Christ Jesus the Lord Received and Walked In

Next Part Christ Jesus the Lord Received and Walked In 2

"As you have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him—rooted and built up in him, and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving." Colossians 2:6, 7

In endeavoring, with God's help and blessing, to lay open before you these words of inspired truth, I shall,

First, show what it is to "receive Christ Jesus the Lord."

Secondly, how we are to "walk in him" as received.

Thirdly, how we become "rooted and built up in him."

Fourthly, how we are to be "established in the faith as we have been taught; and to abound therein with thanksgiving."

I. What it is to "receive Christ Jesus the Lord." Many people seem to have a religion without Christ. At least as far as we can see, he is not the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, the sum and substance of their religion. Such a religion as this has neither root nor stem, neither foundation nor superstructure; and without harshly censuring them, we have our Lord's own words to prove that those who have a religion without Christ have not a religion wrought in the heart by the power of God's grace, for he himself declares, "Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. "I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing." (John 15:4, 5.) The apostle, then, speaking to these Colossians, assumes that they had received Christ, in other words, that they had a religion of which Christ, as received into the heart, was the sum and substance. He does not therefore address them either as people in a state of unregeneracy, or as full of doubt and fear and unbelief, as still under the law in bondage at Mount Sinai, without any testimony or well-grounded hope and persuasion of interest in the Lord of life and glory. But he speaks to them as to people who had "received Christ Jesus the Lord." It will therefore be necessary to show what it is "to receive Christ Jesus the Lord," that you may have some testimony in your consciences whether you have received him or not; because this is the grand turning point of life and death.

A. The Scripture declares of our blessed Lord that "He came unto his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God." (John 1:11, 12.) Here we find the Holy Spirit drawing a distinction between those who received Christ and those who received him not—one being in life, the other in death; the one his friends, and the other his enemies; the one saved, and the others, continuing so, lost. And the same Blessed Spirit, writing by the pen of John, tells us how and why it was that some were able to receive him when others did not. He says, "Who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." What a high privilege did these enjoy, for he gave them "power to become the sons of God." But he does not leave us in ignorance how they received him, for he says, "Even to those who believe on his name." (John 1:11-13.) Have we not here, then, the Spirit's own testimony that those alone are "born of God" who receive Jesus Christ by faith? and does it not follow that if a man has not so received Jesus Christ there is no scriptural evidence that at present he is born of God?

But examine the word "received" a little more closely. It means, of course, that Christ is received into the heart, for it is there that he is formed the hope of glory. (Gal. 4:19; Col. 1:27.) If, then, he is to be received there, a place must first be made for him. The key, therefore, to this text lies very much, I think, in the words which the Lord addressed to the Pharisees, "My word has no place in you;" that is, there was no room in their heart to receive Christ. His place was preoccupied. Sin was there; the world was there; self was there; and sin, the world and self, all effectually barred out Christ.

We see this continually in the case of those in whose hearts the Blessed Spirit is not at work. Pride, prejudice, enmity, unbelief, infidelity, self-righteousness, love of the world—all these are hindrances, obstacles, impediments, so that there is no room in their hearts for Christ and his gospel. He must, then, come and prepare the room; make a place for himself, that he may come in and dwell. To do this was the work for which John the Baptist was sent, as a figure of the law. "Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God." (Isaiah. 40:3.)

But the certain effect of making a place for Christ is to turn out all intruders. We have this opened up in the parable of the strong man armed, of whom we read that "he keeps his palace," that is, his castle; and while he does this "his goods are in peace." As long then as he keeps his palace, there is no room for another owner, another Lord and master of the castle; for he is so strong by nature, and, besides his natural strength, is so encased in armor, that none can dispossess him unless of superior strength. But such a one at last is found; for a "stronger than he," who is Jesus, comes upon him, and overcomes him; and then "he takes from him all his armor wherein he trusted, and divides his spoils." This is a spiritual representation of Satan, who is the strong man armed; of the palace, which is the human heart; of Christ as stronger than the strong man armed; and of the way in which the Blessed Lord overcomes Satan, and takes possession of the sinner's soul.

