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If there is one thing that irks me -- that is, besides all of the wicked things which are going on in the world today -- it is when I am forced to deal with Christian brethren who are legalists. They come in all kinds of flavors. For example, there are certain people who insist that we must worship God on Saturday instead of on Sunday. Then there are those folks who are convinced that we must refer to God the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ, by specific Hebrew names, even though they can't agree amongst themselves on what said Hebrew names are. There are also those Christians who argue that we are required to observe Jewish feast days and keep the full Mosaic Law of the Old Testament. Some will also claim that we Christians are bound by Jewish kosher laws. There are likewise some Christians who absolutely hate the Apostle Paul, while there are others who go to the opposite extreme and idolize him and his writings, even though Paul himself told people not to do it.

So as I said, legalists come in all kinds of flavors. Some of them are the most argumentative and contentious people I have ever met. Needless-to-say, that is such a very sad and a very bad reflection of our Christian faith. If Christians behave this way amongst ourselves, is it any wonder that a lot of worldly people don't wish to embrace our faith? That kind of behavior certainly isn't the kind of Christian love that Jesus taught to the Apostles. As the following verses reveal, the Scriptures have a lot to say regarding the topic of brotherly Christian love:

"Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets."


"By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another."


"As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love.‭ If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love.‭ These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and ‭that‭ your joy might be full.‭ This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you.‭ Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.‭"


"Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law. For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou shalt not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law."


"Now as touching things offered unto idols, we know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffeth up, but charity edifieth."


"But covet earnestly the best gifts: and yet shew I unto you a more excellent way."


"And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing . . . And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity."


"For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself."


"If ye fulfil the royal law according to the scripture, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself, ye do well:"


"And above all things have fervent charity among yourselves: for charity shall cover the multitude of sins."


"He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love."


"And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.‭"


If you frequent the social networks a lot, then you are no doubt familiar with the kind of people I am talking about. As I point out in my article entitled "Should Christians Engage in Doctrinal Debates?", normally, I strive to avoid them, because years ago, I learned through experience that trying to find common ground with them is pretty much an exercise in futility. This is because in their minds, they are always right, and you are always wrong, no matter what the topic of discussion is. In fact, I sometimes refer to them as "correctors", because they seem to enjoy going around on the social networks and "correcting" people with whom they are not in doctrinal agreement.

It was just such an incident which finally compelled me to write this current article. So let me share my experience with you, and explain to you how I responded to the person in question. As some of my longtime friends will know, I am rather judicious and selective when it comes to accepting new friends, or sending friend requests to people, on the social networks. I vet every single person before making a decision concerning them. However, the thing is, no matter how much you may scrutinize a particular page, until you actually interact with a person, you just never really know what they are truly like.

Well, in this particular case, I was on Facebook looking for some new people to send friend requests to. About an hour or so after selecting a number of people to send a request to, one of them, a woman, accepted my request. In retrospect, I should have been a bit more careful, because there were some clear hints on her timeline that a problem might possibly develop with her. However, I wanted to boost my friends list, so I sent her a friend request.

If you are already one of my social network friends, then you probably know that at the top of many of my social network accounts, I have pinned a very clear Salvation message in the form of a graphic. After all, Salvation through faith in the Sacrifice of Jesus Christ is the core message of my ministry. Well, about an hour after I sent the aforementioned person a friend request, I noticed that she had left a comment under my Salvation message graphic. It simply said "Accept Jesus is unbiblical", and it was accompanied by the graphic which you see below:



As you can imagine, I was taken back a bit by her comment. However, I was not completely surprised, because this was NOT the first time that I have encountered someone on the social networks who is promoting this very same legalistic deception regarding accepting Jesus not being Biblical. My first reaction was to simply delete the graphic this woman had posted, along with her comment, and then to block her.

Now, while some folks may possibly view my reaction as being unfair, unethical, extreme, or whatever, allow me to inform you that being as I am a God-fearing Christian, I take my work for the Lord very seriously. I believe that God holds me personally responsible for what I post on my timeline, and for what I allow others to post on my timeline as well. As I have mentioned a number of times before, the last thing that I want to do is to knowingly or unknowingly serve as a conduit for any kind of false doctrine.

