Saving Sinners: His Divine Mission

1 Timothy 1: 14-16

"14 And the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus.

15 This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.

16 Howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might shew forth all longsuffering, for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting."

These three verses are so very simple, yet so full of truth. I love how verse 15 says that there is a saying that never changes, a simple truth, that Christ came into the world to save sinners. Do we understand what that means? Do we know who this is for? Do we know why? The answer is YES and ultimately because He loves us. Christ came to make good men better. His sacrifice was for us. Christ showed the ultimate longsuffering as He bled from every pore in Gethsemane and was nailed to a cross. He bore all of the sins of the world and faced more than any mortal man ever could.

Isaiah 53:5 reads, "5 But he was wounded for OUR transgressions, he was bruised for OUR iniquities: the chastisement of OUR peace was upon HIM; and with HIS stripes WE are healed."

They were HIS stripes. HE was wounded. HE was bruised. HE was chastised. But they were OUR transgressions, OUR iniquities, OUR chastisement of peace... and with HIS stripes... His very innocent perfect stripes, WE were the ones who were made whole. I often think to myself what I would do if I were in the presence our our brother Jesus Christ at this very moment, and every time I try and picture what I would say, but every time I can't come up with anything other than the words "thank you". I realize that our "thank you's" will never be enough. They will never repay the task that He preformed or the agony that He went through. There are sometimes where I feel like I will never amount to more than just a sinner, and honestly we don't really deserve to amount to more than that, but I do know that God loves us and I know that He is merciful and by His grace I could obtain that mercy.

God will never stop loving us. Christ preformed the unfathomable... but our shortcomings are not the end. He wants us to be happy. He wants us to have joy... that is why we must keep trying. Just as Christ did. After all "..a saint is a sinner who keeps on trying" (Elder Dale G. Renlund).

Remember to keep learning new things, leaning to God's will, and loving every minute of this life.

xoxo

-Kaia