Who Does the Cross Invite?

Matt 11:28
Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

To whom does the invitation of the cross come? It comes to failures, the people who know they have gone wrong, the people who are filled with a sense of shame, the people who are weary and tired and forlorn in the struggle. "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." You know He is talking about people who are laboring to live a good and clean and straight life. That is what He means by laboring and being heavy-laden---by the law of God, the commandments, moral ideals. You have tried and sweated and fasted. You are laboring, like Martin Luther before he saw the truth, like John Wesley before he saw it. Like all these people before they saw it, you are laboring, trying to live the good life, but failing; we are miserable failures, weary and forlorn.

The hymns of the church have always expressed this.

I heard the voice of Jesus say,
"Behold, I freely give
The living water, thirsty one;
Stoop down, and drink, and live."
I came to Jesus as I was,
Weary, and worn, and sad...
H. BONAR

That is how they have come. The invitation is to such---the weary and worn.

- Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Walking with God Day by Day, April 21