Revelation 3:20 "Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me." [1]

       Above all, what does God offer us?  This is the question that I desire to end this section concerning: the Glory of God revealed by His Son' death on a cross to blot out the sins of many sinners!  My main goal in the next few paragraphs is to demonstrate not the mere freeness of your Savior's offer but the Gloriousness of this free offer.

       First, consider the church to whom this verse is spoken to?  It is to the church of the laodiceans.  This church was the only church, which no good thing was mentioned!  Yet, Christ has one of the most wonderful things that He offers to them.  He finds them naked yet invites them to be clothed.  He finds them lukewarm and undesirable yet invites them sit on His throne with Him at His Father's side.  Christ finds them wretched, miserable, poor and blind, and so counsels them to be zealous and repent, because He has come as a Kingly Savior, Who offers the best of all gifts, by offering Himself to theirs and them to be His.  In everything our Lord Jesus Christ did: by being born under the law as a child, teaching, healing, dieing on the cross and interceding for us in Heaven was so that He could simply and freely offer Himself to be yours and you His!  This is the meaning of our verse.  

       Also, consider the mystery of Christ's request.  He tells them that they are poor and naked (ver. 17) yet turns around and says: "I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, that you me be rich."  But how are poor and naked people to buy anything?  The prophet Isaiah in chapter 55 verse 1 speaks about this as he foretells the future glory revealed by the coming of the Christ: "Everyone who thirsts, Come to the waters; And you who have no money, Come, buy and eat. Yes, come, buy wine and milk Without money and without price."  You do not need money to buy this treasure, only the desire to be willing to have it!  This is the glory of the grace found in the Christ.  All you need is the desire that the King of Heaven and earth be yours and you to be His!

       What is repentance in light of this you might ask?  It is the public expression of this willing desire.  For if Christ is knocking on the door and you let Him in, then you must let Him in as He comes to you, which is as a King, Savior and spouse.

       This passage is broadcasting the magnitude of the freeness concerning God's mercy given to sinners.  God is pledging to sinners a glorious marriage, an intimate fellowship and a sweet communion of the likes they have never seen or imagined.  The point is that only our happiness in receiving Him to be ours and we to be His, is required in His offers.  He only asks that we be willing for this. 

       What does it signify that the lord Jesus Christ is knocking on the door?  In our passage it states that it is Christ alone who stands at the door knocking.  Therefore, in conclusion it is Himself that He offers.  He offers Himself to be ours and that we be His.  Like a spouse offering themselves to the other, so Christ is offering Himself to live, fellowship and overflow our souls with Himself and that we would give up ourselves to be His.  Christ is offering that He Himself be translated into our souls so that His presence shines in us like the morning Sun as it becomes the pleasant light for all the world to enjoy.  He is offering that He would be this enjoyment to us by asking us to dine with Him forever were He lives.  His knocking means He is looking to gain entry to win ownership over our heat and mind.  As a spouse, He is asking to have your heart given completely to Him, so that the arms of your soul only hold onto Him as your all in all.  Having your heart emptied of all others is what He is seeking entry for, so that you would fall headstrong into His embrace of love and mercy. 

       There are some vain and foolish free thinkers who suppose God's offer is somehow difficult and inflexible.  What a strange thing this is!  How can a man look at God's invitation as if God made the terms contrary to what is acceptable or that the terms are hard?  Only a heart deeply corroded in its infatuation with is own pride and the lust of this world would ever suggest such a stupid thing!  The equivalent would like a man knocking on your front door holding a huge chest of golden treasure and requesting that you may have it all, only if you were happy and willing to have it.  There are no easier terms than the glorious terms of God's offer of free grace to sinners.  No offer ever presented to the world or to any single human being is more bright, glorious and simply wonderful than the free offer that Christ gives by asking we be happy that He would be ours and we be His.

       Second, consider that it means to receive Christ into your house of your heart as He is knocking on its door.  Colossians 2:6, "As you have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him."  In this verse the word used for receive is the usage for the word faith or believe.  Therefore, to receive is to have faith or to believe.  John 12:46-48, "Whoever believes in Me should not abide in darkness.... [and] He who rejects Me, and does not receive My words."  As this verse shows us believing is looked upon as the same as receiving or accepting or that not believing is the same as not receiving or rejecting.

