Believe And Be Saved. Part 2. Receiving Jesus

May 23, 2025

“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. Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor the will of man, but of God.” John 1:11-13, KJV, emphasis added.

It is common to hear people talk about receiving Jesus into their hearts. It is often what people are told that makes them a Christian. But what does it mean to ‘Receive Jesus‘? Many Christians would answer that it means that you raised your hand, repeated a prayer, or even went forward to kneel at an altar in Church or at an evangelistic crusade. The invitation they receive from the pastor or evangelist is to acknowledge that they have sinned and to ask for forgiveness for their sins. They are told that this happens when they trust that Christ died on the cross to pay for their sins and has forgiven them. If repentance from sin is even mentioned, it is often only used incidentally. Little or no heartfelt godly sorrow for their sin is mentioned as a condition of salvation or the necessary fruit of repentance and salvation.

It is also common to hear evangelicals talk about “accepting Christ” and “trusting Christ”. All of these expressions are shorthand for becoming a Christian. All of these are very similar expressions with only slight variations. And with all of these terms, repentance from sin is often muted or ignored altogether. This article will focus on the phrase, “receiving Jesus.” But what do they mean by the words, ‘receive Jesus’, and how does this fit with what the Word of God commands?

Does the Biblical idea of ‘receiving Jesus’ mean something completely different than what the typical evangelical church leadership thinks? When the Apostles went out preaching Jesus to the world at large, did they ever talk about ‘receiving Jesus’? When Peter preached to the crowd on Pentecost, and the people who heard responded, ‘What must we do? Did Peter say, ‘receive Jesus’? Or did Peter say, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of your sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit?” Acts 2:37. Never once did the apostles tell anyone to ‘receive Jesus‘, or ‘repeat‘ a canned prayer that would guarantee their eternal salvation.  

The apostle Paul told King Agrippa that his message to Jews and Gentiles was to repent and turn to God. Moreover, they must demonstrate, establish, and prove their repentance by their deeds! “But showed first unto those at Damascus and at Jerusalem, and throughout all the country of Judea, and then to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, and do works meet for repentance.” Acts 26:20, emphasis added. Paul did not say to receive Jesus or trust Christ.

 In verse 18, Paul said that his ministry from Jesus Christ was “to open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me”. Acts 26:18. This is the message that Paul preached, and you will notice it says nothing about accepting Christ or receiving Jesus. Why? Those expressions can be easily misunderstood, and we have a front row seat to witness the confusion all around us.

Notice the order in Peter’s and Paul’s statements. To ‘receive’ forgiveness of sins, they must turn from darkness to light (repent of their sins). Until they repented, there is no remission or forgiveness of sins. Again, nothing is said about receiving Jesus. The receiving in this passage is the forgiveness of sin when and if they turn from their sinning to righteousness. Is that not accurate?

In Luke 3:1-3, it is written that John the Baptist preached a baptism of repentance for the remission or forgiveness of sins. In chapter 3 of Luke, verse 8, Luke wrote, “Bring forth therefore fruit worthy of repentance, and begin not to say within yourselves, we have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, That God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham.”

What is ‘the fruit worthy of repentance’ in chapter 3 of the Book of Luke? I assure you that raising your hand in a church service and ‘accepting Christ’, saying a canned prayer, or going to the altar, is not what is being referred to. ‘Deeds worthy of repentance’ are deeds of righteousness and the forsaking of sin. All sins against God and man must be stopped. Surely no one actually believes that habitual or continued sinning is worthy of or proves and demonstrates repentance, do they? My fear is that most of the Evangelical community believes exactly that.

Most Christians are not told they must stop their sinning right now. And perchance they are told they must stop sinning, it is often stated that this takes much time via the process of sanctification, but it is never fully achieved, for Christians continue to sin until they die. However, according to this passage and others, there is no remission of sin unless and until the sin stops. Could it be any other way and make sense? Can you imagine a King letting a criminal go free and forgiving that person, knowing the criminal would continue in their rebellion and criminality? To obtain the King’s mercy, the criminal must at least profess sorrow for their sins and make a promise not to break the law anymore. And if that person is forgiven but returns to crime, do you think the King will find any mercy for that unrepentant subject? Yet many of us expect that God will always forgive us, even if our professed repentance is bogus.