Now what I am chiefly aiming to show you is that, before we can receive Christ, there must be room made for him, and that this must be done by the power of God's grace; for sin and Satan are so strong that nothing else can overcome them. The usual way by which this room is made for Christ is by cutting convictions, distressing temptations, and alarming views of the majesty and purity of God; for it is by such dealings upon the conscience that we come experimentally to learn our own miserable sinfulness. The Blessed Spirit working in and by these convictions, and softening and melting the heart by a divine influence, thus breaks to pieces the pride, self-righteousness, prejudice, enmity, opposition, and all those obstacles that have so shut out the gospel, so blinded the eyes, stopped the ears, and hardened the heart against the voice of truth. It is not now whether we will turn to the Lord or not, and leave the ways of sin or not; for he makes us "willing in the day of his power," and puts his hand in a mysterious way into the heart.

As in the Canticles, we read of his putting in his hand "by the hole of the door;" so the Lord, by the secret power and influence of his grace, puts his hand into the heart, and by the secret movements of his Spirit in and upon the conscience, raises up not only a sense of the soul's ruin and misery, but, being poured out as a Spirit of grace and of supplications, communicates desires, breathings, sighs, cries and groans, lookings and longings for mercy, pardon, and peace. It is in this way that the Lord Jesus Christ makes his people willing to receive him; for he not only convinces them of their miserable state, but in a secret, mysterious way discovers, from time to time, so much of his suitability, beauty, blessedness, grace, and glory, as to make the heart willing to entertain him, and to dread nothing so much as to live and die without the manifestation of his blood and love.

Now, however long or short this process may be, and in some cases it is not a very long process, yet it is in all cases effectual. The jailer, for instance, at Philippi, was very soon raised, first out of a state of unregeneracy and death, and then out of almost the depths of despair; for the earthquake which shook the prison walls shook his heart to pieces and made him tremble at the wrath to come; and the same power whereby all the doors were opened and every one's bands were loosed, opened the door of his soul to a flood of conviction, and loosed the bands of his unregeneracy. God blessed the apostle's voice, "Do yourself no harm," and it came with such power to his soul, that he sprang in, and came trembling, and fell down almost in despair before Paul and Silas, with a cry in his lips, "What must I do to be saved?" But when Christ was set before him by the preaching of the apostle, and the Holy Spirit blessed his testimony, he received Christ then and there into his heart, and rejoiced in a full and free salvation.

So with the tax-collector. He went into the temple a miserable, guilty, self-condemned wretch, crying to God for mercy. God heard his prayer, revealed to him salvation by Christ's righteousness; he received Christ then and there, for he went down to his own house "justified."

So with the prodigal. He came home to his father's house self-condemned and self-abhorred. The father fell upon his neck and kissed him, and revealed a sense of his pardoning love to his soul almost before the words came out of his heart and lips, that he was not worthy to be called his son. But it is not always, nor often thus. For the most part, the Lord leads his people up and down in various distressing ways in providence and in grace before he makes Christ known to their souls, that they may receive him into their heart as the Son of the Father in truth and love.

B. But we now come to the WAY in which Christ is received. Before we can receive Christ into our heart, we must know something about him, both who and what he is. We must have some view of him by faith; for how can we long for Christ to come into the heart unless there be some view of him as suitable to our case, as desirable to know, to believe in, and to love?

1. The first thing then needful is, that the eyes of the understanding should be enlightened. And this God mercifully gives. A ray of light is made to shine upon some passage of Scripture which speaks of Christ, and from the Scripture it is presented to the eye of faith, which at once seeing light in God's light, beholds as in a glass the beauty, blessedness, grace, and suitability of Jesus. All these are revealed in the Scriptures, for they testify of him; but until the veil of darkness is taken off the heart, we cannot read the writing nor understand the testimony. His eternal Sonship, his glorious Godhead, his suffering manhood, his complex Person as Immanuel, God with us, his dying love, his atoning blood, his justifying righteousness, his victorious grace; all shine in the word of truth, but are not seen until revealed by a light from above. When, then, a ray of heavenly light shines into the understanding, it is then enlightened to behold the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Is not this the very language of the Apostle, "God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness has shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ?" (2 Cor. 4:6.) He also prays for the Ephesians that "the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, would give unto them the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him; the eyes of their understanding being enlightened." (Eph. 1:17, 18.) And thus we find John speaking, "We beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth." (John 1:14.) Where, then, there is this enlightened mind, and the grace and glory of Christ are thus seen, there is a receiving Christ into the understanding.

2. But we must go further than this. There is the conscience which God makes tender in his fear—in which he works by his Holy Spirit, and makes humble and contrite, simple and sincere. Now as a ray of divine light shines into the understanding to show the beauty and glory and suitability of Christ, the conscience is made willing to receive him in his blood and righteousness as the only balm for its guilt and shame; the only cure for a wounded spirit, the only hope of salvation from a broken law and from the eternal wrath of God. For we must ever bear in mind that the same light which discovers sin reflects the anger of God from a broken law into the conscience; and this produces guilt, bondage, and fear, from which there is no deliverance but by the application of atoning blood.

