Accepting Christ Is Like Getting Married

Commitment involves the mind, the emotions and the will.… But I’m not really saved, I’m not going to heaven until my will makes the final decision.

You know, when you get married you go before the minister. I had already fallen in love with my wife-to-be and I had asked her to marry me. She made me wait almost a year before she said yes, and it was the longest, roughest year I have ever spent in my life. Finally she said yes. The date was set, Friday, August 13, with a full moon, 1943. The minister stood there.

I had already settled the fact that I loved her. I had already told her. I thought she was the perfect girl for me, but I was not married until the minister said, “Will you have this woman to be your lawfully wedded wife?” and I said, “I will,” not that loudly but I said it. Now I wasn’t married until I said, “I will.” Then he pronounced us man and wife, publicly.…

When you come to Jesus Christ in this crusade, you come publicly to say “I will” to Christ.

Bryan Chapell, Using Illustrations to Preach With Power, Rev. ed. (Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway Books, 2001), 109.