water for his feet by saving such sinners. There are plenty of dry-eyed Christians in the world, and plenty of dry-eyed duties too: duties that were never wetted with the tears of contrition and repentance, nor ever sweetened with the great sinner’s box of ointment. And the reason is that such sinners do not have great sins to be saved from; or, if they have, they look at them in the diminishing glass of the holy law of God. But I rather believe that the professing Christians of our day lack a proper sense of what they are. For truly, most of them, both before and since their conversion, have been sinners of a hefty size. But if their eyes are held shut, if convictions are not shown, if their knowledge of their sins is no better than eyesight at twilight, then the heart cannot be moved by the grace that has laid hold of the man; and so Christ Jesus sows much and has little coming in. That is why his way is often to step out of his way: to Jericho (Luke 19:1-11), to Samaria (John 4:3-11), to the country of the Gadarenes (Mark 5:1-20), to the coasts of Tyre and Sidon (Matt 15:21-29), and also to Mount Calvary (Luke 23:33-43), so that he may lay hold of the kind of sinners who will love him to his liking.

But this is enough for the sixth reason why Christ Jesus would have mercy offered in the first place to the biggest sinners, namely, because such sinners, when converted, are apt to love him most. It was the Jerusalem sinners who, when they were converted, outstripped all the churches of the Gentiles in some things. They “were of one heart, and of one soul: neither said any of them that aught of the things which he possessed was his own.” “Neither was there any among them that lacked: for as many as were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and brought the prices of the things that were sold, and laid them down at the apostles’ feet” (Acts 4:32, 34-35). Now show me another pattern like that, if you can. But why did these people act like this? Oh, they were Jerusalem sinners! These were the men who, only a little before, had killed the Prince of life, and the very ones to whom he nevertheless sent the first offer of grace and mercy. And the sense of this lifted them up between earth and heaven, and carried them on in such ways and methods as could never be trodden by anyone since. People talk of the church of Rome and hold her up, in her early state, as a pattern and mother of churches; but the truth is that it was the Jerusalem sinners, once converted, who outdid all the churches that ever were.

Reason 7: Grace Shines Brightest in Great Sinners

7. Christ Jesus would have mercy offered in the first place to the biggest sinners because grace, when it is received by such, finds material to kindle on more freely than it finds in other sinners.

Great sinners are like dry wood, or like great candles, which burn best and shine with the biggest light. I do not lay this down, as I did those earlier reasons, to show that when great sinners are converted they will be an encouragement to others, though that is true. I lay it down to show that Christ delights to see grace, the grace we receive, shine. We love to see things that have a good gloss. Yes, we choose to buy the kind of material to work on that will, when it is worked up to what we intend, give off the luster we desire. Candles that do not burn bright, we do not like. Wood that is green will rather smolder, and sputter, and smoke, and crack, and spit, than give a fine light and a pleasant heat. So great folks do not care much for such things, not as much as for those that will better serve their purposes.

Hence Christ desires the biggest sinner. In him there is material to work with, namely, a great deal of sin. For as the fire takes occasion from the tallow of the candle to burn the brighter, so grace takes occasion from the sin of the soul to shine the clearer. Little candles shine only a little, for they lack material for the fire to work on; but in the great sinner there is more material for grace to work with. Faith shines when it works its way toward Christ through many and great transgressions; and so does love, because much is forgiven. And what better material can be found in the soul for humility to work with than the sight that I have been, and am, an abominable sinner? And the same may be said of patience, meekness, gentleness, self-denial or any other grace. Grace takes occasion from the vileness of the man to shine the more, just as the virtue of a medicine is best shown by the ruggedness of a very strong illness or disease. “Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound” (Rom 5:20). A black string makes the neck look whiter; great sins make grace burn clear. Some say that when grace and a good nature meet together, they make shining Christians. But I say that when grace and a great sinner meet, and when grace subdues that great sinner to itself and works according to its own nature in that great sinner’s soul, then we have a shining Christian. Witness all those I mentioned before.

Abraham was among the idolaters when he was in the land of Assyria, and he served idols with his kindred on the other side of the river (Josh 24:2; Gen 11:31). But once he was called, who was there in the world in whom grace shone so brightly as in him? The Thessalonians were idolaters before the Word of God came to them; but when they had received it, they became examples to all who believed in Macedonia and Achaia (1 Thess 1:6-10).

God the Father and Jesus Christ his Son are for having things seen, for having the Word of life held out. They do not light a candle so that it may be put under a bushel or under a bed, but on a candlestick, so that all who come in may see the light (Matt 5:15; Mark 4:21; Luke 8:16; Luke 11:33). And I say, as I said before, in whom is light so likely to shine as in the souls of great sinners?

When the Jewish Pharisees trifled with the gospel, Christ threatened to take it from them and to give it to the barbarous heathen and idolaters. Why? Because, he says, they will bring forth its fruits in their season. “Therefore say I unto you, The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof” (Matt 21:43).

I have often marveled at our young people and said in my heart, “What can be the reason that they should be so generally debauched at this time as they are?” For they are now profane to the point of amazement. Sometimes I have thought one thing and sometimes another about why God should allow it to be so. At last I have thought of this: what if God, whose ways are past finding out, should allow it to be so now so that he might make some of them the more glorious saints hereafter? I know sin is of the devil, but it cannot work in the world without permission. And if it turns out to be as I have thought, it will not be the first time that God the Lord has caught Satan in his own design. For my part, I believe the time is at hand when we shall see better saints in the world than have been seen in it for many a day. And this vileness, which at present so swallows up our youth, is one cause of my thinking so. For out of them, from among them, when God sets his hand to it as of old, you will see what penitent ones, what trembling ones and what admirers of grace will be found to profess the gospel, to the glory of God by Christ.

Alas! We are a company of worn-out Christians. Our moon is on the wane; we are much more black than white, more dark than light; we shine only a little; grace in most of us has decayed. But I say, when those of these debauched ones who are to be saved are brought in, when these who look more like devils than men are converted to Christ (and I believe several of them will be), then Christ will be exalted, grace adored, the Word prized, Zion’s path better trodden, and men will be seen pursuing their own salvation, to the amazement of those who are left behind.

Just before Christ came in the flesh, the world had degenerated as it has now. Most of the men in Jerusalem had become either high and famous for hypocrisy, or filthy and base in their lives. The devil also had broken loose in a hideous manner and had taken possession of many. Yes, I believe there was never a generation, before or since, that could produce so many people possessed with devils, deformed, lame, blind and infected with monstrous diseases as that generation could. But what was the reason for it, I mean the reason on God’s part? Why, one reason (and we may sum up more in that answer which Christ gave to his disciples concerning the man who was born blind) was that “the works of God should be made manifest” in them (John 9:2-3), and “that the Son of God might be glorified thereby” (John 11:4).

Now, if these devils and diseases, as they possessed men then, were meant to make way and work for an approach to Christ in person and for the declaring of his power, why may we not think that now, even now, he is ready to come by his Spirit in the gospel to heal many of the debaucheries of our age? I cannot believe that grace will take them all, for there are but few who are saved; but still it will take some, even some of the worst of men, and make blessed ones of them.

But oh, how these ringleaders in vice will then shine in virtue! They will be the very pillars in churches; they will be like a banner in the land. “The Lord their God shall save them in that day as the flock of his people: for they shall be as the stones of a crown, lifted up as an ensign upon his land” (Zech 9:16). But who are these? Idolatrous Ephraim and backsliding Judah (Zech 9:13).

I know there is reason to fear that the iniquity of this generation will be pursued with heavy judgments; but that will not hinder what we have supposed. God took for himself a glorious church out of bloody Jerusalem, yes, out of the chief of the sinners there, and left the rest to be captured, plundered and sold, thirty for a penny, in the nations where they were captives. When the gospel works gloriously in a place, seizing on many of its ringleading sinners, it promises no security to the rest, but rather threatens them with the heaviest and sharpest judgments, as the instance just given fully demonstrates. But in defending, the Lord will defend his people; and in saving, he will save his inheritance.

Nor does this speak any great comfort to a decayed and backsliding sort of Christians; for the next time God rides at full speed with his gospel, he will leave such Christians behind him. But I say, Christ is resolved to set up his light in the world. Yes, he delights to see his graces shine. And therefore he commands that his gospel should, to that end, be offered in the first place to the biggest sinners, for it shines most by great sins. That is why he says, “Begin at Jerusalem.”

Reason 8: The Impenitent Left Without Excuse

8. Lastly, Christ Jesus will have mercy offered in the first place to the biggest sinners so that by this means the impenitent who are left behind will, at the judgment, be all the more without excuse.

God’s Word has two edges; it can cut on the backstroke and on the forestroke. If it does you no good, it will do you harm. It is “the savour of life unto life” to those who receive it, but of “death unto death” to those who refuse it (2 Cor 2:15-16). But this is not all. The offer of grace to the biggest sinners in the first place will not only leave the rest, that is, those who refuse it, in a deplorable condition, but will also stop their mouths and cut off every pretense of excuse on that day. “If I had not come and spoken unto them,” says Christ, “they had not had sin; but now they have no cloak for their sin” (John 15:22), that is, for their sin of persevering in impenitence. But what did he speak to them? Why, the very thing I have told you: that he has a special delight in saving the biggest sinners. He spoke this by way of his doctrine; he spoke this by way of his practice, even to the pouring out of his last breath before them (Luke 23:34).

Now, since this is so, what can the condemned at the judgment say for themselves as to why the sentence of death should not be passed on them? I say, what excuse can they make for themselves when they are asked why they did not come to Christ in the day of salvation to be saved? Will they have grounds to say to the Lord, “You were only for saving little sinners,” and claim that, because they were great ones, they dared not come to him? Or will they say, “You had no compassion for the biggest sinners; therefore I died in despair”? Will these serve as excuses for them, as the case now stands with them? Is there not everywhere in God’s Book a flat contradiction of this, in multitudes of promises, invitations, examples and the like?

Alas, alas! There will then be millions of souls there to refute this plea, ready, I say, to stand up and say, “O deceived world, heaven swarms with people who, when they were in the world, were fully as bad as you!” Now this will kill every plea or excuse as to why they should not perish in their sins. Yes, the text says they will see them there: “There shall be weeping … when ye shall see Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets, in the kingdom of heaven, and you yourselves thrust out. And they shall come from the east, and from the west, and from the north, and from the south, and shall sit down in the kingdom of God” (Luke 13:28-29). Out of that company it is easy to pick some who were once as bad as any people who now breathe on the face of the earth. What do you think of the first man, through whose sins there are millions now in hell? And so I may say, what do you think of ten thousand more besides?

But if the Word will not stifle and gag them (I speak now for the sake of amplification), the sight of those who are saved will. Here comes an incestuous person to the bar, and pleads that the bigness of his sins was a bar to his receiving the promise. But will not his mouth be stopped on that score when Lot (Gen 19:33-37) and the incestuous Corinthians (1 Cor 5:1-2) are set before him?

Here comes a thief, and says, “Lord, I thought my sin of thefts was such as could not be pardoned by you!” But when he sees the thief who was saved on the cross standing by, clothed as it were with beautiful glory, what further objection can he raise? Yes, the Lord will bring forward ten thousand of his saints at his coming, who will in this way “execute judgment upon all, and so convince all that are ungodly among them … of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him” (Jude 15). And these are hard speeches against him: to say that he was not able or not willing to save men because of the greatness of their sins, or to say that they were discouraged from repentance by his Word because of the heinousness of their offenses. These things, I say, will then be refuted. He comes with ten thousand of his saints to refute them, and to stop their mouths from making objections against their own eternal damnation.

