Logistics of accepting Jesus

[e.r.m.]

Jesus said, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. if anyone hears me and opens, I will come in.” He didn’t say, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If no one answers, I will beat it down with an axe and come in anyway.”

This isn’t about some cosmological formula that has to be played out in some particular way. This is about building right relationship. Jesus embodied right relationship with God and with fellow human beings. To “accept Jesus” is to accept what he taught and exemplified with regard to relationships. He said, “Love God and love your neighbor. Everything else depends upon these two.”

There are any number of ways to love your perception of “God.” There are any number of ways to build right relationship. This isn’t about some Christian creed, or about being baptized, or even about “your personal savior.” This is about embracing and living out right relationship. Salvation has been effected for humanity. Now it’s up to us to begin to live into that model of a humanity that is, at heart, one family.

That sounds like a nightmare I had where they were trying to water down the Bible and cut out Jesus, to a semi-secular "love" religion, akin to John Lenin's song "Imagine".

To “accept Jesus” is to accept what he taught and exemplified NOT ONLY with regard to relationships, but with everything he taught, holiness, righteousness, etc.

When you say there are any number of ways to love your perception of “God.” and build right relationship, it sounds like you go with the "summary" of loving God and neighbor as the greatest commandments, cutting out all the particulars the Bible teaches about those things, and inserting your own. It's called cherry picking.

Jesus spoke about a lot about love, and he also said John 14:6. And Paul said Galatians 1:6-9. You can't recreate the gospel.

 

[sooda]

I grew up in a fundamentalist Baptist church. The only doctrine we were ever taught was penal substitution, a product of the Reformation and the latest of the theories of salvation.

Until a few years ago, I had never been exposed to older and more traditional theories of salvation in Christianity.

7 Theories of the Atonement Summarized - Stephen D Morrison

Penal Substitution. Penal Substitution is a theological viewpoint within Christianity that maintains Jesus was legally punished in place of the sinners. That is, He took the place of the sinner. It is "penal" in that Christ suffered the penalty of the Law, taking the "penalty" of the Law.
Penal Substitution|Dictionary of Theology|Definition
carm.org/dictionary-penal-substitution

 

[sojourner]

To “accept Jesus” is to accept what he taught and exemplified NOT ONLY with regard to relationships, but with everything he taught, holiness, righteousness, etc.

Everything Jesus taught was relationship.

When you say there are any number of ways to love your perception of “God.” and build right relationship, it sounds like you go with the "summary" of loving God and neighbor as the greatest commandments, cutting out all the particulars the Bible teaches about those things, and inserting your own. It's called cherry picking

No, it’s called summarizing. Cherry picking is an eisegetical endeavor. I don’t do that.

 

[sojourner]

Penal Substitution. Penal Substitution is a theological viewpoint within Christianity that maintains Jesus was legally punished in place of the sinners. That is, He took the place of the sinner. It is "penal" in that Christ suffered the penalty of the Law, taking the "penalty" of the Law.
Penal Substitution|Dictionary of Theology|Definition
carm.org/dictionary-penal-substitution

What a horribly twisted, mean-spirited and ugly way to talk about living into beauty. Punishment doesn’t even enter the picture. This is nasty,”Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” type garbage.

 

[sooda]

What a horribly twisted, mean-spirited and ugly way to talk about living into beauty. Punishment doesn’t even enter the picture. This is nasty,”Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” type garbage.

I had to look it up.. I had never heard of Penal Substitution before today.

 

[sojourner]

I had to look it up.. I had never heard of Penal Substitution before today.

Same as Substitutionary Atonement.

 

[Muffled]

I had to look it up.. I had never heard of Penal Substitution before today.

Is that anything like an appendadicktome?