What does the Bible say about acceptance?

This means being 'brought into favour.' As God is holy, and man is a sinner, he can only be brought into acceptance by means of a Mediator, the Lord Jesus Christ. To effect this the Lord had to die, to vindicate the justice of God, and atone for the sins of those who believe. In Him risen and glorified the believer is brought into favour according to the value before God of Christ's person and work, wherefore the apostle says, "to the praise of the glory of his grace wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved." Eph. 1:6. It is then a fact that the Christian is accepted or brought into favour in the Lord Jesus Christ: cf. Rom. 5:2. How far his spirit and conduct is acceptable or well-pleasing to God is entirely a different question. 2 Cor. 5:9 should read "We labour that whether present or absent we may be acceptable to him." Being accepted we should be zealous that in all things our ways may be well-pleasing to God.

All believers, then, are accepted — perfectly and forever accepted — in the Beloved. God sees them in Christ and as Christ. He thinks of them as He thinks of Him; loves them as He loves Him. They are ever before Him in perfect acceptance in the blessed Son of His love, nor can anything or anyone ever interfere with this their high and glorious position which rests on the eternal stability of the grace of God, the accomplished work of His Son, and attested by the Holy Spirit sent down from heaven.

In the New Translation of J.N.Darby it is rendered, “taken its into favour in the Beloved.” And this is assuredly right, for “accepted ” is too cold a word. It means that and more. It embraces the idea of warmth and favour and delight. “In the Beloved”—“the Beloved ” meaning the Lord Jesus Christ—adds a thought making it richer and fuller to a very wonderful degree. For if God accepts the believer “in the Beloved,” the acceptance can only be measured by the delight and favour in which Christ stands before the Father. We are lost in the contemplation of such a wondrous fact.

But mark well what follows, "Wherefore receive ye one another, as Christ also received us to the glory of God." If our praise springs upward to God our love must flow out to all whom He loves, and it will and does if we receive one another as Christ also received us to the glory of God. Our reception of one another glorifies God equally with our united praise; indeed, how can we praise Him with one mind and one mouth if we do not receive one another? And again Christ is the pattern; if He has received me to the glory of God, I must also receive those whom He has received. There is not room here for partiality; sectarianism, "the natural weed of the human heart" is outside of this; cliques and parties, the dead sea fruit of the carnal mind, are utterly condemned by it, but there is plenty of room for the operation of the patience and consolation of God. These divine qualities can bring about what it is impossible for our fallen, selfish nature to secure.

Verse 1. "Him that is weak in the faith receive ye." Such is the plain and positive commandment of the Lord who knows His sheep, and whose will it is to reject none who truly come to Him (John 6:37). It is the believer who is to be received, without reference to the degree or measure of his faith. With respect to this, there might be a large diversity. There are babes who have need of milk, as well as men who use strong meat (Heb. 5:12-14). The emergence of a believer's conscience from a state of legal bondage into the perfect liberty of Christ, might be, and often would be, in fact, a matter of time. But, in the meanwhile, the government of such conscience was in the hands of the Lord, who had received its owner on the ground of faith. And so it is immediately added, "not to doubtful disputations," or, according to the margin, "not to judge his doubtful thoughts."*

All this is blessedly true, and nothing can ever touch it. But when we turn to the grand question of practical life and personal devotedness, what endless variety! We see "the three," "the first three," and "the thirty." It is one thing to be "accepted," and another thing to be "acceptable" or agreeable. It is one thing to be a beloved child and another thing to be a devoted servant. There is the love of relationship and the love of complacency.

But, how graciously did the Lord deal with Cain, when He manifested displeasure at his rejection. Was the Lord unrighteous in His dealings with the two brothers? "If thou doest well shalt thou not be accepted?" Or, as the margin reads, "have the excellency." But to do well was to own, like Abel, what one born in sin needed. How little do men understand this! Yet, what higher or truer ground could Abel take, than simply to confess what he was? It was in this Cain had failed. Yet the Lord would not for that finally cast him off, so He added, "If thou doest not well, sin," or, as is by some understood, a sin offering "lies at the door:" and, if offered, his sin would be forgiven, and his position as first-born would still remain to him: "to thee shall be his desire [that is, Abel's] and thou shalt rule over him." Here we have the first mention of an offering for sin. God told him what to do, but he refused to obey, and instead of the sacrifice, as pointed out, he took his brother's life. Was he desirous to secure the rights of the first-born, and so slew his brother, as others afterwards could say, "This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and the inheritance shall be ours?" It may have been so, but scripture is silent about it. One thing, however, is clear, the way of acceptance, even after he had sinned, was pointed out to him, so he was left without excuse, when he turned from the place of sacrifice without having brought the sin-offering. The Lord would not allow him to be ignorant of what he should do, any more than Abel of the results of what he had done. Multitudes have fallen into Cain's mistake, but what the Lord told Cain He tells them. For Cain, and for them a sacrifice must be offered up. But in Cain's case it was the offering up of one from the flock; in the sinner's case now, it is trusting wholly to the sacrifice of God's Lamb on the cross. How clearly then is the whole question of a sinner's acceptance shadowed forth in this brief history! How has this history spoken to the heart of the readers of these lines? If hitherto it has been read simply as the record of a bygone age, with which we are not concerned, now may its voice penetrate to the depths of the heart, and it be found speaking directly to each soul. We read here what Cain and Abel respectively offered: but we read in it also what men are doing in these days, and how each one should act, if desirous to be found on the same side as "righteous Abel."

John 6:37. If, then, blessing depends upon man's responsibility, all is over; none will be blessed. But, as ever, when man is thoroughly exposed, God falls back on the counsels of His own heart. He will not allow all to perish; nor will He allow that the coming of the Son of Man shall be all in vain. There are those whom the Father has purposed to give to the Son; and, as the Lord can say, "All that the Father gives Me shall come to Me". Seeing that the Father gives them, the Son will receive them; "Him that comes to Me I will in no wise cast out". Whatever their nationality or their character, be they Jews or Gentiles, fallen women or hardened thieves, Pharisees or publicans, if they but come to Christ they will be received, for their coming is the proof that they are the gift of the Father to the Son.

Assuredly, the conscience is the immediate arbiter of good and evil to the man. But the directory of the conscience is the word of truth. Unless, then, a believer is walking in a way inconsistent with the declared commands of God, to reject Him on account of paucity of faith, or of spiritual discernment or attainment, is to despise and reject the Lord Himself, who has received him in His grace. While, therefore, the entrance of allowed evil was to be watchfully resisted, and no pretext listened to which would serve as a cover for the introduction of the leaven of false doctrine into the temple of Divine truth (2 Cor. 6:16); the weak-hearted Christian, whose heart was right with God, though his joy might be but scant and feeble, because the light of God as yet shone dim within him, was to be received according to the Spirit of liberty, into the Church in which that Spirit dwells. He was to be welcomed in the bowels of the love of Christ. He was to come among them, not to be questioned or directed as to his individual conscience, but to be comforted, and strengthened, and led onward in the path of truth; to be owned according to the fellowship and power of that kingdom of God which is not meat and drink, but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.

In the present day, as we have observed, difficulties have been increased in reference to our being preserved from sectarianism in the gatherings of the saints of God. Can we, for instance, accept any professed Christian to the breaking of bread regardless of what doctrine he may hold or of whether he is involved in moral evil? Immediately a true believer must answer that if his doctrines are fundamentally false, or his practice is morally evil, we should refuse to accept him. To refuse him is certainly not sectarian, but obedience to scripture (2 John 9-11; 1 Cor. 5:11).