Here is Adam, the destroyer of the world; here is Lot, who lay with both his daughters; here is Abraham, who was once an idolater; and Jacob, who was a supplanter; and Reuben, who lay with his father’s concubine; and Judah, who lay with his daughter-in-law; and Levi and Simeon, who wickedly slew the Shechemites; and Aaron, who made an idol to be worshiped and proclaimed a religious feast to it. Here also is Rahab the harlot, and Bathsheba, who bore David an illegitimate child. Here is Solomon, that great backslider; and Manasseh, that man of blood and sorcerer. Time would fail to tell you of the woman of Canaan’s daughter, of Mary Magdalene, of Matthew the publican, of Gideon and Samson, and of many thousands more.

Alas, alas! I say, what will these sinners do who, through their unbelief, have eclipsed the glorious largeness of the mercy of God and given way to despair of salvation because of the bigness of their sins? For all these, though now glorious saints in light, were once sinners of the biggest size, whose sins were of a notorious hue. Yet now, I say, they stand in their shining, heavenly robes before the throne of God and of the Lamb, blessing forever and ever that Son of God who died for them on the tree for their salvation. They marvel that it should ever have come into their hearts even once to think of coming to God by Christ. But above all, they bless God for granting them light to see those encouragements in his Testament; without these, no doubt, they would have been daunted and would have sunk down under the guilt of sin and despair, as their fellow sinners have done. But now they too are witnesses for God and for his grace against an unbelieving world. For, as I said, they will come to convict the world of its speeches, the hard and unbelieving words that people have spoken concerning the mercy of God and the merits of the passion of his blessed Son, Jesus Christ.

But will it not, do you think, strangely put to silence all such thoughts, and words, and reasons of the ungodly before the bar of God? Doubtless it will. Yes, and it will also send them away from his presence with the greatest guilt that can possibly fasten on the consciences of men.

For what will sting like this? “Through my own foolish, narrow, unworthy, undervaluing thoughts of the love and ability of Christ to save me, I have brought myself to everlasting ruin. It is true, I was a horrible sinner; not one in a hundred lived as vile a life as I did. But this should not have kept me from embracing Jesus Christ. I see now that there are plenty in glory who were once as bad as I have been; but they were saved by faith, and I am damned by unbelief. Wretch that I am! Why did I not give glory to the redeeming blood of Jesus? Why did I not humbly cast my soul at his blessed footstool for mercy? Why did I judge his ability to save me by the voice of my shallow reason and the voice of a guilty conscience? Why did I not betake myself to the holy Word of God? Why did I not read and pray that I might understand, since I now see that God said then, He giveth liberally to them that pray, and upbraideth not?” (Jas 1:5).

It is reasonable to think that by such thoughts as these the unbelieving world will be torn to pieces before the judgment seat of Christ, especially those who have lived where they did hear, or might have heard, the gospel of the grace of God. Oh, that saying, It shall be more tolerable for Sodom at the judgment than for them, will be better understood (see Luke 10:8-12)! This reason, therefore, stands firm: namely, that by offering mercy now in the first place to the biggest sinners, Christ will stop all the mouths of the impenitent at the day of judgment, and cut off every excuse they will attempt to make, from the thought of the greatness of their sins, as to why they did not come to him.

I have often thought of the day of judgment and of how God will deal with sinners on that day. And I believe it will be conducted with such sweetness, such fairness and such excellent righteousness, as to every sin and every circumstance and aggravation of it, that those who are damned will, before the judgment is over, be so convinced of God’s righteous judgment upon them, and of their deserving hell-fire, that they will conclude within themselves that there is all the reason in the world why they should be shut out of heaven and go to hell-fire: “These shall go away into everlasting punishment” (Matt 25:46).

Only this will tear at them: that they have missed mercy and glory, and obtained everlasting damnation, through their unbelief. But it will tear only at themselves, only at their own souls. They will gnash their teeth at themselves because mercy was offered to the chief of them in the first place, and yet they were damned for rejecting it. They were damned for forsaking what they had a rightful claim to, for forsaking their own mercy.

And this is enough for the reasons. Second, I will conclude with a word of application.

Use 1: Judging Rightly of Christ’s Heart

1. Would Jesus Christ have mercy offered first of all to the biggest sinners? Then this shows us how to make a right judgment of the heart of Christ toward people. We have, indeed, many things that help us guess at the goodness of his heart: his taking our nature upon himself, his dying for us, his sending his Word and his ministers to us, and all so that we might be saved. But this beginning to offer mercy at Jerusalem is what heightens all the rest. For it does not only confirm to us that love was the cause of his dying for us; it shows us still more the depth of that love.

He might have died for us and yet have extended the benefit of his death only to a few of what one might call the best-conditioned sinners. He might have kept it for those who, though they were weak and so could not help but sin, still did not make a trade of sinning; for those who did not sin lavishly. There are in the world what one may call the moderate sinners: the sinners who mix righteousness with their pollutions; the sinners who, though they are sinners, do what lies in their power (so some who are blind would think) so that they might be saved. I say, it would have been love, great love, if he had died for none but such and sent his love to such. But that he should send out terms of peace to the biggest of sinners, yes, that they should be offered to them first of all (for this is what he means when he says, “Begin at Jerusalem”), this is wonderful! This shows his heart indeed, and the heart of God his Father too, who sent him to do this.

There is nothing more common among people who are awake in their souls than to have wrong thoughts of God: thoughts that are narrow, that pinch and pen up his mercy into scanty and beggarly conclusions and rigid legal conditions. They suppose it is rude, an encroachment on his majesty, to come ourselves or to invite others until we have scraped and washed and rubbed off as much of our dirt as we think fitting, to make ourselves somewhat orderly and handsome in his sight. Such people never knew what these words meant: “Begin at Jerusalem.” Yes, in their hearts such people have compared the Father and his Son to stingy rich men whose money comes from them like drops of blood. “True,” say such people, “God has mercy, but he is loath to part with it. You must please him well if you are to get any from him. He is not as free as many suppose, nor is he as willing to save as some self-styled gospel men imagine.”

But I ask such people: if the Father and the Son are not unspeakably free to show mercy, why was this clause put into our commission to preach the gospel? Yes, why did he say, “Begin at Jerusalem”? For though men, through the weakness of their wits, have tried to show other reasons why those of Jerusalem should have the first offer of mercy, yet I can prove by many undeniable reasons that the people of Jerusalem, to whom the apostles made the first offer as they were commanded, were the biggest sinners that ever breathed on the face of God’s earth (setting the unpardonable sin aside). On this my doctrine stands like a rock: that Jesus, the Son of God, would have mercy offered first of all to the biggest sinners. And if this does not show the heart of the Father and the Son to be infinitely free in bestowing forgiveness of sins, I confess myself mistaken.

Apart from this, there is no other argument like it to show us Christ’s willingness to save sinners. For, as was said before, all the other signs of Christ’s mercifulness might have been limited to sinners qualified in this way or that. But when he says, “Begin at Jerusalem,” the line is stretched out to the utmost; no one can imagine beyond it. It is folly here to pinch and spare, to narrow it and try to bring it within scanty bounds. For he plainly says, “Begin at Jerusalem.” The biggest sinner is the biggest sinner; the biggest is the Jerusalem sinner.

It is true, he says that repentance and remission of sins must go together. Yet remission is sent to the chief, the Jerusalem sinner. Nor does repentance lessen the Jerusalem sinner’s crimes at all. It does not diminish his sins, nor make them so much as half a sin fewer. It only puts a stop to the Jerusalem sinner’s course and makes him willing to be saved freely by grace, and for the time to come to be governed by that blessed word that has brought him the news of good things. Besides, no one shows himself willing to be saved who does not repent of his deeds. For whoever still goes on in his trespasses declares that he is resolved to pursue his own damnation further.

Learn, then, to judge the largeness of God’s heart, and of the heart of his Son Jesus Christ, by the Word. Do not judge it by feeling, nor by the reports of your conscience; here conscience is often made a fool of and made to go quite aside from the Word. It was judging without the Word that made David say that he was cast off from God’s eyes (Ps 31:22), and that he “shall perish one day by the hand of Saul” (1 Sam 27:1). The Word had told him something else, namely, that he would be king in Saul’s place.

Our text also says that Jesus Christ bids preachers, in their preaching of repentance and remission of sins, to begin first at Jerusalem. By this it declares most truly the infinite largeness of the merciful heart of God and his Son toward the sinful children of men. So I say, judge the goodness of the heart of God and his Son by this text and by others of the same import. Then you will not dishonor the grace of God, nor needlessly frighten yourself, nor give away your faith, nor gratify the devil, nor lose the benefit of God’s Word. I am speaking now to weak believers.

Use 2: The Sufficiency of Christ’s Merits

2. Would Jesus Christ have mercy offered first of all to the biggest sinners, to the Jerusalem sinners? Then by this also you must learn to judge the sufficiency of the merits of Christ. I do not mean that the merits of Christ can be comprehended, for they are beyond the conceptions of the whole world, being called “the unsearchable riches of Christ” (Eph 3:8). Yet they may be apprehended to a considerable degree. Now, the way to apprehend them most is to consider what offers of his grace he makes to sinners after his resurrection. For you may be sure he will not offer beyond the virtue of his merits. This is because, as grace is the cause of his merits, so his merits are the basis and the bounds on which and by which his grace stands good and is let out to sinners.

Does he, then, command that his mercy be offered first of all to the biggest sinners? That declares that there is a sufficiency in his blood to save the biggest sinners. “The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin” (1 John 1:7). And again: “Be it known unto you, therefore, men and brethren, that through this man” (that is, through this man’s merits) “is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins; and by him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses” (Acts 13:38-39).

Observe, then, your rule for judging the sufficiency of the blessed merits of your Savior. If he had not been able to reconcile the biggest sinners to his Father by his blood, he would not have sent them, sent them first of all, the doctrine of remission of sins; for remission of sins is through faith in his blood. We are justified freely by the grace of God through the redemption that is in the blood of Christ. Grace acts, and offers forgiveness of sin to people, on the footing, as I may call it, of the worthiness of the blood of Christ (Eph 1:7; Eph 2:13-14; Col 1:20-22).

From this, therefore, we must gather that the blood of Christ is of infinite value, because he offers mercy to the biggest of sinners. Indeed, we must gather it still further, since he offers mercy first of all to the biggest sinners, and considering also that this first act of his is what the world will take notice of, and will expect to see continued to the end. Besides, it is a disgrace to a man who seeks his own glory in what he undertakes, to do something in a spurt that he cannot keep up and hold out in. This is our Lord’s own argument: he began to build, he says, but was not able to finish (Luke 14:30).

If you heard a man say, “I am resolved to be kind to the poor,” and he began by giving away handfuls of guineas, you would conclude that either he is wonderfully rich, or he must draw in his hand, or he will soon reach the bottom of his riches. Well, this is the case here. Christ, at his resurrection, made it known that he would be good to the world, and he sends first to the biggest sinners, intending to have mercy on them. Now, the biggest sinners cannot be saved except by abundance of grace; it is not a little that will save great sinners (Rom 5:17). And I say again: since the Lord Jesus mounts so high at the very first, and sends to the Jerusalem sinners so that they may come first to share in his mercy, it follows that either he has unsearchable riches of grace and worth in himself, or else he must draw in his hand, or his grace and merits will be spent before the world comes to an end.

