The Decision
The subject of “salvation” has come up in several conversations I’ve been in over the past week or so and I thought I’d see if I can bring some of that discussion here. I think it started with a Tweet linking to this article then it started some interesting conversation in the dressing room at a few shows, then home, then to coffee shops interrupting meetings.
So here we are.
According to the article, folks “shouldn’t ask Christ into their hearts for several reasons, but the gist of it is that it’s unbiblical and there’s no “conversion” that happens when you do so. Interesting.
Then I saw this video in the comments. It’s pretty intense, but it seems to follow along with that same thought.
The more I think on this the more I can see how us as humans need that defining moment in our lives to look back on and say, “I was saved on September 18th, 1994, and I’ve never looked back.” I can see that.
So my question isn’t really what you believe about all of this in detail. I’m wondering if there is an exact moment that you become saved? When do you believe that is? I’d love to hear your thoughts on this.
You know, I do know when I was saved, that moment that is clearly imprinted into my mind and the feelings associated with all that entailed. However, I’ve never been able to remember the exact date. I fell away from the faith and as I have came back to it, this has bothered me greatly. I’ve been told that if you can’t name that exact date then you were never really saved, but this seems so illogical to me. Certainly God’s calendar is not our own?? I mean, “February 9, 2011″ is simply a man made calculation of this day. I just can’t see getting to heaven and being asked at the pearly gates “Well, Jeanna, please let me know what day you were saved so that I might be able to look you up in our registrar”….. “What’s that?? You don’t KNOW the exact date you were saved??? Well, I am just so sorry but that is the only way we can confirm your place here, TO HELL YOU GO!!” I mean, really?? And I can get what people mean as far as “Asking Jesus into your heart” that makes sense to me. The Bible says “Confess with your mouth and believe in your heart”. Saying that you ask him into your heart makes is just an easy way to explain grace and mercy, and now that I think about it, doesn’t that seem to almost diminish the power that is God’s grace and mercy?? Simply saying, “Come into my heart” isn’t enough, is it? I mean shouldn’t we really be saying something along the lines of this: “WOE IS ME!!! I KNOW you are that you, Jesus, are my Lord and Savior. I understand that you sacrificed because you love me, and while I do not deserve it, Lord I accept this gift, this grace and mercy, and I thank you for it” I don’t know if this is what you were looking for, but you certainly got me thinking. Good post.
I do remember the day I “asked Jesus into my heart”, an idea that we present to children. Mind you, how is a child supposed to understand that? But that was the first time that I asked for salvation. True conversion is a process, a journey…and it happened over time. It’s still happening.
At our house, we call it fire insurance when someone has prayed the prayer, but doesn’t always back it up with an active, personal relationship with Christ. They may be safe from hell, but they are missing out on what this is really all about.
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i get what the guy is trying to say in the article…we don’t want to present salvation as a ritual that, if you do it, then you’re covered. ‘say these words and God HAS to let you into heaven!’
however, i disagree with the idea that asking Jesus into your heart is wrong, unbiblical and has no place in the moment of salvation.
sanctification is a process, salvation is a moment of decision.
acts 16.31 – believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved, you and your household.
romans 10.9 – if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.
romans 10.13 – whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.
i was thinking about this post and thought of the issue this way:
many of us have the testimony that, at some specific point in time, we realized that our wives/husbands were THE ONE. where our knowledge and relationship with that person clicked, and it was a done deal. or, if that didn’t happen, those of us who are married all have that moment where we said, ‘i do,’ acknowledging our decision to marry this person.
the process of knowing our spouse and loving them continues each day, but there was a moment where we said yes and we were forever changed.
no specific set of words saves you. faith saves us by the grace of God. so there must be a moment of decision where we realize who God is, what He’s done and how we need Him. a moment of decision where we say yes to God, believing in what He’s done, turning toward Him and then moving forward in our love for Him. entering into the process of sanctification after the moment of salvation.
ephesians 3.17-19 – that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height— to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.