What does it mean to accept Jesus as your personal Savior?

Repentance is a change of mind, a complete reversal of one's inward attitude towards self, towards sin, to wards God, towards Christ and towards the Gospel. It is to give up one's own mind and opinion and to accept God's mind as revealed in the Gospel. One may think that he is a Christian because he has tried to live a good life, belongs to a church, has been baptized and does religious works. Yet none of these and kindred other things will ever make one a born-again Christian, so there must be a change of mind about all this. One must come to God as a repentant sinner and believe on Christ as his Savior to become a Christian.

The person, who from the heart believes on the Lord Jesus Christ as Saviour, and confesses Him as Lord, experiences an inward change. This is very evident, and the change cannot but be seen by those who come into contact with such. That is the meaning of the word, conversion, that inward change, that takes place when “repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ” (Acts 20:21) have wrought their blessed work in the soul.

Now Christ came into a world in which He already had interests. Perhaps we do not sufficiently realize what it must have been to the Lord Jesus to come to His own circle of interests and to be completely refused by His own people! (John 1:11). but at that moment there came into view a new generation, "As many as received Him, to them gave He (the) right to be children of God," (New Trans.). And from that moment we see the attention of Christ focused on that new company. They are called His "own." Entrance into this new sphere was not by intelligence, nor was it by any ecclesiastical ceremony; it was as the result of receiving Christ, having faith in that blessed Person, believing on His Name. Faith, given of God, operating thus towards Christ, gives to each one of us the right to take account of ourselves in the dignity that attaches to this wonderful company that Christ calls "His own."

The first chapter of John's gospel opens with that magnificent reference to the glory of His eternal Person as He, the eternal "Logos," the Creator, comes into this world. He came to His own interests, and His own people received Him not. He was unknown to the world, but He was also refused and rejected by His earthly people. "But," says the Scripture, "as many as received Him, to them gave He the right to be children of God, to those that believe on His name." The word "received" is a word of great import. It does not refer to a mental reception of the truth, important as that may be; the word indicates receiving something to hold, tenaciously and permanently. The very word is used in relation to the Pharisees and Sadducees in Mark 7, where it says "they received to hold the traditions of men." That which proceeds from the minds of men — denigrating the Person and glory of Christ — held tenaciously today, and I am praying as I speak that if there are any in danger of being held by such traditions; receiving them to hold, only to find the end of them to be destruction, that God may turn your hearts and minds to Christ, that you might find in Him the answer to all your difficulties and problems.

A narrow gate, and a narrow way, lead to life. The reception of one Person leads to the blest relationship of sons unto God. Who would have thought that such hopeless conditions as men presented in this world could have been met by so simple a solution? Who would have supposed that such a solution to men's needs should be attended by so stupendous an issue? A blind man does not per-ceive, but he can re-ceive. We don't all have the chance of receiving money, and garments, and oliveyards, and vineyards, and sheep, and oxen, and menservants and maidservants (see 2 Kings 5:26). But to each hearer of the good news of the Saviour, Son of God, comes the opportunity of receiving Christ. The world knew Him not in His lowliness, His own people of Israel received Him not; but some submitted to Him, opened their hearts to Him, welcomed Him within by placing their faith in His name; and so proved themselves to be born of God.

“HE CAME TO HIS OWN” (neuter), and “His own (masc.) received Him not.” But there were those who did, and He Himself gave the right to such to be children of God. They believed on His Name, having received in faith the truth of who and what the world’s Maker and Israel’s King is. They were “born of God” (John 1:13). A new family thus appears. The Lord had brought Israel out of the fierce furnace of Egyptian bondage. But when tested under law, they proved themselves a perverse generation, rebellious children, and when their rightful Ruler came to His own rights, He was refused them. Then He uses His divine and royal prerogative, to grant to those who receive Him in faith, the unquestionable “RIGHT” to take the place of God’s children. Today these have the witness of the Spirit, and the love of the Father assuring them of that relationship, being born of God, yet “the right” granted sovereignly by the Son adds boldness to our divinely assured faith. How vastly important and encouraging is this Word. The MAKER OF THE WORLD, ISRAEL’S KING, JESUS, the Son of God, unknown by the world, and refused His own crown and kingdom by Israel, has given to those who receive Him, the right to take this honoured place of relationship and blessedness,—THE PLACE OF THE CHILDREN OF GOD. How great and glorious is the One who grants this right! How rich is the right granted to those who believe on such an One! What holy confidence is thus imparted! Everlasting praise be His. The world was made through Him! Israel’s throne belongs to Him! God’s children are abidingly blessed by Him.

