Spurgeon: November AM
* 11/08/AM
"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!