The idea that God will forgive us of our sins, without our repentance from those sins, is religious nonsense. What would you think of a judge or a parole board that let unrepentant criminals out of prison only to repeat their crimes against God and man? Only a wicked progressive mind would applaud such a wicked judge.

Notice what else this last verse addresses. John said that the Jewish leadership and others must bring forth deeds worthy of repentance, or they would not be forgiven. Moreover, he wanted them to know that they were not ‘eternally secure’ because Abraham was their biological or religious father. You see, the Jews had their own version of Eternal Security or Once Saved, Always Saved. John wanted them to know that unless they personally repented of their sins and demonstrated that by righteous living, they would not be forgiven. Am I wrong in my interpretation of this passage?

We are fighting the same problem today. It seems that the vast majority of Christians have ‘received Jesus’ as their savior from the guilt of sin, not the practice or commission of sin, and been told they are eternally secure. They know nothing about immediately bringing forth fruit worthy of repentance. They actually do not believe it is possible. We are afraid to tell the new convert what is required, so we soft-pedal the requirements so they do not walk away. This helps explain why the organized Christian church is so weak and carnal.

Today, we preach a gospel of salvation in sin (receive Jesus), not from sin, and wonder why the church is full of hypocrites and those who have never been born again. People are told to ‘receive Jesus’ as their savior from the guilt of sin, but not their savior from the commission of sin. That is not the gospel of scripture, but is the gospel of the carnal American Christian enterprise called the evangelical church.

‘Receiving Jesus’ or ‘inviting Jesus into your life’ as a savior from the guilt of sin is an offer that will end in eternal death. Jesus is the savior from both 1) the guilt of sin and 2) the ongoing practice or commission of sin. Or Jesus is not your savior at all. Most evangelical churches today state clearly that receiving Jesus or inviting Jesus into your life does not mean repentance from all sin. How many professing Christians have been deceived into this false gospel of salvation in sin, not from sin?

What did Jesus have to say about what it means to follow Him? Jesus used the following expressions several times throughout His ministry. He said: “And he that taketh up not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me”. Matthew 10:38. What does He mean when He says that the person who will not take his or her own cross and will not follow after Jesus is not worthy of Him? To take up our own cross is to die to our own will and to live thereafter for the will of God, each and every day. To really “receive Jesus” is to receive everything Jesus taught with the purpose and intention of following His example to the end, no matter how much it costs you. To refuse all that He demands is to shut yourself off from ‘receiving Jesus’ in a saving way. However, many today will argue that this verse and others like it are referring to full discipleship, rather than salvation. In their minds, there are at least a couple of classes of Christians. There are those who believe (barely receive Jesus), and then there are those who are disciples (those who really receive Jesus). But aren’t they supposed to be the same thing?

 When you receive Jesus, you have taken hold of everything He taught with the purpose and intention of following after His example. It has nothing to do with repeating Words or even making some kind of mental commitment like a New Year’s Eve resolution. It has everything to do with a radical transformation of the mind, purpose, inclination, desires, and behavior or conduct. This is the true essence of “Repentance Proven by Deeds” and salvation, Acts 26:18-21. If any man or woman be in Christ, they are a new creature; old things (sin) have passed away; behold, all things have become new (righteousness). The old man is dead, and the new man is alive. Sin is dead, and righteousness lives. 

What is the difference between the belief of devils and the belief of Christ followers? Obedience from the heart is the difference. Saving faith is clearly distinguished from ‘mental faith’ or, as James 2:19 puts it, ‘The devil’s faith‘. “Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe and tremble.” James 2:19, KJV. The book of James instructs us not to be deceived. Those who only hear the word of God but are not doers of the Word of God are deceived. Christian churches are full of people who are only hearers of the Word of God and not doers of the Word. These members sit in their pews each Sunday and listen to what is being preached with no desire or intention to become a doer of the word if that means they must stop their favorite sins. Are they not deceived? But few are those who are willing to consider that they may actually be deceived.

The book of James also teaches that faith without works is dead. It teaches that we are not saved or justified by faith alone, but by faith and works as well. James 2:24 states the following: “You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone.” Yet today we are constantly told that we are saved by faith alone, apart from works. It is true that we are saved by grace, through faith, and that not of ourselves, it is a gift of God, and no man can boast about his earning salvation, Ephesians 2 8-10. The real issue is that saving faith is never alone or without works of righteousness. However, many today teach a dead faith that is characterized by constant sin and unrighteousness. That kind of faith is the faith of devils, and it will never save anyone. This is the type of faith that is almost always preached with a “receive Jesus into your heart” message.

