Not because we first loved Him did Christ love us, but “while we were still sinners” He died for us. He does not treat us as we deserve. Although our sins merit condemnation, He does not condemn us. Year after year He has borne with our weakness and ignorance, with our ingratitude and waywardness. Despite our wanderings, our hardness of heart, our neglect of His Holy Word, His hand is stretched out still.MHH 84.1

Grace is an attribute of God exercised toward undeserving human beings. We did not seek for it, but it was sent in search of us. God rejoices to extend His grace to us, not because we are worthy but because we are so utterly unworthy. Our only claim to His mercy is our great need.MHH 84.2

The Lord God through Jesus Christ holds out His hand all the day long in invitation to the sinful and fallen. He will receive all. He welcomes all. It is His glory to pardon the chief of sinners. He will deliver the captive. He will lower the golden chain of His mercy to the lowest depths of human wretchedness and lift up the debased soul contaminated with sin.MHH 84.3

Every human being is the object of loving interest to Him who gave His life that He might bring sinners back to God. Guilty and helpless souls, liable to be destroyed by the arts and snares of Satan, are cared for as a shepherd cares for the sheep of his flock.MHH 84.4

The Savior’s example is to be the standard of our service for the tempted and the erring. We are to manifest toward others the same interest, tenderness, and longsuffering that He has manifested toward us. “‘As I have loved you,’” He says, “‘that you also love one another.’” John 13:34. If Christ lives in us, we shall reveal His unselfish love toward all with whom we have to do. As we see men and women in need of sympathy and help, we shall not ask, “Are they worthy?” but, “How can I benefit them?”MHH 84.5

Rich and poor, high and low, free and bond are God’s heritage. He who gave His life to redeem sinners sees in every human being a value that exceeds finite computation. By the mystery and glory of the cross we are to discern His estimate of the value of the soul. When we do this, we shall feel that human beings, however degraded, have cost too much to be treated with coldness or contempt. We shall realize the importance of working for lost souls, that they may be saved and exalted to the throne of God.MHH 85.1

The lost coin in the Savior’s parable, though lying in the dirt and rubbish, was still a piece of silver. Its owner wanted to find it because it was of value. So every soul, however degraded by sin, is in God’s sight accounted precious. As the coin bore the image and superscription of the reigning power, so human beings at creation bore the image and superscription of God. Though now marred and dim through the influence of sin, the traces of this inscription remain on every soul. God desires to recover that soul and to retrace upon it His own image in righteousness and holiness.MHH 85.2

How little do we enter into sympathy with Christ on that which should be the strongest bond of union between us and Him—compassion for depraved, guilty, suffering souls, dead in trespasses and sins! Our inhumanity toward others is our greatest sin. Many think that they are representing the justice of God while they wholly fail to represent His tenderness and His great love. Often the ones whom they treat with sternness and severity are under the stress of temptation. Satan is wrestling with these souls, and harsh, unsympathetic words discourage them and cause them to fall a prey to the tempter’s power.MHH 85.3

It is a delicate matter to deal with minds. Only He who reads the heart knows how to bring people to repentance. Only His wisdom can give us success in reaching the lost. You may stand up stiffly, feeling, “I am holier than you,” and it matters not how correct your reasoning or how true your words; they will never touch hearts. The love of Christ, revealed in word and act, will win its way to the soul when reiterating precepts or arguments would accomplish nothing.MHH 85.4

We need more Christlike sympathy not merely for those who appear to us to be faultless but for poor, suffering, struggling souls who are often overtaken in fault, sinning and repenting, tempted and discouraged. We are to go to our fellow mortals, touched, like our merciful High Priest, with the feeling of their infirmities.MHH 85.5

It was the outcast, the publican and sinner, the despised of the nations, that Christ called and drew to Himself by His lovingkindness. The one class that He would never countenance was those who stood apart in their self-esteem and looked down on others.MHH 85.6

“Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in,” Christ urges us, “that My house may be filled.” In obedience to this word we must go to the “heathen” who are near us and to those who are afar off. The “publicans and harlots” must hear the Savior’s invitation. Through the kindness and longsuffering of His messengers, the invitation becomes a compelling power to uplift those who are sunken in the lowest depths of sin.MHH 85.7

Christian motives demand that we work with a steady purpose, an undying interest, an ever-increasing earnestness for the souls whom Satan is seeking to destroy. Nothing is to chill our earnest, yearning energy for the salvation of the lost.MHH 86.1

Mark how all through the Word of God there is manifest the spirit of urgency, of imploring men and women to come to Christ. To draw people to the Savior we must seize every opportunity, in private and in public, presenting every argument, urging every motive of infinite weight. With all our power we must urge them to look to Jesus and to accept His life of self-denial and sacrifice. We must show that we expect them to give joy to the heart of Christ by using every one of His gifts in honoring His name.MHH 86.2

Reformers Should Reflect Christ

Saved by Hope