S. DO YOU TAKE THIS WOMAN AS YOUR PERSONAL COOK?

DO YOU TAKE THIS WOMAN AS YOUR PERSONAL COOK?

Suppose that on your wedding day as you stood before the pastor he suddenly began to say these words: “Do you take this woman to be your personal cook, to clean your house, and do your dishes? Do you take her from this day forth to vacuum the floors, and to dust the furniture as long as you both shall live?” Suddenly your wife-to-be says, “Stop! If you want me as a person that only does things for you, you can hire a maid. I want you to love me, and take me for who I am. If you take me for who I am, I will do all those things for you, but I want you to take me! All of me! I don’t want you to take just my benefits and not my person.”

A.W. Tozer states, Now, it seems odd that none of these teachers ever noticed that the only true object of saving faith is none other than Christ Himself; not the “saviourhood” of Christ nor the “lordship” of Christ, but Christ Himself. God does not offer salvation to the one who will believe on one of the offices of Christ, nor is an office of Christ ever presented as an object of faith. Neither are we exhorted to believe on the atonement, nor on the cross, nor on the priesthood of the Saviour. All of these are embodied in the person of Christ, but they are never separated nor is one ever isolated from the rest. Much less are we permitted to accept one of Christ’s offices and reject another. The notion that we are so permitted is a modern day heresy, I repeat, and like every heresy it has had evil consequences among Christians (The Root of the Righteous, pgs. 84-86). Do you get the point? Why does the church want to take part of Christ, his benefits, an office of Christ but not Christ Himself? That’s like taking a wife in marriage as your personal cook and not her for her person.