 Continued…
Last week, we discussed the dangers of convincing people to simply “try” Jesus. I want to be clear that I believe when other Christians do this they are doing so with the best possible motivations. Jesus is faithful! These believers know that the Lord has never failed them so if people could only experience the peace and freedom that we experience through faith in Christ, then they would follow Jesus forever. And that’s true! The only problem is that the only way to have that experience of Christ’s peace and grace is by faith not by experiment (Ephesians 2:8-10). But I mentioned at the end of last week’s article that there may be a way to rescue the word “try” when talking about Christ and His kingdom. Of course, I don’t mean that there is a way to try out the streets of heaven or to take the Holy Spirit for a test drive to see if you're compatible. What I mean is, we could make ‘TRY’ into an acronym or acrostic to help us remember how salvation truly comes to us. Trust in Jesus! The Bible is clear from beginning to end that we must trust everything to the Lord (Proverbs 3:5-6). But most importantly, Jesus is the only way for us to be reconciled to God (2 Corinthians 5:18-21). We must place our faith in Christ and in Christ alone. In Romans 4, Paul is clear that Abraham was justified by faith. His faith was credited or counted to him as righteous based on the grace and mercy of God. If we are heirs of the kingdom promises that God made to Abraham, it's not Abraham blood or genetics that we require. Rather, we must share in the same saving faith that he had. Abraham believed that God was faithful and that he would keep His covenant promises (Genesis 15). Abraham believed God could and would raise the dead when necessary to achieve His glorious salvific plans (Genesis 22). Abraham believed that God was worthy of his worship and trust. Rest in Christ! In the New Covenant we are to rest from our striving to earn our place in God’s presence. The Lord Jesus has already done everything for us. Jesus has taken all our guilt and our shame through His sacrificial death on the cross (Colossians 1:19-23). But that’s not all, Jesus has also earned on our behalf a full inheritance of righteousness given to us by Christ through faith (2 Corinthians 5:17-21). Even more, the author of the book of Hebrews is clear in 3:1-4:11 that as believers we no longer rest on the calendar day called the Sabbath. Instead, we rest on every day called “today,” because our sabbath rest is in Christ forever! Yield to the Lord! Finally, when we genuinely trust and rest in Christ, then we can, in fact we must, yield to Lordship. The fundamental confession of a Christian is that Jesus is Lord (Romans 10:8-10)! We need not fear this yoke for Jesus promised that it was easy and that the burden He gave us would be light (Matthew 11:28-30). Only our sovereign God is good enough, gracious enough, merciful enough, loving enough, and holy enough to be trusted with our submission and worship! So, while we can “try” on Jesus like a jacket at the store, we can Trust, Rest, and Yield in Christ alone!
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