Gospel

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“COME AS YOU ARE”
by Sherine Genevieve

Jesus wants us to come to Him just as we are and to welcome Him into our lives no matter how bad we are. He does not expect us to get cleansed from sin first before we go to Him, as that is not possible for us to do by ourselves without Him. He is only waiting for our willingness to receive Him and He will take care of the rest.

It is after we receive Him that we have a change of heart by His power that would work through us. On our own we could never do it even if we try hard. This is well understood if we remember the story of the tax collector Zacchaeus whom the people considered as a sinner. At the time he welcomed Jesus to his house when Jesus gave him that opportunity, he was still the sinner that people had labeled him as.

Zacchaeus did not repent nor ask for forgiveness nor tried to get clean from sin to welcome Jesus in. It is only after he welcomed Jesus that he repented and changed, and then he said “Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.” Then Jesus said: “Today salvation has come to this house …. the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”

Just as some 2000 odd years ago this beautiful transformation took place in Zaachaeus’ life because of Jesus, even today lives of those who welcome Jesus into their lives are being transformed. Like Zaachaeus, we too are sinners, and we also have the same privilege like Zaachaeus to welcome Jesus Who then gives us the gift of righteousness freely by His grace. While we are yet sinners Jesus offers this greatest gift of all freely to us because of His abundant grace which means unmerited undeserved favor to us. We do not have to qualify for it nor do any good deeds to receive it. He just expects us (sinners) to come to Him just as we are because it is Jesus who qualifies us for righteousness the moment we believe in Him and welcome Him into our lives.

The bible says all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God meaning that no one is righteous. None can achieve righteousness on their own either by trying to keep all God’s commandments or trying to do good works. Jesus was and is the only sinless righteous person. His invitation is for us to believe in Him, accept Him and His righteousness and be saved from the consequences of sin that we would otherwise face because of our unrighteousness. It is when we accept Jesus into our lives that the Holy Spirit empowers us to not only have victory over sin, but also over all the powers of darkness, over every sickness and decease, every curse, depression, poverty and whatever other things the enemy plans to do in our lives in order to kill, steal and destroy as the Bible says.

We must not confuse ourselves by mixing up the old testament laws and the new covenant we have after Jesus paid the price for our sins. Before Jesus took the whole world’s sins’ punishment on Him and offered to all mankind His righteousness freely, people were struggling hard to obey the old testament laws trying to become righteous which was an impossible task for them. Therefore, they sought forgiveness for their sins by offering lambs as blood sacrifices. The laws were really there only as a standard to observe, like a mirror exposing their sins. It was never possible for any single person to fulfill those laws. Therefore, the blood sacrifices using lambs had to be done continuously until the one and only unblemished sinless Lamb of God came to offer Himself once and for all for all the sins of the world.

The huge sacrifice our sweet Savior did, achieved for mankind something they could have never achieved on their own. However, only those who believe in Jesus’ finished work at the cross and welcomes Jesus into their lives can enjoy the full benefits of what Jesus did and not the others. God has no restrictions whatsoever in His invitation to human kind. His invitation is to all mankind to come as they are and receive the gift of salvation.

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