There
are many today who teach that a person must "accept" Jesus Christ into
their heart as personal savior in order to be saved. While this certainly
sounds good, unfortunately nowhere in the Bible do we find that a person
must "accept Christ" in order to be saved. In John
1:11,12 we find something that sounds similar to this and there
we read...
| "He came unto his own, and his own
received him not.
But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name..." |
Now this certainly sounds like it agrees
with the idea of needing to "accept" Jesus, that is, until we read the
next verse...
| "Which were born, not of blood, nor
of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God."
(John 1:13) |
Notice how this verse says that those
who "receive" Jesus and believe in Him "were born". It speaks in
the past tense. This is because as verse 13 said, "they were born
not of blood (like in a physical child birth) nor of the
will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God". Simply
put, those who receive Jesus and believe in Him
have been born of
God. And this birth was not the product of their own
will but it was the will of God that caused them to be born
again. The fact that they believe and want to know the Lord
Jesus is an evidence of this birth. John
3: 3-8 describes this birth as a "spiritual birth" which we must experience
if we are to be saved. However, it is also careful to point out to
us that it is a birth that cannot be observed.
As John 3:8 says,
| "The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit." |
As we cannot physically see the wind
but see the evidences of its presence as it blows by "so is everyone that
is born of the Spirit". True believing is an evidence that
a person has been born again.
A person does not become
born again because they believe -- they believe because they have been
born again. Our salvation is totally
and completely the work of God and a product of His Will, not our own will
-- as John 1:13
declared. Faith (believing)
is the evidence that God has done a work in your heart. In our own
will, we would never choose to seek God as Romans
3:10,11 says,
| "As it is written, There is none righteous,
no, not one:
There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God." |
Salvation always
begins with God's action (which we cannot physically see)
and always results in our action, as we act upon faith and begin
to seek to know and grow in a relationship with the Lord. To
say that a person must "accept" Christ
in order to be saved is leading
people to trust in their
own
work of accepting and believing. The
Bible is very clear that trusting in our own work in any way, can never
lead to salvation (see
Titus
3:5 and Romans
4:1-9 for example).
For more on these
truths of salvation see the page titled Eternal
Salvation - God's Divine Election found on this web site.
Where so many get led astray on this truth, I believe, is when they confuse
this process of salvation with the invitation to salvation
that
the Lord extends to the whole world. The Lord invites every soul
to come to Jesus Christ and find eternal life with the promise that whosoever
"believes" in Him shall not perish (John 3:16).
In fact, the Lord commands those who are saved to be witnesses to the Truth
and invite
everyone to come to Jesus that they might be saved.
But the Lord is also very clear that,
| "No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day." John 6:44 |
The other reason and really the main reason people get this truth all wrong, is because they are not listening to what the Bible actually says, but are rather leaning on their own understanding and listening to what other books or men are saying instead. In this day, so many are teaching an idea of "free will" that cannot be supported with the Bible...but for those who posses a love for the Truth (2 Thessalonians 2:10) there is only one thing that matters, and that one thing is
What does the Bible say?
Philippians 1:6 Being confident of this
very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you
will perform
it until the day of Jesus Christ:
If you should have questions or comments about what is said or have need for additional verses, please send an e-mail by clicking here>>Reply2you