WHAT IT MEANS TO RECEIVE CHRIST

"But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God" John 1:12 ESV

Recently I was discussing with a dear friend about the gospel and communicating it to others. So I asked my friend to share with me her understanding of the gospel. As she began sharing she threw out biblical terms such as glory, fellowship, sin, wrath, judgement, redemption,God's righteousness, holy, grace,believe, receive, and repent. When I pretended I was a non-Christian and asked her what these terms meant, she had a great difficulty defining those terms for me. Now this is a seasoned, on fire, and godly woman. it came to me, if she had such difficulty defining her terms, what about the rest of the Christian community?

When sharing the gospel or anything pertaining to our faith, it is imperative that we know what we are talking about. Ignorance is not bliss and having wrong ideas of what the bible teaches can lead ourselves and others to false conclusions and convictions.

I was especially thinking about the term we use of "receiving Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior". I have had so many tell me about so and so receiving Jesus into their heart or someone who was led to make a decision for Jesus Christ. Now the bible speaks of receiving Jesus, but what does that mean and what does it not mean? There are so many people who say they have received Christ and believed Christ who give little or no evidence that they are spiritually alive. We will often times say that because Fred once received Christ, even though his life demonstrates little or no evidence of change, that because he received Christ, he is in no matter what.

Last week I wrote about what it means to love God. The bible defines loving God in terms of treasuring Christ, savoring Christ, cherishing Christ, or supremely valuing Christ.

But what of those who are unresponsive to the spiritual beauty of Jesus? Who are unmoved by the glories of Christ. Who don't have the spirit of the apostle Paul when he said, "I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ" (Philippians 3:8)? This is not their spirit, yet they say they have received Christ. So to me it looks as though it is possible to "receive Christ" and yet to not " receive Him" for who and what He really is. Thus, we demean His worth and do not really "receive" Christ at all.

This is why I so strongly believe we need to add a new term in defining what it means for someone to become a Christian and receive Christ: Make Jesus Christ Your Supreme Treasure. I think it is much more helpful and forthright in clearly telling others what it means to love, follow, and receive Jesus. Treasuring God is the essence of loving God.

Let me describe why I think this is so important. One way to describe this problem is to say that when these people "receive Christ," they do not receive him as supremely valuable. They receive him simply as sin-forgiver (because they love being guilt-free), and as rescuer-from-hell (because they love being pain-free), and as healer (because they love being disease-free), and as protector (because they love being safe), and as prosperity-giver (because they love being wealthy). They don't receive him the way Paul did when he spoke of "the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord." They don't receive him as he really is—more glorious, more beautiful, more wonderful, more satisfying, than everything else in this world, this life, and the whole universe. They don't prize him or treasure him or cherish him or delight in him.

Such a "receiving" of Christ is the kind of receiving that anyone can do. Any unregenerate, "natural" person can do this. This is very doable. This is a "receiving" of Christ that requires no change in human nature. You don't have to be born again to love being guilt-free and pain-free and disease-free and safe and wealthy. All natural men without any spiritual life love these things. But to embrace Jesus as your supreme treasure requires a new nature. No one does this naturally. You must be born again (John 3:3). You must be a new creation in Christ (2 Cor. 5:17; Galatians 6:15). You must be made spiritually alive (Ephesians 2:1-4). "No one can say 'Jesus is Lord' [and mean it!] except in the Holy Spirit" (1 Corinthians 12:3).

True saving faith is a receiving of Christ for who He really is and what He really is, namely, more glorious, more wonderful, more satisfying, and, therefore, more valuable than anything in the universe. Saving faith says, "I receive you as my Savior, my Lord, my supreme Treasure; and "I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ" (Philippians 3:8).

There are profound and important reasons why Jesus said, "Therefore, any one who does not hate renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple" (Luke 14:33). Or "Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me" (Matthew 10:37). And, "The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field" (Matthew 13:44).

We need to see Jesus as compellingly beautiful so that we present Him as compellingly beautiful to others. We want others to receive Him in a way that He like the treasure in the field and has become so compellingly beautiful, valuable, and infinitely satisfying to them.

Jesus is infinitely valuable and infinitely satisfying. Saving faith receives this Christ.

"Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you.My flesh and my heart may fail,but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever"(Psalm 73:25)

Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, 9obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.(1 Peter 1:8)

Treasuring Christ above all things,
Pastor Bill