The concept of salvation is about as diverse as there are denominations. The reasons for this are because there are so many scriptures that speak to the subject from so many angles and so many people looking at the subject from their own perspective as well as their own bias. This complicates the issue drastically, as most of us do not actually pull from the scripture exegetically what it says from the authors intended point of view, but we find the scriptures that fit our viewpoint and then read into them what we already believe.

The belief that one is saved by “asking Jesus to come into their heart” is no exception. In my opinion, the origin of this doctrine comes straight out of early 3rd and 4th century Roman Catholic thinking. Much of the doctrine we have today can be attributed to those two centuries. Short cuts in almost every area of the early Christian doctrines were taken for the purpose of making it easier for the pagan world to convert to Christianity. I believe that this over simplified statement of “asking Jesus to come into our hearts” is a remnant of that early compromised way of thinking.

It is natural for us to look for short cuts in everything. Isn’t that what makes us Americans? But compromise always leads to a degradation of Truth. Truth is supposed to be our guiding compass regardless of how it makes us feel or how it rubs against our theological background or current line of thinking. A compromise of original Truth distorts and inhibits the ability for the compass to do what it was created to do. Thus, if a compromise took place in theology 1800 years ago, it is likely that the original Truth over the years would have been changed, even ever so slightly at first, to the point of being unrecognizable. Unfortunately, that is exactly where we are at today. We are trying to figure out what is truth and what is tradition. For some, the emotional upset of finding out that something which was held as a cherished belief could be at worst “untrue” or at best “tradition” is too much to bear and they would rather not know the truth. This is unfortunate as the Word of God says that the Truth can only do one thing: Set us FREE!

Anyway, let’s get back to our subject. The statement that one must “ask Jesus to come into their heart” is not necessarily untrue. It is just not ALL of the truth. It is misleading. It is a short cut and misinformation that I believe has caused millions of people over the centuries to have ill-experiences with their Creator because they intellectually trusted a “formula” per say that was more religious and traditionally based rather than the full truth (that is less popular) that can forever change their lives.

So, what is the truth? (I think Caesar said that, didn’t he?) And here we are 2000 years later asking the same question. In my studies, I have found that the majority of problems in the church, especially doctrinally based, can be traced back to one simple reason: We don’t go back far enough to get the answers. Period. The “Church Fathers” seem to be more of a guide for doctrine than do the authors themselves. And we forget that before the Church Fathers were “Church Fathers”, most were pagan, cultic gentiles that hated everything about the Jews. The same Jews that wrote our bible!

How is it that we believe that they had the ability to completely put away their Anti-Semitism, Anti-Nomian, pagan theologies and cultic way of thinking and just so happened to be able to interpret the bible from a completely non-biased point of view? All this while supposedly understanding exactly the meaning of the author himself of which they previously hated!? Suspicious at best, in my opinion. I do not take away that that time period certainly does have value in the writings of those early Christians. I believe that we just cannot give it biblical status. We must go back of Protestantism, back of Lutheranism, back of Catholicism, back of Gentile theology all the way back to the apostles themselves and THEIR background if we are going to find what we are looking for. This subject is no different. We must first understand what the Jewish authors themselves believed and where their concepts came from (the concepts that forged their writings) before we go hunting and pecking to find verses that talk about the subject and then create doctrines out of a few ambiguous scriptures that can be easily be taken out of their intended context.

The concept of salvation for the Jew of the First Century was pretty much the same concept as the Israelite 1000 years earlier. They believed they were saved because they were the “Chosen People”. Their concept of salvation was not that they were being saved “from” something, but were saved “into” something. They were “saved” into His favor because they were of the line of Abraham. This is where they made their mistake. They forgot what a “True Jew” really was. Paul spends a considerable amount of time in the NT explaining this concept of “true Jew” or true child of the Father. One example is in Romans where he is talking about the Gentiles that are actually keeping the Law of God better than the actual Jews themselves and because of this says that the true Jew is one who is circumcised in the heart and not just of the flesh. Paul drives his point home by saying that his converts were obeying the Lord out of shear love for Him and thus received their praise from Yahweh while the Jews in this context were obeying the commandments to get praise from men.

