For You

It can’t be out of a desire to be good. It can’t be purely from a longing to be made right and whole and better. No, it can’t. That can’t be why you want Christ. It can’t be for your gain. It just can’t.

Because all that Christ is, is so much more. Than that. And the reason He came for you is so much more. Than that. It was never out of His sympathy for you that He came, it was never to make you better that He came, but simply for you, that He came, to have you. He created you to be holy and perfectly united with Him, but your sin was in the way. Death in you stood in the way of you and Him. That’s why he came. To rescue you. He came for you. Period.

In your salvation, the moment you first believed. He came for you. In your sanctification, every moment of every day as you learn to walk by faith. He comes for you. Period.

To set you, the captives free. You, the one in chains, utterly and completely dead in your sin, in need of salvation. And you, His beloved child, the one who stumbles at death’s very real presence here on this earth, still in need of Him.

He came for you, and His rescuing is to have you, so you can have Him. It’s how and why all things were created (Colossians 1:16). So you can receive from Him.

And until you grasp the depths of the magnitude of your need for Christ. Until you fathom the distance your independence causes between you and God, without Christ. Until you know the desparate state of your soul, that there is nothing you can do about it. Until you see that you are completely and utterly lost without Him, and you cry out to Him daily, moment by moment. Until then, you will not experience Christ. Period.

He came to defeat evil, He came to conquer death, He came to rob sin of all its power over you (Romans 6:6). All for you.

And it cost Him His life.

So your wanting Christ must be out of a despair at the depths of independence in you. It must be purely from a longing for Christ and Christ alone to save. Yes, it must. It must be for God to have you, and you to have Him. That you want Christ.

Because then surrender happens. And that’s how the receiving begins. For peace and assurance and rest happen. When Christ reigns in you. Because Christ reigns, for you.

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“When God our Savior revealed his kindness and love, he saved us, not because of the righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He washed away our sins, giving us a new birth and new life through the Holy Spirit. He generously poured out the Spirit upon us through Jesus Christ our Savior. Because of his grace he made us right in his sight and gave us confidence that we will inherit eternal life.” - Titus 3:4-7 NLT