Justification by Acceptance rather than Justification by Faith
As those who claim to be Evangelical Christians–those who bear the very word Gospel (euangelion) in our self-made title, one would think that we would be quite sure about the Gospel to which we claim such allegiance. Yet in spite of our nominal allegiance, we find in modern Evangelical Christianity in place of the Gospel call given exclusively in Scripture by Christ and the apostles, namely, “Believe and repent!”, there is now almost exclusively the call: “Accept Jesus Christ as your personal Savior, and ask him into your heart.”

What ought to be quite startling is that the phrase we have so endeared—”Accept Jesus Christ as your personal Savior” is never used by anyone in the New Testament. Never. And this is not merely a point of semantics, for “accepting Jesus Christ” and “believing in Jesus Christ” are not synonymous phrases. In fact, they are quite different, and its shift is indicative of the philosophical shift that has occurred within the Western Church.

The Propagation of Free-Will Philosophy
If you think just for a second about the differences between “accepting” something and “believing in” something, it becomes quite apparent why the shift in language has changed from that of the Bible and the reformers. “Accepting” something by necessity demands an act of the will. It is an exertion. It is a work. It, in its connotation, is an evaluation of possible choices and choosing that which is most advantageous to the soul. In the case of modern evangelism, it is demonstrating to a person that life with Jesus is better than life without Jesus and to convince that person to say a prayer that “seals the deal” and causes the Holy Spirit give birth to him. The great majority of modern evangelism works in this way, be it done in “Hell, fire, and brimstone” presentations or in pretty tracts that purport an abundant life in Christ.

On the other hand, faith or belief in something is quite different from accepting something. Faith is not an exertion of the will. Faith is not a choice. It is a natural ascent to that which is true because one knows it to be true. For example, one believes that the sun will rise in the morning, because he has experienced a sunrise every day of his life and thereby knows that it will rise again. Faith in Jesus Christ is no different than faith in the rising sun. One believes that Jesus Christ is Lord because he has experienced Jesus Christ. He believes in Jesus Christ because Christ had shown himself to him. Just as Paul on the Damascus road saw Christ because Christ burst out of heaven and revealed himself to him, and then Paul by necessity believed, so God shines “in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2Cor. 4:6), and we believe.

Faith, therefore, is by its nature a natural reaction to a supernatural revelation. Just as a tap on the knee with a rubber hammer produces a reflexive kick, so God’s revelation of himself to a man creates in that man faith.

For this very reason, Scripture does not hesitate to say at some times that a man is justified by faith and at others that he justified by the work of Christ. For faith is not work that adds to the work of Christ, but it is the natural reaction of the revelation to our hearts that God has set us apart for himself through Jesus Christ. The apostle calls this action by God the “circumcision of the heart by the Spirit” in Romans 2:29, for we who were once far off have been brought under the Covenant and set apart for holiness and obedience through the work of Christ so that he might be the firstborn of many brothers (cf. Rm. 8:29).

Acceptance: Making Faith a Work
As we discussed earlier, the great difference between “acceptance” and “faith” is that the former is an exertion by reason and the latter is an affirmation of what one sees and experiences. The shift in language from the biblical and reformational “Believe and repent” to the present “Accept Jesus as your personal Savior” is an accommodation to human philosophy not to greater understanding of biblical truth. Our post-Enlightenment and American minds are so destroyed by our thoughts of liberty and pursuits of happiness that we cannot begin to grasp doctrines that teach otherwise. So instead of being transformed by the renewal of our minds by Holy Scripture (cf. Rm. 12:2), we are conformed to the philosophies of this world and attempt to ram the triangular peg of Scripture through the square hole of human philosophy.