Rom 2: 26So if the uncircumcised man keeps the requirements of the Law, will not his uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision? 27And he who is physically uncircumcised, if he keeps the Law, will he not judge you who though having the letter of the Law and circumcision are a transgressor of the Law? 28For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh. 29But he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that which is of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter; and his praise is not from men, but from God.

But before we go any further, let’s back up for a moment. The definition of salvation really started in the garden.

Gen 2:15 The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. 16 And the LORD God commanded the man, "You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; 17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die."

There is given in the second chapter of Genesis instructions for life and instructions of death. Right here in Genesis we have God laying out for us His ideas of what salvation is. And this “idea” will be built upon through the rest of the scriptures but will never leave this simple structure, which is this: “If man chooses to trust Me AND OBEY ME, he will be given eternal life. If he chooses to walk outside of my Covenant, he will surely die”. This concept will be echoed throughout the rest of the bible. We see here that God makes a “deal”, a “covenant” with man, that man has a responsibility to his Maker. And there are consequences in both directions.

Let’s fast forward to when the Law was written down so the people would not forget it:

Deut. 11:26 See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse- 27 the blessing if you obey the commands of the LORD your God that I am giving you today; 28 the curse if you disobey the commands of the LORD your God and turn from the way that I command you today by following other gods, which you have not known.

Here again, He is defining what it means to be part of His Covenant. It is virtually the same instruction that was given in the garden: “Obey my instructions and you will live. Choose your own way, and you will die.” Here in Deuteronomy the boundaries are crystal clear of what He required of His people if they were going to be part of His Chosen People. Even the gentiles and nations were allowed to join themselves with His people IF they abided by the Covenant. His Law for this reason was called “The Way (2 Sam 22:31), The Truth (Ps 119:142) and The Life (Ps 119:150)”. Many people believe that He only gave His covenant to the Jews, but in fact was offering His Covenant to the entire world using the Israelites as “recruiters”, so to speak. They never did their job. Jesus(Y'shua) was not making up new terminology in John 14:6 when he said he was the “Way, Truth and Life, no one comes to the Father except through Me.” Y'shuaWAS the Word (John 1:1) and that “Word” was the very instructions(Torah, which means ‘instructions’) of His Father .

God gave instructions. Man has a choice. The Israelites salvation rested in the fact that they had to PROVE that they trusted His Word THROUGH their obedience to it. Sound familiar? James makes this same argument that you are a child of Yahweh by your faith and your faith is proven through your obedience to the Word. Same message. The problem with the Israelites and the Jews of the first century (and even today) is they never understood that their mission was to take His Law (His Word that brings salvation) to the rest of the world (Is 42:6).

They were supposed to be a light. Jesus again, is not making up something new in the Sermon on the Mount when he tells them they are the light of the world. His Father had already told them that 1200 years earlier! He was just putting it back into its’ proper context. The gospel of the “Old Testament” was “Follow Me and you will live”. The message of the New Testament is not a new message. It is the same message, “Follow Me and you will live”. When Jesus came to his soon-to-be disciples on the beach, He did not say, “Accept Me into your heart and you shall be saved”. He told them to “Follow Me”.

In Mark 10, a rich man asks Jesus (Y'shua) what it takes to gain eternal life. Jesus tells him what he already knows: to keep the commandments. The rich man responds by saying that he already keeps them. But Jesus understands that he is only keeping them out of obligation. His true devotion and heart is not with His Creator, so Jesus tells him to go and sell everything that he has and give it to the poor with the intent of testing his allegiance. Deut 4:5 told him to “love the Lord God (Yahweh) with all your heart, mind soul and strength”. This he did not do.

Again in Luke 10:25 On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. "Teacher," he asked, "what must I do to inherit eternal life?" 26"What is written in the Law?" he replied. "How do you read it?" 27 He answered: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind'[c]; and, 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'[d]"

The answer was found in the same message that was given from the beginning. Man must TRUST God in what He says and this “trust” is proved by what we do: In particular that we love Yahweh with all of our heart, soul and strength and love our neighbor as our self. And it was the instruction book that gave them the “play by play” of how to do that.

The focus of the entire message related to having “The Life” revolves around keeping covenant with Him. And keeping covenant with Him revolved around doing what He said. Jesus (Y'shua) did not change this message. He simply added to it. This is why Jesus says in Mt 19:17, “…If you want to enter life, obey the commandments."

