Claim Christ

More and more, the Lord is teaching me about His marvelous grace and the great salvation God indeed, has provided for mankind in the Person of Jesus Christ. 

  

The other morning, I woke up and was thinking about our Bible Study we were going to have that afternoon.  We are studying the Book of Romans - Chapters 6, 7 & 8 specifically.

It came to me (and does again and again) that the essence of the whole New Testament is boiled down to this one glorious thing:  Claim Christ!

We are to claim Him for all things!  God has provided Him for salvation, life and godliness, forgiveness, hope, eternal Life, peace, assurance - He is everything.

The other day I shared about growing up in Him in all things, totally dependent upon Him even for our growth.  So yes, we are to claim Him.

But He also claims us!  The Word of God says we are bought with a price (His precious blood).  At death, if there were to be some fight as to who gets us (between the glorious God and the old serpent, the devil), our Lord steps in and says:

"I claim him.  I claim her.  They are mine! They put their faith and trust in Me and all I accomplished at my cross - get away!"

There's a song one of my brothers in Christ used to sing in a trio called "This One's With Me."

I love that song because it depicts what I said above.  At death, when the Father sees us, the Son tells the Father God that we belong with Him.  The words of the chorus are:

"This one's with me,

Part of the family,

One of the reasons I died on Calvary

Father, welcome him in,

Cause I paid the price for him

Father, oh Father, this one's with me."

And in my holy imagination, sometimes I think when I got saved (since I was such a mess) the Lord Jesus might have said to the Father:  "Father, look what I brought home."  And the Father could have said, "What?!?"  Kind of like a kid who brings a scruffy, dirty, messy dog home that he found somewhere, hoping his parents will let him keep him - because he sees him differently!  :)

This claiming business really does works both ways.  Our Lord indeed claims us!  "I will never leave you, nor forsake you."

He wants us to CLAIM HIM!  Claim Him for all things in this life, whether salvation in the beginning, growing up in Him, fruitfulness, leading of the Spirit, our works, our needs - ALL THINGS!

What a privilege - what a Friend we really do have in Jesus.

"Thank you, dear God for giving us Your Son!  Thank you, for making us YOUR sons and daughters too through our  Lord Jesus Christ and the precious work He accomplished on the cross of glory!"

Glory to Him alone!

Sue Gaither