ResponsiveReiding

From Matthew 9:18-26 – Part 1 / Prayer of Faith – Matthew arranges his material here so as to keep the two events – that of the woman with an issue of blood and the Ruler’s daughter – in one pericope. I’m not sure why, but that both examples (and the one which follows these with the two blind men) all point to knowing our need, knowing only Jesus can meet it, and that in all three cases – all was hopeless apart from Him. And so it is with out lost condition before salvation, and our constant need of Him after saving faith. Sin is incurable. But for Christ.

Her faith did not do what it did in a vacuum, as though faith had power in itself. What her faith did was bring her to Christ, and to trust that HE could work. Faith does nothing on its own. Faith is neither a “work”, nor a generic cosmic force we can somehow tap into for our own uses, it is looking to Christ.

“Just believe” is the mantra of the mere supernaturalist, of the undefined mystic. It is not the faith of the Bible. Biblical faith always has as its object God Himself. Trusting Him, not just trusting – who knows what?

So note the nature of her faith. She did not imagine she needed Him to stand and make pronouncements, move mountains, still seas, rebuke storms or demons – she knew all she needed was the slightest touch. That grace and mercy are so grand, so expansive, that the slightest true touch – even of just His garment, will transform in the most unspeakably glorious and powerful way.

J. C. Ryle writes here: “what encouragement our Lord gives to the humblest faith. We read in this passage, that a woman sorely afflicted with disease, came behind our Lord in the crowd, and “touched the hem” of His garment, in the hope that by so doing she should be healed. She said not a word to obtain help. She made no public confession of faith. But she had confidence, that if she could only “touch His garment,” she would be made well. And so it was. There lay hid in that act of her’s a seed of precious faith, which obtained our Lord’s commendation. She was made whole at once, and returned home in peace. To use the words of a good old writer, “She came trembling, and went back triumphing.” _{Ryle, J. C. Expository Thoughts on Matthew. Robert Carter & Brothers, 1860, pp. 88–89.}

But note too what an example of prevailing prayer he have here. What you and I need every day, is the sense of our need being great enough, that we will press through the mob of all that claims our attention and seems to make Him distant, to but touch the hem of His robe. The “prayer of faith” in James 5:15 is not some special, secret species of prayer – it is as these demonstrate – trustingly seeking out Christ.

Christian, let me ask you, do you feel any sense of the NEED for Him today? If not, you probably will know little of meeting Him today.

And un-Believer, until you know the deep need of your soul, that only Christ can reconcile you back to God the Father through faith in His atoning sacrifice on Calvary – until you know you are truly lost and condemned apart from you – you will know nothing of Him or His power.

This dear lady was undaunted by the raucous crowd. Unfazed by the fact that Jesus was on His way to do something else for someone else. Undeterred by her own low and unclean status. Unwilling to be kept from reaching Him – if only to brush the hem of His robe. Her great object was to get to Jesus. This is what prevailing prayer is. When we know He alone can meet our need, when we have recognized that our greatest need is Jesus Himself, when we realize wholeness is found only in Him – and we pursue Him relentlessly – this is prevailing prayer. He loves to be sought out.

Lord Jesus, let me come to you – today! Fill me with a relentless, seeking heart after you. And let me be satisfied with nothing else than knowing I have touched you.

This is the place of prayer. Press through. Touch His hem.

From Matthew 9:14-17 – Reckoning with the New Covenant. Two things stand out in this encounter, which at first glance do not seem connected. But they are.

In the first instance, this question of fasting is posed to Jesus. John’s disciples and the Pharisees practiced regular fasting as a spiritual exercise. It is interesting to note however, that while God instituted a number of feasts for the Israelites, He commanded only 1 fast – on the Day of Atonement. Fasting always includes some element of mourning in it. To ignore this element leads to a superstitious use of fasting to somehow bend the arm of God against His will.

Because of this element of mourning, while Jesus was among them as God incarnate, the time of fasting and mourning was not appropriate.

Now while Jesus was here, the rest of the world hadn’t stopped. There was misery going on all around. The effects of sin had not been eradicated. But we see then that there are seasons to life – which ebb and flow but do not change the entire picture. There will be seasons of God’s outpouring, and seasons of seemingly little Spirit activity. There will be times when God’s movements are easily discerned, and times when they are more hidden from view. Times of mourning, and times of great joy. No one thing like these dominates all at all times. And so He told them that at the present, fasting was not appropriate for His disciples, but in days ahead, it would be. Serving God cannot be reduced to religious observances, no matter how pious they may seem.