That being the case, I am not the least bit interested in being politically correct. I don't care what other people think of my actions. I don't care if they criticize me or condemn me because I do or say something on my timeline which they don't like or don't agree with. After all, just like the rest of you, I must answer to God first. Thus, if I strongly disagree with something that someone posts on my timeline, and I am convinced that it is not a Biblically sound comment, graphic or whatever, I will not hesitate to delete it.

So, as I said, my initial reaction was to do exactly that. However, guess what? I did not do that. For some reason, I decided to try to reason with the woman, and point out her error to her, even though I knew from previous experiences exactly how she would probably react to my response. If you don't know what I am talking about, then let me again refer you to my article entitled "Should Christians Engage in Doctrinal Debates?" where I explain exactly what kinds of reactions these types of people usually have.

Having now provided you with some background regarding this particular situation, allow me to share with you how I chose to respond to this woman. As you will see, I took a rather logical, direct approach, and provided Scriptures to back up my position. Of course, my answer in this article will be more detailed than what I actually gave to her, because that was just a comment on Facebook, while this is a full-fledged article where I can say a lot more regarding this subject.

As I mentioned earlier, this woman claimed that to accept Jesus is not a Biblical doctrine. By way of the graphic she posted, she went on to say that not a single verse is found in the Bible which outright says that we must ask Jesus into our hearts. According to the graphic, we must simply repent and believe. Let me just clarify here that these words were apparently not hers, but those of someone by the name of Voddie Baucham, whoever that is. However, the fact that she agrees with the graphic, and even posted it on my timeline, is basically saying that the words might as well be hers.

Well, to begin with, she is right. I will agree that I'm not aware of a single verse in the New Testament which says that we need to accept Jesus, or ask Him into our hearts. However, therein lies the problem. As I told her, she needs to learn to read God's Word in the Spirit, and NOT just in the letter. While discussing the extreme legalism of his Jewish brethren, and how they were so bound by and blinded by the Mosaic Law, so that they were unable to see or accept the Grace of God through faith in Jesus, the Apostle Paul wrote the following:

"But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God."


"Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life."


Now, if you don't understand my intention in sharing those two verses with you, it is this: A lot of Christians read the Bible just like those legalistic Jews of old. In other words, they are so afraid of misunderstanding something, or taking a verse out of context, or making some other kind of error, that they have basically placed blinders before their eyes, just like a horse. In other words, they are only able to see what is in front of them in black and white on a page in the Bible.

Stated another way, they are unable to be led by the Spirit in their personal understanding. If something is not stated plainly in black and white, they refuse to accept it. Well, if we take that approach to the extreme, we REALLY run into serious trouble. I mean, gosh -- and, yes, I am being a bit facetious here -- the Bible says nothing about brushing our teeth. So should we just not do it? It doesn't tell us how to boil an egg either. Oh man! I love eating eggs! Do you see by point with these ridiculous examples?

In short, there are A LOT of things which are implied in, or which can be inferred from, the Bible, even though they are not stated directly. However, sadly, if we are so legalistic in our approach to Bible reading, if we are not Spirit-led in our understanding, if we lack the wisdom of God's Spirit, and only accept what is plainly stated in black and white, we may miss them. We won't be able to discern them, as this woman seems to fail to do. Please consider the following set of verses:

"But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you."


"Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come."


"If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?"


"If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him."


"Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law."


"For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God."


"But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned."


Having said all of the above, let me now present a logical explanation for why I disagree with this woman's position. In other words, contrary to what she believes, I am quite convinced that the Bible does in fact indirectly say that we need to accept Jesus, and ask Him into our hearts. Let me ask you a simple question. If a friend of yours comes knocking at the door of your home, and the door is locked, is he able to enter your home? Of course not! You have to actually open the door and invite him into your home, right? I mean, he can stand out there knocking forever, but until you make the decision to take the action of opening the door and letting him in, he is not going to make any progress. Well, you are probably familiar with what Jesus says about this:

"Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me."


