WHAT IT MEANS TO ACCEPT CHRIST

     By A.W. Tozer
 

          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.

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     Yours in Christ,
     Paul N.F.