Morning, November 8
Go To Evening Reading
“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!