But let it be believed as surely as it is spoken: he is still as full as ever. He is not a jot the poorer for all the forgiveness he has given away to great sinners. He is also still as free as at first, for he has never yet called back this word, Begin at the Jerusalem sinners. And, as I said, since his grace is extended according to the worth of his merits, I conclude that there is the same virtue in his merits to save now as there was at the very beginning. Oh, the riches of the grace of Christ! Oh, the riches of the blood of Christ!

Use 3: Encouragement for Those Who Think Themselves the Worst

3. Would Jesus Christ have mercy offered first of all to the biggest sinners? Then here is encouragement for you who think that, for wicked hearts and lives, you have no equal in the world, yet to come to him.

There are people who fear that Jesus Christ will reject them because of the greatness of their sins, when, as you see here, such people are sent to, sent to by Jesus Christ, to come to him for mercy: “Begin at Jerusalem.” Never did one thing in this world answer another more fitly than this text fits that kind of sinner. As face answers face in a mirror, so this text answers the needs of such sinners.

What more can a man say than that he stands in the rank of the biggest sinners? Let him stretch himself as far as he can, and think of himself to the utmost, he can only conclude himself to be one of the biggest sinners. And what then? Why, the text meets him right in the face and says, Christ offers mercy to the biggest sinners, to the very Jerusalem sinners. What more can be objected? No, he does not only offer his mercy to such; it is commanded to be offered to them first of all: “Begin at Jerusalem.” “Preach repentance and remission of sins among all nations: beginning at Jerusalem” (Luke 24:47). Is this not encouragement for those who think that, for wicked hearts and lives, they have no equal in the world?

Objection. But I have a heart as hard as a rock.

Answer. Well, that only proves you are one of the biggest sinners.

Objection. But my heart continually frets against the Lord.

Answer. Well, that only proves you are one of the biggest sinners.

Objection. But I have been desperate in sinful courses.

Answer. Well, stand with the number of the biggest sinners.

Objection. But my gray head is found in the way of wickedness.

Answer. Well, you are in the rank of the biggest sinners.

Objection. But I have not only a base heart; I have lived a debauched life too.

Answer. Then stand among those, too, who are called the biggest sinners. And what then? Why, the text swoops down on you all; you cannot object yourselves beyond the text. It has a particular message to the biggest sinners. I say, it swoops down on you all.

Objection. But I am a reprobate.

Answer. Now you talk like a fool and meddle with what you do not understand. No sin but the sin of final impenitence can prove a man a reprobate, and I am sure you have not yet arrived at that. So you do not understand what you are saying, and you are drawing groundless conclusions against yourself. Say you are a sinner, and I will agree with you. Say you are a great sinner, and I will say so too. Yes, say you are one of the biggest sinners, and do not hold back; for the text is still beyond you, still between hell and you. “Begin at Jerusalem” still has a smile for you. Yet you talk as if you were a reprobate, and as if the greatness of your sins proved you to be one. But those of Jerusalem were not reprobates, and their sins, I dare say, were such, both in size and in heinousness, that you are not capable of committing any beyond them.

That is, unless now, after you have been convinced that the Lord Jesus is the only Savior of the world, you should wickedly and spitefully turn yourself from him, conclude that he is not to be trusted for life, and so crucify him afresh as a cheat. This, I must confess, will bring a man under the black rod and set him in danger of eternal damnation (Heb 6:6; Heb 10:28-29). This is trampling underfoot the Son of God and counting his blood an unholy thing. The people of Jerusalem did this, but they did it ignorantly in unbelief, and so were still capable of mercy (Acts 3:14-17; 1 Tim 1:13). But to do this against professed light, and to stand by it, puts a man beyond the text indeed.

But I say, what is this to the one who longs to be saved by Christ? His sins have never yet reached, in greatness, to the nature of the sins that the sinners meant by the text had made themselves guilty of. Whoever would be saved by Christ has an honorable esteem of him; but the people of Jerusalem preferred a murderer before him, and as for him, they cried, Away, away with him; it is not fit that he should live. Perhaps you will object that you yourself have a thousand times preferred a stinking lust before him. I answer: Be it so. That is only what is common for people to do. Nor does the Lord Jesus make such a foolish life a bar to forbid your coming to him, or a fetter on his grace to keep it from you. Instead, he admits your repentance and offers himself to you freely, as you stand among the Jerusalem sinners.

So take courage, man. By the text, mercy is held out to the biggest sinners. Yes, put yourself in the number of the worst by your own reckoning, so that you may be one of the first, and not be put off till the biggest sinners are served. For the biggest sinners are invited first; consequently, if they come, they are likely to be the first served. It was so with Jerusalem. Jerusalem sinners were the ones first invited, and those of them who came first (and three thousand of them came the first day they were invited; how many came afterward no one can tell) were served first.

Put your name in, man, among the biggest, lest you be made to wait till they are served. You have some men who think themselves very cunning because in their prayers they put their names in among those who pretend, saying, “God, I thank you that I am not as bad as the worst.” But believe it: if they are saved at all, they will be saved last. Those who are first in their own eyes will be served last, and the last, or worst, will be first. The text hints at it: “Begin at Jerusalem.” And reason backs it, for they have the most need.

See, then, how God’s ways are above ours. We are for serving the worst last; God is for serving the worst first. The man at the pool, who to my thinking had been longest in his disease and was most helpless as to his cure, was healed first. Yes, he alone was healed. For we read that Christ healed him, but we do not read that he healed one more there at that time (John 5:1-10)! So if you would be served soonest, put your name in among the very worst of sinners. When you are on your knees, say, “Lord, here is a Jerusalem sinner! A sinner of the biggest size! One whose burden is of the greatest bulk and heaviest weight! One who cannot stand long without sinking into hell without your supporting hand!” “Be not thou far from me, O Lord! O my strength, haste thee to help me!” (Ps 22:19).

I say, put your name in with Magdalene, with Manasseh, so that you may fare as the Magdalene and Manasseh sinners do. The man in the Gospel made the desperate condition of his child an argument with Christ to hurry his cure: “Sir, come down,” he says, “ere my child die” (John 4:49). And Christ regarded his haste, saying, “Go thy way; thy son liveth” (John 4:50). Haste requires haste. David was all for speed: “Deliver me speedily” (Ps 31:2); “Hear me speedily” (Ps 69:17); “Answer me speedily” (Ps 102:2). But why speedily? I am in “the net” (Ps 31:4); “I am in trouble” (Ps 69:17); “My days are consumed like smoke” (Ps 102:3). Deep calls to deep: necessity calls for help, and great necessity for present help.

So I say, take my advice in this matter. If you have been a filthy sinner, do not pretend to be another man, but go to Jesus Christ in your true colors. Put yourself among the most vile, and leave it to him to “put thee among the children” (Jer 3:19). Confess all that you know of yourself. I know you will find this hard work, especially if your mind is legalistic; but do it, lest you be held back and put off with the little sinners until the great ones have had their alms.

What do you think David meant when he said his wounds stank and were corrupt, but to hurry God to have mercy on him and not to delay his cure? “Lord,” he says, “I am troubled; I am bowed down greatly; I go mourning all the day long.” “I am feeble and sore broken: I have roared by reason of the disquietness of my heart” (Ps 38:3-8). David knew what he was doing in all this. He knew that making the worst of his case was the way to speedy help, and that feigning and dissembling the matter with God was the shortest way to a delay in his forgiveness.

I have one thing more to offer for your encouragement, you who count yourself one of the biggest sinners: you are, as it were, called by your name, in the first place, to come in for mercy. You man of Jerusalem, listen to your call! Men do this in courts of law. They at once cry out, “Here, sir!” and then they shoulder and crowd and say, “Please make way; I am called into the court.” Why, this is your case, you great, you Jerusalem sinner. Take heart: he is calling you (Mark 10:46-49). Why do you sit still? Get up! Why do you stand still? Come, man; your call should give you authority to come.

“Begin at Jerusalem” is your call and your authority to come. So get up and shoulder your way in, man. Say, “Stand aside, devil, Christ is calling me! Stand aside, unbelief, Christ is calling me! Stand aside, all you discouraging fears of mine, for my Savior is calling me to come to him and receive his mercy!” Men will do this, as I said, in courts below; and why should you not approach the court above in the same way? The Jerusalem sinner is first in thought, first in the commission, first on the roll of names; and so he should attend, expecting to be the first to receive mercy from God.

Is this not an encouragement to the biggest sinners to apply to Christ for mercy? “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden” (Matt 11:28) also confirms this thing: that the biggest sinner, and the one who has the biggest burden, is the one invited first. As Christ sits on the throne of grace, he points over the heads of thousands directly to such a man and says, “Bring in hither the maimed, the halt, and the blind” (Luke 14:21); “let the Jerusalem sinner who stands back there behind come to me.” So, since Christ says “Come” to you, let the angels make a lane, and let all men give way, so that the Jerusalem sinner may come to Jesus Christ for mercy.

Use 4: An Appeal to the Careless Sinner

4. Would Jesus Christ have mercy offered first of all to the biggest sinners? Then come, you profane wretch, and let me enter into an argument with you for a little while. Why will you not come to Jesus Christ, since you are a Jerusalem sinner? How can you find it in your heart to set yourself against grace, against such grace as offers mercy to you? What spirit possesses you and holds you back from sincerely embracing your Savior? Look, God complains of you with groans, saying, “But Israel would none of me” (Ps 81:11); “When I called, none did answer” (Isa 66:4).

Shall God enter this complaint against you? Why do you put him off? Why do you stop your ear? Can you defend yourself? When you are called to account for your neglect of so great salvation, what can you answer? Or do you think you will escape the judgment (Heb 2:3)? No more such Christs! There will be no more such Christs, sinner! Oh, do not put the day, the day of grace, away from you! If it is once gone, it will never come again, sinner.

But what is it that has captured your heart and keeps it from your Savior? “Who in the heaven can be compared unto the Lord? who among the sons of the mighty can be likened unto the Lord?” (Ps 89:6). Do you think you have found anything as good as Jesus Christ? Is there anything among your sins, your companions and your foolish delights that, like Christ, can help you in the day of your distress? Look, the greatness of your sins cannot hinder; do not let the stubbornness of your heart hinder you, sinner.

Objection. I am ashamed.

Answer. Oh, don’t be ashamed to be saved, sinner!

Objection. But my old companions will mock me.

Answer. Oh, don’t be mocked out of eternal life, sinner!

Your stubbornness touches, yes, afflicts the heart of your Savior. Do you not care about this? Of old, “he beheld the city, and wept over it” (Luke 19:41-42). Can you hear this and not be concerned? Shall Christ weep to see your soul going on to destruction, and will you go sporting along that way? Yes, shall Christ, who can be eternally happy without you, be more afflicted at the thought of losing your soul than you are, you who will certainly be eternally miserable if you neglect to come to him? The things that, on your side, keep you and your Savior apart are only bubbles. The least prick of an affliction will let out, as far as you are concerned, what you now think worth risking heaven to enjoy.

