Come As You Are

"For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come,  nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." Romans 8:38-39

The call goes out to all the lost who have not accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior to "Come as you are," because Jesus loves you. Unbelievers are reminded, "You don't clean yourself up to come to Jesus. You come to Jesus and He cleans you up." The main reasons that people sin are because they are looking for unconditional love, total acceptance, meaning and purpose to life in the world and not through a relationship with God through faith in Jesus Christ. The phrase, "Come as you are" is not found in the Bible, but scriptures do imply that such a message exists. As one Christian writes, "In Joel 2:32, where the prophet is declaring the terrible judgments of the Day of the Lord, God’s offer of deliverance is open to “whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord.” In Isaiah 1:18, God offers the invitation to come, though your sins are as scarlet, and He will make them white as snow. Revelation 22:17 is an open invitation: “Come! Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.” In these and other verses, the clear implication is that, even though we are sinners, God desires us to come to Him as we are, so that He can cleanse us." The idea of God's complete and total acceptance is an offer you would think anybody would accept. And many people do so every day. Unfortunately, many Christians who say "Come as you are" to Jesus also believe that if a person doesn't have some sort of expectations put on their life after accepting Jesus Christ as their savior, then they will fall back into the same lifestyle they lived prior to salvation. They will say things like, ""Come as you are” is sometimes misunderstood and misapplied in today’s church. Those churches identified with the emerging/emergent church or hipster movements, among others, sometimes take the grace of God and turn it into licentiousness (Jude 1:4) by teaching that it makes no difference how you live, as long as you believe." While there are no doubt people who have turned the grace of God into a license to sin, the grace of God is not an either/or proposition. Too often, "Come as you are" turns into "Come as you are, now change or else." The loving, forgiving, inviting, graceful and accepting Jesus Christ all of the sudden changes into a demanding, overseer who threatens to remove His love, forgiveness, grace, and acceptance from you if you don't "Change who you are" at a pace acceptable to Him and His people. It is a sort of bait and switch that leaves many Christians exhausted and disenchanted with the Christian life.

But, is this true? Is the Christian life a bait and switch of sorts where God accepts you as you are, but then turns the tables on you if you don't clean yourself up and live right? No. The Bible says, "But that no one is justified by the law in the sight of God is evident, for “the just shall live by faith (Galatians 3:11).” What is living by faith? It is living your life in response to the truth that God is revealing to you. In other words, the call to "Come as you are" doesn't change. Rather, it takes on new meaning once you are in Christ. Instead of, "Come as you are, " it is now, "Live as I will make you." You are still loved, accepted, and forgiven. Only now, you have the indwelling Holy Spirit to help lead and guide you through life. This is not a license to sin by going back to your old way of life that destroyed you and led you to come to faith in Jesus Christ. It is permission to allow God to change you from the inside as He meets the deepest desires of your heart for unconditional love, total acceptance, meaning and purpose to life. Your outward behavior may not change immediately, but your heart will. And, in time, your behavior will begin to show on the outside, what God is doing on the inside. Instead of living a life focused on avoiding sin, you will live a life focused on Jesus Christ. This, in turn, will lead to the diminishing of sin in your life as a side effect of your faith because you no longer want to live life the way you did prior to your faith in Jesus Christ. You will discover the difference between living a life in response to laws designed to get your flesh under control and living a life in response to receiving the love of God in the depths of your soul. It is the difference between law and grace. You can tell if you are under the law if you believe God's love for you is conditional on your behavior. If you believe that your sins separate you from God or that receiving His blessings is linked to your ability to live up to certain standards (i.e. sinless living, giving, church attendance, etc), then you are not living by grace. If you are living under the constant scrutiny of fellow Christians who are always inspecting your life and judging it up against the perfect standard of God, then you are not living by grace. If you are constantly living under the threat of being out of fellowship with God, missing out on His blessings, that God will turn His face from you, that you are robbing God for not giving enough, or you can lose your salvation, you are not living under grace. The Bible tells us in Romans 8:38-39, that nothing can separate us from the love of God. That includes yourself and your behavior. The Christian life is not a life of obedience and repentance under threat of punishment or promise of rewards. The Christian life is a life of learning to trust in and depend on God to live His life in and through you. All you need to do is rest in that truth and continue to receive God's love. It is true to come as you are to Jesus Christ. But, rest assured, you won't stay as you are as He begins to complete the work He began in you.