"But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name." JOHN 1: 12
WHEN THE LORD OF GLORY came to this world, the most despised and rejected Him. Yet all did not. Isaiah cried, "Who hath believed our report, and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?". And yet in a few verses after he adds, "He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied" (Isaiah 53: 1, 11). In like manner, John in this chapter tells us, that when Jesus came, "the darkness comprehended him not"; "the world knew him not"; "his own received him not". Still, a little flock did receive Him. Their eyes were opened to behold His glory, their hearts to feel His love. They left their earthly all, and followed Him, they hung upon His lips, kept His sayings, walked in His steps, put on His righteousness, drank in His spirit; and "to them he gave power to become the sons of God". There always has been, and always will be, a hidden church. As David was never to want a son to sit upon his throne, so David's Son and David's Lord never shall want souls over which to reign. As in Noah's day of almost universal corruption, and in Elijah's day of dark idolatry, there were some hidden ones that knew and loved the Lord; so in our day, in the darkest parishes of Scotland, you will find some hearts that kindle at the name of Jesus. In countries sunk in the darkness of popery, you will find some heaven-taught souls groping their way to heaven by the strait gate and the narrow way. Christ will never want a vineyard on earth on which to show His love and care. He will never want a witnessing church to proclaim His grace. "Upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it" (Matthew 16:18).
How clearly these words show that to receive Christ is the same as to believe on His name. Many souls find great difficulty in knowing what faith is. Satan seems to make great use of this in some hearts, in order that he may divert their anxious soul from the great object of faith to look at the workings of their own mind. The Bible makes no difficulty in the matter. At one time it is described as coming to Jesus: "I am the bread of life, he that cometh to me shall never hunger, and he that believeth on me shall never thirst" (John 6:35). Again, it is called a laying hold. "Who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us" (Hebrew 6:18). In another scripture it is called submitting. "They have not submitted themselves to the righteousness of God" (Romans 10:3). In other parts of the Word of God it is called looking to Jesus, calling upon the name of the Lord, hearing that the soul may live, knowing, cleaving to the Lord. In one and all of these the meaning of God is, that the heart is made willing to be justified through the blood and obedience of the Lord Jesus. O! it is the truest and most lasting joy in the universe when Christ is fully revealed to the soul, and when the excellency of the way of salvation by Christ is made manifest; the heart is often so filled that the tongue cannot speak. It is "joy unspeakable, and full of glory".
Sinner, have you received the Lord Jesus Christ? Has your heart melted at the sight of the heaven-provided Saviour? Have you known the gift of God? Have you seen and delighted in the finished work of Christ? If Christ had to come and die, you might say, perhaps He will not go through with it. But He has done it. It is more than eighteen hundred years since He agonized in Gethsemane, and poured out His soul upon the cross. "It is finished." His whole work, as Surety in the place of sinners, is finished. The whole undertaking is completed. Nay more, God has accepted it. He has declared it from heaven: "This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased" - and that any sinner is welcome to draw near by Jesus. O! I am willing to be found in Jesus, let your soul reply; I am willing to stand under the shelter of the one Mediator to all eternity. What satisfies God satisfies me. "Who shall condemn? It is Christ that died."
But what good shall I obtain by receiving Christ? Hear the divine answer: "As many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God." An awakened soul is seeking only rest, peace with God, forgiveness of sins. But Christ gives far more. He gives the child's place in the father's love. We are by nature children of wrath, a generation of vipers, children of the wicked one; but the moment we consent to put on the glorious righteousness of Immanuel we become adopted sons of God: "God sent forth his son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons." Sinner! do you know what it is that God offers you in the gospel? Though you are a viper, under the curse of the broken law, and your heart more like satan than God yet the holy God offers you a place in His bosom, He sent forth His Son to make room for you, to take you into the son's place. What are all the joys of sin compared with this? What are earthly titles compared to this? Sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal. Surely you must be deceived by the god of this world, if you are willing to remain a child of the devil rather than become a child of God.
There is still fuller blessing contained in these words. Those who receive Christ receive power to become adopted sons. This is blessed, this is wonderful. But those who receive Christ receive power to become real sons - sons by a new birth. It is good to be an adopted son, but ah! to be a real son of God, having the same spirit, features, joys, this is the full bliss of being a Christian. When a rich man adopts a beggar boy into his family, and takes him for a son, he not only clothes him, and feeds him, but he educates him as his child. He puts him under a teacher to rid him of old habits, to put a new spirit in him, the spirit of his own child. This is what God does with all that receive Christ. When a sinner flees to Christ, God not only puts the best robe on him, and embraces him, and seats him at His table, but he sends forth the Spirit of His Son into his heart. The same almighty Spirit that dwelleth in His own bosom, and in His Son, the Spirit that was given to Jesus without measure, He sends into the poor pardoned sinner's heart, to make him a son indeed, "born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God". Surely if men knew what God is willing to do for them in Christ, they could not so lightly esteem the Rock of their salvation. O sinner! God is willing to take out your old alienated heart, and to give you the heart of one of His own weaned children. He is willing to give you the Spirit of Christ, to change you into His image, to make you like Him now and in eternity. Surely it may be said to every soul that despiseth Christ, "Woe unto thee, O Jerusalem! wilt thou not be made clean? when shall it once be?" (Jeremiah 13:27).