       I say this to teach you that by Christ knocking if we receive Him we must receive Him as He comes to us.  We must receive Him into our souls by believing His is who He claims to be.  So the question is how does he come to us?  He comes to us as a King, Savior and Spouse. 

        - As a King, Jesus comes to us in a glorious manner.  It would be the equivalent of a good, wise and wealthy King to personally come to a peasant woman's house (who really is not that beautiful either) and happily knocking, requesting that she would be His bride and queen.   Although this woman is married to the King yet she will show her love for Him in the deepest respect and fear.  Much like queen Esther did as she honored her King and husband in the 5^th chapter of Esther.  This is what we should be glad to become: servants to our King.  After seeing such a marvelous King who is knocking at our hearts we should greatly yearn to honor Him by admitting Him into our hearts as King and we as the humble servants. 

       In Genesis 49:10 it is prophesied that all will obey Christ.  How then does Christ get their obedience?  Revelation 5:8-10!  Christ's free mercy gave them the gift to freely and happily obey Him forever and ever?  This lion King (Genesis 49:10) became a gentle lamb (Rev. 5:9) so that His love won their obedience over.

       We must consent to having our good King to have His way with our hearts, sweeping it into the royal order He wisely deems best.  The happiest of all lives for us should be to completely give up all our dreams and ambitions to do only those things that promote His Kingdom and will.  Our hands ought to be content to be busy and seeking out every way to glorify our Glorious King.  Let Him in as a King, for this is how He comes to us, as the reigning King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.  May our hearts bow to such a wonderful King!

       - As a Savior, He comes to us as a most brilliant and mighty conqueror who is infinitely beautiful in the eyes of those who see the preciousness of what it means to be saved from death, hell, sin and all the like.  As this world was wrecked by the effects of our sin and our lives ruined by our rebellion against the Almighty God, Christ entered on to the scene being "mighty to save... Traveling in the greatness of His strength."[2]  Those who see Christ as this experience joy inexpressible and their souls spill over with full of glory.

        In what more glorious manner can the One who knocks at the door of our hearts be than of a loving Savior?  The thought of the cross and leaving His Father's arms to come to earth was not too hard for Him to endure.  Satan was not strong enough, the grave not deep enough, sin not to powerful enough, our failures were not low enough, our sin not gross enough, nor the cruelty of man nailing His hands and feet not to wicked for our Savior, for He triumphed over it all and conquer it victoriously.  Therefore, we who see Him in this way long to be His disciples.  We long to admit Him accesses into our souls as the Savior-Shepard and we as the sheep who honor Him by being His teachable disciples.  Upon seeing a Savoir so beauty our hearts are melted to honor Him by becoming His disciples and following Him where He would lead us.  This is what is intended by Christ describing Himself as the Shepard and we as the sheep: He is a Savior.  He rescues the helpless sheep from the lion's mouth and leads us to green pastures. 

       His beauty shines brightly as a Savior for His hands are so soft and silken that he is able save the most broken feeble soul, for even a "bruised reed He will not break."[3]  Even the weakest find Him able to heal, redeem and apply His forgiveness to them no mater what circumstance their in or who they are.  Yet, at the same time His hands are so strong and mighty that while He was most weak, hanging on the cross, He defeated the Devil who was called the god of this age.  The forgiveness and gifts (Holy Spirit) that His blood purchased are so effective that even the most wicked, sin shackled and harden soul are loosed from death and brought successfully into His kingdom of love.

       Therefore, may all recognize that, the God of the ages, knocks on your door as a Savior.  We must be willing to receive Him as the great Shepard of our souls and we be willing to be the sheep who long to sit at His feet content to learn from Him as His disciples.  There is a way to honor a worthy and glorious Savior and that is to follow Him and to become His disciples.  Receive Him as such, and in this He will become yours and you His!