Therefore in today’s context, faith is no longer a meritless assent to the work of the Almighty, but it is the work of our souls “to get right” with God. Despite clear teachings to the contrary, we explain away texts that do not fit our philosophies (and never explain them for that matter), or we avoid them altogether. We then take the analogies and pictures that Scripture gives us to show our whole dependence of God, and we twist them so as to make us the meritors rather than the meritees. If, for example, we were confronted by Nicodemus today and were asked to give instruction as to how the old man might be born again, we would not answer like Christ, who said “The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit” (Jn. 3:8), but we would say, “Accept Jesus as your personal Savior, and then you will be born again.” You know, just as we accepted our parents as our personal parents before we were born the first time around.

For this reason, we cannot comprehend what the apostle writes in Romans 3, “Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By a law of works? No, but by the law of faith. For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law (vv. 27, 28). We cannot comprehend this saying, because we can boast in what we call “faith.” If faith is truly looking at the option of Jesus Christ and looking at other options and accepting Jesus as our Savior on our own accord, then we do have something to boast in. We can say of ourselves, “We were more intuitive than those who do not believe,” “We are more predisposed to godliness than unsaved Jane over there,” “We are just smarter than every atheist that is on the planet,” etc. But if faith is, as John Piper put it, merely the cry of a newborn child of God, then we have as much reason to boast in our faith and salvation as a newborn has in crying and being born.

Next: The Doctrinal Ramifications of the Death of Justification by Faith

In spite of the great certainty with which we can be assured that God’s ultimate manifestation of his glory will be accomplished without regard to the fickleness of our wills, we are nevertheless clearly commanded to be holy as he is holy, to be transformed by the renewal of our minds, and to not be carried away by the doctrines of men (cf.1Pt. 1:16; Rm. 12:2; Eph. 4:14). In other words, we are never given warrant to be content in our ill-founded doctrines or in our disobedience knowing that God is and will be glorified in our mishaps. Quite the contrary, we are encouraged not to think as those fools who slanderously charged Paul with “doing evil that good may come” (Rm. 3:8), but we are rather charged to patiently seek for glory and honor and immortality or be met with the full wrath and fury of God (cf. Rm. 2:7,8).

Therefore, we who claim to be children of God, should strive continually to glorify God as slaves of righteousness rather than as the slaves of disobedience that we formerly were (Rm. 6:15-23). Included in our former slavery to disobedience is our fleshly, anthropocentric philosophizing and theologizing. This includes every philosophy and every theological doctrine that seeks to understand that which God has not revealed or that which God has revealed but we find disagreeable or unsettling.

Included in this class of unsettling doctrines is the presently pertinent matter of the meticulous Providence of God and God’s subsequent unconditional election and salvation of souls against which our present, man-conjured doctrine of “justification by acceptance” stands fast in opposition. The Providence of God is the doctrine from which this false teaching springs. For our justification by acceptance declares most essentially that man, not God, is in control of his destiny in spite of crystal clear teachings to the contrary. But since we in our own skins perceive ourselves to have free wills (to which I would charge you to find one instance in Scripture where it is said that our wills are anything but enslaved), we must find ways to make the Gospel that speaks of the Righteousness that comes from God alone fit into our own understanding of ourselves and our wills. Therefore that which was once faith is now acceptance, that which was once a grace is now a work, and that which was was once totally of God is now partially of God.

Therefore, we who hold to a justification by acceptance rob God of his due glory. This is not to say as we said before that God will not be glorified fully despite our attempt to rob God and to glorify ourselves, but it is rather a warning and a condemnation upon ourselves. For Isaiah speaks concerning God’s purposes in saving Israel by revealing himself to those who were deaf and blind, saying:

For my own sake, for my own sake, I do it,
for how should my name be profaned?
My glory I will not give to another (Is. 48:11, emphasis mine).

And to this day, God will not give his glory to another. The question therefore is: will you glorify God by thinking rightly about him and yourself as Scripture declares, or will you glorify God by demonstrating his righteousness through your unrighteousness and his truth through your lie? (cf. Rm. 3:6,8). The choice is yours, be it free or not.