Connected to this, is that Jesus begins to unpack the reality of an entirely new age dawning – the age of the New Covenant. And He introduces the idea in very instructive way. With the similes of patching old garments and putting new wine into new wineskins, He graphically communicates a most important reality.

In essence – contrast to how they were living out their religious lives under the Old Covenant (with all of the invented innovations) He in effect says: I have not come to repair an old system. I have come to make everything new. I have not come to revise Judaism but to institute its fulfillment. This is the New Covenant, not the Old one. And such a Covenant requires a New People, a regenerated people – recreated to receive the fullness of what it is Christ is bringing. They cannot accept what He is bringing in their old state – THEY need to be new as well. No one can serve Christ in the power of the old flesh.

Beloved, we are no longer under the Law of Moses, but have received new life in Christ. We worship in Spirit and in truth, not according to the letter of the Law. We are being conformed to the image of Christ by the influence of the indwelling Spirit of Christ so that we begin to love and live out holiness as naturally as God Himself. This is His goal in us. Not conformity, but transformation. To go back to the old, would be ruin.

Nowhere was this reality divinely displayed for us in greater clarity and power than on the Mount of Transfiguration. There, where Moses (representative of the Law) and Elijah (representative of the Prophets) are seen with Jesus – the voice of the Father says: “This is my beloved Son; listen to Him” He, is above all.

From Matthew 9:9-13 – Calling all sinners – It seems virtually baked into all religious thought (uninformed rightly by the Bible) that God saves good people only. It is a pervasive undergirding thought in almost all. And so it is most religion aims at making us acceptable to God by virtue of doing and being good. Living up to some imagined or codified standard somehow mitigates our sin, and weighed in these self-contrived balances, as along as we’ve done more good than not – God is OK with us. And nothing could be further from the Gospel .

In this short passage recording Matthew’s call to follow Christ, and the events immediately following with Jesus reclining with a host of that era’s religious outcasts, the Gospel is seen in its clearest relief against religiosity. Jesus came to call sinners, not those who considered themselves righteous.

Note this first then: If you will not reckon yourself a sinner, sick with that deadly disease and in need of a Savior and that all is lost apart from Him – you cannot be saved. If you know you need mercy because you know your own guilt, you are of all men most blessed – for He delights to show it. But if all you want is relief – you may just get it: But it may be all you get.

And this is what leaves the religious still dead in their trespasses and sins; they will not think of themselves as sinners in need of mercy. And such cannot be saved; because they will not be saved; because they will not admit that only mercy can save them.

Lord help us to know our sin.

Not only does false religion lead people to rely upon their own goodness, it feeds into their self-perception as good. Not as ruined. Not as guilty. Not as lost. Not as undone. Not as acceptable as they are, but as deserving salvation in some way.

Note second: That though He receives sinners, He does not justify them as they are. He does not eat with them as though all is well. By His own words, He clearly announces that they are NOT OK as is. No, they need mercy. They are guilty and need to be rescued from their guilt.

Yes, it is true Christ accepts us as we are. But He never leaves us as we are. Praise God! He has mercy on us. He deals with our sin, but does not leave us to it or justify it in any way. We need mercy. Because we are guilty. And it is only the guilty who can be and are saved.

If you would know salvation, you must know and own your guilt first. And for all who do, and look to Him as the only means to become not-guilty, justified before God, there is rescue. This, is the Gospel. This is the glory of our Christ.

From Matthew 9:1-8 / “Your sins are forgiven” – Matthew, Mark and Luke all record this event. It is not hard to discern why this is so. What can be more important than to know that Jesus has the authority to forgive sins? This is the obvious emphasis of the passage. Yes, the man leaves healed of his paralysis as well, but that is shown to be secondary. Yet, I wonder if we were in the paralyzed man’s condition, which one we would think more important in the moment?

Now there are several things to note here.

1 – Note that forgiveness of sins and physical healing are not so interconnected as to assume they must always go together. How many people did Jesus heal, who left without such a pronouncement regarding their sin? And how sad that is. Imagine, it is possible that we might be miraculously touched by the hand of God, and yet leave still dead in our trespasses and sins. Simply seeing or even personally experiencing a miracle says nothing about our reconciliation to God. And yet how many seek Christ only for what they might receive in the physical or natural?

2 – Note Jesus’ rhetorical question to the scribes? Which is easier to say, your sins are forgiven, or rise and walk? They could do neither. He could do both. And He says that He did this this way so that they might know something. That He could heal? No. That He had the authority to forgive sins. In the grand scheme of things, this is what is eternally and spiritually important. This is what He is after in communicating.

