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Accept Christ?
A
few things, fortunately only a few, are matters of life and death, such
as a compass for a sea voyage or a guide for a journey across the
desert. To ignore these vital things is not to gamble or take
a
chance; it is suicide. Here, it is either be right or dead.
Our
relation to Christ is such a matter of life or death, and on a much
higher plane. The Bible-instructed man knows that Jesus
Christ
came into the world to save sinners and that men are saved by Christ alone
altogether apart from any works of merit.
That
much is true and known, but obviously the death and resurrection of
Christ do not automatically save everyone... How does that which Christ
did FOR me become operative WITHIN me? To fail here is not to
gamble with our souls: it is to guarantee eternal banishment from the
face of God. Here we must be right or be finally lost.
Being
spiritually lazy we naturally tend to gravitate toward the easiest way
of settling our religious questions for our selves and others; hence
the formula (most often heard) is "Accept Christ".
It has
become a panacea of universal application, and I believe it is fatal to
many. Though undoubtedly an occasional serious minded penitent may find
in it all the instruction he needs to bring him into living contact
with Christ, I fear too many seekers use it as a short cut to the
Promised Land.
The trouble is that the whole "Accept Christ"
attitude is likely to be wrong. It shows Christ applying to us rather
than us to Him. It makes Him stand hat-in-hand awaiting our
verdict on Him, instead of our kneeling with troubled hearts awaiting
His verdict on us. It may even permit us to "accept Christ"
by an
impulse of mind or emotions, painlessly, at no loss to our ego and no
inconvenience to our usual way of life.
To accept Christ is to
form an attachment to the Person of our Lord Jesus altogether unique in
human experience. The attachment is intellectual, volitional
(action of the will) and emotional. The believer is
intellectually convinced that Jesus is both Lord and Christ; he has set
his will to follow Him at any cost and soon his heart is enjoying the
sweetness of His fellowship.
This attachment is all-inclusive
in that it joyfully accepts Christ for all that He is. There
is
no division of offices whereby we may acknowledge His Saviourhood today
and withhold decision on His Lordship until tomorrow...
Further,
his attachment to Christ is all-exclusive. The Lord becomes to
him
not ONE of several rival interests, but one exclusive attraction
forever.
That we accept Christ in this all-inclusive,
all-exclusive way is a divine imperative. Here faith makes
its
leap into God through the Person and work of Christ, but it never
divides the work from the Person. It never tries to believe
on
the blood apart from Christ Himself, or the cross or "finished work."
It believes on the LORD JESUS CHRIST, the whole Christ without
modification or reservation, and thus it receives and enjoys all that
He did in His work of redemption, all that He is now doing in heaven
for His own and all that He does in and through them.
By A.W. Tozer
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