A Gracious Offer

Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest and repent. Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.

Rev 3:19-20

This is one of the most beautiful sections of Scripture, a most gracious offer to change which our Lord makes to individuals within the church of Laodicea. Our Lord is simply telling this church, despite its terrible weakness and failure, I love you, and it is because I love you that I rebuke you and discipline you. Does that remind you of the way your father treated you? Did he ever take you aside and discipline you for something and say as he did it, I am only doing this because I love you? You go away saying, I wish you didn't love me so much! But Jesus speaks with bluntness because he loves this church, and he offers them a wonderful way out.

Verse 20 is one of the finest explanations in the whole Bible of how to become a Christian. I have used it hundreds of times and seen it work. It has three simple divisions: First, there comes a sense that Christ is outside your life and knocking at the door of your heart, wanting to come in. That occurs when you feel your life is not what you want it to be. You feel empty and disturbed about yourself. You hear the good news in song and word about Jesus, the kind of Lord he is and what he can do. You sense the knocking of Christ and you want him to come in. You begin to be awakened to your need, and you sense him offering to enter your life. That is step number one.

Then the second step is very important. You must open the door. He will not open it. He is not going to force himself upon you. He never forces anyone into salvation. He offers it to you. Everywhere in Scripture Jesus offers himself to people, and he grieves over the fact that people do not receive his offer. So he offers himself here, if you will open the door. You must invite him in. You must say to him, Come in, Lord Jesus. Enter my life. Be my Lord and Savior. Deliver me from my sins.

Then the third step is very clear. He will enter in! He says so. You do not have to feel him enter. He does not say he will give you the feeling that he is there, although certainly that will come in time, but he says, If you open the door I will enter in and remain with you. We will eat together and be together. It is a beautiful picture of permanently dwelling with you. He will move in to live with you.

There may be some reading this who have never opened their hearts to Christ. If you turn away from his knocking you will remain lost, and, eventually, if you never repent, you will enter eternity lost forever. But our Lord says if you will open the door, and say in your heart, Lord Jesus, come into my life and deliver me, change me, save me; I receive you, Lord, he will enter. John promises in his Gospel, Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God (John 1:12).

Lord Jesus, I open the door of my heart and ask you to come in and be my Savior and Lord. Thank you that you are faithful to do all that you have promised. Amen.