Morning & Evening Devotional Reading–

November 8– Morning

 by C. H. Spurgeon, revised and edited by W. C. Neff

“As you have received Christ Jesus the Lord.” 

—Colossians 2:6

In the Bible the life of faith is represented as an act of receiving— which implies the very opposite of it having to do with any personal merit. It is simply the acceptance of a gift. As the earth drinks in the rain, as the sea receives the streams, as night accepts light from the stars, so we can give nothing but receive freely the grace of God. The saints are not by nature wells or springs; they are cisterns– empty containers into which God pours his grace and salvation.

The idea of receiving implies a sense of realization, making the matter a reality. It’s impossible to receive a shadow; we receive things that have substance. And so it is in the life of faith. Christ becomes real to us. While we are without faith, Jesus is a mere name to us– a person who lived a long time ago in history; however, by an act of faith Jesus becomes real to us in the consciousness of our hearts.

Receiving also means grasping or getting possession of something. The thing which I receive becomes my own. When I receive Jesus, he becomes my Savior– so much mine that neither life nor death is able to rob me of him.

Salvation may be described as “the blind receiving sight” or “the dead receiving life”; but we haven’t only received these blessings, we have received Christ Jesus himself. It is true that he gave us life from the dead, pardoned our sins, and put righteousness to our account. These are all precious things, but we aren’t content with them. We have Christ himself. The Son of God has been poured into us.  We have received him. [M&E]