3 – Note how fixated we are on the temporal versus the eternal. I don’t know about you, but if I was that man, I would probably have thought I’d been shortchanged at first. Carried to where Jesus was by friends. Dramatically let down through the roof of Jesus’ own house. There, in front of a huge crowd, displayed in all my weakness, only to hear Him say: “Your sins are forgiven.” Did it dawn on him that moment? Would it have dawned on me, that the greater miracle, the greater need was met in His first act? I fear not. I fear that I, that we are so focused on our perceived need, that we are blind to our real and greatest need. That in our unregenerate state, we are paralyzed from following Christ, working for Him in any way. And left that way, we enter eternity only to step into judgment. Beloved, our greatest need is what He can do, HAS done regarding our sin.

4 – Note that Jesus could forgive sins, but not like the “ollie, ollie oxen free” of hide and seek. He knew full well that this power would rest solely in His own impending death on the Cross. Forgiveness isn’t a simple wave of the hand. Justice must be done. Sin must actually be atoned for. When Jesus said to the man “your sins are forgiven” – He was saying “I will die for you, taking the just wrath of God you deserve upon myself, so that you can be reconciled to God and have eternal life.” Now, His question takes on real teeth – which is easier to say?

5 – We are to carry all of our needs to Him. Every one. No matter how great or how small. But we are to do so, knowing His wisdom, power and love will first and foremost meet our greatest need. For if He can and will do that, everything else is truly secondary – as blessed as it might be. As Jesus will say in another context later (though the principle still holds) “it is better for you to enter life crippled or lame than with two hands or two feet to be thrown into the eternal fire.” (Mt 18:8.) Praise God, He does the lesser often, the but the greater – for all who call upon Him in faith.

From Matthew 8:28-34 / Be Careful What You Pray For – Ryle notes that this passage is “deep and mysterious.” And we want to be careful not to build doctrine out of passages that are wholly unique, and are not meant to establish norms in the Church. That said, there are some lessons to be learned as we see the great authority of our Christ and King manifested in His commanding even the demon spirits; which must obey Him as well as the wind and waves He previously rebuked. Nothing is outside His authority.

Whatever the final disposition of these demonic entities, while they know they are already cast down and awaiting an end – it is not yet. They are obviously terrified of their final end, and they recognize Jesus as the One who will mete that judgment out in due time. Sometimes the demons respond more appropriately to Christ than we who are made in the very image of God. (James 2:19)

One wonders if upon hearing their request – and knowing what the result would be – Jesus kind of said to Himself – “OK idiots, if that’s what you want, have it.”

And one wonders how often His grace has interceded on our behalf in NOT giving us our requests when made in equal foolishness and with a lack of understanding the consequences. How gracious He is to us in His refusals. How tragic it would be if He just gave us whatever we asked for. He would be treating us, like He does the demons, rather than as sons and daughters of the Kingdom.

We have this question – why give them their request? If nothing else, then at least as an object lesson for the herders to carry back to the townspeople.

In 33, the herdsmen fled back to the town and told them what happened. And what had happened? The cost of rejecting Jesus was destruction.

The demons didn’t want Him and in pleading to be allowed to have their own way, to be granted their own desires was to be given over to their own destruction.

But did the townspeople learn? No. They plead that He might depart too. And He did so. He gave them over to their own desires too. To their own eternal destruction.

But did the townspeople learn? No. They plead that He might depart too. And He did so. He gave them over to their own desires too. To their own eternal destruction.

He could demonstrate it on the demons who had no hope of salvation. But what a tragedy for these who might have the Savior who stood before them.

Note then how great is this day of grace in which we live. What or who is more despicable and liable to judgment than the very demons of Hell? Yet the day of judgment has not yet come. Even the demons find reprieve from their immediately just due. And if they find Christ so willing to stay His hand in their case, then how much more those made in the image of God, yet still bound in their sins?

There is grace to be had. The hand of The Lord has been withheld by grace. And all who hear may come now, still. But the day will come when such hope is withdrawn. How we need to hear and respond in this extraordinary season of the Gospel. If you are reading this, it is not too late to cry “do NOT leave me alone – SAVE ME!”

From Matthew 8:23-27 / Little Faith – We must be careful readers here. The idea in this narrative isn’t that the Disciples should have had some kind of confidence in their own safety, but confidence on the basis of who and what Jesus was, and what He had come to do. He could not perish. Thus, they were safe too.

