GOSPEL NUGGET #132

Misconceptions About Salvation

#6 "To receive Christ, one must INVITE JESUS INTO HIS HEART"

Obviously, the cause of this misconception is the failure to realize what it is to receive Christ. 

To receive Christ is actually to receive His claims about Himself. Did you not notice that in the Gospel of John, the apostle strives and labors so hard to present to his readers claim after claim after claim of who the Lord Jesus is? The book piles up one claim after another of the Lord Jesus.

Here are some of them:

1. He is the Revealer of God (the Word of God)
2. He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world
3. He is the Bread from heaven
4. He is the Savior of the world
5. He is the Way, the Truth and the Life. No one comes to God except through Him.
6. He is the Light of the world

Now, in order to genuinely receive a claim, one must trust in the claim and the person making the claim. I might say for example: "I am superman", and your mouth may pay lip service to it by saying: "Yes, I believe", but if your heart does not trust what I am claiming, then you have not truly received my claim.

In order to genuinely receive a claim, one must trust in it. And so that is why the apostle John says in John 1:12:

Jn 1:12 Yet to all who received him, ***to those who believed/trusted in his name***, he gave the right to become children of God

Names in the Bible especially those of God describe who God is. His name is who He is. His name is His claim. To believe in Jesus' name is to trust who He is. "Jesus" in short, means Savior. And those who have trusted Him and His claims, are the ones who have genuinely received Him.

At least 150 times in the Bible, the idea of believing/trusting in the Lord Jesus is emphasized. Not once can we find of anyone inviting Jesus into their hearts. Revelation 3:20 is not an invitation to salvation but an invitation to fellowship for people who were already Christians who went out of fellowship with Him.

Receiving Christ is just another way of saying: "Trust in the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation."