JustaChristian asked:
Many people believe that as long as one accepts Christ as his or her personal savior, he or she will be saved. I ask the question, “What do they mean when one accepts Christ?� In Matthew 7:21-23, we see some people who accepted Jesus, but He never knew them.
How do you come up with the idea that these folks
accepted Jesus?
They called Him Lord, but that doesn’t mean their utterances were genuine. The scriptures are clear that there are those who honor Christ with their lips but their hearts are far from Him (Matthew 15:6).
The Bible likens conversion to a marriage.
Where does it do this? I know of many places where the church and Christ are likened unto a marriage relationship but I can’t think of any passages that equate
conversion unto marriage. Can you please refresh my memory with these verse references please?
Colossians 2:6 says we must accept Christ and Romans 15:7 says Christ must accept us.
Notice the tense in Romans 15:7,
“…just as Christ
accepted you.�
I ask you, "Where does the Bible make this statement? Where does it say that if one will only accept Christ as their personal savior apart from ones obedience to the Lord's commandments of faith, repentance, baptism for the remission of sins and enduring to the end of life then he or she will be saved?
I ask you, where in the process of accepting Christ as Savior, obedience to the Lord’s commandments of faith, repentance, baptism for the remission of sins and enduring to the end of life is one considered “accepted� by Christ (again, as Romans 15:7 shows accepted as past tense). I hope you at least think that they were accepted before completing their tenure of obedience to the end of life?
Next question. Was the thief on the cross just out of luck since He messed up the formula?
He repented, sure, he had some measure of faith but not the measure of faith prescribed by Paul in Romans 10:9, he sure wasn’t baptized. Now, I have heard a lot of folk say, “how do you know he wasn’t baptized.� I usually asked back, where can I find the in the bible that he was?� Furthermore, for those who allow themselves to wander off into conjecture about the baptismal status of the thief on the cross, is that the right order? Get baptized sometime before you have even heard of Jesus, then faith and repentance?
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a huge fan of the Charles Finney prescribed sinners prayer after coming forward at the tail end of an evangelistic sermon. I am a Baptist, but I think the Baptists have put too little emphasis on baptism. Baptism, was, and in my view, still is,
the biblically prescribed method of demonstrating a profession of faith. But I also don’t think that getting wet saves you.
Oh, I know that a lot of folks point to 1 Peter 3:21, they love part A but sorta rush through part B. Getting’ wet won’t save one soul, a pledge of a good conscious toward God will, and the biblically prescribed method of publicly proclaiming one’s good conscious toward God is baptism. But that doesn’t mean that one can’t have a good conscious toward God without getting wet.
Final question, lets say you talk to a guy on a plane, you tell him about Jesus. He sends you an email three days later telling you he has repented of his sin, now believes that Jesus is Savior and Lord and has risen from the dead just like the scriptures say, and he is going to get baptized at his local Church of Christ the very next Sunday. You hear that a tragic accident has occurred, while he was crossing the street on his way to church on Sunday, he was hit by a greyhound bus, killing him instantly.
Now, does your theology force you to conclude that he is now rotting in hell?
Grace and Peace
