Dane Ortland, in his book "Gentle and Lowly", describes Christ's desire to show grace with a story about a doctor on a mercy mission. He flies to a remote village that has never had the benefit of modern medicine to bring a cure to their illness and disease. He is traveling with all his tools and medicines, eager to bring them healing and relief. When he arrives, however, the proud and cautious tribesmen will not allow him to treat them, out of fear of the unknown and pride in their own (unsuccessful) methods. Finally, through gentle persuasion, the doctor gets first one, and then another and another, to allow him to treat their fatal condition. His joy is through the roof, this is what he came to do!
So it is with Christ. We are told in Luke 19:10 that Jesus came "to seek and save that which is lost." The sad news is, that both in the story of the doctor and in the true account of Christ's saving work, those who refuse to come and get the cure, will face suffering and death. In Dane's story of the doctor, it is the natural outcome of their disease. In the matter of Christ saving the human race from its sin, it is the natural outcome of our fallenness and the need for the righteous God to ultimately judge all sin. He cannot leave the world in the evil condition it is in, He must ultimately purge all wickedness. In the biblical book of Revelation, we are seeing God doing just that. This message will look at how, it the midst of brutal judgment, the heart of Christ continues to shine through to the very end.
