Have You Received Wrong Salvation Instructions? -- Part 1
I watched this short video from Todd Friel the other day which I think really hits the nail on the head. I’d like to spend a couple posts breaking down the 10 examples he gave of wrong salvation instructions. If you are a professing Christian in America, I guarantee you have heard or even used some/all of these. Here are the first 5 —
Accept Jesus
Make Jesus your Lord and Savior
Make a decision for Jesus
Say ‘Yes’ to Jesus
Try Jesus
Let’s take a closer look at some of the examples he used…
1 — Accept Jesus. (We are in the salvation driver’s seat.)
He uses a good quote from A.W. Tozer to drive this point home…
Thus assured, hell-deserving sinners are coming in droves to "accept" Christ for what they can get out of Him; and though one now and again may drop a tear as proof of his sincerity, it is hard to escape the conclusion that most of them are stooping to patronize the Lord of glory much as a young couple might fawn on a boresome but rich old uncle in order to be mentioned in his will later on.
—A.W. Tozer
He’s right. It is hard to escape this conclusion considering the fact we think we are the ones in control of salvation.
2 — Make Jesus Your Lord & Savior
Friel poses the question, ‘Where is repentance?’ Again, the focus is on what we are doing, rather than God and His work. He says the following —
Jesus isn’t in heaven biting His nails, longing for someone to make Him Lord. He is the Lord, seated on His throne and He commands everyone and everywhere to repent. Jesus doesn’t need to be made Lord and Savior; He already is. We need to surrender to Him in repentance and faith.
—Todd Friel
3 — Make A Decision for Jesus
This implies ‘decisional regeneration.’
When I hear ‘decisional regeneration’, that’s an oxymoron. That’s like hearing a dead, live oak. It’s just two opposites. You cannot decide for Christ UNTIL you are regenerated.
—Steve Lawson
Friel also talks about Charles Finney. He is a good person to look-up to see where a lot of this started to become more mainstream in churches. It’s never a bad habit to see how/where sets of beliefs or habits originated, as well as point out those who had a bigger hand in pushing them forward.
4 — Say ‘Yes’ To Jesus
We need to say ‘Yes’ to a lot of things Jesus said, but it starts with repentance. In the video, he uses a good illustration about driving the wrong way on a trip. If you knew the person driving was doing this and you were in the passenger seat, then you’d want him to :
Agree with you that he is going the wrong way.
Stop!
Turn around!
Start going in the right direction.
Keep going until you arrived at the correct destination.
5 — Try Jesus
Is Jesus a used car who we test drive? Among other things, he mentions that Jesus demands a broken and contrite heart. That shows our recognition that we are unworthy of Him. It shows we are in a place of repentance and ready to change. That’s quite different than ‘trying’ Jesus as if we are measuring whether He is up to our standards!
I’ve mentioned in other posts, but it’s always good to be reminded of the fact that even Jesus when He begin His earthly ministry began with these words —
Jesus Begins His Ministry
Mar 1:14 Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God,
Mar 1:15 and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”
—Mark 1:14-15
Repent and believe! Believe what? The gospel! If we don’t even know what the gospel is, and give false instructions about how to get saved from the bad news (if it’s even explained clearly), then how can we be confident we are giving or receiving sound instructions when it comes to salvation? We can’t and shouldn’t be. Yet, too many of us are!
I’ll be using this same video in the next post as we look at examples 6-10. Please be sure to share with some friends, especially professing Christians. We don’t want to be sowing bad seed. Perhaps we’ve also received some cloudy instructions ourselves. I hope this helps to clear some things up for us.