Matthew gives this account on the heels of the healing of the Centurion’s servant. He is using the connection of the 2 to show how they did not yet have the kind of faith the Centurion is commended for. Again, not faith to believe the storm could be quelled, but faith in the person and authority of Jesus. This is what they were missing. They begin to get there when we see their response in vs. 27. At last, they are asking the right question: What sort of man is this that even the winds and sea “OBEY Him?” His authority is what is being highlighted.

Additionally, without a clear understanding of the plan of God – which cannot fail, we will fail to live in the faith of knowing His plan cannot fail and so certain things must happen, and certain others cannot. In this case, had they understood His mission to die at Calvary, they would have known (and been comforted) that He could not die in the boat. But our faith cannot extend beyond what we know of God’s word, and believe accordingly.

How many times have we heard someone sound the alarm at the real decline of Christianity in some time or place, as though if something is not done by us, the Church will utterly be snuffed out of existence? If we believed His Word, His promises, His revealed plan for His Church and its end – we could respond rightly by pleading for reformation and revival, but not faithlessly as though the Church will not survive. Jesus Himself stated categorically that the Church He is building both can and will withstand even the very gates of Hell. That doesn’t mean there are not dangerous and threatening times – like the storm the Disciples were in in this passage. It does not mean some local expressions of the Church may cease. It does not mean we do not cry out “Lord save us!” in such hours. But it DOES mean we really MEAN it when we call Him Lord in that plea. That we appeal consciously to the one we know of a certainty is Lord over all. And with the assurance that His plans and purposes cannot fail.

Note too that though Jesus remarks about their little faith, He does not fail to answer because of it being little. How good He is! Yes, He can point out that it needs improvement, but little as it was (and in my case often is) He still hears, still answers and still blesses. He does not deny us because we are frail. Even the littlest faith, gets the response of omnipotence. Freely. J. C. Ryle writes: “We have great reason to thank God that Jesus, our great High-priest, is very compassionate and tenderhearted. He knows our frame. He considers our infirmities. He does not cast off His people because of defects. He pities even those whom he reproves. The prayer even of “little faith” is heard, and gets an answer.¹¹ Ryle, J. C. Expository Thoughts on Matthew. Robert Carter & Brothers, 1860, p. 80.

Amen!

From Matthew 8:18-22 / Walking in Truth – Just why it is Jesus decided to go to the other side of the Lake upon seeing the crowds isn’t clear. Perhaps He was already perceiving a hint of their wanting to promote and follow Him simply as a miracle worker or leader. When in John 6 He saw that some wanted to take Him and make Him king, He did a similar thing by immediately withdrawing. He was clear on His mission even if those around Him were not. And He would not be used for purposes other than why He came – to fulfill the Father’s redemptive plan culminating in the Cross. He would not allow Himself to be deterred. He knew and stuck to the truth about Himself and His mission.

This is a lesson that we as His redeemed need to take in well.

Do we have a Biblically informed sense of who we are and why we are here? Do we know HIs purpose for us? The mission He has assigned to us? Are we living as light and salt in the midst of this crooked generation? Are we about the business of making His glories known to the World, by both our lips and our lives? How do we contribute to the mission of the Church at large in making disciples of men in all the nations?

Not everyone preaches. Not everyone teaches. Not everyone is a gifted evangelist. But all can study to know and live in the truth. And all can find a place of service in the Church so that those with their varying gifts are supported and enabled. Each of us has a sphere of influence we can touch. We can give. We can pray. We can comfort. We can encourage. We can bless according to our resources and opportunities. We can weep with those who weep and rejoice with those who rejoice. We can take the mundane duties of life and consciously enter into them so as to offer them up as service to our King with integrity, honesty, industry and humility. We can walk in truth.

Then we see how Matthew includes two short vignettes to follow in which Jesus calls to men to face and live in the truth.

When the Scribe comes to Him, He wants the man to know just what following Jesus is NOT. Following Christ is not to be seen or sold as the pathway to gain earthly advantages. And woe to us when we present or believe the Gospel that way. We are not walking in truth, but in a wretched illusion.

In 1 Tim. 6, Paul inveighs heavily against those who imagine “that godliness is a means of gain.” Godliness with contentment IS great gain, but godliness is not a way to gain earthly advantages. And those who promote the Gospel in such a way are “people who

are depraved in mind and deprived of the truth.”

They are not walking in the truth.