       Ephesians 2:5, "Even when we were dead in trespasses, [He] made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved)."  It was particularly "by" God's "grace" and not His love that has "saved" us.  This might sound like a shocker to some, but God's love only comes to you by undeserving grace!  You were not worthy enough to merely have God's love.  God had to cover you and I with Christ's bloodshed or mercy, in order, to then lavish us with the full measure of His wonderful love.  If the God of love had poured His love on a sinner then it would immediately turn into wrathful justice.  Just like a loving mother, who cries out in justice, asking for the death penalty against the person who killed her child.  So to it would have been for our horrible predicament if, the God of love, turned to filthy and guilty persons.  This is why we are saved by "grace" as Paul so eloquently states in his letter the Ephesians.  As we are receiving God's love, into the far reaches of the distant ages to come, we must realize this love only flows to us in the refreshing streams of wonderful "grace" purchased by the Blood of Christ!  This is why our Lord Jesus comes to us as a beautiful Savior who is carrying mercy in His wings.  Mercy, being accomplished by His death on the cross, is deep enough to blot out our all filthy sins and cleanses the most wicked soul so that they even shine like the sun.  Oh, how beautiful is that Savior who has come to us.  He seeks to save that which was lost, asking that they would eternally be His and He be ours in His courts of love.  Who could reject such a Glorious Person?  May it not be you my reader?

       - As a Spouse, our God comes knocking as the most lovely beautiful companion and friend.  He comes as a suitor who is seeking our communion.  He seeks the intimacy of our heart, and yes even the deep hallows of our souls, which are a mystery to us now.  This demonstrates the condescending love of our God that He would seek out persons so low and worthless to have our hearts to be His, as a spouse.

       God is infinite in Majesty and infinite in every good Excellence, therefore, making Him an infinitely lovely Person.  It is as if the Sun had stepped out of the sky itself and, shining with all its bright loveliness, is seeking to have admittance into our little souls to shine its full beauty therein!  As an infinitely lovely Person Jesus comes seeking out that we would be His and He be ours, so that our friendship is wrapped up into that only eternal friendship that has always existed in infinite pleasure, the glorious Trinity beaming out in the brightest shimming of love ever to be conceived.  Such realities seem to great to be true.  But this is owning to Glory of the One who offers it!

       Therefore, seeing that such an infinitely beautiful and lovely Spouse is seeking to have our hearts we should give them up without hesitation.  We should be overtaken with trembling pleasure, which fills our entire being, to wholly and totally give up all our desires, affection and loves to Him who ask for it.  It should be, the easiest of things, to turn our back to this world and all other lovers to completely give up ourselves to Him who is infinite beauty.  This is where hypocrites depart on a different path, for they are not willing to let go of all other lovers, in order to be wedded to Him who is infinite beauty.  Let all who see this Suitor, shinning in His infinite loveliness, run to give Him admittance to have Him take full and utter possession of their souls, lives and eternity! 

       When this happens then these souls come to the place where they are willing that Christ be theirs and they be His as: only and completely.  Here does true salvation consists.  Herein does that type of admittance shine as genuine, which will usher that soul into heavens courts to meet their God face.  To have Him who knocks to Only and Completely be theirs and they His, is of the only everlasting type that will stand sure throughout the ages to come. 

       Third, Christ offers Himself not for His benefit but for ours!  He is compete, having infinite immutable happiness with His Father: He needs nothing.  This shows the huge magnitude of His humble love to offer such a benefit to us when He has no real need of us.  He simply desires to love us and make us His.  When Jesus requests that we be wiling that we give ourselves to Him, He is only asking what is already His.  He physically made us and then on top of this He paid for us with is blood, which was an infinite price.  The wages of sin is death and so this is what we all deserved.  Therefore, Christ was under no pressure to save and offer Himself to us.   Being our God, Creator and now loving Savior He is only seeking to be brought to Him what already belongs to Him, doubly over.

        He has given Himself for us; this is a free gift.  This shows the intensity and greatness of His love offered to us who were so beneath Him.  Jesus gives His love for our infinite happiness.  If we open the door to Him it will merely be for the adding to our happiness.  The essence of His happiness will not be added to if we receive Him; He is merely seeking to love us in the riches of His free grace.  He saved us merely because He chooses to out of His own overflowing love and grace.  Therefore, how small a thing it is to give ourselves to Him for our own profit.  This is again to point out the magnitude of the grace and infinite glory Jesus shines out by Him freely offering Himself to be ours and us to He His.

