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Friday, May 17, 2019

Accepting Christ

I know, I know, it's petty. It's just me. It's just words. It's just in my mind. But I've had a problem with this concept for a long time. So let me say at the outset that I am not faulting anyone who uses the term and I understand that, in general, people who use the term mean no harm or intend no error. I'm not complaining about anyone at all. You're safe. It is only a simple, potentially dangerous way of thinking that concerns me here. So I'm bringing it up.

We all know that they way you become a Christian -- the way you get saved -- is to accept Christ, right? No worries there. We're all clear. Except that you won't find that term anywhere in Scripture. Nowhere does it say we "accept Christ" in any sense. What does it say? It says we believe in Him (John 3:16; Rom 10:9). In John's gospel he often uses a phrase that is literally "to believe into." The other term we get is receive. John wrote, "He came to His own, and His own people did not receive Him. But to all who did receive Him, who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God" (John 1:11-12). (Note that "receive Him" is paralleled in that verse with "believed in His name." Apparently there is a sort of equivalence there.) Paul wrote, "As you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him" (Col 2:6). We receive Christ and we believe in Christ. Wait ... where's the "accept Christ"? It's not in there.

One website called WikiDiff helps analyze the difference between terms. For the difference between "receive" and "accept" it says, "As verbs the difference between receive and accept is that receive is to get, to be given something while the other party is the active partner (opposite: to obtain) while accept is to receive, especially with a consent, with favour, or with approval." Since "accept" is "to receive" here, there is only a small objection I have. Do you see it? Receive is to get, where "the other party is the active partner." The one getting is not active. "Receive" is passive. On the other hand, "accept" includes "with consent, with favour, or with approval." And therein lies my concern.

We do not "approve" Christ. We don't give Him our "okay." We don't come to Christ with a clipboard, verify the "shipment," and give our consent to receive Him. We don't give Him final approval -- "Okay, You're alright; I'll let You in." Biblically, we "receive" Christ. There is not one, single instance in Scripture of people "accepting" Christ.

Again, I'll point out that this is a minor point, a small thing. I would hope that those who call us to "accept Christ" have no intention of suggesting that we should "approve of" Christ, that we should "give him our 'okay'." I'm pretty sure that most of them are thinking in passive terms. "Here He is. Take what is offered." They mean "receive." I just want to be sure that we aren't thinking in terms of "accepting a delivery" where we first verify it and then give our approval. Trust me; He doesn't need your approval. If we are deigning to allow Christ into our lives, we're doing it wrong. The biblical version is one of submission (James 4:7), not approval.

2 comments:

David said...

But, do we not give our approval? Granted, that approval is also something receive, but would we keep something we didn't approve of? Or at the very least leave it in the closet until the holidays? We accept Him because we realize our need for Him. Our acceptance of Him is a gift we received. I have received numerous gifts in my life that I never used because I never accepted them as something useful to me. Just like salvation, we receive the ability to believe and the will to believe seemingly simultaneously. Our acceptance is simply a part of what we received to be even able to believe.

Stan said...

I'm thinking of a football wide receiver. He runs his pattern and the QB throws him the pass and he ... "receives" it. (That's why we call him a receiver.) He is passive up until the ball lands in his grasp. At that point he becomes active, but if you had a receiver who opted to drop the ball based on his own choices, we wouldn't call him a receiver; we'd call him an "accepter," right?

No, I don't think Jesus is depending on our approval. I think that the regenerated person certainly gives his/her approval, but I think the point of Scripture is the passive reception rather than the human approval required by God to get us saved.