Why do people keep using this phrase: "I found Jesus."
Was He ever lost? I don't think so.
I’m not saying that a person cannot look for a right relationship with God, or that we are incapable of calling out to the Lord. But what is the order in which this happens?
WE are the ones who are (or were) lost. And if we have been reconciled, it is because He found you and me. Doesn’t it seem seriously out of order to suggest that we initiate and God responds?
Now, there is another sense in which I believe that we DO find Jesus. It’s what I refer to as “The Great Aha!” You see, we were spiritually dead. Not “mostly dead” like Westley in The Princess Bride... ALL dead.
[Hey, did you know that dead people are unable to see or hear? That observation is not universally accepted, believe it or not!]
Anyway, I was DEAD and therefore, I could not comprehend the Gospel. God is omnipresent, and the language of the Gospel came in plain English, but somehow, He was hidden from my view. BUT while I was totally dead in my offensive position before God, He did something in me to quicken me and enable me to recognize that He was calling me. The message wasn’t anything new, really; I probably heard it all before, but this time…I got it! Something clicked, and suddenly, it all made sense. God did something, and then I believed.
The funny thing is, that I did not understand the order of this process. I was not remotely interested in it. Years later, as I was telling my Christian coworker my testimony, he said, “you decided??” That was the beginning of months of questions, and a lot of Scripture reading that reorganized my concept of lost and found.
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6 comments:
I can remember telling my testimony as a young believer and relating all the things God used to bring me to faith. I never once tried to reconcile that with my saying "I found Jesus" even though my testimony made it clear God was guiding me. Like you it was a couple of years later, when I started to understand what the Scriptures were saying about God's sovereignty, that I realized "I found Him" wasn't right.
maybe people mean in it in the sense that he was there all along and they never saw him and when the spirit opened their eyes, there he was.
they were lost but now they're found, b/c they found jesus.
all i'm saying is that i'm not sure everyone who says that really believes it's all an act of their will. but i can see where we would need to be careful how we couch things.
Good thoughts - and I love the "mostly dead" reference! That's exactly what I think of when I want to explain the silliness of thinking we're even able to respond when we're (completely) dead in our trespasses. I think many, many people (most?) think that they are mostly dead...it's that 1% I choose part.
Ahh, how sweet Ezekiel 36:22-38 is! (How do people miss this one? Hearts of stone can't incline themselves...)
Anyway, thanks for stopping by my little corner of the internet, and thanks for this post! :) Glory to God.
Sola Cristo- Christ Alone
Sola Gratias-By God's Grace (and his choosing)Alone
When they're all dead you go through their pockets looking for loose change.
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