photo – www.credomag.com
If you wonder why there’s so much nominalism in the churches, one reason is because we have not understood what receiving Christ means.
Here’s a way to describe the problem: Many people (and these people are in grave danger, so test yourself)
- they receive Him not as supremely valuable, and thus savored, but they receive Him as sin forgiver because they hate not being guilt free, not because they love Jesus.
- they receive Him as rescuer from hell because they don’t want to burn.
- they receive Him as healer because they love being disease free
- they receive Him as protector because they love being safe.
- they receive Him as prosperity giver because they love money
- they receive Him as Creator because it is better to have an orderly, impersonal universe
- they receive Him as Lord of history because order and purpose in the universe, history is steadying
- they don’t receive Him as supremely, personally valuable to them
- they don’t receive Him as more glorious, more beautiful, more wonderful, more satisfying than everything in the universe which is, in the Gospel, shown most clearly.
- they don’t prize Him, value Him, cherish Him, delight in Him; they just treat Him like something… Piper reaches into his wallet pulling out something tattered, a business card and holds it up and proceeds: Am I going to heaven? Of course, I’m going to heaven, look, it’s the ticket. I signed the card, I prayed the prayer; I keep it in my wallet. Love this, cherish this, savor this (decision card) ? That’s stupid, it’s a tattered card. I just want to go to heaven, that’s all.
That’s what our churches, I fear, might be filled with…
Uploaded by awaketoreality on May 4, 2007 John Piper talks about the attitudes that many Christians seem to have, although unknowingly, in evangelical communities today. We don’t seem to understand what “receiving Christ” even means. For more resources, visit http://www.desiringGod.org.
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