Friday, January 15, 2016


Word of God
But he replied and said, "It is written, 'It is not by bread alone that a man lives, except by every word that issues from the mouth of God
The Gospel According to Matthew 4:4

The Gospel According to Mark 2:17
All commentary and study notes are prefaced/edited by Dr. Riktor Von Zhades

Now when Jesus heard it, he said unto them, The whole have no need of the Physician, but the sick. I came not to call the righteous, but the sinners to repentance

Brethren:

One of the greatest lies told by Satan is the one that makes people believe that God only wants good people and as such, many turn away from accepting Christ thinking they’re not worthy. Yet above we read that quite the opposite is true. God has come to call the ungodly, the unworthy, the sinner, and to make them as righteous as He Himself is, by the cleansing away of their sins with the blood of Christ Jesus. That righteousness is imputed to the sinner, and is now made a new whole creation, and the sins of the same are now white as snow. - Dr. R.V.Z

I came not to call the righteous - Therefore if these were righteous I should not call them. But now, they are the very persons I came to save.” - John Wesley - Theologian

Jesus lays his cards on the table. ‘It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.’. Clearly, Jesus is not saying that the Pharisees are OK. [And] he makes it abundantly clear that the Pharisees’ religion is very sick. Jesus is adopting their own language, which divides people into ‘righteous’ and ‘sinners’, ‘OK’ and ‘not OK’. In other words, ‘If you think you are fine, if you think you are so healthy, all right; but kindly let me get on with looking after the sick.’ Jesus has come for those who know they need him. Most of the people at the party may not feel that; but Levi certainly does. He knows he’s a sinner; and Jesus has come and found him. The Pharisees don’t see that; they don’t see that they themselves are just as much sinners as the people they despise; they simply see a list of rules which Jesus is shredding. But Jesus has come to make strangers into friends, to build bridges instead of barriers as people join his Kingdom.” - Source - A Ransom for Many by Steve Wilmshurst Ed. 2011

that these publicans and sinners were sick persons, and needed his company and assistance; but that they, the Scribes and Pharisees, were whole, and in good health, in their own esteem, and so wanted no relief; and therefore ought not to take it amiss, that he attended the one, and not the other. These words give a general view of mankind, in their different sentiments of themselves and of Christ; and of the usefulness of Christ to one sort, and not another. There are some that cry up the power of man's freewill, and plead for the strength and purity of human, nature, and extol its excellencies and abilities; and it is no wonder that these see no need of Christ, either for themselves or others.

It appears from hence, that by ‘the whole’ are meant, ‘righteous’ persons; not such who are made righteous, by the righteousness of Christ imputed to them, but such who were outwardly righteous before men, who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, depended on their own righteousness, and fancied themselves, with respect to the righteousness of the law, blameless; and so, in their own apprehensions, stood in no need of Christ and his righteousness: yea, even needed not repentance, according to their own thoughts of things, and therefore were not called to it, but were left to their own stupidity and blindness; these were the Scribes and Pharisees; and by the "sick", are meant "sinners"; such who are made sensible of sin, and so of their need of Christ as a Saviour; and who have evangelical repentance given them, and are called to the exercise and profession of it: and Christ's calling sinners to repentance, and bestowing that grace, together with the remission of sins, which goes along with it, is doing his work and office as a ‘physician’”. - John Gill - Theologian

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