“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Matthew 11:28-30 (NIV)
The call is for all. There is nothing we must do for His love – no prequalification’s, no jumping through hoops, no slaying of a giant or building of a fortune – all are invited and all are welcome. He wants us. His desire is for us to walk with Him “in the cool of the day” as He did with our original parents. He is a “with us” God. Yet our choice for sin broke that. Because unholy creatures cannot commune with the untainted holiness of the Creator - that is, until Jesus. That is why He bids all of us – no exceptions – to come to Him in believing faith. And amazingly, all who come to Him are clothed in His righteousness, no longer in their filthy rags of sin and depravity. When God looks down from heaven on believers in the Lord Jesus, He sees the perfect life of Christ – not our own stinking sinful selves. Let that soak in for a minute as it is unbelievably amazing.
The Apostle Paul writes these wonderful words in 2 Corinthians 5:21 (NIV): “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” The cross epitomizes both the love and the acceptance of God the Father and God the Son. And the good news does not stop there. Jesus did not simply leave us as orphans. He sent the Holy Spirit to abide in us – to be with us - equipping us to walk in a manner worthy of His wonderful Gospel – not in our own power but in His through the indwelling Holy Spirit, as we die to self and live for Him. Apart from His power we are all miserable failures. No matter how hard we try. We will never be good enough. This is true for every.last.one.of.us. Just like the Israelites of the past.
Ah….“the unsearchable riches of Christ,” as the Apostle Paul writes in Ephesians. We must never tolerate small thoughts of our Lord Jesus Who is much more willing to forgive our transgressions than we are to confess them and He is also more able to forgive than we are to sin. Run to His feet as He turns no one away. Even when our thoughts of Him are at their best, He is far greater still. To know Christ Jesus and to be found in Him is taking hold of the life that is truly life – one filled with true wonder, joy and peace.
On the last and greatest day of the Feast, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.” By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.** John 7:37-39 (NIV)**