“Over millennia, it has very often been the most broken who turn to Christ.”
Thoughts from daily Bible reading for today – September 20, 2026
There is no one righteous, not even one. Romans 3:10
Lately I’m becoming aware of something that makes me uncomfortable, but it’s critical to me – to us – to share the gospel with people. Some of us seem to think good people are closer to being saved than the ones whose sin is so obvious. But everything I read in Scripture tells me there’s nothing further from the truth.
Abraham, the man through whom God promised he would bless the whole world, the father of the Jewish faith and ours, came from a culture of idol worshipers. He lied about his wife to protect himself. His son and grandchildren were a disaster. Lying, scheming, boasting. The father of the tribe Jesus came from plotted murder against his brother.
It gets a little clearer in the New Testament, and people who spend a lot of time in the Gospels catch on more quickly. Jesus, just like his Father, didn’t choose the cream of the crop, the nearly sin-free people. He came to people in the middle of their struggle. People who were sick, people who were outcasts, brothers in the middle of an argument, fishermen who were failing at their jobs, a woman with seven demons living inside her.
God used all of these people, and they all succeeded (with God’s help) in pushing history toward the coming of Christ. When Jesus came, it was the people with messy lives who were drawn to him. And since his death and resurrection, millions of broken people have succeeded in spreading the message He gave to us. Over millennia, it has very often been the most broken who turn to Christ and are the most successful at bringing others to Him.
Yet.
Let’s be honest. We don’t like these kinds of people. Most of us aren’t drawn to hospitals or brothels. We don’t want to go under highway overpasses or into clubs to look for people who need Christ. And those people aren’t drawn to us.
Many of us don’t even like the people who live on either side of us. We might drop a few coins in a container for the man on the side of the road, but would we take him home for dinner? There’s even a church code word for someone who’s bothersome. I’ve worked in enough churches to know that “EGR” means extra grace required (not a positive term).
Most of us are completely aware of these stories I mentioned in the Bible. But we haven’t applied them to our lives. We wouldn’t be so proud as to call ourselves righteous, but in the face of someone unpleasant, we often behave more like the Pharisees than Jesus.
We forget that we were just as lost as they are and that our hidden sins are as ugly as their open ones.
I’m wrestling with this myself. I hope you’ll join me. I want to be more like Jesus, and I think it means I’m going to have to get a little less comfortable.
Prayer
Jesus, make me more like you. Let those who need you be drawn to me, and let me not turn away. This is a bit of a frightening prayer. But I know that you are good.
Application
Make a note to yourself and put it somewhere you look every single day. Write these words: “Who needs me to be the hands and feet of Christ today?”
Related Reading
Mark 2:17; Luke 15:1-2; 1 Corinthians 1:27-29
Worship Resource
Casting Crowns: Jesus, Friend of Sinners
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