[AI translation] When we came to this part of the Bible in our Bible reading guide one of the last weeks, I thought it would be good to share the many messages in this Word with the congregation. There was no opportunity. But now let me come back to it! In fact, there is only one word in the text that has been read that has touched me so deeply that I would like to talk about it. It is the word "gripped me!"Paul says that "Christ has taken hold of me". This phrase refers to an experience, a story that should be in the life of every Christian. It is a phrase that makes clear the essence, the richness and the potential of a person's faith relationship with Christ. "Christ Jesus has taken hold of me" is how the apostle Paul expresses this miracle that happened to him in his encounter with Christ. Here, in the original Greek text, the apostle uses a word which still has the warmth of that old encounter on the road to Damascus. It is a word with a rich meaning, which in Hungarian has the following meanings: to take hold of something, as a cat takes hold of a mouse; - to win something, as a new tenant takes hold of his house; - to surprise someone, as a thief surprises a sleeper; - to catch someone in the act of something, as a policeman catches a burglar; - to receive someone, as one receives into one's heart the one one one loves; - to catch up with someone, as a sickness catches up with you; - to conquer someone permanently, to take control of him, as a victorious general conquers the vanquished; - to take hold of someone, as a rescuer takes hold of a drowning man. The Lord Jesus did all this to him: he took him, he won him in his bloody agony, he possessed him, he surprised and caught him when he was on his way to persecute the believers, when he was occupied with the most evil thoughts and plans, and he caught him, and yet he took him into his heart as a dear child, and by this very means he overcame him, he put him in his power once and for all - that is, he took him, he took him so that he would never let him go! The apostle Paul experienced and is still experiencing again what another servant of the Lord, the prophet Jeremiah, had experienced a few hundred years before. What Paul said, "Christ Jesus has taken hold of me", Jeremiah said, "You have taken hold of me, Lord, and I have been taken hold of you; you have taken hold of me and overcome me" (Jer 20:7).
And look: this is the true essence of faith at all times! Faith in God is nothing but the feeling and the fact of being overcome. But while being defeated in general is depressing and paralyzing, this defeat is liberating and blissful. Faith is an encounter with God that brings you to your knees before him and thereby lifts you up. I would like to emphasise this again now because I have always encountered misunderstandings about the concept of faith and a narrowing of its function. The misunderstanding is that one considers faith as a certain intellectual conviction. Believing what I can understand, explain, and not believing what is unbelievable! Well, faith is not knowledge in the intellectual sense, it does not consist in acknowledging, correcting certain truths that I have arrived at on the basis of intellectual conviction. And it is a narrowing of faith when I consider it as a means by which I simply accept something, such as forgiveness of sins, as accepting what God offers. There is some truth in that, but it is not the whole truth. Faith is about something much more powerful, much more sublime. It's what Paul and Jeremiah expressed, "Christ has taken hold of me, you have made me Lord, you have taken hold of me and overcome me."
In faith, it is not primarily what I do that is important. For example, it's not whether I acknowledge, approve, accept, understand, or don't understand something - all of that is of secondary importance to what God does for me, what God means to me. Faith does not mean that I have grasped God, certainly not that I have grasped Him intellectually, understood Him, but the other way round: I am grasped by God, overcome, totally, completely overcome by God, by the power of His divine truth and grace. This is what Paul felt. That is to say, that God, whom he met there on the road to Damascus in the voice of Christ, had taken hold of his whole human being, down to the very roots of his life, down to the unconscious depths of his heart, and he had not resisted, he had let himself go, he had fallen into the divine hand that had taken hold of him so powerfully! And from that moment on, a whole new life, a new content and a new direction for him, "Christ Jesus has taken hold of me!" "Not as one is captivated by an intriguing novel, or enchanted by a great piece of music, not as one is captivated by a great emotion, a passionate love; not as one is captivated by Christ in a way incomparably more powerful than anything else! It is not just that a little Christian sentiment touches you, not just that a few pious words stir your soul or calm you down, but that the crucified and risen Jesus Christ personally enters into your life and draws you into the sphere of his power. The Christian man is a man possessed, not by a cause or an idea, but by a living divine person: the Holy Spirit of God, known in Jesus Christ!