Have you no reason? Can you not even once think soberly of your dying hour, or of where your sinful life will drive you then? Have you no conscience? Or, if you have one, is it rocked so fast asleep by sin, or made so weary with calling on you without success, that it has lain down and cares for you no more? Poor man! Your state is to be lamented. Have you no judgment? Are you not able to conclude that to be saved is better than to burn in hell, and that eternal life with God’s favor is better than a temporal life under God’s displeasure? Have you no affection but what is brutish? What, none at all? No affection for the God who made you? What! None for his loving Son, who has shown his love and died for you? Is heaven not worth your affection?

O poor man! Which do you think is stronger, God or you? If you are not able to overcome him, you are a fool for standing out against him (Matt 5:25-26). “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hand of the living God” (Heb 10:29-31). He will grip hard; his fist is stronger than a lion’s paw. Take heed of him: he will be angry if you despise his Son. And will you stand guilty in your trespasses when he offers you his grace and favor (Exod 34:6-7)?

Now we come to the text: “Beginning at Jerusalem.” This text is now one of the brightest stars that shine in the Bible, because there is in it as full an offer of grace to the sons of men as can be imagined, if not the fullest. Yet to those who perish from under this word, even this text will be one of the hottest coals in hell. This text, therefore, will save you or sink you; there is no getting around it. If it saves you, it will set you high; if it sinks you, it will set you low.

But, I say, why are you so unconcerned? Have you no soul? Or do you think you can lose your soul and save yourself? If it had been God’s will to have it otherwise, would it not be a pity that you were ever made a man, since you set so little store by your soul? Sinner, take the invitation. You are called to come to Christ, and you are called by nothing less than an order from the Son of God, even if you happen to be one of the biggest sinners. For he has bidden us offer mercy to all the world in general, and, in the first place, to the sinners of Jerusalem, that is, to the biggest sinners.

Use 5: The Unreasonableness of Despair

5. Would Jesus Christ have mercy offered, in the first place, to the biggest sinners? Then this shows how unreasonable a thing it is for men to despair of mercy. As for those who presume, I will say something to them afterward.

I now speak to those who despair. There are four sorts of despair. There is the despair of devils. There is the despair of souls in hell. There is the despair that is grounded on men’s own deficiency. And there is the despair that troubles those who are willing to be saved but are too heavily borne down with the burden of their sins.

The despair of devils, the despair of the damned, and the despair a man has of attaining life because of his own deficiency are all reasonable. Why should devils and damned souls not despair? Yes, and why should a man not despair of getting to heaven by his own abilities? I am therefore concerned only with the fourth sort of despair, that is, the despair of those who would be saved but are too heavily borne down with the burden of their sins.

So I say to you who are in this condition: why despair? If your despair were reasonable, it would have to arise from your being found already in the land beyond the grave, or from your knowing for certain that Christ will not or cannot save you.

But as for the first, you are still in the land of the living. And as for the second, you have grounds to believe the very opposite. Christ is able to save to the uttermost those who come to God by him. And if he were not willing, he would not have commanded that mercy should be offered, in the first place, to the biggest sinners. Besides, he has said, “And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely” (Rev 22:17), that is, with all my heart. What ground is there here for despair? If you say, “The number and burden of my sins,” I answer, No; that is rather a ground for faith. For such a person, above all others, is invited by Christ to come to him, and is even promised rest and forgiveness if he comes (Matt 11:28). What ground, then, is there to despair? Truly, none at all. Your despair, then, is an unreasonable thing, and has no footing in the Word.

But you say, “I have no experience of God’s love. God has given me no comfort, no ground of hope, though I have waited on him for it many a day.” You do have experience of God’s love, for he has opened your eyes to see your sins, and he has given you desires to be saved by Jesus Christ. By your sense of sin you are made to see your poverty of spirit, and that has laid under you a sure ground to hope that heaven will be yours hereafter.

Your desire to be saved by Christ has also put you under another promise. So there are two promises to hold you up in hope, however heavy your present burden may be (Matt 5:3, 6). As for what you say about God’s silence toward you, perhaps he has already spoken to you once or twice, and you have not perceived it (Job 33:14-15). In any case, you have Christ crucified set forth before your eyes in the Bible, and an invitation to come to him, even if you are a Jerusalem sinner, even if you are one of the biggest sinners. And so you have no ground to despair. What if God is silent toward you? Is that ground for despair? Not at all, so long as there is a promise in the Bible that God will in no way cast away the sinner who comes (John 6:37), and so long as he invites the Jerusalem sinner to come to him.

So do not build despair on these things. They are no sufficient foundation for it, when there is such a plenty of promises in the Bible, and such a display of his mercy to great sinners of old. This is especially so since we also have a clause in the commission given to ministers to preach, that they should begin with the Jerusalem sinners when they offer mercy to the world. Besides, God says, “They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles” (Isa 40:31). But perhaps it may be a long time first. David says that he waited long and sought the Lord, and at length his cry was heard (Ps 40:1). So he bids his soul wait on God (Ps 62:5), and says that it is good to do so before God’s saints (Ps 52:9).

And what if you wait on God all your days? Is that beneath you? And what if God chooses to cross out the entries in his book, and blot out the handwriting that is against you, and not let you know it yet? Is it right to say to God, “You are hard-hearted”? Do not despair. You have no ground to despair as long as you live in this world. It is a sin to begin to despair before a man sets his foot over the threshold of the gates of hell. As for those who are there, let them despair and not hold back; but as for you, you have no ground to do it.

What! Despair of bread in a land that is full of grain! Despair of mercy when our God is full of mercy! Despair of mercy when God goes about by his ministers, begging sinners to be reconciled to him (2 Cor 5:18-20)! You fool, so full of scruples, where can you find that God was ever false to his promise, or that he ever deceived the soul that ventured itself on him? He often calls on sinners to trust him, though they walk in darkness and have no light (Isa 50:10). Those who flee for refuge to the hope set before them have his promise and his oath for their salvation (Heb 6:17-18).

Despair, when we have a God of mercy and a redeeming Christ alive! For shame, stop it! Let those despair who dwell where there is no God, and who are confined to those chambers of death that no redemption can reach. A living man despair, when he is rebuked even for murmuring and complaining (Lam 3:39)! Oh, so long as we are where promises swarm, where mercy is proclaimed, where grace reigns, and where Jerusalem sinners are privileged with the first offer of mercy, it is a base thing to despair.

Despair undervalues the promise, undervalues the invitation, undervalues the offer of grace. Despair undervalues the ability of God the Father, and the redeeming blood of Christ his Son. Oh, unreasonable despair! Despair makes man God’s judge. It is a censor of the promise, a contradicter of Christ in his large offers of mercy, and one that undertakes to make unbelief the great manager of our reason and judgment in deciding what God can and will do for sinners. Despair! It is the devil’s companion, the devil’s master; yes, it is the very chains with which he is held captive under darkness forever. And to give way to it in a land, a state and a time that flows with milk and honey is an unseemly thing.

I would say to my soul, “O my soul, this is not the place for despair; this is not the time to despair in. As long as my eyes can find a promise in the Bible, as long as there is the least mention of grace, as long as there is a moment of breath or life left to me in this world, so long will I wait and look for mercy, so long will I fight against unbelief and despair.” This is the way to honor God and Christ. This is the way to set the crown on the promise. This is the way to welcome the invitation and the One who invites. And this is the way to thrust yourself under the shelter and protection of the word of grace. Never despair so long as our text is alive, for it sounds it out: mercy by Christ is offered, in the first place, to the biggest sinner.

Despair is an unprofitable thing. It will make a man weary of waiting on God (2 Kgs 6:33). It will make a man forsake God and seek his heaven in the good things of this world (Gen 4:13-18). It will make a man his own tormentor, and make him thrash and fling himself about like “a wild bull in a net” (Isa 51:20). Despair! It drives a man to study his own ruin, and brings him at last to be his own executioner (2 Sam 17:23; Matt 27:3-5).

Besides, I am also persuaded that despair is the reason there are so many in the world who would gladly be atheists. Because they have taken up the notion that God will never be merciful to them, they labor to persuade themselves that there is no God at all, as if their unbelief could kill God or make him cease to be. A poor shift for an immortal soul, for a soul that does not like to retain God in its knowledge! If this is the best that despair can do, let it go, man, and turn to faith, to prayer, to waiting for God, and to hope, in spite of ten thousand doubts.

And for your encouragement, take, in addition to what has already been said, the following Scripture: “The Lord taketh pleasure in them that fear him, in those that hope in his mercy” (Ps 147:11). Note from this that those who do not hope in his mercy do not fear God. Note also that God is angry with those who do not hope in his mercy, for he takes pleasure only in those who hope. “He that believeth,” or “hath received his testimony, hath set to his seal that God is true” (John 3:33). But he who does not receive it “hath made him a liar,” and that is a very unworthy thing (1 John 5:10-11).

“Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly” multiply “pardon” (Isa 55:7). Perhaps you are weary of your ways but are not weary of your thoughts, your unbelieving and despairing thoughts. Now God would have you cast these thoughts away too, as thoughts he does not deserve from you; for “he will have mercy upon thee, and he will abundantly pardon.”

“O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken!” (Luke 24:25). Notice here that slowness to believe is a piece of folly. “Yes,” you say, “but I do believe some of it, and I believe whatever can tell against me.” Yes, but, sinner, Christ Jesus here calls you a fool for not believing all. Believe all, and then despair if you can! He who believes all believes the text that says Christ would have mercy preached first to the Jerusalem sinners. He who believes all believes all the promises and consolations of the Word. And the promises and consolations of the Word weigh heavier than all the curses and threatenings of the law, and “mercy rejoiceth against judgment” (Jas 2:13). So believe all, and mercy will weigh judgment down in your conscience, and so bring comfort to your soul. May the Lord take the yoke off your jaws, since he has set food before you (Hos 11:4). And may he help you to remember that he is pleased to offer mercy, in the first place, to the biggest sinners.

Use 6: True Faith Versus Presumption

6. Since Jesus Christ would have mercy offered, in the first place, to the biggest sinners, let souls see to it that they lay right hold of it, lest, in spite of all, they actually come short of it. Only faith knows how to deal with mercy, so do not put presumption in its place. I have noticed that, just as there are herbs and flowers in our gardens, so there are counterfeits of them in the field; they are distinguished from the others only by being called wild ones. Why, so there is faith, and there is wild faith; and wild faith is this presumption.

I call it wild faith because God never planted it in his garden, his church; it is found only in the field, the world. I also call it wild faith because it grows up and is nourished only where other wild notions abound. So beware of it, and all may be well; for this presumptuousness is a very heinous thing in the eyes of God. “The soul,” he says, “that doeth ought presumptuously, whether he be born in the land, or a stranger, the same reproacheth the Lord; and that soul shall be cut off from among his people” (Num 15:30).

The thought of this made David tremble, and pray that God would hold him back from presumptuous sins and not let them have dominion over him (Ps 19:13). Now this presumption puts itself in the place of faith when it tampers with the promise of life while the soul is a stranger to repentance. Therefore, to prevent this, you have in the text both repentance and remission of sins to be offered to Jerusalem. It is not remission without repentance, for all who do not repent will perish, let them presume on grace and the promise as long as they like (Luke 13:1-3).

