In the OT, Job said to his wife, “You speak as one of the foolish women would speak. Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?” This is basic. The verse says “Job did not sin with his lips” yet many people think all discomforts are contrary to His will. I must see all of life as from His hand!
This includes the rewards of obedience. The psalmist asks, “Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord? And who shall stand in his holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to what is false and does not swear deceitfully. He will receive blessing from the Lord and righteousness from the God of his salvation.” Proverbs says if I receive God’s words, treasure and obey them calling out for understanding, then I will find it! Those who refuse His words will “come to ruin.” The prophets say that I also must teach what I have received.
The NT has at least seven words translated as receive. Several refer to God’s mercy as in, “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy” and all seven convey the basic idea of obtaining something, whether we take, seize or get it, welcome, wait for or expect it, or are paid back or rewarded it.
All people are presented with the Savior. “He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.” Those who believe also “receive forgiveness of sins through his name.” By receiving Christ, we also receive the One who sent Him. Our receiving is childlike, inclusive, and eager to test what we have received.
Acts 17:11. “Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so.”
James 1:21–22 also says that those who receive Him are characterized by obedience: “Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.”
God’s gifts are given in Christ. John 3:27 says, “A person cannot receive even one thing unless it is given him from heaven.” This includes the Holy Spirit “whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.”
With Christ we also “have now received reconciliation” and have “not received the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” As Colossians 2:6–7 says, just as I received Christ Jesus I must also “walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as I was taught, abounding in thanksgiving” and “thanking God constantly for this, that when I received the word of God, I accepted it and let it work in me, realizing that “everything created by God is good . . . to be received with thanksgiving.” Because of His mercy, I can “with confidence draw near to the throne of grace” to “receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” The anointing received from Him abides in me, therefore I must abide in Him, even when He “disciplines the one he loves, and chastises everyone he receives.”
In generous grace, God answers prayer. “For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened” and “Whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith.” However, doubt robs those answers, “For the one who doubts . . . must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord. It is the same with disobedience. 1 John 3:22 says “Whatever we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him.”
Receiving Christ means being able to serve others. Paul said in Acts 20:24: “But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God” and “As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace.”
GAZE INTO HIS GLORY. The Bible speaks of rewards received for service and the reward of believing in Christ alone for salvation. The first is determined at the judgment seat of Christ where I will receive what is due for what I have done serving Him. However, the second is my eternal inheritance promised because He died for my sin — and received — simply by believing Him.
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