3. Then, again, there is receiving Christ into the heart. The heart must be made tender as well as the conscience. This is what the Lord took special note of in Josiah (2 Kings 22:19), "Because your heart was tender." The heart by nature is hard and obdurate; what the Scripture calls "a heart of stone." This, we read, God by his Spirit and grace takes away out of the flesh, and gives a heart of flesh, which is the new heart given and the new spirit put within. (Ezekiel 36:26.) He thus make the heart soft, as Job speaks (23:16); nor can there be a greater blessing, for it is that broken and contrite heart which God will not despise (Psalm. 51:17); that contrite spirit to which God looks, and with which he dwells. (Isaiah. 57:15.) As, then, the heart is made tender and contrite Christ is received into it, for there he dwells by faith. (Eph. 3:17.)

4. But by coming into the heart he also makes a place for himself in the affections, that is, the spiritual affections, which, by the power of his grace, are drawn forth and raised up so as to be fixed upon him as seated at God's right hand; which made the apostle say, "Set your affections on things above, not on things on the earth." (Col. 3:2.)

Now can you say that you have received Christ in any or all of the four ways enumerated, for they generally if not always go together? Look at them distinctly one by one, and compare your experience with this fourfold work of the Spirit of God. First, then, have you seen by the eye of faith the beauty and blessedness, blood and righteousness, Deity and humanity, grace and glory, suitability and loveliness of a most precious Jesus? Secondly, has your conscience responded to what you have seen with the eye of faith, and have you felt a sweet coming in of mercy, love, and blood to heal its bleeding wounds, and purge it from filth, guilt, and dead works to serve a living God? Thirdly, has your heart ever been softened, melted, and touched by a gracious influence and constraining power so as to receive Christ by faith into the inmost recesses of your bosom? And, fourthly, have you ever at any time, however short it might have lasted, received Christ into your affections so as to love him with a pure heart fervently?

Now no man can receive Christ in these four ways except he be brought near by the power of God. He must be revealed to your soul as the true, proper, and only begotten Son of God, that he may thus become God's gift to you, and you may be enabled to say, "Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift." This Paul enjoyed, which made him say, "When it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb, and called me by his grace, to reveal his Son in me" (Gal. 1:1.5, 16.) This revelation of his Son in us we must have as a mark of God's having called us by his grace. When God then is pleased to reveal Christ in us, then we receive him. God brings him near, as he brought the coats of skins to Adam and Eve when he clothed them; and therefore he says, "I bring near my righteousness." (Isaiah. 46:13.) This is Christ, for he is "the Lord our righteousness." (Jer. 23:6.) Thus as our fallen parents took the coats of skins from the hand of God as their covering robe, so the soul takes God's gift of Christ's righteousness. And when he in his blood and love comes over the mountains and hills of all our sin and shame, unbelief and infidelity, he makes for himself a place in the heart, where he is entertained by faith and hope and love. To know something of this in the sweet experience of the soul is to know what it is "to receive Christ Jesus the Lord."

C. But WHOM do we receive when we receive Christ? We receive him as the eternal Son of God in all his blessed relationships. Thus we receive him as our atoning High Priest, for his blood is seen to be unspeakably precious, and his righteousness to justify from all things from which we could not be justified by the law of Moses. We receive him as our teaching Prophet, that he may lead us into all truth. We receive him as our most gracious Sovereign, who is to sway his peaceful scepter over every faculty of the soul, and be our Lord and King. We receive him as our Savior from the wrath to come; as our Mediator between God and man; as our Husband who has espoused us in eternal covenant ties; as our Brother born for adversity; as our Friend who loves at all times; as our Surety who has borne our sins in his own body; as our Representative in the courts of heaven; and as our glorious Head, out of whom we receive all supplies to sanctify us and make us fit for the inheritance of the saints in light.

Now if you have received Christ in these glorious offices and these covenant characters, you have received him as "Christ Jesus the Lord." For as the "Lord" he is your Lord God, and thus you receive him in his Deity; you receive him as man, for you receive him as "Jesus," which was the name of his pure humanity; and you receive him as "Christ," which signifies the Anointed One, the Messiah; and in so doing you receive him in his complex character as Immanuel, God with us, for as the God-Man he is the Christ.

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