Unless you are a five-point Calvinist, placing your faith in Jesus Christ is the ‘work’ you and I must do, by which we are saved. But Calvinists and non-Calvinists alike recoil at such a thought. They say that it is a works-based heresy and a different gospel. They would never admit or claim that faith is a work we must do to be saved, even though they actually believe it is. Faith is our work, and believing in Jesus Christ is our work, and it must be done first.  Other good works will follow the work of real faith. By its very definition, Faith is FAITHFULNESS, which means that faith without obedience is dead. It is a false faith, the faith of devils. The ‘Just man shall live by his Faith‘, according to the Bible. It’s saying that the just man, by his faithfulness and fidelity in following and obeying Christ, reveals his or her faith. The main reasons this kind of true saving faith is not clearly defined, defended, and taught in Christian churches are:

1. It doesn’t fit into the ‘not of works‘ mindset of current gospel preaching

We are so brainwashed by carnal Christian preaching and teaching that we do not understand that saving faith and true grace (Titus 2) will always produce obedience to the laws and will of God. Faith without works is dead. Faith without obedience is not saving faith. A central tenet of five-point Calvinism is the belief that salvation is unconditional and that God alone is responsible for saving us. We contribute nothing to it at all, because we are born sinners who can do nothing to save ourselves. We are born unable to respond to the grace and truth of God. Clearly, if all this is true, we have nothing to brag about in this false system. Just as clearly, we are not guilty of any sin at all in this false belief system. Sin must be a voluntary and willful refusal to do as God commands. There can be no sin and guilt if we are not able to do as commanded. What do you think of a God who creates you totally unable to obey Him and then who damns you when you do not yield perfect obedience? This is not the God of the Bible.

However, for those who reject the unbiblical system of Calvinism and understand that there are conditions for receiving the gift of salvation, such as repentance and faith, we recognize that we must repent and believe to be saved. That is our responsibility. It doesn’t mean we save ourselves and have anything to brag about. No sinner can save themselves even if they repent of their sins and never sin again. Past sins require the mercy and forgiveness of God made exclusively available to us by the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Almost all evangelical Christians have been deceived into believing that if we claim any responsibility for our own salvation, that by definition means we believe in a works-based gospel, which is heresy to these folks. If you believe there are any conditions to salvation, then you think there is something you must do to be saved. It doesn’t necessarily or ineluctably mean that you are going to take credit for your own salvation.

2) It’s God who effects repentance, not man’s personal choice to turn from his sins.

Again, the Christian church is brainwashed into believing that God is the sole cause of repentance and that mankind is simply a passive recipient. This is another tenet of the false system we call Calvinism. God, in Calvinism, regenerates a select few (the elect) and compels them to be regenerated, have faith, and repent. However, this repentance is partial at best. This is all false. Scripture tells us that God pursues, persuades, and helps us to repent; however, the ultimate choice to obey is ours.

3) If Jesus “paid it all, and did it all,” you merely trust in that, where is the requirement of faithfulness and obedience to Him?

The “receive Jesus” gospel has no requirements other than believing or receiving. Therefore, ‘faithfulness” in taking up your cross, following Christ, and keeping His commands, is considered ‘works’ and cannot be preached as the condition of saving faith. We are brainwashed into believing that ‘works can and should follow faith, meaning you are ‘saved first’ and then (perhaps) you will take up your Cross once in a while, obey God, and do what is right occasionally. But these ‘works’ can’t ever be mandatory in initial salvation because that would mean you’re ‘Saved by what you DO and NOT by Faith ALONE’! They call that heresy, even though we just read in the book of James that the apostle called it the truth. Christians are not saved by faith alone (a faith without works of obedience) but by works as well (faithful obedience). They have gone to great lengths to obscure the truth of the gospel in a fog of rhetoric, “having a form of godliness but denying the power thereof” 2 Timothy 3:5.

Works justify man, and not only by faith alone

James 2:24 reads, “Ye see then how by works a man is justified, and not by faith alone.” But the evangelical church will go crazy if anyone suggests that our works are part of salvation, as that means we are responsible for our salvation. To them, that is a heresy and unthinkable. How do they deal with the quote above? Many give a word salad response that must admit that works prove our faith, but are in no way a condition of our salvation, which is false. They engage in numerous rhetorical gymnastics to ensure that no one thinks they can contribute anything to salvation, while simultaneously maintaining that their faith must have some works.