Presumption, then, is what separates faith and repentance. It concludes that the soul will be saved by grace, though the man was never made sorry for his sins, and the love of his heart was never turned away from them. This is to be self-willed, as Peter puts it. And this is a despising of the Word of the Lord, for the Word has put repentance and faith together (Mark 1:15). And “because he hath despised the Word of the Lord, and hath broken his commandment, that soul shall utterly be cut off: his iniquity shall be upon him” (Num 15:31). Let those, therefore, who still are in their sins and remain in them look to it. For if such people hope to be saved as they are, they presume on the grace of God. This is why presumption and not listening to God’s Word are put together (Deut 17:12).

Again, it is then that men presume, when they are resolved to remain in their sins and yet expect to be saved by God’s grace through Christ. This is as much as to say, “God likes sin as well as I do, and does not care how men live, so long as they lean on his Son.” Of this sort are those “that build up Zion with blood, and Jerusalem with iniquity,” who “judge for reward, and … teach for hire, and … divine for money, and lean upon the Lord” (Mic 3:10-11). This is doing things with a high hand against the Lord our God, and trying, as it were, to catch him out. This is, as we say among men, trying to play a trick on God, as if he had not sufficiently fortified his proposals of grace by his holy Word against all such fools as these.

But look to it! On the day of God such people will be found, not among that great company of Jerusalem sinners who will be saved by grace, but among those who have been the great abusers of the grace of God in the world. Those who say, “Let us sin that grace may abound,” and, “Let us do evil that good may come”: their damnation is just (Rom 3:8). And if so, they are a long way off from that salvation which Jesus Christ presents to the Jerusalem sinners.

I therefore have these things to put to the Jerusalem sinner who would like to know whether he may be so bold as to venture himself on this grace. 1. Do you see your sins? 2. Are you weary of them? 3. Would you, with all your heart, be saved by Jesus Christ? I dare say no less; I dare say no more. But if it is truly so with you, however great your sins have been, however bad you feel your heart to be, however far you are from thinking that God has mercy for you, you are the man, the Jerusalem sinner, whom the Word of God has conquered, and to whom it offers free remission of sins by the redemption that is in Jesus Christ.

When the jailer cried out, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” the answer was, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved” (Acts 16:30-31). He who sees his sins rightly is brought to his wits’ end by them; and he who is brought there is willing to part with them, and to be saved by the grace of God. If this is your case, do not fear, and give no way to despair. You are not presuming if you believe in Jesus Christ for everlasting life. Yes, Christ is prepared for such as you are. So take good courage, and believe.

Satan’s design is to tell the presumptuous that their presuming on mercy is good, but to persuade the believer that his believing is impudent, bold dealing with God. I never in my life heard a presumptuous man say that he was afraid he presumed. But I have heard many an honest, humble soul say that they have been afraid their faith was presumption. Why should Satan trouble those whose ways he knows will bring them to him? And who can think that he would keep quiet when men take the right course to escape his hellish snares? This, therefore, is the reason why the truly humbled soul is opposed, while the presumptuous one sails on with wind and tide. Satan hates the truly humble; but he laughs to see the foolery of the other.

Do your hand and heart tremble? The promise smiles on you. “To this man will I look,” says God, “even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word” (Isa 66:2). What I have said about presumption, then, does not concern the humble in spirit at all. I am for gathering up the stones and taking the stumbling blocks out of the way of God’s people, and for forewarning those who set the stumbling block of their iniquity before their faces, and those who are for presuming on God’s mercy. Let them look to themselves (Ezek 14:6-8).

Also, our text stands as firm as it ever did, and our observation still holds: Jesus Christ would have mercy offered, in the first place, to the biggest sinners. So then, let none despair, and let none presume. Let none despair who are sorry for their sins and would be saved by Jesus Christ. Let none presume who go on liking their sins, though they seem to know the exceeding grace of Christ. For though the door stands wide open to receive the penitent, yet it is barred and bolted fast enough against the presumptuous sinner. “Be not deceived, God is not mocked; whatsoever a man sows, that he shall reap” (Gal 6:7). God cannot possibly be wheedled out of his mercy, or won over by lying lips. He knows those who trust in him, and who sincerely come to him by Christ for mercy (Nah 1:7).

It is not, then, the abundance of sins committed, but the failure to come heartily to God by Christ for mercy, that shuts men out of doors. And though not coming heartily may be called only one sin, yet it is a sin that causes all your other sins to remain on you unforgiven. God complains of this: “They have not cried unto me with their heart … they return, but not to the most High” (Hos 7:14, 16). They turned “feignedly” (Jer 3:10). When they act like this, his soul hates them. But as for the penitent, humble, broken-hearted sinner, though his transgressions are red as scarlet, red like crimson (Isa 1:18), and as many as the sand; though his transgressions cry to heaven against him for vengeance, and seem there to cry louder than his prayers, or tears, or groans for mercy; yet he is safe. To this man God will look (Isa 66:2).

Use 7: Room Also for Lesser Sinners

7. Would Jesus Christ have mercy offered, in the first place, to the biggest sinners? Then here is ground for those who, in their actual practice, have not been such sinners, to come to him for mercy.

Although no sin is little in itself, since every sin contradicts the nature and majesty of God, yet we must allow for differing numbers of sins, and also for aggravating circumstances. Two sins are not as many as three; nor are three sins done in ignorance as big as one done against light, against knowledge and conscience. Also, there is the child in sin, and there is the man in sin whose hair is gray and whose skin is wrinkled with age. We must make a distinction between these sinners too. For can it be that a child of seven, or ten, or sixteen years old should be such a sinner, a sinner as vile in the eyes of the law, as one who has walked according to the course of this world for forty, fifty, sixty, or seventy years?

Now this youth, this stripling, though he is a sinner, is only a little sinner compared with such a man. Now, I say, if there is room for the first sort, for those of the biggest size, there is certainly room for the lesser size. If there is a door wide enough for a giant to go in at, there is certainly room for a dwarf. If Christ Jesus has grace enough to save great sinners, he surely has grace enough to save little ones. If he can forgive five hundred pence, he can certainly forgive fifty (Luke 7:41-42).

But you will say, “You said before that the little sinners must stand by until the great ones have received their grace, and that is discouraging!” I answer, there are two sorts of little sinners: those who really are so, and those who pretend to be so. It was those who pretend to be so that I meant there, and not those who really are little sinners by comparison. Those who pretend to be so may wait long enough before they obtain forgiveness.

But again, a sinner may be a little sinner by comparison, and yet a great one in his own sense of it. There are, then, two sorts of greatness in sin: greatness by reason of number, and greatness by reason of a thorough conviction of the horrible nature of sin. In this last sense, a man who has only one sin, if such a one could be found, may in his own eyes find himself the biggest sinner in the world. Let this man or this child, therefore, put himself among the great sinners, plead with God as great sinners do, and expect to be saved with the great sinners, and as soon and as heartily as they.

Yes, a little sinner who truly is one by comparison, if he will graciously give way to conviction, and will diligently weigh the horrible nature of his own sin in God’s light, may yet obtain forgiveness for his sins at the hands of the heavenly Father sooner than the man who has ten times as many sins, and so has cause to cry ten times harder to God for mercy.

For the grievousness of the cry is a great thing with God. If he will hear the widow if she cries at all, how much more if she cries most grievously (Exod 22:22-23)? It is not the number of sins, but the true sense of the abominable nature of sin, that makes the cry for pardon mournful. As I said, the man who has many sins may not cry as loudly in the ears of God as the man who has far fewer. In our present sense, the one who is the biggest sinner in his own eyes is the one who soonest finds mercy. The offer, then, is to the biggest sinner, to the biggest sinner first, and the mercy is first obtained by the one who first confesses himself to be such a one.

There are people who strive at the throne of grace for mercy by pleading how great their need is. Now the power of their plea to prevail does not lie in counting up the number of their sins, but in their sense of how great their sins are, and in the earnestness of their cry for pardon. And it is worth noticing that though the birthright was Reuben’s, and was given to the sons of Joseph because of his folly, yet Judah prevailed above his brothers, and from him came the Messiah (1 Chr 5:1-2). There is a heavenly subtlety to be practiced in this matter. “Thy brother came with subtlety, and hath taken away thy blessing” (Gen 27:35). The blessing belonged to Esau, but Jacob by his diligence made it his own.

The offer is to the biggest sinner, to the biggest sinner first. But if he holds back from crying out, a sinner who is far less of a sinner than he is, both in the number and in the nature of his transgressions, may get the blessing first, if he has grace to stir himself up in earnest. For the loudest cry is heard furthest, and the most mournful pierces soonest.

So I press this point, not because I want little sinners to go and tell God that they are little sinners, thinking to obtain his mercy that way. Truly, that way they are never likely to have it, for such words show that a person has no true sense at all of the nature of his sins. Sin, as I said, is horrible in its nature, even if it is only one single sin as to the act; yes, even if it is only a sinful thought. And so it justly calls for the damnation of the soul. The comparison of little and great sinners, then, may pass for good sense among men. But to plead before God the fewness of your sins, or how comparatively harmless they are in quantity, shows that you have no sound knowledge of the nature of your sin, and so no true sense of the nature of mercy or of your need of it.

Little sinner! You may know in your conscience that, as to your acts, you are no thief, no murderer, no whore, no liar, no false swearer, or the like. And you cannot help understanding, by reason, that in this respect you are not so openly vile as others. Yet when you go to God for mercy, know no one’s sins but your own, and mention no one’s sins but your own. Also, do not try to make your own sins smaller, but magnify them and make them greater by every just circumstance, and be as if there had never been a sinner in the world but you. Cry out, too, as if you were the only ruined man there is. That is the way to obtain God’s mercy.

It is one of the loveliest sights in the world to see a little sinner dwelling on the greatness of his sins, multiplying and multiplying them to himself, until in his own eyes he makes them bigger and higher than any other man’s sins he sees in the world. And it is just as base a thing to see a man do otherwise, and it will turn out just as badly for him (Luke 18:10-14). So, as I said before to the great sinner, let him take care that he does not presume; I now say to the little sinner, let him take care that he does not dissemble. For the little sinner is as prone to dissemble as the great one. “He that hideth his sins shall not prosper” (Prov 28:13), whether he is a little sinner or a great one.

Use 8: Why Satan Rages Against Christ

8. Would Jesus Christ have mercy offered, in the first place, to the biggest sinners? Then this shows the true reason why Satan sets himself against him as fiercely as he does.

The Father and the Holy Spirit are well spoken of by all deceivers and deceived people; Christ alone is the rock of offense. “Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling-stone and rock of offense” (Rom 9:33). It is not that Satan cares any more for the Father or the Spirit than he cares for the Son. But he can leave people alone with their notions of the Father and the Spirit, for he knows they will never enjoy the Father or the Spirit if they do not receive the merits of the Son. “He that hath the Son, hath life; he that hath not the Son of God hath not life” (1 John 5:12), however much they may boast of the Father and the Spirit. Again, “Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son” (2 John 9).

Christ, and Christ alone, is the one who can make us able to enjoy God with life and joy to all eternity. That is why he calls himself the way to the Father, the true and living way (John 14:6). For we cannot come to the Father except by him (Heb 10:19-20). Satan knows this, and therefore he hates him. Deluded people do not know this, and that is why Satan leads them up and down by the nose as he does.

