Come As You Want to Be

I must confess that I never realize Christ's preciousness so much as when I feel myself still to be, apart from Him, an undeserving, hell-deserving sinner. Charles Spurgeon

For many years I thought I wasn’t good enough for the grace of God and I would say there are probably many like me, who thought they needed to get their life straight, or on the right course, or felt they needed to be better to come to God.  Have you ever asked yourself these questions, “Why would God want me because I am in the midst of my sin?” or  “How could God the Father love me enough to look past the sin and still want me to come to Him?” or how about “When will I be good enough?”

One of the most powerful passages related to this comes from Romans 5:6-11.  In these passages we find the essence of how much God loves us and how much Jesus did for us. 

1.     Christ died for the ungodly  - This part of the verse doesn’t say he died for only the godly.  If it said that we would all be eliminated from the presence of God.

2.     While we were still sinners – This verse doesn’t say we can only be saved if we are sin-free. It specifically says “while we were still sinners”.

3.     Saved from wrath through Him – When Jesus died on the cross we were justified by His blood.  This means we were made new or clean through the death of Jesus and saved from the wrath of God when we accept Him as our Savior. God still hates the sin that is in our life, but Jesus stepped in to take our place for the wrath of God.

4.     Received the reconciliation – The only way we can receive the reconciliation back to God is through accepting Jesus Christ as our Savior.  His death on the cross paid for our debt of sin. 

God doesn’t say come as you want to be.  God says come as you are with all your sin and failures, come all who are heavy laden and I will give you rest.  When we tell ourselves that we are not good enough and we need to get things straight in our life before we come to Him, we have missed the saving grace of Jesus dying on the cross.  I believe heavy laden means we are carrying around our backpack of sin and it is weighing us down.  When we finally understand that God wants us to give it to Him, He will give us rest.  We will find rest in Him.

Prayer for the Day: Heavenly Father, I am guilty of thinking that I need to have my life in order before I can come to You for rest.  The problem is my life will always be out of order due to my sinful nature.  I will sin over and over again.  This scripture passage didn’t say “in that we were sin-free” it says “while we were still sinners.  Thank you for reminding me of how much you love me and how priceless Jesus’ saving grace is in my life.

Scripture: For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.   For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation. Romans 5:6-11