Recently I heard a missionary talk for 45 minutes about their work, and seeing people "accepting God into their life" and how we should work hard to see "God's plans unfold" in our lives. What does any of this mean?At the end of the service, I hadn't once heard why a person should "accept God" - I had barely heard the name of Jesus and would have had no idea that He could save me from my sins. There was story after story of this person and that person "accepting God into their heart" but I'm not sure I heard the Gospel at all. Had to be an off day for the missionary, it just had to be - and this was someone from a major evangelical, Biblically sound denomination, not the Most Right Reverend of the Universalist Church of Marshmallow Gumdrops. It was disheartening.
Again I ask, what does that mean, anyway? "Accept God." "Accept Jesus." It sounds like shaking hands with Jesus and saying, "OK, I'll take what you have. Sure nice to meet you, Jesus. Good thing you came along when You did. So what's this big plan you have for my life?"
The Scriptures command us to "repent and believe." There's no acceptance there, except for coming to grips with the fact we are utterly sinful and hopelessly lost without Jesus' righteousness applied to our lives. Is that what people mean when they say "accept Jesus?" If so, it needs to be explained. Plenty of people accept Jesus - but repenting and believing? Not so much.
Salvation is not "accepting Jesus." It is a heart-rending, relief-filled head-on collision with our sin and the sacrifice of Jesus Christ who became sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God.
5 comments:
along those lines (great minds...)
http://www.reclaimingthemind.org/blog/2010/09/inviting-jesus-into-your-heart/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+ParchmentAndPen+%28Parchment+and+Pen%29&utm_content=Google+Feedfetcher
I spent a year at a Christian bible college and, "Accept Jesus as your personal savior." was rampent! Then, it was all I knew. Now I know better, praise God. I can remember reading Macarthur's "The Gospel According to Jesus" and being convinced of this truth.
Good words brother!
Kevin - Wow, the Parchment and Pen did a fantastic job of explaining Rev. 3:20. I've always wondered about that...
Rob - I heard that a lot at bible college too. It's an unfortunate paradigm so many evangelicals seem to be stuck in. We need to whole truth and nothing but!
Blaine,
That hits home. BAM! Somehow one generation of Evangelicals just keeps on following the previous generation in this misguided idea. BAM! I think we've all been there. Good stuff! BAM!
Blessings,
Derek
BAM! (that post really hits the nail on the head)
Derek - So, tell me what you really think! :D And if you haven't read it yet, the article posted by my friend in the first comment is really worth the 3 minutes to read it.
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