“Accept Jesus into your heart (to be saved) is one of the most used sentences in modern Evangelical circles. This humanistic concept is not biblical. (It puts man in control of his salvation, when all along salvation is “entirely” the work of God. Salvation is not a decision of man; it is a decision of God in the eternal council of the Godhead.) The biblical concept of salvation is that by grace the believer is accepted in Christ. We do not accept Him, He accepts us. The whole theme of Ephesians Chapter 1 is summarized in verse 6, “ To the praise of the glory of His grace, wherein He hath made us accepted in the Beloved.” He is active; we are passive, i.e., He is the Potter; we are the clay. The terminology, “accept Jesus into your heart” is backwards and dishonest. It assumes wrongly that salvation (originates, starts) in the human heart. Consistently in Scripture, salvation is shown to be in Christ and in Him alone. It is not about man and what he should do, it is about Him and what He has already done. “Accepting Jesus” places emphasis on something that man needs to do. When properly reasoned out one sees that this is works salvation, but believing or trusting Him for what HE has done is “through faith” salvation. In Him alone is that perfect righteousness that is sufficient before the Holy God to justify unholy sinners.” (Richard Bennett)
Up until the bold type it sounds a bit Calvinistic for sure, but the thought is pulled back when our faith is interjected as a necessary component in the matter. The idea here is that salvation is already a completed work whether any man ever comes in line with it or not (even though it’s sure that salvation is extended only to those who identify themselves with Him through faith.) We can add nothing to the work of Christ on the basis that it’s already complete; we can only submit ourselves to it through faith. The point is, rather than magnifying our part in the matter of salvation, which is only a humble acknowledgment and acceptance of His work, we should rather employ a greater deal of emphasis on the one who made it all possible. I pulled this quote from a website that a commenter recently brought to my attention.