Strong words indeed. And Jesus disabused this Scribe of that foolishness right out of the gate.

Christ is not the means to earthly advantages.

And lastly, we see the truth that the call to follow Christ is urgent. This is the truth.

When we have come to know something of Him and heard His call, we must act and make our decision to separate from the mere ordinariness of life to be His – now. Not down the road. Not when it is more convenient. Not when those who might disapprove are gone out of the way. Not when we have more time or better circumstances. Now.

Living in the truth requires that we reckon with the reality of Christ’s demands right now, right this hour. For not one more minute is promised to any of us. And eternity hangs in the balance.

Maybe you are one who has hesitated today. You’ve said in your hear that you’ll get “serious” about spiritual things at some point down the road. But this man was faced with the reality right before His eyes – Jesus was about to get into a boat and leave. And either he went with Him now, or he might never.

And so if that is you today, I would plead with you, make the decision. Do not hesitate. Now is the day of grace. Who knows what might befall you or the world in the next 30 minutes let alone the next 30 years. Come to Jesus now. For the truth is, you are condemned in your sins right now, and only He can redeem you from your lost condition.

Come now.

From Matthew 8:14-17 / Healing in The Atonement

This passage is turned to by many to establish that as part and parcel of the atonement, physical healing is promised to all Believers. Of course then the question remains, if physical healing is the automatic extension of our salvation, then why aren’t all God’s people perpetually healed? Some would answer, that such healing (like salvation itself) is dependent upon our faith. So if we do not have faith to be healed, we will not be. But the 3 healings in this chapter seem to militate against that conclusion.

Note in the first case, the Leper’s faith only extended to Jesus’ ability to heal, “if you will”, and not that he had confidence Jesus would heal him. In the second case, the ill person’s faith is totally irrelevant, it was the Centurion that believed Jesus could heal. And once again, he only believed Christ COULD, not that He would. And in the 3rd case, we read nothing of Peter’s mother-in-law’s faith at all. Jesus simply healed her. So the faith theory does not seem to hold up – here at least.

But what do we do with the quote from Isa. 53? How does what happened here filfill the prophecy that “he took our illnesses and bore our diseases?”

In the first place we note that whatever it means, it happed prior to the Cross, not as an effect of the Cross. Such healing seems to be connected with the atonement in 2 main ways. 1 – In the atonement, Jesus would do all that was needed to reverse sin’s effects. So there is the promise of total physical healing for all who are His – to be realized fully in the resurrection. 2 – The healing we need above all others, is that of our souls. To be delivered from sin’s effects there. Many commentators locate the entire weight of the healing in Isaiah’s prophecy then only in the spiritual sense. But even there, we have to reckon with the reality of the remnants of indwelling sin. The old adage that we have at present been delivered from the penalty of sin, are in the process of being delivered from the power of sin, and in the end will be delivered from the very presence of sin is true.

In regard to both of the above, what we see is that there are parts of the fullness of Christ’s “healing” both physically and spiritually now, but there is a fullness yet to come. We indeed ought to pray for one another in terms of healing (physically AND for one another’s souls) because God is merciful and gracious and countless times we have seen Him heal and deliver from sins. These are indeed privileges of the saved. What we cannot do is assume a stance of “healing on demand.” We have many gracious foretates of what is to come by His grace.

Lastly, and perhaps most overlooked in this passage, is that in all 3 healings, they share the common thread that each was ceremonially unclean, and yet 2 cases, Jesus still touched them. In Judaic thought, to touch and unclean person, was to make oneself unclean – in a manner to take their uncleanness upon oneself. Only Christ could take on our uncleanness, and not become unclean Himself. Instead, He makes us clean and righteous with His rightouesness. A total reversal of how it worked prior to His incarnation.

W.G.T. Shedd said that as a sunbeam can shine on the most putrid substances, warming them and affecting them, but the beam itself is never soiled. So it is with the Son of God – the Light of the World – He can shine on us, touch us, have the most profound effects upon us in our defilement, and yet remain in His perfect, unsullied holiness. What a Savior!

From Matthew 8:5-13 / Jesus Marveled. It is noted only twice in the Gospels that Jesus is said to marvel at anything, here, at the Centurian’s faith, and in Mark 9 at the unbelief of those in His hometown of Nazareth.

Now what makes the Centurian’s faith something for Jesus to marvel at, is not that as a Gentile he HAD faith at all.

