"I tell the truth..." Matthew 18:13b
/The eternal truth Jesus presented in today’s passage concerns God’s relentless pursuit of His children. He compares the children of God to sheep, and God is the good shepherd:
“What do you think? If a man owns a hundred sheep, and one of them wanders away, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go to look for the one that wandered off? And if he finds it. I tell you the truth, he is happier about that one sheep than about the ninety-nine that did not wander off. In the same way, your Father in Heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should perish.” (Matthew 18:13)
Jesus is mirroring the heart of God’s love for His own: those who acknowledge Jesus and His atoning work on the cross, embracing His Word and His way. There are many references to God’s pursuit of His children. King David likened God to the good shepherd, Who will provide protection and sustenance for the sheep of His pasture (Psalm 23). King David even described the impossibility of escaping God’s presence, as God is everywhere:
before we are born (Psalm 139:15-16)
in our thoughts (v.’s 1-4)
wherever we may go (v.’s 7-8)
In fact, we are even in God’s thoughts when we lie down or rise up (v.’s 17-18). It is because of God’s love for us that we are continually in His thoughts, just as the nation of Israel is described in Deuteronomy 7:7-8. In other words, He first loved us. We did not initiate the relationship, God did. Jesus reinforced this idea when He stated: “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you.” (John 15:16) The disciple John echoed this truth when he wrote: “We love him, because he first loved us.” (1 John 4:17-19) A.W. Tozer described it as a choice: “…from the divine side… a conquest of the most high God.”
God’s pursuit of us is driven by His unending love for us. The apostle Paul described the essence of this love as being found in Jesus Christ: “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8) Love always seeks expression, and God’s love is no different. In fact, God’s love is the template for all love, because God is love (read 1 John 4:7-8), thus the expression of God’s love found in Christ Jesus is the ultimate declaration of love that is expressed through the giving of His own life for us.
There is no sin so repulsive which God’s grace is not able to absolve. There is no action done by man that is ‘unforgiveable’ by the God of all creation. Only He knows our hearts and thoughts. He knows we have the disease of sin, and only He can provide the cure for it.
Have a blessed day…