Just As You Are

Just As You Are

Just as I am, without one plea, but that thy blood was shed for me,
and that thou bidst me come to thee, O Lamb of God, I come, I come.

   A lady named Miss Charlotte Elliott was vi¬sit¬ing some friends in the West End of Lon¬don to have dinner with them and other guests.  One of those guests was a famous minister named Cé¬sar Ma¬lan.  While seat¬ed around the table, the min¬is¬ter said he hoped that she was a Christ¬ian.  She took of¬fense at this, and re¬plied that she would ra¬ther not dis¬cuss that quest¬ion.  Dr. Ma¬lan said that he was sor¬ry if had of-fend¬ed her, that he al¬ways liked to speak a word for his Mas¬ter, and that he hoped that the young la¬dy would some day be¬come a Christian.  By chance, they met again three weeks later at the home of a mu¬tu¬al friend.  Miss Ell¬i¬ott told the min¬is¬ter that ev¬er since he had spok¬en to her she had been try¬ing to find her Sav¬ior.  Would he tell her how to come to Christ, now?  “Just come to him as you are,” Dr. Ma¬lan said.  She did this and went away re¬joic¬ing.  Shortly af¬ter¬ this, she wrote this hymn about what he told her.
   This hymn is nearly always used as an invitational to come to Christ for salvation.  This song was playing the day I answered an invitation to come forward, but sadly the church elder there to meet me was more concerned with “all my sins” and “giving them to Jesus” than with my coming to a saving knowledge of Christ.  It was more than a year before I actually came to Christ and asked Him into my heart.  The minister who talked to me had a vastly different approach.  We talked for a few hours and then he said he had to go home to get to bed.  He left me sitting in the church office at three in the morning.  I knew I was lost and knew I needed Christ to be in control of my life.  But coming to Him had always been my sticking point.  But the pastor had given me some crucial advice.  His advice was much like Miss Elliot received, “Just come to Christ as you are.”
   I was hurting, angry, willful, confused about life, and a whole lot more.  But when I bowed my head and came to Him humbly I experienced His grace.  All my excuses and all my emotional baggage and all my confusion just dropped off me.  The church elder who told me I needed to do so many things before I would be saved had it so wrong.  Yes, I was guilty in God’s sight but I was guilty of not believing in the saving work Christ had done at the cross.  When I finally figured out I was never going to figure it all out, I brought all my confusion to Him and discovered it wasn’t something I was supposed to understand.  How can an unsaved heart understand the love of God?  All I was sure of was that He was ready to take me flaws, confusion, hurts and all.
   But this song is not just an invitational song to give at an alter call for salvation.  This message is still one I need in my life.  I can make my life so complicated it’s hard to keep up.  I can get myself off on some doctrinal tangent and forget how to find my way back to worshipping Christ.  So many things I can do wrong, but this message is a simple answer I can use in my life.
   “Just as I am, without one plea, but that Thy was shed for me.”  When all is said and done, the really important thing in life is that His blood was shed for my sins.  I was not so far gone as to be lost beyond salvation.  His blood could and did wash me clean.  And His blood was never lost its power!  I can still depend on its cleansing power if I fail in life and sin.  And one day I will stand before Him and that blood will be my pass into eternal life with God.
   “and that thou bidst me come to thee, O Lamb of God, I come, I come.”  This was all His idea right from the beginning.  He knew I would fail and have needs and be confused and hurt and angry.  He was not surprised that I needed to call on Him and still need to call on Him daily.  I am still prone to failure and confusion and all that, but now I know where to go when it happens.  I know that no matter what I do, He is still waiting for me with open arms.  His love and His grace are still there and will never run out.


Stephen Cram                            August 26, 2012                    Colossians 2:8

Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ.  Colossians 2:8