       You should condemn and abhor yourself if you would reject such a beautiful Suitor.  Blame and burden your soul with great grief if you are to reject such a Glorious King and Savior who offers Himself as your sole benefit and good! How justified and easy will it be, for God the Father, to throw all those, who reject His most prized and beloved Son, (He who even sought for their acceptance), into that old fiery pit of Hell.  Their eternal burring will never out run the infinite disgrace for rejecting the Person who possesses infinite loveliness.  It will be a just thing as they are tormented for eternity and even eternity again.  All He asked for was that they be His and He be theirs.  What could God have done more to inspire more trust on our part?  Nothing!  Again, what more of a wonderful character could be offered to you than the King of the universe as a Savior.  He not only saves us from the Devil and sin, which we were hopeless to defeat, but He has translated us into His Father's love and infinite happiness.  How wonderful and glorious is the character of Heavens Prince who has come seeking to win over the possession of our souls.

       Therefore, what more could our Savior done to save us?  He accomplished all things in order to save us so that we could be eternally His and He ours!  Isaiah 5:4 "What more could have been done to My vineyard that I have not done in it?  Why then, when I expected it to bring forth good grapes, Did it bring forth wild grapes?"  God's love is free, because He has done it all.  This is the essence of Faith: believing Christ did it all.  Where then is merit or boasting?  The only thing left is loving, prizing and worshiping Him who has shown us such wonderful grace!

       "In Christ being offered to you, all those divine perfections of His are offered to for your enjoyment.  Christ's being offered to you involved the full enjoyment of the great and unspeakable love of Christ that is also offered to you.  In the offer of this portion, there is offered to you the portion of angles.  Yes, it is in a sense true that therein is offered to you the portion of God Himself. 

God's happiness, God's infinite delight is in the enjoyment of the person who is offered to you for your portion.  And in Christ's being offered to you, all His benefits are offered to you.  The forgiveness of sin, the favor of the privileges of children, the conferring of the image of God, communion with God, and eternal life.  In Christ's being offered to you, communion with Him is offered in His glory and happiness.  Christ has a kingdom appointed to Him of the Father.  Therefore, in Christ's being offered to you a kingdom is offered - a spiritual and heavenly kingdom.  In Christ's being offered to you, heaven is offered.  Christ is in the possession of exceeding glory at the right hand of God.  In offering Himself, Christ offers you to be partakers with Him in that glory. ...

Christ gave Himself to us for our infinite profit.  If we give ourselves to Him, it won't be for His profit but for our own.  Christ had no profit of His own in view by giving Himself to save us.  He doesn't need our salvation, but He did it for us. ...

Christ gave Himself for us to be made a curse for us and to suffer wrath for us.  If we give ourselves to Him, it will be only to be made happy by Him.  He gave Himself for us to be made the object of scorn and contempt.  If we give ourselves to Him, it will be to be exalted to the highest heaven and dignity, to be made kings and priest and to reign with Christ.  Christ gave Himself for us to be subject to extreme pain and torment.  If we give ourselves to Him, it will only be that He may fill us with pleasures and joys unspeakable, to drink at the river of pleasures that flows at God's right hand.  He gave Himself for us to suffer death for us.  If we give ourselves to Him, it will be to enjoy life forever.  He gave Himself for us to have His body torn and tormented.  He gave Himself for us to have His soul filled with inexpressible anguish, to be made sorrowful even unto death, to bear the wrath of God.  If give ourselves to Him, it will be to be blessed with the eternal enjoyment of the love and complacence of God." [4]

 May all who have seen with me the infinitely lovely and glorious Savior standing at the door of our hearts sing together: "My beloved is mine, and I am his."[5]  For all who prize this most Lovely God, our Lord Jesus Christ, will soon be living the dream of dreams as one day they find that, "These are the ones who follow the Lamb wherever He goes."[6]  Oh, yes it has already been decreed and it will come to pass, the future has been arranged so that heaven's most beloved Prince and His Father shinning as the Sun in all its brilliance, "will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God."[7]  Amen!

[1]  Much of the basic out line and formulation of this section I gleaned from the Jonathan Edwards sermon "That Christ should be ours and We His."   At times I have followed it fairly closely at other times not so.  I believe this is probably the best sermon ever preached on this topic!  Again it is found in the book "The blessing of God", published by Broadman and Holman Publishers, 2003, pages 359-390.

 [2] Isaiah 63:1

 [3] Isaiah 42:3

[4]  That Christ Should be Ours and We His, by Jonathan Edwards, found in the, The blessing of God, published by Broadman and Holman Publishers, 2003, pages 386, 388, 389. 

 [5]Song of Solomon 2:16

 [6]Revelation 14:4

 [7]Revelation 21:3