The holy angels know our heavenly Father's good and gracious will that no sinner should perish, but come to repentance and be saved. They therefore rejoice when they see this will of God accomplished in a sinner on earth. Above all do they know how much it cost God's dear Son, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, to save us lost sinners, how He suffered and died for us. They know that He is the Good Shepherd, who seeks the lost, straying sheep by calling them through His Gospel, shirking no pain, no trouble, until He finds them and brings them into the protecting fold of His church. They rejoice when His labor is rewarded by the saving of one single soul.

How that blessed truth ought ever to encourage faithful pastors and teachers of God's Word when it seems to them that all their labor in the Lord's Gospel cause is in vain or brings but very little fruit! How precious one soul is in the sight of God, if all heaven is filled with joy at the news of a sinner's conversion! And now we know that God's saving Word is never preached in vain by His servants.

By the ninety and nine just persons that need no repentance the Lord evidently refers to the scoffing Pharisees, to all self-righteous persons, who think they do not need to repent, do not need to be forgiven, and who want to know nothing of Jesus as their Savior. What blind people they are! But how about us? Have God's holy angels ever rejoiced over us because we have learned to repent sincerely and believingly over our sins? May the great love that Jesus has for all lost sinners and in which He even died for them melt our hearts and draw us daily to Him in loving and adoring faith!