The Unexpected Requirement To Be With Christ

What does it take to be in the presence of a Very Important Person (VIP)? Usually there has to be a very good reason. Being physically related to a VIP gets you in, but that doesn’t help anyone not born into their presence. Pretty much the only way is to bring something to the table that is needed or desired. Perhaps you have a skill they need like accounting or music. Perhaps you have resources that they need like special transportation or land access. Maybe you also have some kind of importance and so your own VIP status will help increase their VIP status. This is just the way the world works. VIPs are not making time for normal people unless they have a reason. 

 All of this is to highlight the amazing grace of Jesus. It is not only that he made time for regular people, it is that he has the most shocking demand for people to be in presence. What does Jesus demand for us to be with him and partake with him? It is natural to brace for some kind of special requirement. Who wouldn’t expect that? This is the Son of God we are talking about. Do you really think you are just going to partake with him without bringing something? It only seems right to bring something high and holy and exceptional.

 This is what makes what Jesus said during the last supper so jarring. Jesus did make a demand to partake with him, but it was the opposite of what is high and holy and exceptional. When Jesus began to wash the disciple’s feet, and when Peter said that this would never happen, Jesus said the following, “unless I wash your feet, you have no part with me.”

 This is amazing. What is the requirement for true fellowship with Jesus?  Dirty feet.  But not only dirty feet. You also had to bring a desire for those feet to be washed, and it has to be Jesus who washes them. All of this was metaphorical and Jesus made that clear.  Bathing was new birth and feet washing was the daily sanctifying confession of sin and the cleansing of forgiveness through Christ.

 So let’s make this abundantly clear. Jesus said that there is an evidence of being born again and being a true Christian that is secure in Christ.  What is that evidence? What is it that must be happening on a daily basis that demonstrates you have Christ and partake of him? The evidence is that you are daily coming to him in confession of your daily sin and being washed by Christ himself.

You are not getting yourself clean and coming to him, you are coming to be cleansed.

You are not coming with importance, you are coming confessing lowliness.

You are not coming with something to give, you are coming with needs to be met.

You are not coming to do something for Christ, you are coming to have something done by Christ.  

Jesus demands that when we come, we are coming to have him serve us. He demands that we desire our sins be cleansed again. There can be no hiding of sin or cherishing sin. These sins must be dealt with. But Jesus will do that for us. As long as we come with the desire to have Christ rather than our sinful substitutes and to follow Christ rather than the ways of the world, Jesus welcomes us in for cleansing. 

How amazing that the greatest VIP is so full of grace, that he won’t let us into his presence unless he can serve us, not we serve him. He wants us with him, and he will do what it takes to have us with him. If you are unwilling to confess sin, unwilling to be cleansed, unwilling to receive grace then Jesus is unwilling to let you come. Why? Because the giver gets the glory, and he will not be served by self-sufficient feet. He will be served by blood-rinsed feet that walk on the granite of grace that he gives for every step.