Chapter 41—God’s Love for the Sinner
Heaven and the Heart of Man—While Christ opens heaven to
man, the life which He imparts opens the heart of man to heaven. Sin
not only shuts us away from God, but destroys in the human soul the
desire and the capacity for knowing Him. All this work of evil it is
Christ’s mission to undo. The faculties of the soul, paralyzed by sin,
the darkened mind, the perverted will, He has power to invigorate
and to restore. He opens to us the riches of the universe, and by Him
the power to discern and to appropriate these treasures is imparted.—
Education, 28, 29
.
Each Individual Known by Jesus—Jesus knows us individually,
and is touched with the feeling of our infirmities. He knows us all by
name. He knows the very house in which we live, the name of each
occupant. He has at times given directions to His servants to go to a
certain street in a certain city, to such a house, to find one of His sheep.
Every soul is as fully known to Jesus as if he were the only one
for whom the Saviour died. The distress of every one touches His
heart. The cry for aid reaches His ear. He came to draw all men unto
Himself. He bids them, “Follow Me,” and His Spirit moves upon their
hearts to draw them to come to Him. Many refuse to be drawn. Jesus
knows who they are. He also knows who gladly hear His call, and are
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ready to come under His pastoral care. He says, “My sheep hear My
voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.” He cares for each one
as if there were not another on the face of the earth.—
The Desire of
Ages, 479, 480
.
Rebuke of Devil Possession Seven Times—Mary had been
looked upon as a great sinner, but Christ knew the circumstances
that had shaped her life. He might have extinguished every spark of
hope in her soul, but He did not. It was He who had lifted her from
despair and ruin. Seven times she had heard His rebuke of the demons
that controlled her heart and mind. She had heard His strong cries to
the Father in her behalf. She knew how offensive is sin to His unsullied
purity, and in His strength she had overcome.
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