Now, faith, as we have seen, is always conjoined with repentance; and while repentance is toward God, faith is toward the Lord Jesus Christ. The explanation of this is very simple. It is against God we have sinned, and it is He who has passed judgment upon our sins; so that, when we are convicted of our guilt, it is to Him we turn with confession and self-judgment. In this state our one need is to learn the way of salvation, just as when the jailor, conscience-smitten, rushed into the presence of Paul and Silas, and cried, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" Their answer was the presentation of Christ. "Believe," they said, "on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house." (Acts 16:30-31.) This, as the reader may perceive, is a summary of what was said; for we read in the next verse that they spake unto him the word of the Lord, and to all that were in his house. But the fact of the term - the Lord Jesus Christ - being used, shows that it was a full gospel they preached - the gospel concerning His person, His death and resurrection, and His present exaltation as Lord at the right hand of God. The jailor received, through grace, the testimony thus delivered, and there was therefore in his soul faith toward the Lord Jesus Christ. He believed God's testimony to the finished work of Christ on the cross, to the value of that work before God as having made full and perfect atonement for sin, and also to the testimony to His resurrection; so that he could then say, "He was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification."

And it is with faith, as so exercised, that remission of sins is always connected. This will be at once understood, if the reader will turn to the passage already cited from Luke 24, where repentance and remission of sins are linked together, both to be preached in the name of the risen Christ. For the moment there is the reception of God's testimony concerning the death and resurrection of Christ, forgiveness of sins is enjoyed. Repentance brings into a right state of soul before God; faith identifies the soul with all the value of the work of Christ. Both therefore are absolutely necessary for salvation.

Now, faith, as we have seen, is always conjoined with repentance; and while repentance is toward God, faith is toward the Lord Jesus Christ. The explanation of this is very simple. It is against God we have sinned, and it is He who has passed judgment upon our sins; so that, when we are convicted of our guilt, it is to Him we turn with confession and self-judgment. In this state our one need is to learn the way of salvation, just as when the jailer, conscience-smitten, rushed into the presence of Paul and Silas, and cried, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" Their answer was the presentation of Christ. "Believe," they said, "on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house." (Acts 16:30-31.) This, as the reader may perceive, is a summary of what was said; for we read in the next verse that they spake unto him the word of the Lord, and to all that were in his house. But the fact of the term — the Lord Jesus Christ — being used, shows that it was a full gospel they preached — the gospel concerning His person, His death and resurrection, and His present exaltation as Lord at the right hand of God. The jailer received, through grace, the testimony thus delivered, and there was therefore in his soul faith toward the Lord Jesus Christ. He believed God's testimony to the finished work of Christ on the cross, to the value of that work before God as having made full and perfect atonement for sin, and also to the testimony to His resurrection; so that he could then say, "He was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification."

And it is with faith, as so exercised, that remission of sins is always connected. This will be at once understood, if the reader will turn to the passage already cited from Luke 24, where repentance and remission of sins are linked together, both to be preached in the name of the risen Christ. For the moment there is the reception of God's testimony concerning the death and resurrection of Christ, forgiveness of sins is enjoyed. Repentance brings into a right state of soul before God; faith identifies the soul with all the value of the work of Christ. Both therefore are absolutely necessary for salvation.

I presume that you are all satisfied there must be faith; but without the truth there cannot be faith. Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God. Through faith comes eternal life; but eternal life, you must all acknowledge, is not the gift of man nor within the reach of man until the conscience is exercised by the word of God. But the moment the soul bows to Jesus in self-judgment, not merely as a worker of miracles but as the Son of God, come into this world to do these two great things - first of all, to give me a life that I have not, and, secondly, to take away the sins that I have (to remove all the evil that weighs me down, and to give me the very best that God has for me — eternal life in His own Son), then all is clear. The man is a believer. He has repentance towards God. He hates himself, judges himself, condemns himself out-and-out before God; yet none the less but the more does he look out of himself to the Son of man suffering for man's sins the Son of God given of God's grace. He has faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ, and he is a child of God by faith in Christ Jesus.

Naturally the subject-matter points to his work from the beginning of his arrival at Ephesus, but also to that which every soul needs as the first testimony of the gospel. Hence we hear of testifying to Jews and Greeks. It is what every man wants that he may come to God. Repentance and faith are inseparable where there is reality, and the language is as precise as we are entitled to expect from one who not only had the mind of God but expressed it like the apostle. As there is no genuine repentance without faith, so there is no faith of God's elect without repentance. Repentance toward God is the soul judging itself, and confessing its ways as in His sight. Faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ is the soul receiving the good news God sends concerning His Son. 'Repent', said Peter on the day of Pentecost to the Jews already pricked in heart, who accepted the word and set to their seal that God is true. 'Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, thou and thy house,' said Paul and Silas to the Philippian jailer and to all that were in his house. How unfounded it would be to imagine that in the one case there was repentance without faith, or, in the other, faith on the Lord Jesus Christ without repentance toward God! In a divine work both are given and found.