It is true that if any should have had faith it should have been His fellow Jews. Afterall, He was fulfilling prophecy, preaching powerfully and performing miracles one after another. In our parlance we would say that believing in Him would be a no-brainer. Obvious. So obvious in fact, that Jesus Himself looks at their unbelief as something not even credible – especially in the face of the flimsy reasons Mark gives for their rejecting Him. In truth, the reasons for those who reject Him today remain just as flimsy. The main one being, if He is who He said and demonstrated He is, then we would need to cast ourselves upon Him for mercy and to be reconciled to God the Father. And we don’t want to give up our personal righteousness nor submit to anyone else but self.

But what of this Gentile? Why is His faith as marvelous as the Jews’ unbelief? The text reveals it. It was more than that Jesus had the ability to perform the miracles and healings that had been reported – it was rather that the Centurian grasped something of who Jesus really was over and above what He could do.

The Centurian lets the cat out of the bag when he says that it is obvious Jesus is a man of authority even as he is. And that Jesus was “under” authority – acting on someone else’s behalf. In other words, the man recognized Jesus was acting at God’s behest. Jesus was God’s true agent. And even Jesus’ closest allies at this moment hadn’t gotten that far in their own thinking about Him. The Centurian’s faith was for all intents and purposes already more mature than that of His own disciples. More mature than many self-confessed Christians even today. Marvelous indeed.

Here then is something of great importance for us. Where we tend to desire power, the ability to do things, make things happen – Jesus’ power, like His Father’s, rests not in brute strength, but in His absolute authority. He need only “speak the word” and whatever He speaks will come to pass. It takes us back to Genesis, where in creating the heavens and the earth, it required only that “God said.”

Indeed, we can take that a step further. For God, as we know, has no body like ours. He has no lips, no vocal cords. He didn’t have to verbally articulate the words “let there be” for all to come to pass. He merely needed to will it so. With His absolute authority, that’s all it took. And so it is in our passage. Jesus never says: “servant – be healed!” He just says to the man, go, it’s done. He willed it so, and it happened.

This then is where our faith is to rest if we are to truly grow in grace. What do we rest in? That the One who saved us by His grace and substitutionary atonement, has all authority in Heaven and on earth, and therefore, every one of His promises to us HAS to come to pass. It will be as He promised that we will remain His until He comes, that sin and death will be overcome, and that we will one day fully bear His image. Because He has willed it. And He has the authority to bring it to pass, irrespective of any resistance, opposition, lack of cooperation or attack by the Enemy. Beloved, He cannot fail you.

From Matthew 8:1-4 / “I Will!”

One wonders, what was it this man heard in this great sermon, that sparked faith in him to ask for healing? Jesus didn’t speak of healing, nor do we have some miracle immediately before this. Either here in Matt. nor in Luke.

I think it is best understood that it was Jesus Himself which impressed him. As ch. 7 closes noting that Jesus was teaching them with unprecedented authority – it seems this man grasped that Jesus had the authority to cleanse leprosy as well.

Note then that an absolute act of His will is all that is necessary to heal – just as in creation. “God said” is the simple equivalent to “God willed”. It does not require something audible.

Sin:

Disables from working for the kingdom

Disfigures from the image of Christ

Deadens the conscience

Defines one by its most prominent feature

Defiles from purity

Is incurable by man

Is systemic – it defiles the whole

The Cure:

Not a method

Not a program – 12 step or otherwise

Not a philosophy

Not a creed

Not a religion

Not by an act of the will

Not by personal merit

Not by personal effort

Only: “Lod, if you are willing.”

How gracious our Savior is. Let it be noted that He never turned one away who came in such a manner. Even the Syro-Phoenician woman who came for her daughter, found her need met when she sued by faith. And her situation we see was prior to the church being charged to take this message to all nations and peoples. Her’s was a unique circumstance in time and place. The Gospel now is sent to all indeed.

When Jesus says “I will”

No pow’r can intervene

Even hopeless lepers

Are instantly made clean

The blind, the deaf, the lame

In body, soul and mind

In Christ the Son of God

The fullest cure do find

No remnants of The Fall

Abide outside His pow’r

Though poisoned by our sin

He’ll cure us in His hour

When Jesus says “I will”

The heart may hope and rest

That when we’ve sought Him out

He’ll grant us Heaven’s best

So seek in Him dear soul

The cure for sin’s disease

He loves to say “I will”

To humble sinner’s pleas

When Jesus says “I will”

Because His blood was shed

The Father joys to raise

Foul sinners from the dead

Don’t wait a moment more

With all your guilty stain

Cry out to Christ the Lord

He’ll say “I will”, again.