He Accepts Us

"All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out." (John 6:37)

We know about His divine Person, we know that He is the Lamb of God who suffered and died in our place. We know all about His credentials. Yet we let Him stand outside on the steps like some poor timid fellow who is hoping he can find a job.

We look Him over, then read a few more devotional verses, and ask: "What do you think, Mabel? Do you think we ought to accept Him? I really wonder if we should accept Him."

And so, in this view, our poor Lord Jesus Christ hat-in-hand, shifting from one foot to another looking for a job, wondering whether He will be accepted.

Meanwhile, there sits the proud Adamic sinner, rotten as the devil and filled with all manner of spiritual leprosy and cancer. But he is hesitating; he is judging whether or not he will accept Christ.

Doesn't that proud human know that the Christ he is putting off is the Christ of God, the eternal Son who holds the worlds in His hands? Does he not know that Christ is the eternal Word, the Jesus who made the heavens and the earth and all things that are therein?

The question ought not to be whether I will accept Him; the question ought to be whether He will accept me!

Lord, thank You for Your mercy and Your grace, for paying my debt so I can be "accepted in the beloved" (Ephesians 1:6). Amen

___________________________________________

What Then Shall We Do?

"Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin" (Romans 6:6)

Seeing who God is and who we are, a right relationship between God and us is of vital importance. That God should be glorified in us is so critically important that it stands in lonely grandeur, a moral imperative more compelling than any other which the human heart can acknowledge. To bring ourselves into a place where God will be eternally pleased with us should be the first responsible act of every man.

Knowing our sin and moral ignorance, the impossibility of effecting sch a happy relationship becomes instantly evident. Since we cannot go to God, what then shall we do? The answer is fond in the Christian witness: it is that God came to us in the Incarnation. "Who is Jesus?" asks the world, and the Church answers, "Jesus is God come to us." He is come to seek us, to woo us, to win us to God again. And to do this He needed to die for us redemptively. He must in some manner undo our sins, destroy our record of sins committed and break the power of sins entrenched within us. All this, says the Christian witness, He did upon the Cross perfectly, effectually and for good.

Thank You, Lord, that You came to us. May I always remember to give You all glory, for You chose me. Amen

~A. W. Tozer~