Morning
Time: 7:19 AM PST
"As ye have received Christ Jesus the Lord." --Colossians 2:6
The life of faith is represented as receiving-- an act which implies the
very opposite of anything like merit. It is simply the acceptance of a gift.
As the earth drinks in the rain, as the sea receives the streams, as night
accepts light from the stars, so we, giving nothing, partake freely of the grace
of God. The saints are not, by nature, wells, or streams, they are but cisterns
into which the living water flows; they are empty vessels into which God pours
His salvation. The idea of receiving implies a sense of realization,
making the matter a reality. One cannot very well receive a shadow; we
receive that which is substantial: so is it in the life of faith, Christ becomes
real to us. While we are without faith, Jesus is a mere name to us--a person who
lived a long while ago, so long ago that His life is only a history to us now!
By an act of faith Jesus becomes a real person in the consciousness of our
heart. But receiving also means grasping or getting possession of. The
thing which I receive becomes my own: I appropriate to myself that which is
given. When I receive Jesus, He becomes my Saviour, so mine that neither life
nor death shall be able to rob me of Him. All this is to receive Christ--to take
Him as God's free gift; to realize Him in my heart, and to appropriate Him as
mine.
Salvation may be described as the blind receiving sight, the deaf receiving
hearing, the dead receiving life; but we have not only received these blessings,
we have received CHRIST JESUS Himself. It is true that He gave us life from the
dead. He gave us pardon of sin; He gave us imputed righteousness. These are all
precious things, but we are not content with them; we have received Christ
Himself. The Son of God has been poured into us, and we have received Him,
and appropriated Him. What a heartful Jesus must be, for heaven itself cannot
contain Him!