By the pen of Charles Spurgeon:

The call of the Christian faith is the gentle word “Come.” Conversely, the Jewish law harshly said, in effect, “Carefully guard your steps and the path in which you walk. Break the commandments and you will perish, but keep them and you will live.” The law was administered with terror, driving people to follow it through the threat of scouring punishment, but the gospel draws people with cords of love. Jesus is “the good shepherd” (John 10:11) leading His sheep, bidding them to follow Him, and always directing them onward with the sweet word “Come.” The law drives people away, but the gospel attracts; the law reveals the distance between God and man, while the gospel bridges that awful chasm and delivers sinners across it.

From the very first moment of your spiritual life until you are ushered into glory, Christ’s words to you will be: “Come to me.” Just as a mother holds out her arms, urging her child to walk by saying, “Come,” Jesus does the same. He will always be ahead, bidding you to follow Him as a soldier follows his general. He will forever walk before you, paving your way and clearing your path, and you will hear His life-giving voice calling you to follow throughout your days. Even at your solemn hour of death, His sweet words ushering you into His heavenly world will be: “Come, you who are blessed by my Father” (Matt. 25:34).

Furthermore, if you are a believer, “Come” is not only Christ’s call to you but it will be your call to Him as well. You will be longing for His second coming and saying, “Come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus” (Rev. 22:20 KJV). You will be yearning for closer and closer communion with Him, and as He bids you “Come,” your response to Him will be, “Come, Lord, and abide with me. Come and be the sole, unrivaled sovereign reigning on the throne of my heart, and consecrate me entirely to Your service.”

By the pen of Jim Reimann:

Jesus says, “Come to me,” and then simply adds, “Follow me” (John 21:19). In truth, it is actually a gracious act of His to lead rather than commanding us to do so. Not only does He lead but He has a particular “race marked out for us” (Heb. 12:1) and graciously lights the way ahead, for “[His] word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path” (Ps. 119:105).

It is all very simply stated, but how we overcomplicate His will! He even said, “This is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all that he has given me, but raise them up at the last day” (John 6:39). Thus, He has taken it upon Himself to lead us, and we have His very Word as calm assurance we will ultimately arrive at His eternal home. We also have the assurance that the law is no longer a burden to us because of Him. Here is how Paul stated it:

What the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man, in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit. . . . The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace.

Romans 8:3 – 4, 6

Father, thank You for “the freedom we have in Christ Jesus” (Gal. 2:4).