Conditions are not the procuring cause of salvation.

Works are the conditions of salvation and not the procuring cause, which is the love of God. I believe that salvation is a gift of God. However, I also know that the Bible indicates there are conditions we must meet to receive this gift from God, such as repentance and faith. I also believe what the Bible tells me about the absolute necessity of my obedience and repentance in the salvation process.

        The concept of the absolute necessity of faithfulness or obedience to Christ remains hidden to most Christians as a result of this false notion of faith (receiving Christ) having the upper hand in professed Christianity. Faith without works and faith without obedience is dead or non-saving faith, and this is what is so popular in evangelical churches today. So-called Christians today continue to ‘Receive Jesus’ in various methods, at altar calls, repeating a prayer, being persuaded to make an emotional but fleeting commitment to Him that has no impact on their conduct. Or it is merely acknowledging that they ‘believe’ in Jesus, since no effort or fruit is required anyway. However, keep in mind that saving faith is more than an abstract belief in God. Saving faith is life-changing in every respect. No one living in sin has saving faith in Christ, contrary to what most of the pastors today are telling you. Almost all Christians have been taught, and most believe the exact opposite. They think Paul in Romans 7 was describing his own Christian experience, which is not true. See my article on Romans 7.

The Do and The Done 

               Some Christian pastors and teachers have said there are only two kinds of religion in the world. The “do” and the “done”. And this is what they mean by that. All false religions (what I am teaching) demand that you do something to get saved and stay saved. On the other hand, is the “true gospel” (what they are teaching), which declares that everything has already been done for you and you are not required to do anything at all. Their gospel says it has all been done, just “receive/accept Christ” and trust Him to save you, even if you never repent of any sin. That, my dear friends, is the religion of the devil, and it is very popular, as there is no cost to you at all. But did you notice the contradiction? They say it has all been done, and then, with a straight face, they state that you must do the following two things at a bare minimum: you must ‘receive Christ’ and ‘trust Him’. Don’t you love the glaring inconsistencies of the semi-Calvinists? Only the five-point Calvinist is consistent and non-contradictory.

Romans 2 – Words and Deeds

Works or deeds (call it what you like) are essential in the preaching of the Gospel. Jesus never once said anything about salvation being ‘not of works.‘ Paul said it in order to refute the Judaizers coming in among the new Gentile converts and trying to convince them they needed to keep the Law of Moses, as well as follow Christ to be saved. Paul put the entire emphasis on DEEDS in many of his Epistles. For example, Romans 2:5-10 is a classic example of his understanding that real faith and works were inseparable, just as genuine faith and obedience are inseparable.

“But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasuest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God: Who will render to every man according to his deeds: to them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honour and immortality, eternal life. But unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Gentile. But glory, honour, and peace, to every man that worketh good, to the Jew first and also to the Gentile.” Romans 2:5-10, KJV emphasis added.  

According to Mike DeSario, “It is by the LAW of faithfulness to Christ, Romans 3:27, that a person is saved and by that same concept,  saving faith establishes and upholds the Moral Law of God, Romans 3:3. Faith results in PURITY of heart by obedience to the truth and victory over sin, the flesh and devil when you put forth the effort to ‘Work out and Add to’ it so you can finish the Race. (1 Peter 1:22, Acts 15:9, 1 John 5:4-5, Philippians 2:12, 2 Peter 1:10)”.

What does Romans 3 mean?

Romans 3 talks about the truth that “by the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified in His sight”. Men and women have universally sinned and violated/broken the law. But let us remember that the law does not condemn obedience to the law only disobedience, and that is why “by the deeds of law shall no flesh be justified in His sight”. We are not condemned by our obedience but by our disobedience to the law, the deeds of law. Born-again Christians are justified by faith in Jesus Christ, for it is written that the just shall live by faith. That justifying faith is faithful and obedient. Most today seem to think that saving faith may actually be unfaithful or disobedient and still be saving. Nothing could be further from the truth. Saving faith always produces faithful and obedient followers of Christ.

