The Best of the Portals of Prayer

Read: John 3:16-21 / Psalm 54

“The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.”
1st John 3:8

No Condemnation

During Jesus’ ministry, penitent publicans came to Him, and He took them in. When an adulteress was flung at His feet, Jesus acknowledged her. On the cross, He promised paradise to a man who had been an evildoer. The Scripture teaches that Jesus never refused anyone, regardless of their sinful past, if they were repentant. As we are told in John 6:37, He said, “whoever comes to me I will never cast out.” And Jesus will not refuse us. Even as church-goers, we may think of ourselves of no worth, but that is the devil’s lie. We may think we are deserving only of hell, and that God’s grace is too small to cover all our misdeeds, but that is only the lying voice of Him whom Revelations calls “the accuser of our brothers”. The truth of the Scriptures is this: “God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him” [John 3:17]. It is for the very purpose of our eternal salvation that Jesus came to endure the eternal and temporal punishment for our transgressions, that we might be spared the consequences of our iniquity in torment and perdition.

Gracious Lord, impress on us the magnitude of Your mercy and the vast outreach of Your redemption. Amen.

January 20, 1983