There are many things that Satan has taken as occasions to increase his rage against Jesus Christ. First, there is his love for man, and then the many expressions of that love. He has taken man’s nature upon himself. In that nature he has fulfilled the law to bring in righteousness for man, and he has spilled his blood to reconcile man to God. He has broken the neck of death, put away sin, destroyed the works of the devil, and taken into his own hands the keys of death. All these things are hateful to Satan; he cannot stand Christ for them. Besides this, Christ has eternal life in himself, and has it to give to us. And in all likelihood we are to possess the very places from which the devils fell by their transgression, if not places more glorious. No wonder he is angry.

And is it not a galling thing to him that we should be admitted to the throne of grace by Christ, while he stands bound in chains of darkness, held over to answer for his rebellions against God and his Son at the terrible day of judgment? Yes, we poor dust and ashes are to become his judges and triumph over him forever. And all this is owing to Jesus Christ, for he is the meritorious cause of it all.

Now although Satan wants revenge for this, he knows it is useless to attack the person of Christ, for Christ has overcome him. So Satan tampers with a crowd of foolish men, so that he may vilify Christ through them. And they, bold fools that they are, will not hold back from spitting in his face. They will rail at his person and deny that it even exists; they will rail at his blood and deny its merit and worth. They will deny the very purpose for which he fulfilled the law. And by shifts and tricks and quirks, which Satan helps them to, they set up foolish names and images in his place and give them the glory of a Savior. In this way Satan works under the name of Christ, and his ministers under the name of the ministers of righteousness.

And by his wiles and schemes he ruins a world of people. But there is a seed, and they shall serve him, and it shall be counted to the Lord for a generation. These shall see their sins, and see that Christ is the way to happiness. These shall venture themselves, body and soul, on his worthiness. Satan knows all this, and so his rage burns all the hotter. Therefore, as far as he is able and allowed, he assaults, tempts and abuses these poor people, and stirs up whatever he can to harm them. He does this so that, while his time lasts, he may make it as hard and difficult for them to reach eternal glory as he can.

Often he abuses them with wrong ideas of God and wrong ideas of Christ. He also throws them into the mire, to the reproach of religion, the shame of their brothers, the scorn of the world and the dishonor of God. He holds our hands while the world beats us; he puts bearskins on us and then sets the dogs on us. He smears us with his own foam, and then tempts us to believe that the filth comes from ourselves.

Oh, the rage and the roaring of this lion, and the hatred he shows against the Lord Jesus and against those who are purchased with his blood! And yet, in the middle of all this, the Lord Jesus sends out his herald to proclaim among the nations his love for the world, and to invite them to come in to him for life. Yes, his invitation is so large that it offers his mercy, in the first place, to the biggest sinners of every age, and this increases the devil’s rage all the more. Therefore, as I said before, let him fret and let him fume, the Lord Jesus will “divide the spoil” with this great one. Yes, he shall divide the spoil with the strong, “because he hath poured out his soul unto death, and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors” (Isa 53:12).

Use 9: Comfort for the Tempted

9. Would Jesus Christ have mercy offered, in the first place, to the biggest sinners? Let the tempted harp on this string for their help and comfort.

The tempted person, wherever he lives, always thinks himself the biggest sinner, the one most unworthy of eternal life. This is Satan’s master argument: “You are a horrible sinner, a hypocrite, someone with a profane heart, someone who is an utter stranger to any work of grace.” I say this is his maul, his club, his masterpiece. He does with it what some people do with their most charming songs: he sings it everywhere. I believe there are only a few saints in the world who have not had this temptation sounding in their ears. But if only they realized it, by all this Satan is only driving them to the very gap they ought to go out through, and so escape his roaring.

He says, “You are a great sinner, a horrible sinner, a profane-hearted wretch, someone who cannot be matched for vileness in the whole country.” And all the while Christ is telling his ministers to offer mercy, in the first place, to the biggest sinners. So this temptation drives you straight into the arms of Jesus Christ.

If only the tempted person realized this, he might say, “Yes, Satan, so I am. I am a sinner of the biggest size, and therefore I have the most need of Jesus Christ. Yes, because I am such a wretch, Jesus Christ calls me. Yes, he calls me first; the first offer of the gospel is to be made to the Jerusalem sinner. I am that man, so stand back, Satan. Make a lane; my right is to come to Jesus Christ first.” Now this would be paying him like for like. This would defeat the devil; this would make him say, “I must not deal with this man this way, for then I put a sword into his hand to cut off my head.”

And this is what Peter means when he says, “Resist him steadfast in the faith” (1 Pet 5:9). And it is what Paul means when he says, “Take the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked” (Eph 6:16). Why is it said, Begin at Jerusalem, if the Jerusalem sinner is not to have the benefit of it? And if I am to have the benefit of it, let me call it to mind when Satan haunts me with continual remembrance of my sins, of my Jerusalem sins. Satan and my conscience say I am the biggest sinner, and Christ offers mercy, in the first place, to the biggest sinners!

And the manner of the offer suits my mind exactly. I am sorry for my sin; yes, sorry in my heart that any sinful thought ever entered my wicked mind or found the least welcome there. And if I could have my wish, my heart would never again be a place for anything but the grace and Spirit and faith of the Lord Jesus. I do not say this to make my wickedness smaller. I would not for all the world be placed by my own conscience anywhere but in the very front rank of the biggest sinners, so that I might be one of the first to be beckoned by the gracious hand of Jesus the Savior to come to him for mercy.

Well, sinner, now you speak like a Christian. But say this with a strong spirit in the hour of temptation, and then you will acquit yourself well, to your credit and your comfort. This making use of Christ in dark hours is the life of our Christianity, though it is also the hardest part of it. We should not stop either at darkness or at the raging of our lusts, but go on venturing, and casting the whole of our concerns for the next world at the feet of Jesus Christ. This is the way to make the darkness light, and also to calm the raging of corruption.

The first time the Passover was eaten, it was eaten at night (Exod 12:8). And when Israel took courage to go forward, though the sea stood in their way like a devouring gulf, and the army of the Egyptians followed hard at their heels, yet the sea gave way, and their enemies were as still as a stone until they had crossed over (Exod 14:13-14, 21-22; Exod 15:16).

There is nothing like faith to help in a pinch. Faith dissolves doubts as the sun drives away the mists. And so that you will not be thrown off, know that your time for believing, as I said, is always. There are times when some graces may be out of use, but there is no time when faith can be said to be so. Therefore faith must always be in exercise. Faith is the eye, the mouth, the hand, and one of these is in use all day long. Faith is to see, to receive, to work or to eat, and a Christian should be seeing, or receiving, or working, or feeding all day long. Let it rain, let it blow, let it thunder, let it lighten, a Christian must still believe. As the good man said, “What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee” (Ps 56:2-3).

Nor can we have a better encouragement to do this than the one the text sets before us: an open heart for a Jerusalem sinner. And if Christ’s heart is open for a Jerusalem sinner to come, then it is open for such a one once he has come. If it is open for such a one to be saved, then it is open for such a one who is saved. If it is open for such a one to be pardoned his great transgressions, then it is open for such a one, once he is pardoned for these, to come daily to Jesus Christ too, to be cleansed and set free from his common infirmities and from the iniquities of his holy things. Therefore let the poor sinner who wants to be saved work hard to gain skill in making the best use of the grace of Christ, to help him against the temptations of the devil and against his own sins.

Use 10: Hope for Those Who Have Fallen Away

10. Would Jesus Christ have mercy offered, in the first place, to the biggest sinners? Then let those consider this who in a day of trial have spoken or done, or may yet speak or do, what their profession or their conscience told them they should not, and who carry the guilt and burden of it on their consciences.

Whether a thing is wrong or right, guilt may pursue the one who acts against his conscience. But suppose a man should deny his God or his Christ, or abandon a good profession of faith, and be under the real guilt of it. Must he therefore conclude that he is gone forever? Let him come back with Peter’s tears, and no doubt he will obtain Peter’s forgiveness, for the text includes the biggest sinners. And it is worth noticing that before this clause was put into this commission, Peter had already been pardoned for his horrible revolt from his Master.

Whoever revolts in the day of trial, if he is not shot quite dead on the spot, but feels his wound and calls out for a surgeon, will find his Lord at hand to pour wine and oil into his wounds, so that he may be healed again. And to encourage such a person to think that there may be mercy for him: besides what we find recorded of Peter, you read in the Acts that some were compelled, through the violence of their trials, to blaspheme, and yet they are called saints (Acts 26:9-11).

So you have a promise or two that speak of people like this, to encourage us to think that some of them, at least, will come back to the Lord their God. “Shall they fall,” he says, “and not arise? Shall he turn away, and not return?” (Jer 8:4). “And in that day will I assemble her that halteth, and I will gather her that is driven out, and her that I have afflicted. And I will make her that halted a remnant, and her that was cast far off a strong nation; and the Lord shall reign over them in Mount Zion … for ever” (Mic 4:6-7; Zeph 3:19). What we are to understand by “her that halteth” is best explained by the prophet Elijah (1 Kgs 18:21).

I will conclude, then, that for those who have halted, or may halt, the Lord has mercy in the bank, and is willing to accept them if they return to him again. Perhaps after that they may never be held in any great esteem in the house of God. But if the Lord will admit them to favor and forgiveness, oh, what exceeding and undeserved mercy! See Ezek 44:10-14. You, then, who may be that man, remember this: there is mercy for you too. So return to God and to his Son, who still has something in store for you, and who will do you good.

But perhaps you will say, “He does not save all who revolt, and so perhaps he will not save me.”

Answer. Are you returning to God? If you are returning, you are the man. “Return, ye backsliding children, and I will heal your backslidings” (Jer 3:22).

Some who revolt, as I said, are shot dead on the spot, and as for them, who can help them? But for those who cry out from their wounds, it is a sign that they are still alive, and if they use the means in time, no doubt they may be healed.

Christ Jesus has bags of mercy that have never yet been broken open or unsealed. That is why it is said that he has goodness laid up, things reserved in heaven for his people. And if he breaks open one of these bags, who can tell what he can do? That is why his love is said to be such as passes knowledge, and his riches are said to be unsearchable. He has nobody knows what, for nobody knows whom! He keeps it by him in store for those who seem, in the eyes of everyone, to be gone beyond recovery. On this point the text is plain.

What man or angel could have thought that the Jerusalem sinners were still on this side of impossibility, still able to enjoy life and mercy? Suppose you had seen their actions, and the horrible things they did to the Son of God. Suppose you had seen how stubbornly they backed up what they had done, resolving and striving, after they had killed his person, to go on against his name and doctrine. And suppose you had seen that in all that time there was not found among them, as far as we read, the least remorse or regret for these doings of theirs. Could you have imagined that mercy would ever have taken hold of them, at least so soon? More than that, that they should be counted, of all the world, the only ones fit to have it offered to them in the very first place? For that is what my text commands, saying, Preach repentance and remission of sins among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.

I tell you, the thing is a wonder, and must stand forever as a wonder among the sons of men. It stands, too, as an everlasting invitation and enticement to the biggest sinners to come to Christ for mercy. Now since, in the opinion of everyone, the one who has revolted is such a sinner, then if he has, as I said before, any life in him, let him take encouragement to come back, so that he may live by Christ.

Use 11: Showing Grace to Those Left Behind

11. Would Jesus Christ have mercy offered, in the first place, to the biggest sinners? Then let God’s ministers tell them so.

