I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. Luke 5:32
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I saw a devotional about this:
He Came for Sinners
Devotional by John Piper
“I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.” (Luke 5:32)
God is not only a God of terrible holiness and wrath; he is also a God rich in mercy.
And so he sent his Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him from God’s own wrath (John 3:17).
He came not to be served but to give his life as a ransom for many (Mark 10:45). To lay down his life for the sheep (John 10:15). To bear our sins in his body on the tree (1 Peter 2:24). To provide us with a righteousness that comes, not from our law-keeping, but through faith (Philippians 3:9). And to reconcile us to God (2 Corinthians 5:18; 1 Peter 3:18).
All the children of wrath may become children of the Father through Jesus Christ.
An aging abortionist, after 3,000 abortions, can become a child of God. She could hear Jesus say, on her death bed, “Today you will be with me in paradise.”
The same is true for the mother of five aborted children. And for the selfish, responsibility-shirking boyfriend. And for the secretive, shame-fearing, overbearing parent. And for the desperate 14-year-old girl.
Jesus did not mainly come to stop abortions in this world. He came mainly to die for abortion-committing sinners. “I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance” (Luke 5:32).
There is one way to know God as your Father. And it’s the same for the people at Planned Parenthood, and the people at Pro-life Action, and the people at Bethlehem Baptist Church — Come to Jesus.
We are blessed for having a loving God, a merciful God who sees our worth and not our hateful ways. But, it does not mean we continue to sin just because we know He will still accept us. He may be a God of mercy but He is also a God of justice.