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An Effective Way to Enjoy Christ’s Riches
May 13 2019
Can you imagine being incredibly wealthy yet not knowing how to access your wealth?
This may be our case spiritually speaking. In Ephesians 3:8, Paul uses a wonderful phrase: the unsearchable riches of Christ. Jesus Christ is unsearchably rich in who He is and in all His accomplishments, and He wants us to enjoy all He is and has. Although in fact the riches of Christ are for us to enjoy, in experience we might feel as if we’re quite lacking, even spiritually poor, because we don’t know how to access all He wants to be to us. It’s like having a huge bank account and not knowing how to withdraw a single dollar.
So how can we access the riches of Christ? One very effective way is to call on His name. By calling on His name, we can enjoy everything that is in Him, and all He is.
Romans 10:12-13 show us the marvelous benefits of calling on His name:
“For the same Lord is Lord of all and rich to all who call upon Him; for ‘whoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.’”
When we call on the name of the Lord Jesus, He is rich to us, in our experience. He’s rich to us as patience, love, kindness, endurance, peace, righteousness, holiness, and so many other positive things. And when we call on His name, we can also be saved from many negative things in our lives, like anxiety, fear, depression, anger, impatience, worldliness, and so on.
Note 1 on calls in verse 13 in the New Testament Recovery Version tells us calling on the Lord is the secret to enjoying all of Christ’s unsearchable riches:
“Calling on the name of the Lord is the secret not only to our salvation but also to our enjoyment of the Lord’s riches. Beginning with Enosh, the third generation of mankind, and continuing all the way down to the New Testament believers, God’s chosen and redeemed ones enjoyed Christ’s redemption and salvation and all His riches by means of this secret (see note 211 in Acts 2).”
Now we know how to access the riches of Christ: simply by calling on His name! We don’t need to compose a formal or elaborate prayer. We can simply call, “Lord Jesus!” Calling on His name gives us access to all His riches!
Cross-reference “d” in Romans 10:12 on call directs us to many verses related to calling on the name of the Lord. Just two of these verses reveal to us how we can experience love, peace, and God’s nearness by calling on Him:
“But flee youthful lusts, and pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.”
—2 Timothy 2:22
“I called upon Your name, O Jehovah, from the lowest pit. You have heard my voice; do not hide Your ear at my breathing, at my cry. You drew near in the day that I called upon You; You said, Do not fear.”
—Lamentations 3:55-57
Note 1 of Romans 10:13 (quoted above) also references note 1 of Acts 2:21, which traces the history of those who called on the Lord throughout the Bible, beginning from Genesis. Surely the Lord was rich to them as they called on His precious name.
All of the verses and notes above are quoted from the Holy Bible Recovery Version. We encourage you to order a free copy of the New Testament here and read that substantial note on Acts 2:21 for yourself. It’s well worth taking the time to read, and even to study it. You can look up the verses it cites to get a fuller view of the matter of calling on the name of the Lord Jesus as seen in the Word of God.
The Lord Jesus is rich to all who call upon Him!