Those Who Repent

Those Who Jesus Is Seeking, Searching For!
Those Who Have Been Sung Over, Rejoiced Over, Celebrated in the Highest Heavens!!

I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in Heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent. Luke 15: 7

Every time I have read this it just didn’t make sense.
Because we all want to be on the righteous team.
Because we don’t want God to leave us.
And He promises He wont.
Because we want Him to rejoice over us.
And indeed He promises to rejoice over us.
That He will even sing over us and quiet us with His love.

So every time I have read this I think but you wanted us righteous.
That’s when context comes into play.

First yes He is seeking the lost.
He says that over and over again in scripture.
For He came to seek and save the lost.
But it also applies in the context that those who think they are righteous by their actions, don’t know they are lost.

For Jesus is speaking to His Jews.
Jesus constantly dealt with religious people.
His people that thought they were righteous by their actions.
But indeed the point of the law, was to show that no one can keep it.
That the perfect standard could not be met by people.
That we needed an intervention from God.
That we needed His heart, His Spirit to accomplish living the way He required, the perfect holiness.
That all people were called to repent.

So He is rejoicing over the sinner, the person who realizes that we need God, Jesus, His heart, His spirit.
He is rejoicing over those who repent, who turn to Him, turn away from our actions, our striving, our “I got this” mentality.
Those of us who recognize we need God to save us.
Those of us who recognize we can’t meet His standard by our actions.
Those of us who recognize that Jesus —His perfect sacrifice— gives us what we need to meet God’s standard.

So He is rejoicing over those who turn and recognize this fact, that they need and accept Jesus.

This is confirmed by the actions of John the Baptist that He leads the way to Christ, that all must repent (turn to Jesus and His sacrifice).
This is confirmed by Jesus constantly telling His religious people, that they don’t meet the standard.

That He is rejoicing over those who realize they need Him.
So it was written that we would know, we need Jesus, as our sacrifice.
And then all Heaven rejoices!
For we have believed.
For we have chosen to be His.
For we have chosen to be His family.
For we now have eternal life.
For we now have received what God wanted us to have since the beginning of time.

May we know that we know that we know God isn’t leaving us— those who believe in Jesus Christ—for once we have believed He lives inside us, never leaving us, never forsaking us, unified to us, with us, inside us, every day, every night, every moment, from the moment we believed, until forever, when we see Him face to face.

May we know that we know that we know Jesus and all the angels rejoiced over us, the moment we believed in Him, that we were the sinner, the lost sheep that He went to find.

May we know that we know that we know God was making a point that He was searching throughout the earth looking for those who hearts are calling to Him, calling to be saved, rejoicing over all those who recognize they have a need for Jesus, those who want to receive Jesus, those of us who realize it is only through Him we can be saved.

love kathlynn