Here is the secret of the unheard-of power and activity which characterised the life of the Apostle Paul. Why was he able to plant so many churches, to pour new life into so many discouraged people, to suffer so happily and fruitfully, to do so much blessed work with a frail body?! Because he was taken and empowered by Christ Jesus! In one of his letters, he describes how much he had starved, how much he had been abused, how much he had had to hide, how many times he had been beaten, stoned, abused, in the course of his apostolic work. He truly became the scum and scum of the earth in the ministry of Christ, as he writes to the Corinthians, and yet he never despaired! If someone had asked him then, "Paul, why do you do it, why do you go on, seeing that your life is passing away? Perhaps he would have answered with this very Word: "Christ Jesus has taken hold of me!" That is the basis, the motive, the power of all true service: that Christ has taken hold of me!
Why was it that one of our dear brothers, who a few weeks ago was still in the midst of his own troubles, could go up the mountain to a sick old man who was not a Reformed man, who was not a Reformed man, who was not related to him, who he had never known before? And why could he bring him warm soup, comfort, love, why could he sacrifice for something that was of no real use to him? Just because he was touched by Christ Jesus here in the church the other day! Why is another brother able to give 60-70% of his monthly income to help others and give even more of his time, when there is no real benefit? It is because he has been taken by Christ Jesus. Why was one of our brothers finally able to overcome an overwhelming sin of passion and to hate from his heart what was most precious to him before? Because Christ Jesus took hold of him. Why is it that one here among us can do with a reconciled heart, with cheerfulness, the work which he hated as a compulsive nuisance - because he has been taken by Christ Jesus!
This is our only need, the secret of our life, but it is enough for everything: Christ Jesus has taken hold of us! To love in a world full of hatred, to serve where all seek their own profit, to rejoice so that others may be comforted, to be a blessing where one is a burden to another - you cannot be satisfied with your own zeal, you need something else: to be taken by Christ Jesus! To the extent that Christ Jesus takes hold of a person, he works a miracle in him and with him.
The Church is essentially made up of people who have been caught by Christ Jesus! So let us be careful: there are many things that can grip you: you can be gripped by a beautiful sermon, you can be gripped by a good church cause such as the renovation of our buildings, you can be gripped by the warmth of the church community you find here, by the memory of whitewashed walls; all of these things together do not make you a Christian, you can be disappointed, they are not a strength that can withstand the stresses of life. The people of the church are not a company gathered round a good cause. Good will in itself is not enough. Everyone wants good and yet the world looks like everyone is out to get everyone else. Our sin infiltrates our good will, infects it. The people of the church are not the captives of a good cause, but the captives of Jesus Christ himself! People who can think, feel, speak and act no other way than as captives of Jesus Christ!
Our whole Christian life, then, turns on the extent to which we are captured by Christ Jesus. I cannot force him to take hold, but I can give him the opportunity to take hold, yes, and I can ask him to take hold, yes! I could say: expose yourself regularly to his influence, seek to meet him regularly every day. And let us not think here of any ecstatic phenomenon, vision or other mystery. Let us think of the fact that the Son of God became a man among us 2000 years ago: not an angel, not some other supernatural, superhuman, mysterious being, but a very ordinary man, a man of flesh and blood, like all his brothers and sisters in all respects. A man who went to bed at night, unless he had some pressing business with his heavenly Father, and who sat down to eat at table when he could. He became a man who sometimes looked very tired, who could be happy and sad. Everything about him was so natural and human. Everybody could come to him, complain about their problems and he would speak to them in a very natural and human voice.
And Jesus is just as natural and human today! That is what is so great about God, that He approaches us in such a natural and human way, as we see in the person of Jesus Christ. Not only for a few initiates, but for everyone, the encounter and communion with him is accessible. Jesus Christ still walks among us today in the clothes of the Holy Scriptures. The Word made flesh - Jesus Christ - is among us in the written Word. It is accessible... in a book, a book that you have! One you can relax in at home, every day! The most natural relationship with God, the most natural way to expose yourself to the influence of Christ: the Bible! God still captures a human life through His Word today! And His Word speaks through the Word, through the Bible! There God speaks to you, and what God says, God takes deadly seriously! A Muslim once said that this book should be burned because it was possessed by some living soul! He was right. It does contain a living Spirit, that is, the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Christ.
Try to read it daily, to pray daily that you too may be captivated by that Spirit, that you may be drawn under the lordship of Christ. If only in this way we could prepare ourselves anew each day and be able to start each morning into the struggles of life, "I too am taken by Christ Jesus!"
Amen
Date: 13 November 1955.
Lesson
ApCsel 9,1-9