Choosing Jesus

That if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you will be saved.  For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.  For the scripture says, "Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame."  For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him.  For "Whoever calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved."
Romans 10: 9-13 NKJV

To me it seems like a no brainer, yet many yet choose not to make the choice.  Many have indeed heard of the man Jesus, yet few have accepted Him into their lives.  The world would rather see Jesus as a man of mercy and compassion, of good deeds and miracles and not of the very lineage of God.  To hear others talk of Jesus one would think that He is a statesman and not the savior of all mankind.  It seems it is safer for us to see Jesus from afar off than to put our utmost trust in Him.  However, one will not see the true wonder of Christ Jesus until they make that choice to receive Him into their own hearts.  This, however, means relinquishing control of their own lives.  Above all, it means to admit that we are not in charge of our own destinies, but that something else above our own control is responsible for what happens to us.  Of course, the truth being that our heavenly Father Himself has already orchestrated any and all things which will ever happen in our lifetime and in history.  For nothing escapes Him who created all that we see by His spoken word.  God spoke, and it came into existance.  I believe that many of us see Christ Jesus only halfway, not fully realizing all that He is and offers.  Is Jesus rich in mercy and forgiveness?  Absolutely, but He is so much more.  He is more than a "What would Jesus do?" catch phrase.

Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin.  For he who has died has been freed from sin.  Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more.  Death no longer has dominion over Him.  For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life He lives, He lives to God.  Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 6: 6-11 NKJV

I rememeber the first time I saw the movie The Passion of The Christ and how hard it hit me.  It was truly like a punch to my gut in the way it affected me.  What had happened?  For the first time, Christ had become personal for me.  Through this film, the anguish and sacrafice of Christ Jesus was brought before me.  Up until then, the life and sacrafice of Jesus was simply a story I had heard in church.  Yes, I knew that Jesus had died for the forgiveness of my sins, yet I still saw myself as a sinner.  The choice had not yet been made.  I was standing far off, choosing to see Jesus as a merciful miracle worker and not as the one who had become sin in my place that He might dwell within me.  Indeed, I already carried Christ within me, I just had not accepted this truth.  I had not made that choice.  This is ultimately seperates us from the liberation of a life as Christ Jesus, one simple choice.  We can choose a life in the world, seeing Jesus from afar off as the merciful miracle worker He is, yet ignoring the very gift He has given each of us.  Or, we can yet choose the real Christ Jesus, He who became sin on our behalf and now resides within each of us that we would have a personal relationship with Him {Galations 2:20}.  In the end, it is by our own choice that we will come to the realization of the truth of Christ Jesus.  Choose Jesus.

~Scott~