John 6:37-38 All those the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away. For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me.
Jesus bases his acceptance on one
principle: faith. In the world we live in today, acceptance has become more
like tolerance. We give in to beliefs and principles we disagree with because
we do not want to be shunned by our groups. Jesus clearly says He will accept
anyone who comes to Him in Faith. However, there is a difference between the
tolerant world we live in and the acceptance of Christ Jesus. All people who
come to Jesus accept that He is the true Messiah, the Son of the living God,
and come through battles. The world will always fight against God and His
supreme power because Satan first fought against him in the Garden when he
tempted Adam and Eve to go against the Word of God. When we look at our lives
retrospectively, we come to grips with our brokenness and sinful lives relating
to a Holy God.
The acceptance of Christ Jesus on
our behalf is unequivocal and final because, through our faith in Him, we
accept that we are sinners and always will be, but his sacrifice on the Cross
of Calvary has paid our sin debt in full. The rejection of the Son is to reject
the Father as well. The people on the mountainside saw the miracles of Jesus as
He fed the 5,000; however, Satan had blinded their eyes beyond the physical
food. The question is not whether the ones who traveled miles that day to hear
Jesus preach were hungry; the question is, was their hunger physical or
spiritual?
When we are hungry, we feel food
will answer all our problems. It’s the same way with almost all other practical
difficulties we encounter. Just as Jesus tried to lift their understanding
above their material, physical needs, we need to have our minds lifted. Christ
Jesus will not reject anyone who comes to him with a humble heart and
surrendered life. He does not choose those who are generous or amicable to Him.
He came to do the Father’s will to pay for all the sins of all sinners by His
death on the Cross.
Jesus met the demand of God for a
perfect sacrifice sufficient to pay for the sins of all humankind. The animal
deaths of the Old Testament days fell short of God’s standard because they did
not take away sin (Hebrews 9:22). On the other hand, His death on the Cross was
a once-for-all sacrifice for all our sins. He was the complete, perfect
sacrifice. It satisfies the demand of a Holy God and brings salvation to all
who trust in Christ. His death was sufficient because He was sinless, God in
the flesh.
There is a story from early
American history about a Native American tribe that discovered someone was
stealing chickens. The chief announced that the thief would receive 100 lashes.
When someone discovered that the thief was the chief’s mother, everyone was
shocked when he had her tied to the stake to receive the 100 lashes. He wrapped
his arms tightly around his mother and took the lashes himself. That is what
Jesus did for us: He embraced us with His enduring love and took the punishment
on the Cross that should have been ours.
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