God’s Power to Transform

Never underestimate God’s power to transform sinners!  In the Gospel of Luke, we meet Levi, a tax collector.  You would never expect this greedy, hardhearted tax collector to become one of Jesus’s closest followers and eventually write the first Gospel?  Imagine what the other disciples must have thought when Jesus called Levi!  We read in Luke 5:27-28, “After this he went out and saw a tax collector named Levi, sitting at the tax booth.  And he said to him, ‘Follow me.’  And leaving everything, he rose and followed him.”

When Jesus goes to Levi’s house for a dinner party there are many other tax collectors in the house.  The Pharisees and scribes grumble at Jesus’s disciples, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?”  Jesus responds, “Those who are well have no need for a physician, but those who are sick.”

Another example of radical transformation is found in Saul of Tarsus!  What did people think when the Lord called Saul on the Damascus Road?  Seriously?!!  But the Lord is in the business of calling those whom the world thinks to be unlikely candidates for salvation.  It is to God’s glory to save the most desperately wicked.

Can you imagine a doctor’s office with a sign on the door: “We do not treat the sick”?  As a church, we dare not imply, “Only good people wanted; sinners not welcome.”  As we discover in Luke 5:32, Jesus did not come “to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.”

If you think of yourself as a good person, you should be alarmed.  Christ saves sinners, not pretty good people.  But if you confess, “I am a sinner,” you have the promise of Scripture in Romans 5:6 that “Christ died for the ungodly.”  If you will repent and believe in Jesus Christ, you will know the joy of having Him dine at your table and of seeing Him use you to share His good news with lost people – other sinners like us!   We simply need to respond to his invitation, “Follow me!”  So. Never underestimate God’s power to transform sinners!!

Dr. Stephanie Black, who is in transition to Nairobi, Kenya, lives out her passion for equipping emerging global church leaders in Africa and Asia with skills in reading and interpreting the Bible. She is a member of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church World Outreach in a co-op partnership with Serge.

Missions Team is active keeping in touch with our missionaries and other ministries.  Please keep updated!  You can visit our website and go to the Outreach Page.