“Paul never endorsed an ‘effortless’ salvation as the Pastors and teachers today suppose. Paul did not run around telling people, ‘Salvation is not of works, receive Jesus and trust in His finished work, ’ like our present preachers. He would have been considered a false teacher by his peers. Instead, he said that all men would stand before the Judgment Seat of Christ and give account for their DEEDS done in the body, 2 Corinthians 5:10-11. He said the Lord would Judge the secrets of men’s hearts and that NOTHING will be hidden from His eye in that Day, Romans 2:16, 1 Corinthians 4:5. Lawin his mind meant Circumcision and Ritual Sacrifice, the many Ordinances not conducive to Faithfulness from the heart. (Galatians 5:24, Ephesians 2:14, Hebrews 9:10) Circumcision must be of the HEART not the flesh, made without hands to Crucify the self-indulgent passions and desires (Romans 2:26-29, Colossians 2:11) so the Righteous Requirements of the Law will be upheld or fulfilled in a person Renewed in Christ, Romans 6:4-6, according to Mike D. I agree.

Charles Spurgeon

In July 1872, in a sermon, even Charles Spurgeon, who was at least a semi-Calvinist, taught that faith and repentance are inseparable. And his idea is that faith produces repentance from sin, not like those who teach that there is no requirement of repentance from sin for salvation. Repent and believe the gospel is the substance of the ministry of Jesus Christ. Both an invitation and a command under the authority of God Himself are subject to God’s judgment and condemnation. Repentance is a command to all men everywhere, just like faith in Christ is a command. Spurgeon says that the command of God assures us that it can be done. Spurgeon was not a consistent Calvinist, that’s for sure. Repent and believe is the gospel. Is it just a mere change in mind, a small thing, a trifle? Never. It is a deep and solemn work. There must be sorrow for sin and a hatred of it. To repent is to leave the sins we once loved. Without this regret, despair, hatred, and forsaking of sin, there is no genuine repentance which is necessary for salvation, according to the sermon by Spurgeon. Fearing the punishment of hell and the consequences of sin is not repentance. Repentance is the word of hope for the most sinful, and it naturally leads to faith in Jesus Christ as our Savior.

The truth of the gospel is really simple. That is, if you will take the time to dispel all the dogma and rhetoric surrounding the many ‘winds of Doctrine’, which invariably remove the imperative of repentance from sin and proven by our deeds. There is nothing in the Book of Acts that even remotely suggests that the early Christians ran around telling people to ‘Receive Jesus’ or repeat any canned prayers or words. The emphasis was not on telling everyone that God loves them so much that He would never damn them if they will only confess that they are sinners. You will find nothing was said to give the impression that you could come to Jesus as you are and leave the same. The wonderful plan for your life, as taught by Jesus, was that you can expect persecution! Isn’t it interesting thatyou rarely hear any Pastor, teacher, street evangelist, or itinerant preacher today defining these things or telling people they must repent of all their sins and must produce deeds/fruit worthy of repentance BEFORE Jesus will ‘RECEIVE’ them and grant them forgiveness and pardon. It’s always ‘receive Him and ‘Trust’ thatHe will save you, even if you have no deeds or fruit and are still clinging to sin.

What are you ‘Trusting’ in? Is that not the critical question? If you have not put forth the required diligent effort to be reconciled to Him in repentance proven by deeds, you’re receiving a fable and ‘Trusting’ in His shed blood or work on the Cross will be without purpose and to no effect in your life. You are basically trusting that Christ will save you and take you to heaven even if you have never repented from your sins. Your conscience, when not forced into silence, will never let you actually believe that. And it is probably about 99% of professing Christians who have been ‘saved’ by the ‘Trust Method’ who are still in bondage to various types of sins.

Reconciliation requires what?

To get right with God (to be born again) and to get right with the law of the land, one must confess and forsake their sins and crimes. To be reconciled, is that not true? Can an adulterous man get right and be reconciled with his wife if he hides (refuses to confess) his adultery? Obviously not. But what if he is only willing to confess his adultery to his wife? Will his wife accept him back if he confesses but refuses to forsake his adultery? Very unlikely. There have been and may still be a few women who would take that non-repentance from their husbands and not divorce them. Most women would not. Be assured that God will never accept a soul that will only confess their sins but refuse to forsake their sins. The law of the land never will. To get right with his wife, the adulterer must confess and forsake his adultery. Yet we are told in many Christian churches that all we must do to be saved (to get right with God) is to confess our sins and trust that Jesus Christ paid the penalty for our sins. Not a word is said about forsaking our sins. To make it even worse, in the pernicious idea that once you are saved by trusting or believing in Christ without repentance of sin, you can never be lost. Satan could not have thought of a better way to deceive the religiously gullible lost soul. 