So as you can see, we have to symbolically open the door of our hearts, and invite Jesus in to commune with us in the Spirit. It is as simple as that. As the Apostle John wrote in his Gospel, we have to RECEIVE Christ in order to be adopted into God's family as the sons of God. When you receive a person into your home as an invited guest, are you not by the same token ACCEPTING them? Thus John writes as follows:

"But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:"


Therefore, as far as I am concerned, contrary to what that woman claimed in her comment to me, to RECEIVE Jesus as our Savior by believing in what He did for us, is the same as ACCEPTING Him. There's really no difference between the two. To receive something is to accept something; or do you also disagree like that woman? So they are basically synonymous words in this particular case. In contrast, the unbelieving Jews did NOT receive Jesus. What does that mean exactly? It means that they did not ACCEPT Him, as is clearly evident by the following group of verses:

"He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not."


"The stone which the builders refused is become the head stone of the corner. This is the LORD'S doing; it is marvellous in our eyes."


"Jesus saith unto them, Did ye never read in the scriptures, The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner: this is the Lord's doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes?"


"And he began to teach them, that the Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders, and of the chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again."


"And have ye not read this scripture; The stone which the builders rejected is become the head of the corner: This was the Lord’s doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes?"


"Saying, The Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be slain, and be raised the third day."


"But first must he suffer many things, and be rejected of this generation."


"He came unto his own, and his own received him not."


"This is the stone which was set at nought of you builders, which is become the head of the corner."


"For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ."


"To whom coming, as unto a living stone, disallowed [that is disapproved, rejected, repudiated] indeed of men, but chosen of God, and precious, Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. Wherefore also it is contained in the scripture, Behold, I lay in Sion a chief corner stone, elect, precious: and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded. Unto you therefore which believe he is precious: but unto them which be disobedient, the stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made the head of the corner, And a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence, even to them which stumble at the word, being disobedient: whereunto also they were appointed."


So what we see again even more clearly by looking at this in the negative, is that we must indeed ACCEPT Jesus Christ. As I mentioned earlier, in addition to claiming that there is no Biblical proof that we need to accept Jesus, this same woman stated that we don't need to ask Jesus into our hearts. Well, that is rather odd, because the New Testament contains a number of verses in which we are specifically told to ask for certain things. In the Gospels, Jesus repeatedly told us to ask for things by way of prayer, believing by faith that we receive them. For example, He told His listeners to ask for the Holy Spirit. In some cases, people had to ask Jesus to be healed. As we saw earlier, we have to ask for the wisdom of God's Spirit. Consider the following example verses:

"Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened."


"If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?"


"If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord. A double minded man is unstable in all his ways."


"And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us: And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him."


Clearly then, it is a Scripturally sound practice to ask for certain things. So, what about asking Jesus into our hearts? Well, the way in which I personally look at it is this: When we RECEIVE and ACCEPT Christ, and BELIEVE in what He did for us, the Apostle Paul informs us that His Spirit comes to dwell in our hearts. So what do YOU think? Consider the following verses:

"THAT CHRIST MAY DWELL IN YOUR HEARTS by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love,"


"That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and SHALT BELIEVE IN THINE HEART that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation."


It is the very same principle as we discussed earlier. Just as a person cannot enter our home unless we verbally invite them in, or perhaps motion them in with our hand, neither will Jesus come to dwell in our hearts unless we also invite Him in. That is why John 3:16 says "whosoever believeth." It is a conscious decision which we must make to ask Christ to dwell in our hearts through faith. Does that make sense to you?

This same woman, by way of the graphic which she posted on my Facebook timeline, likewise insisted that we only have to repent and believe. We don't need to accept or ask. Well, as I point out in my article called "What It Means to Repent", the word "repent" means to change one's mind. In the case of Christ, it means to change our mind from a state of UNBELIEF in Christ, to a state of BELIEF in Christ, which results in our Salvation and receiving Eternal Life, precisely as John 3:16 states:

"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, THAT WHOSOEVER BELIEVETH in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."


Now, it should be rather obvious to you that when you believe something, it means that you ACCEPT it as being true, right? So once again we see that when we BELIEVE in Jesus Christ, we are in fact ACCEPTING that He is the Son of God and God's chosen Messiah and Savior who died for the sins of the world.

Please go to part two for the conclusion of this article.

⇒ Go To The Next Part . . .

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