LifeLink Devotions for Friday, September 16, 2022

1 Peter 2:24-25  “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed. For you were like sheep going astray, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.“

Dr. J. H. Jowett was a powerful preacher from England. In 1911 he became the pastor of the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church in New York. Then, in 1917, he accepted the call to become the pastor of Westminster Chapel in London, succeeding the famous G. Campbell Morgan. While on the ship crossing the Atlantic back to England, an officer of his boat told him that they had just passed over the spot where the Titanic went down. He contemplated all that life and wreckage beyond the power of man to recover and redeem. He thought of the great bed of the deep sea, with all its held treasure, too far down for man to reach and restore. “Too far down!” Those words stuck in his mind.

This led him to think of all the human wreckage engulfed and sunk in oceanic depths of nameless sin. He found himself speaking out loud to the ship’s officer. “Too far gone! For what? Too far down! For what? Not too far down for the love of God! Listen to this: He descended into hell, and He will descend again if you are there. “If I make my bed in hell, thou art there” (Ps. 139:8). “Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound” (Rom. 5:20). “He bore our sin” (1 Peter 2:24); then He got beneath it; down to it and beneath it; and there is no human wreckage lying in the ooze of the deepest sea of iniquity that His deep love cannot reach and redeem. What a Gospel! However far down, God’s love can get beneath it!“

Jesus has already been to the depths and depravity of man’s sin. “He who knew no sin became our sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” (2 Corinthians 5:21) He suffered the totality of God’s wrath against our sin. He substituted Himself for us in death. Then, with shouts of victory on His lips, God raised Him from the dead so that we might be victorious over sin as well. By His wounds we have been healed!

Friend, you are not too far down for the Savior to find you. You are not too deep in your sin for Jesus to get under you and lift you out of it. You are not so overwhelmed with guilt that His grace cannot restore you. You are not so lost that the Shepherd cannot find you.

He is looking for you right now. His arms are extended. His reach is limitless. Don’t resist the tug you feel. It is the hand of the Lord lifting you to Eternal Life. Turn to Him and embrace Him. He will forgive your sins and accept you as His own.

 Pastor John