If God did it all, what remains for you to do? Nothing but to ‘receive’ the gift of salvation and trust that He’s going to take you to paradise in your Filthy Rags of sin. For how many decades has this lie been peddled by the evangelical churches?

This false teaching on salvation encompasses the errors of imputed righteousness and imputed obedience, which form the foundation for these false doctrines. False atonement theories are also behind this. See my book, When Lies Become Truth, and the chapter on Justification. Jesus did not and could not obey the law of God on our behalf. The supererogatory work of Christ is a false premise. Christ could not do more than the law of God required. Christ owed obedience to the law, which required Him and others to love God with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength and to love their neighbor as themselves. However, Christ did not owe any suffering for broken laws and could suffer in our place. His supererogatory suffering in the atonement is efficacious for all mankind. That is the gift, and to receive this gift, we must repent of our sins and believe in Jesus Christ.

To one extent or another, the above describes what MOST preachers and teachers out there today think happened on the Cross and how it applies to preaching the gospel. They see it as a substitution (Jesus obeyed the law for us, and we are imputed to be perfect), not as an example of man dying to sin and living for righteousness, redeemed from the corrupting influence of sin through repentance and faith proven by deeds. It’s two entirely different gospels. One gospel teaches that Christ is our substitute in terms of obedience to God and His laws. Since Christ perfectly obeyed the laws of God, in their false scheme, Christ is our substitute for obedience, so that we no longer are required to obey God and His laws. In their false system, Jesus does it all; you merely ‘receive it and trust in the exchange’; your sin for His Righteousness/obedience. In this false gospel, there is no requirement to produce any deeds worthy of repentance or to stop sinning. All that might come later after He changes your desires in your ‘holy’ passivity. It’s not what you do, it’s what He has already done, so they say. The Atonement and Christ’s sinless life provide all that’s required to reconcile sinful man to a Holy God. You’re returned to favor by what Christ did on the Cross, not by anything you do to initiate the process.

Watch out when you hear some of these phrases:

• Jesus paid it all.
• Jesus died for your sins (past, present, and future)
• Confess you’re a sinner,
• Trust in Jesus only,
• Receive Jesus,
• Accept Jesus,
• Make Jesus your personal savior,
• Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and His righteousness is yours,
• Christians are ‘Clothed in His Righteousness’,
• We are saved by grace and it is not of works,
• No one is perfect,
• Christians aren’t perfect, just forgiven,
• All our righteousness is as Filthy Rags,
• Christians continue to be a wretched person,
• Like Paul, all Christians are the Chief of sinners,
• If a Christian says they have no sin, they are lying,
• The wages of sin are physical death, not eternal death
• Even the best Christians have a Romans 7 life,

‘How do you “receive Jesus” in a saving way?

This is what Mike DeSario, a deceased YouTuber, wrote, “First of all, there are no MAGIC Words, or Magic Cloak, or some Magic transfer of His Virtue-imputed obedience. NOTHING in Scripture suggests that Jesus paid it all or that His death on the Cross was some kind of PROVISION to excuse man from Obeying God and producing Deeds Worthy of Repentance. Jesus said ‘Take up your own Cross, Deny Yourself, lose your life in this world, and COUNT the COST. If Jesus PAID the Cost, (as is supposed), WHY does He tell us to Count the cost? So ‘receiving Him‘ begins in Repentance and Proceeds in Obedience. GRACE does NOT exempt you from DOING your part. If you have received Grace, godliness and self-control will be evident in your life, otherwise you’ve received it in vain, without purpose to no effect, see Titus 2:11. The Free Gift is forgiveness of Past Sins, (Romans 3:25). It is NOT future assurance of a ‘sin-confess, sin-confess (supposed) relationship with Christ. You ‘returned to favor with God (Reconciled) when you Come Clean with Him in Repentance. Christ didn’t Obey in your place or do the WORK of Faithfulness for you. His Blood will indeed Purge and Cleanse you of all (past) Sin, Hebrews 9:14. IF you approach His Mercy Seat for forgiveness, you must be EMPTY of all guile and deceit, as a Vessel FIT for the Master’s use. That’s how you ‘receive Jesus‘. It’s not Magic, BUT it is a real and genuine Transformation and Renewing of your mind”.

