Misconceptions About Salvation
#14 "I don't need to accept Jesus to be saved. He just saves me and that's it."
A man wrote that he does not have to accept the Lord Jesus in order to be saved. Jesus just saves him. He then said in effect that you don't ask a drowning man to be saved, you just rescue him without offering your help.
There are three things that are problematic here:
First, the Bible clearly teaches that the Lord Jesus must be received in order for one to be saved and become a child of God. "But as many as RECEIVED HIM, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name." Joh 1:12
Second, he failed to realize two important stages in the redemption process: a) Redemption Accomplished b) Redemption Appropriated and c) Redemption Applied
The Lord Jesus Christ accomplished redemption when He died on the cross. But that accomplished redemption must be appropriated by faith in order for it to be applied to the believing or trusting sinner. In his thinking, the first stage (a) is all it takes for one to be saved.
Third, he based his error on an illustration that only emphasized certain aspects of salvation. The drowning man illustration only goes so far. Yes, it's true that salvation is a rescue and a deliverance from danger. But salvation is also a proposal of a relationship.
Salvation is also about being united to God in a relationship with Him. Since it is also about having a relationship with God, it is therefore something that is offered and not imposed. And any proposal of a relationship must be received or accepted in order for it to be established.