Our justification by acceptance therefore is not justification by faith, but it is justification by works lite. For our justification by acceptance is no different than any other justification by works religion on the planet save the fact that we have only one rule, “Accept Jesus Christ as your personal Savior.” If you obey this rule you will be considered righteous, but disobey it you will be judged for not accepting Jesus Christ as your personal Savior.

But what of those who have not heard the Gospel? What will be their fate?

Prior to our present gospel where one is considered righteous because he has accepted Jesus Christ, this question was not an issue. The apostle quite clearly demonstrates in Romans 1:18-3:22 that all men are accountable to God, because all have known God’s law, and all have willingly transgressed it. This is true of those who have never heard the law as well, because they demonstrate by their conflicting thoughts and their guilt-laden consciences that the work of the law is written on their hearts, and they know that they have willingly transgressed that law (cf. Rm. 2:15, 16). Therefore, God will render to each one, whether Jew or Greek, according to his works (v. 2:6). To those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness there will be God’s wrath and fury, and there will be tribulation and distress to every human being who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek. For God shows no partiality. All who have sinned without the law, will also perish without the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law (vv. 2:8, 9, 11, 12).

The apostle could not be much clearer on the fate of those who have not heard the Gospel, because they will be judged and condemned for their sins and transgressions of the law not for their lack of accepting Jesus Christ as their Savior. We, however, have a hard time swallowing this with out modern, works-based Gospel. Since our conjured salvation is based upon the work of acceptance of Jesus Christ, we cannot fathom how God could or would punish those who have not heard that law. Even those whom have called themselves conservative evangelicals have propagated this notion and declared that the fate of the unevangelized is an ambiguous topic in Scripture. That, my friends, is heresy of the first order. For it is quite clear that those outside of Christ will be judged for their wicked deeds and their willing transgressions of the law revealed to them, not merely because they have not accepted Jesus Christ as their personal Savior.

Next: Justification by Faith is Dead, III. Doxological Ramifcations

The Apostle Paul, however, will not allow us to think in such neat divisions and dispensations. Thus, throughout his letter to the Roman church, the apostle has instructed us with phrases such as, “Not all Israel is Israel” (v. 9:5), “a Jew is one who is one inwardly” (v. 2:29), there is no distinction between Jew and Greek (v. 3:22), Abraham was saved by faith alone (v. 4:3), and, now, Moses writes both about a righteousness based on the law and a righteousness based upon faith (vv. 10:6-8).

For salvific dispensations to be true (i.e. that men at different points in history are justified before God by different means), the means by obtaining righteousness must be singular in each dispensation. The apostle, writing to the Roman church, demonstrates that this notion of salvific dispensations is false in vv. 10:5-9:

For Moses writes about the righteousness that is based on the law, that the person who does the commandments shall live by them. But the righteousness based on faith [which Moses also declares] says, “Do not say in you heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’ (i.e. to bring Christ down), or ‘Who will descend into the abyss?’ (i.e. to bring Christ up from the dead).” But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your hear” (i.e. the word of faith that we proclaim).¹

What is this to say but there has always existed two means by which men might be justified before God: either they may come in the former fashion–by perfect law-keeping and self-righteousness or they may come in the latter fashion–through faith in Christ, who is “the end of righteousness to everyone who believes” (v. 10:4)? Since the apostle has demonstrated thoroughly in Romans 3 that all men are under sin and are therefore defiled, the only remaining means to righteousness is through faith in the Lord.

It is in the context that the apostle writes, “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved” (v. 10:9). It is only after one come to grips with his own unrighteousness and sin and realizes that no amount of law-keeping or good works will commend him to God that one will look upon Lord for his gift of righteousness.

¹ Obviously, the text does not say “which Moses also declares,” but it can be easily affirmed since Moses originally penned what the apostle quotes in Deut. 30:12, 13.

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Next: Sola Fide, II. If You Believe in Your Heart