There is a tendency in us, I do not know how it comes about, to look down on those who are left behind once we are converted. Poor fools that we are, we forget that we ourselves were once like them (Titus 3:2-3). But since we have tasted that the Lord is gracious, would it not suit us better to behave toward them in such a way that we give them convincing grounds to believe that we have found the mercy which also opens the door for them to come and share it with us? Ministers, I say, should do this, both in their doctrine and in every other way.

Severity does not become us, either in doctrine or in conduct. We ourselves live by grace; let us give as we receive, and work hard to persuade our fellow sinners, whom God has left behind us, to follow after, so that they may share grace with us. We are saved by grace; let us live like people who are gracious. Let everything we do toward the world be done in love toward them. Pity them, pray for them, be friendly with them, for their good. Let us lay aside our foolish, worldly, carnal grandeur. Let us not walk the streets with the kind of manner that signals we would hardly touch the poor ones who are left behind, no, not even with a pair of tongs. It is not fitting for ministers to act like this.

Remember your Lord. He was so familiar with publicans and sinners that it became a proverb: “Behold a man gluttonous, and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners” (Matt 11:19). The first part, about his gluttonous eating and drinking, was certainly a horrible slander. But as for the other part, nothing truer was ever said of him by the world. Now why should we lay our hands crosswise on this text, that is, choose good food and love sweet wine more than the salvation of the poor publican? Why not be familiar with sinners, provided we hate their spots and blemishes and seek to have them healed of these? Why not be friendly with our unconverted neighbors, if we take the occasion to do so in order to drop good doctrine on their souls, and keep distilling it there? Why not go to the poor man’s house and give him a penny, and a Scripture to think about? Why not send for the poor to come and take away at least the leftovers from your table, so that your fellow sinner may be refreshed within as well as you?

Ministers should be examples. But I am a lesser man, and must beware of meddling too much. Yet if I could, I would meddle with them, and with their wives, and with their children too. I do not mean this of all of them, but of those who deserve it, though I may not name them. But, I say, let ministers follow the steps of their blessed Lord, who by word and deed showed his love for the salvation of the world, by a manner of life that showed he put their salvation before his own private concerns. For we are commanded to follow his steps, “who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth” (1 Pet 2:21-22).

And what I have said to ministers, I say to all the brothers: behave in such a way that all the world may see that you really are the sons of love. Love your Savior; yes, show one another that you love him, not only with a love of feeling that looks like love, but with the love of duty. Practical love is best. Many love Christ with nothing but the lick of the tongue. Alas! Christ Jesus the Lord must not be put off like this. “He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them,” he says, “he it is that loveth me” (John 14:21). Practical love, which consists in self-denial, in charity to my neighbor, and in patiently enduring affliction for his name, is what counts as love. Right love for Christ is the kind that carries in it an argument that stirs up others among the brothers (Heb 10:24).

If someone asked me how he could know that he loves the children of God, the best answer I could give him would be in the words of the apostle John. “By this,” he says, “we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments” (1 John 5:2). Love for God and Christ is shown when we are tender of his name. And we show ourselves tender of his name when we are afraid to break any of his commandments, even the least. And when we have come this far, then we show our love for our brother too.

Now, we have reason enough to do this, since our Lord loved us and gave himself for us, to deliver us from death so that we might live through him. When the world hears the doctrine I have asserted and handled in this little book, namely, that Jesus Christ would have mercy offered, in the first place, to the biggest sinners, they will be inclined, because they themselves are unbelievers, to think that this is a doctrine that leads to looseness and gives liberty to the flesh. But if you who believe love your brothers and your neighbors truly and as you should, you will put to silence the ignorance of such foolish men and stop their mouths from speaking evil of you. And, I say, let the love of Christ constrain us to this. Who deserves our heart, our mouth, our life and our goods as much as Jesus Christ, who has bought us for himself by his blood, for this very purpose: that we should be a people of his own, zealous of good works?

There is nothing more fitting in the world than to see a Christian walk as the gospel requires, and nothing more unbecoming a reasonable creature than to hear a man say, “I believe in Christ,” and yet see debauchery and profaneness in his life. If I had my way, such men would be counted the basest of men. They would be counted by everyone unworthy of the name of Christian, and would be shunned by every good man as the very plague of the Christian profession. For it is written that this is how we should behave toward them: those who have a form of godliness but deny its power, from such we must turn away (2 Tim 3:5).

It has often come into my mind to ask how it is that the profession of the gospel should be so tainted with loose and carnal gospelers. And I could never come to a better answer on the matter than this: such men are made professors by the devil, and so are put by him among the rest of the godly. A certain man had a fruitless fig tree planted in his vineyard (Luke 13:6). But by whom was it planted there? By the one who sowed the tares, his own children, among the wheat (Matt 13:37-40). And that was the devil.

But why does the devil do this? Not out of love for them, but to make them offenses and stumbling blocks to others. For he knows that one loose professor in the church does more harm to religion than ten who are in the world can do to it. Was it not, do you think, the devil who stirred up the girl you read of in Acts 16 to cry out, “These men are the servants of the most high God, which show unto us the way of salvation”? Yes, it was, as is evident, for Paul was grieved to hear it. But why did the devil stir her up to cry out like this, except that this was the way to stain the gospel, and to make the world think that it came from the same hand as her fortune-telling and witchcraft (Acts 16:16-18)?

“Holiness, O Lord, becomes thy house for ever” (Ps 93:5). Therefore let all who profess the name of Christ, whoever they are, take care that they do not bring scandal on the profession they make of him, since he has so graciously offered us his grace to save us, in the first place, as we are sinners of the biggest size.

Having spoken this far of the riches of the grace of Christ, and of the freeness of his heart to embrace the Jerusalem sinners, it may not be amiss to give you, as a caution, notice of one thing more: namely, that this grace and freeness of his heart is limited to a time and a day, and whoever stays out beyond that day will perish in spite of it all. A king may graciously send out to his rebellious people an offer of pardon if they accept it by a certain day, and yet behead or hang those who do not come in for mercy until the day or time is past. Just so, Christ Jesus has set the sinner a day, a day of salvation, an acceptable time (2 Cor 6:2); but whoever stands out, or goes on in rebellion beyond that time, is likely to come off with the loss of his soul (Heb 3:13-19; Heb 4:7; Luke 19:41-42). Since things are so, then, it may be fitting here to touch a little on these particulars.

First. This day, or time so limited, when it is considered with reference to this or that particular person, is often not discerned by the person concerned, and the closing of it is always kept secret.

God in his wisdom has ordered it this way so that no one, when called, should put off turning to God to another time. Now, and today, is that, and only that, which holy Scripture reveals (Ps 50:22; Eccl 12:1; Heb 3:13, 15). And this shows us the desperate hazards run by those who, when invitation or conviction comes to them, put off turning to God to be saved until another, and as they think, a more fitting season and time. For many, by doing so, delay it until the day of God’s patience and long-suffering is over; and then, for all their prayers and cries after mercy, they receive nothing but mockery, and are laughed at by the God of heaven (Prov 1:20-30; Isa 65:12-16; Isa 66:4; Zech 7:11-13).

Second. Another thing to consider is this: the day of God’s grace begins sooner with some people, and also ends sooner, than it does with others. Those called at the first hour of the day had their call sooner than those who were called to turn to God at the sixth hour of the day; yes, and those who were hired at the third hour had their call sooner than those who were called at the eleventh (Matt 20:1-6).

1. The day of God’s patience began with Ishmael, and also ended before he was twenty years old. He was circumcised at thirteen years of age; the next year Isaac was born, and Ishmael was then fourteen. Now, on the very day that Isaac was weaned, Ishmael was rejected. Suppose Isaac was three years old before he was weaned: that was only Ishmael’s seventeenth year. So the day of God’s grace ended early with him (Gen 17:25; Gen 21:2-11; Gal 4:30).

2. Cain’s day ended early with him too. After God had rejected him, he lived on to father many children, to build a city, and to do many other things. But alas! all that while he was a fugitive and a vagabond. Nor, after the day of his rejection had come, did he carry anything with him but this doleful language in his conscience: “From God’s face shall I be hid” (Gen 4:10-15).

3. Esau, in his reckless excesses, would insist on selling his birthright, never doubting, like other overconfident fools, that the blessing would still be his. He lived many years after that, but all of them under the wrath of God, as was made to appear, when the time came, to his destruction. For “when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears” (Heb 12:16-17).

Many instances might be given of such tokens of God’s displeasure against those who, as the wise man puts it, fool away the prize that is put into their hand (Prov 17:16).

Let these things, therefore, be a further caution to those who sit under the glorious sound of the gospel and hear of the riches of the grace of God in Christ to poor sinners. To slight grace, to despise mercy, and to stop the ear when God speaks, when he speaks such great things, and so much to our profit, is a great provocation. He offers, he calls, he woos, he invites, he prays, he pleads with us in this day of his grace to be reconciled to him; yes, and he himself has provided the means of reconciliation for us. Now, to despise this must be provoking; and it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God (Heb 10:31).

Objection. But someone may say to me, “I would gladly be saved; I would gladly be saved by Christ. But I am afraid this day of grace is past, and that I will perish in spite of the exceeding riches of the grace of God.”

Answer. To this doubt I would answer several things: first, with respect to this day; second, with respect to your desires; third, with respect to your fears.

1. With respect to this day, that is, whether it has ended with a person or not.

(1) Are you jolted, shaken, and troubled when you hear the Word? Is your conscience awakened then, and convinced that you are at present in a perishing state, and that you need to cry to God for mercy? This is a hopeful sign that this day of grace is not past with you. For usually those who are past grace are also “past feeling” in their conscience, being “seared with a hot iron” (Eph 4:18-19; 1 Tim 4:1-2). It follows that those who are past grace must be people who are denied the awakening fruits of the Word preached. The dead who hear, says Christ, will live (John 5:25); to say the least, Christ has not quite finished with them, and the day of God’s patience is not at an end with them.

(2) In your more private hours, are there arguings, strugglings, and strivings with your spirit, to persuade you of the emptiness of the vain things you love, and to win your soul to a choice of Christ Jesus and his heavenly things? Take heed, and do not rebel. For the day of God’s grace and patience will not be past with you until he says his “Spirit shall strive no more” with you. Then the woe comes: when he departs from them, and when he says to the means of grace, Let them alone (Hos 4:17; Hos 9:12).

(3) Are you visited in the night with dreams about your state, and about your danger of being lost? Do you have heart-shaking dread, when deep sleep is upon you, of hell, death, and judgment to come? These are signs that God has not wholly left you, or cast you behind his back forever. “For God speaketh once, yea twice, yet man perceiveth it not. In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falleth upon men, in slumberings upon the bed; then he openeth the ears of men, and sealeth their instruction, that he may withdraw man from his purpose,” that is, his sinful purposes, “and hide pride from man” (Job 33:14-17). All this while God has not left the sinner, nor come to the end of his patience toward him. He stands, at the least, with the door of grace ajar in his hand, as one unwilling, as yet, to bolt it against him.

(4) Are you followed by affliction, and do you hear God’s angry voice in your afflictions? Does he send an interpreter with the affliction, to show you your vileness, and why the hand of God is upon you and upon what you have: namely, that it is for your sinning against him, and so that you might be turned to him? If so, your summer is not quite ended; your harvest is not yet quite over and gone (Jer 8:20). Take heed, and stand out no longer, lest he cause darkness, and lest your feet stumble on the dark mountains, and lest, while you look for light, he turn it into the shadow of death and make it gross darkness (Jer 13:15-17).

