 I came to call sinners to repentance. I'm developing a reputation for telling people that nowhere in the Bible does it say repent of your sins to be saved. And so obviously there's a few passages that people will try and refute me with and one of them is the three verses actually that all contain the same saying. So I'm reading from Luke 5 32 but you can also find this in Matthew 9 13 and Mark 2 17 and it says I came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance. Arguably this first competes with Luke chapter 15 verses 7 and 10 and Luke chapter 13 verses 3 and 5 for being one of the closest statements that you'll find to the repent of your sins to be saved gospel message. And so people will point to the statement sinners to repentance and say see right there repent of your sins it's right there. However it doesn't actually say that. When you tell people to repent you are giving them an action word you are telling them to action something or to do something. Now many Christians will obviously tell you to repent of your sins for salvation whereas I'm telling you to repent of your unbelief for salvation but either way we're telling you to commit an action repent. But there is only one action word in this verse. Sinners are not being told to repent of their sins somebody else is calling them to repentance. Jesus is the one doing the action in this verse. Jesus is doing the calling. If you cherry pick a verse where Jesus is doing the thing and you say this verse is telling us to do the thing either you are incredibly stupid in which case nobody should listen to what you have to say or you are an incredibly self-righteous sanctimonious self-absorbed I am in which case nobody should listen to what you have to say. When you tell someone to repent of their sins you are telling them to look inwardly into themselves to make the changes in their life worthy of salvation. But this statement is very clear that Jesus is the one who's doing the calling. He does the action that brings about people who are sinners and that's in the noun form so people who are in the state of being sinners to repentance and again that's in its noun form so people who are in the state of repentance and what that entails. But this is not the only verse in context where Jesus is emphasised as the one doing the action. Let's take a look at the verses surrounding this statement. In Matthew's Gospel account which gives us the most detail Jesus has called Matthew or Levi depending on which Gospel you read out of the receipt of custom and attends his house to have a banquet and many publicans and sinners came to dine with them and the Pharisees questioned his disciples why he is eating with publicans and sinners. Jesus replies to them saying they that are whole need not a physician but they that are sick. Now notice what Jesus did not say Jesus did not say, they that are whole have kept themselves clean from disease but they that are sick defied moses law on cleansing. Jesus did not say they that are righteous do not need to repent but they that are sinful. Jesus did not say they that do righteous deeds don't need a saviour but they that have done iniquity. Jesus did not say they that are whole need not a warm bowl of broth to get better but they that are sick. Jesus did say they that are sick need a physician. If this was all about you repenting of your sins then if you were sick you wouldn't need a physician. You would instead just get a hot pan and get that broth boiling on the stove and you know or get a hot cup of honey and lemon to warm your insides and make you well again. But instead you need a physician okay you need somebody else's skills and assistance to get made well. Now this is where somebody might try and refute me and say something like this. A doctor tells you to do things to get better you dumb idiot. If you don't follow the doctor's advice you won't get any better. You gotta repent your sins. But the problem is in this story of Matthew's feast we don't have any dialogue so we don't really know what Jesus said to the publicans and sinners. We don't know what instructions the doctor actually gave the sick sinners to make them well again. However we do know what Jesus said about the publicans and certain types of sinners later in Matthew's Gospel account. In Matthew 21, 31 to 32 Jesus said to various chief priests that the publicans and harlots go into the kingdom of God before you. For John came onto you in the way of righteous and you believed him not but the publicans and the harlots believed him and you when you had seen it repented not afterward that you might believe him. Matthew 21 32 tells us that publicans and harlots which harlots are a specific category of sinners go into the kingdom i.e. they enter into everlasting life because they believed. And notice that this verse actually defines repentance as believing not turning from sins. So according to the great physician publicans and sinners were prescribed belief as the remedy for their infirmity. This is perfectly consistent with abundant passages in the gospels. For example John 3 