THE above is the question raised in many souls when first converted. Conversion is the sinner turning to God; and many are in their hearts turned to God who have never met Him, and known Him, as Father. They know and feel their sins, their confession is framed, but as yet they have never met the Father. They are plodding on with a burdened and convicted heart, day by day, with mingled thoughts of their own unworthiness, and the goodness of the Father, and the plenty of his house. And as they plod on with a heavy heart and dejected spirit, and saddened countenance, the question rises, "Will God the Father receive me just as I am?" I am a sinner, wretched and undone, without one thing to recommend me to Him. Oh, I would give worlds to know that He would receive me just as I am, and not turn me away!”
Ah, dear soul, listen! I can answer, Yes! on the authority of God's immutable word. It gives my heart joy to be able to say to your troubled, strickened heart, "Yes! God will receive you, just as, and just where you are." Hear the words of the Son of God, who came to reveal the Father's love, and declare His willingness to save, that One who spake as never man spake. And He who came "to seek and to save the lost," will never by His words deceive a soul. Never!
In Luke 15 we have His words. Read from verse 11 to 24. In verse 12 The prodigal is in the "far country" wasting his substance; in verse 14 he has "spent all," and comes to "be in want." You know, dear soul, what that means. In verse 17 he "comes to himself." Blessed experience! He now thinks of the father's goodness, his own base ingratitude and sin, and the plenty of his father's house. In verse 18 he says, "I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants." In the next verse we read, "And he arose and came to his father.”
See now, dear soul, he is on his way to the father, like you are on your way to God. He has not met him yet. What various thoughts fill his mind; and most likely the leading thought is, "Will my father receive me just as I am?" He plods on; the thought of returning to the father in repentance gives some relief, and the thought of his goodness and bounty gives more; but he has not met him yet, and so he knows not how he will be received.
But weary, anxious, plodding one, listen, for what comes next answers the inquiry of your soul, and will forever remove all uncertainty and anguish therefrom. "But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell upon his neck, and kissed him," verse 20. Oh, wonderful picture! It is the Lord Jesus telling out to our hearts the way that God the Father receives returning, repenting sinners. Shall not our hearts bow in worship and praise? It is the display of sovereign love and mercy, and the exercise of the same, and the bestowal of it all upon a poor unworthy sinner. Can our hearts fail to be affected in presence of it all, or our souls to be bowed in adoration?
See, then, dear soul, that GOD WILL RECEIVE YOU JUST AS YOU ARE, is proved by the words of His dear Son. All that you are is known to Him. He bids you return, and says, "Him that cometh unto me I will in no wise cast out.”
But more, as the prodigal was embraced by the loving father, and the kiss of peace planted on his brow, and he leaned upon the father's bosom, and then gave expression to the deep repentance of his soul, the father said to his servants, "Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet: and bring hither the fatted calf and kill it; and let us eat and be merry: for this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost and is found." The father not only received his prodigal son, he also clothed him and fitted him for a place in his house. Thus it is with God. He not only receives you just as you are, and fills your heart with assurance and peace; but He also clothes you, and fits you for a place as a son (not a hired servant) in his house. It is all free grace; there is not an element of merit in the whole thing. The Father runs forth, the Father embraces, the Father kisses, the Father clothes with the best robe, as an expression of His matchless grace to the sinner, and thus fits him for His presence forever; yea, for fellowship with Himself. They sit down together and feed upon the fatted calf. "Truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ" (1 John 1:3).
But what is that which constitutes a guilty sinner fit for God's presence, and so clears him of every charge of sin, that he can enjoy unclouded fellowship with God, who is light? The answer is, "It is God that justifieth." But the ground of so marvelous an act? The answer is, The blood of Christ. "Being now justified by his blood" (Rom. 5:9). But more, God "hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him" (2 Cor. 5:21).
The sinner, then, who returns to God, and is received by the Father, is born of God, by the action of the Spirit and word, is justified from "all things" by the blood of Christ, is taken into God's favor in Christ, and is made the righteousness of God in Him. This is the best robe: "Made the righteousness of God in Christ," who of God is made unto us "wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption" (1 Cor. 1:30). Thus it is we are received, and thus it is we are fitted for God's presence and the Father's house, and constituted sons forever, in whom the Father delights, and with whom it is our happy privilege to enjoy fellowship now, and unbroken fellowship throughout the endless ages of eternity.
“Grace all the work shall crown,
Thro' everlasting days;
It lays in heaven the topmost stone
And well deserves the praise.”
E. A.