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Accepted by God
By John Gavazzoni
If I were to ask the average believer what is the basis of their confidence that their old man has been crucified with Christ, and that they've been raised with Him in newness of life, their answer might be, "I know so, because I've accepted Christ as my Lord and Savior." That, I dare say, would be the wrong answer. Why? Because their answer indicates that their confidence is in what they have done. The correct answer simply is, "I know I'm crucified and risen with Christ, because Christ died and rose again for me."
Does that sound like I'm splitting hairs? The issue I'm raising is very pertinent to rightly cutting the word of truth. The issue is whether your relationship with God hangs on what you've done, or what God has done. When God does something, it's done, and not awaiting your acceptance to make it so. Has Christ been crucified? If so, on that basis alone, your old man has been crucified with Him. Did God raise Christ from the dead and seat Him at His right hand? If so, the same is true of you in Him. Any acceptance on your part has been called forth from you by the dynamic of you having been accepted by God in union with Him.
By receiving Christ, you've received your reception. If we must, for sake of discussion momentarily, speak of accepting Christ, then be clear that what transpired when Jesus called you to Himself, was that you accepted your acceptance. Your acceptance of Him didn't make you accepted. It's the reverse. As the truth of being "accepted in the Beloved" penetrates into the depths of our hearts, we're enveloped in a hug of acceptance that causes us to melt into accepting our acceptance. But "accepting Christ" no longer resonates with me as it once did.
It coveys to me something along the line of Christ coming to us, hat in hand, begging acceptance from us. I don't get that sense at all of how God dealt with people all through the biblical record. As one of my articles is titled, "He Comes; He Calls, We Follow." It's as simple as that! When Jesus said that if He would be lifted up from the earth, He would draw (in the Greek: draw with the force of dragging) all men to Himself, John went on to explain that being lifted up from the earth, referred to the manner of His death...lifted up on the cross.
The power within the passion of His death draws us to come to Him, and to come to Christ is a metaphor for receiving Him. Though I'd been very dramatically filled with the Spirit years ago, later, I had some doubts whether that experience was in fact the filling of the Spirit. So very graciously and patiently, the Lord explained to me that I should not give in to that kind of introspection, but rather to base my assurance of the baptism of the Spirit upon Jesus' glorification, as in John explaining at one point that the Holy Spirt had not yet been given, because Jesus had not yet been glorified. There, He has all power in heaven and earth, and shares that empowerment with His many brethren by the outpouring of His empowered self upon us.
Let me dare to say that the ascension and glorification of Christ constitutes, and eventually leads to, every believer being filled with the Holy Spirit on this side or beyond. What I'm talking about has to do with real Christ-centeredness. Real Christ-centeredness has to do with centering on what God has done in Christ, and not what is needed on our part to make it so. Just writing about these things, I'm aware of God deepening my experiential roots into Christ. If you are spiritually alive today and enjoying an allotment of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, it's BECAUSE Jesus is forever alive at the right hand of God fulfilling His word to His disciples, "all power in heaven and earth is given to me, go you THEREFORE...."
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