16 says that who so ever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life. Not he who so repents of his sins. John 5 24 says he that hears my word and believes on him that sent me has everlasting life and shall not come into condemnation but is passed from death onto life. He didn't say he that hears my word and repents of his sins. John 11 25 says I am the resurrection in the life he that believes in me though he were dead yet shall he live and again he didn't say repentance of his sins. These are but three of many many passages or verses we could turn to. The physician's advice was very clear in his prescription. Believe on Christ to be saved. That's what sinners are called to do. That's what the good physician said. Now you can say that you need to repent of your sins but you're not a very good physician and should have your license immediately revoked. So just as Jesus is doing the calling he is also the physician. He is drawing the attention towards himself as the one who does the required actions to bring about a person's salvation. Some might argue that believing is an action on our part but it's a very specific action that takes the emphasis from us and back onto Jesus. Repenting of sin puts the emphasis back on us. Repenting of sin is not the medicine for sin. It might stop you from sinning more but it won't undo your past sins. If you repent of your sins all that makes you is a repentant sinner but a sinner all the same. It doesn't make you a saved sinner who has been saved from his sins. The medicine prescribed by the doctor for sinners is believe on Christ according to Matthew 21 31 to 32. Christ died for us according to Romans 8. Christ's obedience alone according to Romans 5 19. Lord be merciful to me according to Luke 18 13. Be justified by Christ according to Galatians 2 17. Jesus came into the world to save us 1st Timothy 1 15. Now let's go back to Matthew. Jesus says in verse 13 I will have mercy not sacrifice. So once again we see the emphasis placed on Jesus because he is telling us what he will have. Okay this is not about what you want. It's not about what you want to do and what you get out of this. This is what Jesus wants and Jesus wants mercy. He doesn't want sacrifice because he is the sacrifice. He wants mercy because he will give mercy according to his kindness. His sacrifice. What we deserve or what we think we ought to do really has nothing to do with anything. Jesus wants mercy and mercy is giving us what we don't deserve not what we do deserve. Now oftentimes the same sort of people that tell us to repent of our sins to be saved are the same sort of people that say you need to surrender your life at the foot of the cross and give everything in your life to Christ. If you're not prepared to sacrifice your life to him you won't be saved. Repent. Well that's completely wrong because Jesus desires mercy not sacrifice. If you want to surrender your life to Christ you don't have anything to offer because you're dead in sin. You don't have a suitable sacrifice that God wants or needs rather like Cain actually but if you will trust in Christ to save you and you will be saved by mercy rather than sacrifice well then you want the same thing that Christ wants that he wants mercy and not sacrifice and you're putting the emphasis on Jesus rather than yourself because he is the sacrifice. So in conclusion when Jesus said I came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance it's not telling sinners to repent of their sins to present themselves righteous before they can come to Jesus because Jesus did not come to call the righteous. Jesus is reaching out to sinners and bringing them into his kingdom that by believing in him they will be passed from death onto life. Jesus is calling them. Jesus is their physician. Jesus desires mercy. He takes the credit for sinners being saved. Hence they are converted from sinners dead in their sins to believers repentance onto life. Ergo he calls sinners onto repentance. It is Jesus that makes them righteous just as it says in Romans 5 19 for as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous. Now when I showed you Matthew 21 31 to 32 that publicans and sinners needed to believe and that was the remedy commanded by the the physician somebody might challenge me on that by saying that I have neglected a very crucial passage on this issue. In Luke 15 publicans and sinners drew near Jesus to hear him in verse 1 and similarly to Luke 5 Jesus once again defended himself to the Pharisees this time saying that there is more joy in heaven over one sinner that repents in verses 7 and 10 and so this verse quite clearly mentions publicans and sinners as well but they are the ones doing the action word this passage cannot be ignored in light of Luke 5 well for the sake of time and keeping this video short we won't look at it in this video we will be looking at that passage in the next video we will be looking at the joy over one sinner that repents this is no nonsense Christianity reminding you that nowhere in the Bible does it say repent of your sins to be saved