(5) Are you crossed, disappointed, waylaid, and overthrown in all your foolish ways and doings? This is a sign that God has not quite left you, but still waits on you to turn you. Consider, I say: has he made a hedge and a wall to stop you (Hos 2:6-15)? Has he crossed you in everything you put your hand to? Take it as a call to turn to him; for by doing this he shows he has a mind to give you a better portion. For usually, when God gives people up and resolves to let them alone in the broad way, he gives them rope, and lets them have their desires in all hurtful things (Ps 73:3-13; Rom 11:9).

Therefore take heed to this also: do not strive against this hand of God. Instead, set yourself to a serious inquiry into the causes of this hand of God upon you, and be inclined to think it is because the Lord would have you look to something better than what you would content yourself with. When God had a mind to make the prodigal go home to his father, he sent a famine upon him, and denied him a bellyful of the husks that the swine ate. And notice: now that he was in hard straits, he set himself to consider the good that was in his father’s house. Yes, he resolved to go home to his father, and his father dealt well with him. He received him with music and dancing, because he had received him safe and sound (Luke 15:14-32).

(6) Do you feel any enticing touches of the Word of God upon your mind? Does some holy word of God, as it were, give you a glance, cast a smile upon you, let fall even one drop of its savor upon your spirit, yes, even if it stays with you only a moment? Oh, then the day of grace is not past! The gate of heaven is not shut! Nor are God’s heart and compassion withdrawn from you as yet. Take heed, therefore, and be careful to make much of the heavenly gift, and of that good word of God which he has made you taste. Beware, I say, and take heed; there may be a falling away for all this. But, I say, as yet God has not left you; as yet he has not cast you off (Heb 6:1-9).

2. With respect to your desires: what are they? Do you want to be saved? Do you want to be saved with a thorough salvation? Do you want to be saved from guilt and from filth too? Do you want to be the servant of your Savior? Are you really weary of the service of your old master, the devil, sin, and the world? And have these desires put your soul to flight? Have you, through desire, taken to your heels? Do you flee for life to him who is a Savior from the wrath to come? If these are your desires, and if they are unfeigned, do not fear! You are one of those runaways whom God has commanded our Lord to receive. He is not to send you back to the devil, your master, again, but to give you a place in his house, even the place that suits you best. “Thou shalt not deliver unto his master,” he says, “the servant which is escaped from his master unto thee. He shall dwell with thee, even among you, in that place which he shall choose in one of thy gates, where it liketh him best: thou shalt not oppress him” (Deut 23:15-16).

This is a command to the church, and consequently to the Head of the church; for all commands from God come to her through her Head. From this I conclude that, as Israel of old was to receive the runaway servant who escaped to them from a heathen master, and was not to dare to send him back to his master again, so Christ’s church now, and consequently Christ himself, may not, and will not, refuse the soul that has made his escape to him from sin, Satan, the world, and hell. He will certainly let him dwell in his house, among his saints, in the place he shall choose, even where it pleases him best. For he says in another place, “And him that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out” (John 6:37). In no wise, let his crimes be what they will, whether in their nature, their number, or the aggravating circumstances that attend them. Therefore, if your desires to become one of Christ’s saved ones, and his servant, are firm, sound, and unfeigned, do not fear. He will not, he will in no wise, put you away, or turn you over to your old master again.

3. As to your fears, whatever they are: if what was supposed above is true of you, then they are groundless, and so carry no weight.

Objection. But I am afraid I am not one of the elect, or chosen to salvation, though you called me a fool a little earlier for fearing so.

Answer. Though election comes before calling in order as far as God is concerned, yet as far as I myself am concerned, the knowledge of my calling must come before the belief of my election. Therefore souls who doubt the truth of their effectual calling only plunge themselves into a deeper labyrinth of confusion when they concern themselves with their election; I mean, while they labor to know it before they have proved their calling. “Make your calling, and so your election sure” (2 Pet 1:4-10).

Therefore, for the present, lay aside the thoughts of your election, and ask yourself these questions: Do I see my lost condition? Do I see that salvation is nowhere but in Christ? Do I want to share in this salvation by faith in him? And do I want, as was said before, to be thoroughly saved, that is, from the filth as well as from the guilt? Do I love Christ, his Father, his saints, his words, and his ways? This is the way to prove we are elect. So, sinner, when Satan or your own heart tries to puzzle you with election, say, “I cannot attend to talk of this point now. Wait until I know that I am called of God to the fellowship of his Son, and then I will show you that I am elect, and that my name is written in the book of life.”

If poor distressed souls would observe this order, they might spare themselves the trouble of an unprofitable labor under these untimely and soul-sinking doubts.

Let us, therefore, at the sight of our wretchedness, fly and venturously leap into the arms of Christ, which are now as open to receive us into his bosom as they were when they were nailed to the cross. This is coming to Christ for life the right way; this is truly running away from your master to him, as was said before. And for this we have multitudes of Scriptures to support, encourage, and comfort us in doing so.

But now, let the one who does this be sure to expect what follows, for Satan will be with him tomorrow, to see if he can get him back into his old service. And if he cannot do that, then he will enter into dispute with him: namely, about whether he is elect to life, and called indeed to partake of this Christ to whom he has fled for help, or whether he comes to him from his own presumptuous mind. Therefore we are told, as we come, so also to arm ourselves with that armor God has provided, so that we may resist, quench, stand against, and withstand all the fiery darts of the devil (Eph 6:11-18). If, then, you find Satan marching against you in this order, remember that you were given this warning about it; and take yourself to faith and good courage, and be sober, and hope to the end.

Objection. But what if I have sinned the unpardonable sin, the one called the sin against the Holy Spirit?

Answer. If you have, you are lost forever. But before you conclude that you have sinned in this way, know that those who want to be saved by Jesus Christ, through faith in his blood, cannot be counted among such sinners.

1. Because of the promise, for that must not be made void; and it says, “And him that cometh to Christ, he will in no wise cast out” (John 6:37). And again, “Whoso will, let him take of the water of life freely” (Rev 21:6; Rev 22:17).

But how, I say, can these Scriptures be fulfilled if someone who truly wants to be saved, as was said before, has sinned the unpardonable sin? The Scriptures must not be made void, nor their truth cast to the ground. Here is a promise, and here is a sinner: a promise that says the one who comes shall not be cast out, and the sinner comes; therefore he must be received. Consequently, whoever comes to Christ for life has not, and cannot have, sinned that sin for which there is no forgiveness. And this might suffice as an answer to any coming soul who fears, even as he comes, that he has sinned the sin against the Holy Spirit.

2. But again, the one who has sinned the sin against the Holy Spirit cannot come, has no heart to come, and can by no means be made willing to come to Jesus Christ for life; for he has taken up such an opinion of him and of his things as deters him and holds him back.

(1) He counts this blessed person, this Son of God, a magician, a conjurer, a witch, or one who did what he did, when he was in the world, by the power and spirit of the devil (Matt 9:34; Matt 12:24-25 and following; Mark 3:22-30). Now whoever holds this opinion of this Jesus cannot be willing to cast himself at his feet for life, or to come to him as the only way to God and to salvation. And so it is said again that such a person puts him to open shame and treads him underfoot (Heb 6:6; Heb 10:29): that is, by scorning, reproaching, vilifying, and despising him, as if he were the vilest person, or the greatest cheat, in the world. And so, as far as his esteem of him goes, he has called him accursed, crucified him to himself, or counted him a hanged man, like one of the worst of criminals (1 Cor 12:3).

(2) His blood, which is the meritorious cause of man’s redemption, even the blood of the everlasting covenant, he counts “an unholy thing,” that is, something with no more virtue in it to save a soul from sin than the blood of a dog has (Heb 10:29). For when the apostle says “he counts it an unholy thing,” he means that he makes it of less value than the blood of a sheep or a cow, which were clean according to the law. And so it must mean that Christ’s blood was of no more worth to him, in his reckoning, than the blood of a dog, a donkey, or a pig, which the God of heaven always rejected as unholy or unclean where sacrifices were concerned. Now the one who has no better esteem than this of Jesus Christ, and of his death and blood, will not be persuaded to come to him for life, or to trust in him for salvation.

(3) But further, all this must be done against manifest tokens proving the contrary, or after the shining of gospel light upon the soul, or after some considerable profession of him as the Messiah, or as the Savior of the world.

(a) It must be done against manifest tokens proving the contrary. This is how the reprobate Jews committed it, when they saw the works of God which showed themselves in him, and called them the works of the devil and Beelzebub.

(b) It must be done against some shining light of the gospel upon them. This is how it was with Judas, and with those who, after they were enlightened, and had tasted, and had felt something of the powers of the world to come, fell away from faith in him, and put him to open shame and disgrace (Heb 6:5-6).

(c) It must also be done after, and in opposition to, one’s own open profession of him. For if, after they have escaped the pollution of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in it and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning. For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment, which is the word of faith delivered to them.

(d) All this must be done openly, before witnesses, in the face, sight, and view of the world, by word and act. This is the sin that is unpardonable. And whoever has done this can never be renewed again to repentance (it is impossible that he ever should be), and that for a double reason: first, such a person says he will not; and second, God says of him that he shall not have the benefit of salvation through Christ.

Objection. But if this is the unpardonable sin, why is it called the sin against the Holy Spirit, and not rather the sin against the Son of God?

Answer. It is called “the sin against the Holy Spirit” because such people count the works Christ did, which were done by the Spirit of God, to be the works of the spirit of the devil. It is also so called because all who reject Christ Jesus the Lord in this way do it in defiance of the testimony the Holy Spirit has given of him in the holy Scriptures. For the Scriptures are the breathings of the Holy Spirit, in all other things, and so also in the testimony they bear to the person of Jesus Christ, and to his works, sufferings, resurrection, and ascension.

Sinner, this is the sin against the Holy Spirit. What do you say? Have you committed it? No, I know you have not, if you want to be saved by Christ. Yes, it is impossible that you should have done it, if you really want to be saved by him. No one can desire to be saved by someone he still judges to be an impostor, a magician, a witch. No one can hope for redemption by that blood which he still counts an unholy thing. Nor will God ever allow such a person to repent, who has, after light and after professing him, so horribly, and like a devil, scorned him and trampled on him.

It is true that words, and wars, and blasphemies against this Son of man are pardonable; but then they must be done “ignorantly, and in unbelief” (1 Tim 1:13-15). Also, all blasphemous thoughts are likewise such as may be passed by, if the soul afflicted with them is truly sorry for them (Mark 3:28).

All but this, sinner, all but this! If God had said he would forgive one sin, it would have been undeserved grace; but when he says he will pardon all but one, this is grace to the height. Nor is that one unpardonable for any other reason than this: the Savior who should save them is rejected and put away. Jacob’s ladder! Christ is Jacob’s ladder that reaches up to heaven, and whoever refuses to go there by this ladder will hardly get up so high by any other means. There is none other name given under heaven, among men, whereby we must be saved (Acts 4:12). There is no other sacrifice for sin than this; he also, and he only, is the Mediator who reconciles people to God. And, sinner, if you want to be saved by him, his benefits are yours; yes, even though you are a great and Jerusalem transgressor.