Full Acceptance

I came across the following quote the other day; "Nowhere in the New Testament will you find salvation is about "accepting" Jesus. Nowhere are you called to "accept" Jesus. Nowhere in the New Testament will you find salvation is about "asking Jesus into your heart." Nowhere in the New Testament are you told to "ask Jesus into your heart." Nowhere, nowhere, nowhere. IT'S NOT THERE. What you ARE told again and again and again is to repent and believe." When I read this my honest response was,"Seriously?" All of these phrases are descriptions of what people say when they are explaining that they have repented of their unbelief in Jesus Christ and accepted Him as their Savior. I have personally stated that I have "accepted" Jesus Christ. Nobody questions my salvation. What did the thief on the cross say to Jesus? "Jesus, remember me when You come in Your kingdom!” And He said to him, “Truly I say to you, today you shall be with Me in Paradise (Luke 23:42-43).” The thief just said "remember me." Did Jesus correct His wording? No, Jesus assured him that he would be with Him in paradise. How about the conversion of the Apostle Paul. "As he was traveling, it happened that he was approaching Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him; and he fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?” And he said, “Who are You, Lord (Acts 9:3-5)?” All Paul, know as Saul at this time, did was ask a question because he was so startled by what was happening! One could make an argument that Jesus didn't even give him the chance to "repent and believe." A few days later Paul had done an about-face and was preaching Jesus in the synagogues; conversion complete. And just for the sake of argument, what does Paul say in his first letter to Timothy? "It is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost of all (1 Timothy 1:15)." What deserves "full acceptance"? The Gospel; "that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners." So, "acceptance" of Jesus Christ is in the New Testament.

When someone quibbles about these types of words and phrases it only turns people off of Christians, Christianity and, ultimately, Jesus Christ. It makes them appear to be a legalist as they try to conform everybody else to their standard of speech and question the salvation of those who don't speak in ways "acceptable" to them . The focus becomes the words we say instead of Who it is we are proclaiming. What we need to be asking people, if we are so concerned about how they are expressing their faith in Jesus, is, "What is/was your understanding of the Gospel when you accepted Jesus Christ as your Savior?" Depending on how they respond then you can have a conversation with them, in love, about the particulars of the Gospel and Salvation. We have to remember that what people say is a reflection of what they believe in their heart. Therefore, quibbling about words is only dealing with the fruit and not the root. As I have stated before, from my experience, many Christians either don't know the full Gospel or, at the very least, how it plays out in their lives. It is up to me to reason from the Scriptures with them to see if there is something I can help them with in some way if they are open to it. It is also the same with me; if I am believing something that is wrong I have to be teachable and open to instruction and correction. We cannot learn any other way, unless you're someone like the Apostle Paul. In that case it may just take the Lord Himself to personally intervene. The Gospel is already provocative, controversial and offensive enough because of its uniqueness in stating that Jesus Christ is the only means of salvation available to mankind. The last thing we need to do is question the faith of brothers and sisters in Christ, who believe in the same Jesus we do, simply because they aren't wording their faith to our satisfaction. Jesus said, "For the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart (Matthew 12:34)." If a person says with their mouth that they have "accepted" Jesus or have asked "Jesus into their heart," I am going to assume they have repented and believed in Jesus Christ and their words are a reflection of their heart.