NOTES for Luk 19:10

This phrase is one of the most astonishing in the whole New Testament. Christ's words bring us great joy, but following these words may be the hardest thing of all. The position that the Lord Jesus expresses in these words provoked the greatest indignation and protest from the scribes and Pharisees around Christ.

These words of Christ oblige us to much. First of all, it is very important to remember them when we see those who are unpleasant to us, whose appearance or actions provoke our indignation, whom we consider "bad." It is precisely them, the lost, not those in the process of perishing but those already finally lost, whom the Lord Jesus came to find and save. After this, it is clearly impossible to despise them.

But the main thing is that He came to seek and save us, each of us. Not some splendid righteous people who earned and became worthy of reward, but us, lost under the weight of incurable sins.