Here is the second part of a two-part article by Gary Deddo. For part one, click here.
In part one of this article, we saw that Jesus loves and accepts all people. We then observed that he invites those he has accepted to follow him and then discerns their personal responses. As the Bible shows, there are consequences for those responses, which we will now address.
Jesus’ discernment of the various kinds of responses made to him is evident at many points in Scripture. His parable of the sower and the seeds (the seeds being his word) makes this obvious. There are four distinct soils, and only one represents the receptive response that Jesus is looking for. On numerous occasions, Jesus talks about receiving or rejecting him, his words/teaching, his heavenly Father and his disciples. When a number of disciples turned away and left him, Jesus asked whether his twelve disciples would leave him as well. Peter famously replies, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life” (John 6:68).
Jesus’ initial initiative towards people is expressed in his invitation to “come, follow me” (Mark 1:17). There is a difference between those who follow and those who do not. Jesus likens those who follow to those who act on an invitation to a wedding and contrasts them with those who refuse the invitation (Matthew 22:4-9). In like manner, a difference is noted in the refusal of the elder son to join in the feast celebrating his younger brother’s return, despite his father imploring him to come in (Luke 15:28).
There are strict warnings to those who not only do not follow Jesus but who actively reject his invitation to the extent of preventing others from following him, some even plotting to have Jesus executed (Luke 11:46; Matthew 3:7; 23:27-29). These warnings are severe—indicating what the person issuing them does not want to happen, not what they hope will happen. Warnings are given to those whom we care about, not to those for whom we have no concern. The same love and acceptance is exhibited towards those who accept Jesus and those who reject him. However, such love would not be loving if it then failed to note the difference of response and the corresponding consequences.
Jesus welcomes and invites all to respond in a receptive way both to him and to what he offers, which is the reign of the kingdom of God. Though the net is cast wide and the seed is sown everywhere, receiving, trusting and following him call for a particular response. Jesus likens it to the reception of a child. He calls such receptivity faith/belief or trust in him. It includes repenting of putting one’s ultimate trust in anyone or anything else. It is summed up in worshiping the Father through the Son and in the Spirit. The gift is offered freely and extended to all. No pre-conditions are set out to limit or restrict who might benefit from it. However, the reception of the freely given gift always involves a cost to the recipient. That cost is to give up one’s entire life and hand it over to Jesus and the Father and the Spirit with him. The cost is not something paid to Jesus to enable or incline him to give himself to us. It is the cost of emptying our hands and hearts to receive him for who he is, our Lord and Savior. What is freely given is costly to us to receive because it involves dying to the old and corrupted self in order to receive new life from him.
The cost to us to receive God’s free grace is referred to throughout Scripture. In the Old Testament, we are said to need both new hearts and new spirits that God himself will one day give! In the New Testament we are told that we need to be born again from above, that we need new natures, that we must stop living for ourselves and begin living under the Lordship of Christ, that we must die to our old natures, that we are to become new creations, that we are to be regenerated, that we are being renewed according to the image of Christ, the new Adam. The day of Pentecost indicates not only God’s sending of his Spirit to indwell his people in a new way, but our need to receive and be indwelt and filled by his Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Jesus, the Spirit of life.
Jesus’ parables indicate that the response he is looking for, the response that indicates the reception of what he offers us involves a cost to us. Consider the parables of the pearl of great price or the purchase of a field in which there is a treasure. Those who respond appropriately must give up all they have to receive what they have found (Matthew 13:44, 46). Those who place other things as a priority, whether they be lands or home or family, are not receiving Jesus and his benefits (Luke 9:59, Luke 14:18-20).
Jesus’ interactions with people indicate that following him and receiving all his benefits calls for the abandonment of anything we might value above Jesus and his kingdom. That includes abandoning the pursuit and possession of material wealth. The rich ruler did not follow Jesus because he could not part with his goods. Consequently he was unable to receive the good that Jesus offered him (Luke 18:18-23). Even the woman caught in adultery was called to set out in a different direction of life. Receiving forgiveness was to be followed by her sinning no more (John 8:11). Recall the man at the pool. He had to be willing to leave behind his place at the pool as well as his diseased self. “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk” (John 5:8).
Jesus welcomes and accepts all but a receptive response to Jesus does not leave anyone where Jesus finds them. Jesus would not be loving if he simply left them in the condition in which he first encountered them. He loves us too much simply to leave us alone as though he merely empathizes with us or feels sorry for us. No, his love is a healing, transforming, life-changing love.
In sum, the New Testament consistently declares that the response to the free offer that Jesus makes of himself, including all that he has for us, involves denying (dying to) ourselves. It involves giving up our pride, our confidence in ourselves, in our religiousness, in our gifts and abilities including our ability to manage and give ourselves life. In that regard, Jesus shockingly declares that compared to following him we must “hate our father and mother.” But more than this, following him calls for hating our own life—the false idea that we can give life to ourselves (Luke 14:26-27). When we accept Jesus, we cease living for ourselves (Romans 14:7-8) because we belong to another (1 Corinthians 6:18). In that sense, we are “slaves of Christ” (Ephesians 6:6). Our lives are completely in his hands, under his provision and direction. We are who we are in relationship to him. Because we are united to Christ, “it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me” (Galatians 2:20 ESV).
Jesus does accept and welcome one and all. He died for all. He is reconciled to all. But he does this as our Lord and Savior. His welcome and acceptance are an offer, an invitation that calls for response, for receptivity. And that acceptance and receptivity necessarily involves receiving exactly what he has to offer according to who he is. Nothing more and nothing less. This means that responding to him will involve repentance, getting rid of anything that blocks receiving from him what he has to offer, that blocks communion with him and the enjoyment of life in his kingdom. Such a response is costly to us—but a cost well worth it. For in dying to our old selves, we receive a new self. We make room for Jesus, receiving with emptied hands his life-transforming, life-giving grace. Jesus accepts us wherever we are in order to take us to where he is going, which is to be with his Father in the Spirit now and for all eternity as his healed, whole, regenerated children.
Who would want to be included in anything less than that?
Bearing the context of this article in mind I also find Phillip Yancey’s comments elucidating…
“There is one “catch” to grace that I must now mention. In the words of C.S. Lewis, “St. Augustine says ‘God gives where He finds empty hands.’ A man whose hands are full of parcels can’t receive a gift.” Grace, in other words, must be received. Lewis explains that what I have termed “grace abuse” stems from a confusion of condoning and forgiving: “To condone an evil is simply to ignore it, to treat it as if it were good. But forgiveness needs to be accepted as well as offered if it is to be complete: and a man who admits no guilt can accept no forgiveness.”…God took a great risk by announcing forgiveness in advance, and the scandal of grace involves a transfer of that risk to us”.
Phillip Yancey, What’s So Amazing About Grace, Zondervan, 1977, p. 180
Thanks Dr. Deddo for such a well-written article. Your clarity and carefulness in wording is very helpful. I appreciate your expertise in theology along with the way you hold yourself accountable to the Holy Scriptures.
It reminds me of the words of Karl Barth,”Once and for all, theology has, fourthly, its position beneath that of the biblical scriptures…it still knows that the writings with which it deals are holy writings” (p.32 of Evangelical Theology, an Introduction)
I am reminded of a quote from a favorite author of mine, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who was in turn paraphrasing St. Augustine: “God without us will not, as we without God cannot.”