Today, Christians are constantly taught that when they ‘receive Jesus’, they can never be lost. No matter how they live, they are going to heaven when they die. This false teaching has obviously opened up the floodgates of iniquity in the evangelical churches across the United States. I praise God for all those who may emotionally embrace this false doctrine but who actually live far above what the doctrine permits. However, many others have been deceived into believing that ‘receiving Jesus’ doesn’t mean you must repent of all your sins.

Some things to remember about what it means to “receive Jesus” in a saving way:

• Faith is inseparable from faithfulness, fidelity, and obedience.
• Belief in Christ means the same thing as faith in Christ.
• Obedience is not self-righteousness. It is fidelity toward God. It is faith in God.
• Obedience is not working your way to heaven apart from the grace of God.
• Obedience is merely a condition of salvation, just like faith and repentance.
• Repentance is forsaking sin, not merely a change of mind about sin.
• Repentance is coming clean with God and man. It is your gift to the world.
• Repentance includes restitution (restoring what you have stolen) whenever that is possible.
• The grace of God is not His overlooking or winking at our sins. The grace of God teaches, instructs, and encourages us to live a godly and righteous life free from sin.
• Salvation always brings new life, new habits, new conduct, new motives, and fruit. And it begins the moment there is new life in Christ.
• Continued salvation is conditioned on faith and the forsaking of sin. Salvation can be lost.

 Eternal Security or Once Saved, Always Saved

Who was the very first one to teach eternal security? The serpent, in the Garden of Eden, invented the doctrine of eternal security. He told Adam and Eve that they would surely not die on the day they ate of the forbidden fruit. God said they would die the very day they disobeyed Him. God does not lie. The serpent deceived them into believing that God lied about the consequence of sin being death, the day you sin. Eternal Security lies to all those who embrace it, and tells them that sin is not deadly and it will never keep you out of heaven. Only God knows the evil this lie of eternal security has done in the world when the serpent introduced it long ago. How many professing Christians, since then, have believed the same lie that sin will not bring forth death the day you eat of it?

A Google search revealed the following as to the history and origin of the doctrine of eternal security. “The concept of ‘eternal security’ also known as the perseverance of the saints, primarily originated within the teachings during the Protestant Reformation, where it was understood that once a person is saved by the grace of God, they can’t lose their salvation, no matter what they do. This idea became more widely used and termed “eternal security” within Evangelical circles around the early 20^th century, particularly within the Southern Baptist and Plymouth Brethren communities.” They go on to say that the idea has been around for much longer, but the term ‘eternal security’ is new—most associate eternal security with John Calvin, which dates back to Augustine.

Spencer D. Grear, Ph. D., wrote about the origins of eternal security according to the early church fathers (ECF), stating that they did not believe in once saved always saved. He quotes Todd Tomasella that many ECFs did address it and rejected it. What the Stack Exchange reveals about the ECF; we find a consistent belief in all but a few instances “that faith and works go together.” Augustine was the first notable voice among the perseverance of the saints who advanced the idea of eternal security. “The doctrine of once saved always saved did not appear in the literature of the church until the Reformation period”.

The real test is not what the early church fathers believed, but what Jesus and the apostles taught. They most certainly did not teach the eternal security of the believer, regardless of how a person lives. See my book, When Lies Become Truth, chapter six on Eternal Security, for a refutation of this doctrine and Charles Stanley’s book titled Eternal Security.

It is clear from scripture that the Jews believed in a form of eternal security. The prophet Jeremiah confronted the backslidden Jews, telling them not to trust in the fact of their biological lineage to Abraham or the promise made by God about the city of Jerusalem that had God’s name on it. Jews then were saying, “The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord” as if their sins and refusal to repent would not bring the condemnation of God and their own exile or death. The New Testament echoes the Old Testament; those who confess and forsake their sins will find the mercy of God.

See my articles on Calvinism and how eternal security is actually part of the tenets of Augustine’s and Calvin’s deterministic doctrines. In eternal security, we lose our free will; we lose our choice to leave a relationship with God, and grace becomes irresistible, with total inability again raising its ugly head.

In closing, once again, we notice the importance of defining words and terms. Christian vocabulary must begin with the foundational definition of words. What is the meaning of the word gospel? How is repentance defined? What does it really mean to have faith in or believe in Jesus Christ? Christians all use these words but mean vastly different things. What does it mean to receive Jesus? What does it mean to trust Christ? Hopefully, this article has clarified all of the above.