Saving Religion Receives Christ | Crossway Articles

Receiving Christ

Saving religion goes past confidence in Christ’s reliability, and receives him—not simply his phrase, however himself, that’s, all that God is for us in him.

The seminal textual content that connects believing in Christ with receiving Christ is John 1:11–13:

[Jesus] got here to his personal, and his personal folks didn’t obtain him. However to all who did obtain him, who believed in his title, he gave the appropriate to turn out to be youngsters of God, who have been born, not of blood nor of the desire of the flesh nor of the desire of man, however of God.

John places believing in Jesus’s title in apposition with receiving him. “All who did obtain him, [that is,] who believed in his title . . . .” Receiving Jesus is a method of describing believing in Jesus in a saving means.

To Obtain the Son Is to Have the Father, and Life

Since Jesus and the Father are one (John 10:30), receiving Jesus consists of receiving the Father. This reality lay behind Jesus’s assertion, “I’ve come in my Father’s title, and you don’t obtain me” (John 5:43). Receiving Jesus “within the Father’s title” implies that after we obtain him, we obtain the Father and all that he’s for us in Jesus. “Whoever receives me receives the one who despatched me” (John 13:20; cf. Matt. 10:40). A saving relationship with the Father hangs on receiving Jesus.

Receiving Jesus is saving as a result of “because the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son additionally to have life in himself” (John 5:26). Due to this fact, “Whoever has the Son has life; whoever doesn’t have the Son of God doesn’t have life” (1 John 5:12). Receiving the Son is how we “have” the Son. And solely by having the Son do we’ve life. Certainly, solely by “receiving” and thus “having” the Son do we’ve all that the Father is for us within the Son. Due to this fact, saving religion (John 1:12) is a receiving of Jesus Christ and all that God is for us in him.

“You Acquired Christ Jesus the Lord”

Not solely John and Jesus, but additionally Paul connects “receiving” Jesus with religion: “As you acquired Christ Jesus the Lord, so stroll in him, rooted and constructed up in him and established within the religion, simply as you have been taught, abounding in thanksgiving” (Col. 2:6–7). As we “obtain” Christ, so he dwells in us. Thus, Christ’s indwelling is “by way of religion.” So Paul prays that “Christ could dwell in your hearts by way of religion” (Eph. 3:17).

All believers, Paul says, have acquired Christ in order that he dwells in them by his Spirit: “Anybody who doesn’t have the Spirit of Christ doesn’t belong to him. But when Christ is in you, though the physique is lifeless due to sin, the Spirit is life due to righteousness” (Rom. 8:9–10).

Thus, Christ is “in” each believer. He’s there by religion: “It’s not I who reside, however Christ who lives in me. And the life I now reside within the flesh I reside by religion within the Son of God, who beloved me and gave himself for me” (Gal. 2:20). “By religion” in God’s Son, he dwells in us. So saving religion is each the primary receiving of Christ (John 1:12; Col. 2:6), and the ongoing spirit of glad welcome to him and dependence on him hour by hour (Gal. 2:20; Eph. 3:17).

A saving relationship with the Father hangs on receiving Jesus.

The receiving nature of saving religion colours each facet of the Christian life—inside and exterior. The great that we expertise inwardly is at all times a form of receiving. Thus, Hebrews 13:21 says that God is “working in us that which is pleasant in his sight.” God offers; we obtain. Equally, the great we’re capable of do outwardly is at all times a form of receiving. Thus, Paul says, “I labored more durable than any of them, although it was not I, however the grace of God that’s with me” (1 Cor. 15:10)—a grace acquired by religion. Inward or outward, the life of religion is a lifetime of receiving. “What do you might have that you just didn’t obtain?” (1 Cor. 4:7).

All Saving Religion Is Receiving Jesus Christ

This should be emphasised. To imagine savingly is to obtain and have Jesus Christ. When Paul preached the “gospel of . . . salvation” (Eph. 1:13)—that’s, the “gospel of the grace of God” (Acts 20:24)—he preached “the unsearchable riches of Christ” (Eph. 3:8). To obtain salvation is to obtain Christ and all of the unsearchable riches that God is for us in him.

In union with Christ, he turns into for us “knowledge from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption” (1 Cor. 1:30). Saving religion is receiving Christ, not simply his items, as a result of solely in union with Christ, by his indwelling, does all salvation movement to us. God “has blessed us in Christ with each non secular blessing within the heavenly locations” (Eph. 1:3). It will possibly scarcely be overemphasized that every one saving religion is receiving—that’s, receiving the individual Jesus Christ.

This text is tailored from What Is Saving Religion?: Reflections on Receiving Christ as a Treasure by John Piper.

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