It is why Paul says in I Cor 7:19 that, “19 Circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing, but keeping the commandments of God is what matters.”

It is why John says in I John 2:2-4, “ 2 And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. 3 And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments. 4 He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.”

And finally, the children of Yahweh are wholly identified by John in the book of Revelation as those that keep His Covenant AND believe in Y'shua:

Revelation 12:17 Then the dragon was enraged at the woman and went off to make war against the rest of her offspring—those who obey God's commandments and hold to the testimony of Jesus.

Revelation 14:12 This calls for patient endurance on the part of the saints who obey God's commandments and remain faithful to Jesus.

Even Solomon, who was by far the wisest man that has ever lived or will ever live (outside of Jesus) boiled everything down to the same message that was given to Adam, Noah, Moses, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, the Prophets and finally to us which is:

Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. Ecclesiastes 12:13

If the entire bible is used for context on this subject, it appears, to me at least, that God’s overwhelming focus was His people trusting Him THROUGH their obedience. For some strange reason, we as Christians have divorced this concept from our theology and have pitted the grace that Y'shua came to offer us when we do break His commandments against the commandments themselves. We have watered down the truth to such a degree that the only thing that we know is that “Jesus died for our sins”. And this is true, but we deny unknowingly the power of the rest of the truth. We DO tell them that they are sinners and because of this fact they need a Savior and that Savior is Christ. We do tell them that if they accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior they will be saved. But most of us really don’t tell them what that means. We do not tell them that the reason why we are all sinners and condemned to death is because we have all broken the Law of God, and every year blood had to be shed to pay for that sin. But that blood was not good enough to forever pay for man’s sins. Only a human could pay for another human’s sins. But that human would have to be perfect and without sin himself. The book of Hebrews tells us that the Old Covenant was not perfect because it was administered by imperfect, human priests. But now we have a High Priest that is perfect. Now, for those that believe in this new “High Priest”, they are no longer under the PENALTY of the law, but are now under grace when they do break it. Before Christ, there was no grace when a commandment was broken. The Law did its’ job and condemned the lawbreaker. But now, the Law does not have the power to condemn those that are in Christ (Rom 8:1). We are now under His grace.

The gospel never changed. Man must still trust the Word of God (Yahweh) and obey it. His children are known by their fruits. The difference in the message of “salvation” in the OT vs the NT is this: The people in the OT were required to trust the Lord through obedience to the Covenant. Believing in Yahweh was trusting him through obedience. That’s precisely what the Hebrew word for obedience means. And it is still what it means today. In the OT, the Messianic part of the Covenant was hidden. They looked forward to the Messiah and from that standpoint believed in the full Word of the Father. In the NT, the Messianic part that was hidden before is now revealed. He did not add a new commandment to His Word to “believe in the Messiah”. He just revealed what had always been there. Salvation no longer came through obedience to His Word and the sacrifice offered through the earthly high priest. It now comes through obedience to His Word and the FAITH in the one who completed the sacrificial system by offering Himself as the perfect sacrifice AND becoming the new High Priest. This is why Jesus (Yashua in Hebrew) is the ONLY way to the Father and Mohammad, Buddha, Joseph Smith, etc…cannot. Because the ONLY way that He chose (after Sinai) to forgive the people was through the sacrifice of the High Priest. The bible declares Y'shua to be the ONLY High Priest before the throne. Thus, there is no other way to the Father, “but by Him”.

In the same way that the Christians of the third and fourth centuries watered down the Truth to make it more palatable for the pagan world, so we today have maintained to a large degree that same form of evangelism. This type of evangelism does not “set apart” those that are His and defrauds the world from the True, unchanging, eternally powerful Truth of the gospel that was preached in the first century.

Yahweh told Adam, “Choose this day whom you will serve. Choose your way and you will die. Choose My way and you will live.” He said the same thing when the Law was given: “I set before you life or death. Obey my commands and you will live, etc…”. Joshua said “Choose this day whom you will serve…” Jesus said, “drop your nets and follow me”. “If you want to follow me, you must give up everything you have” (Luke 14:33). When a man told Jesus that he wanted to follow him but he first had to bury his father, Jesus replied, “Let the dead bury the dead” telling him that you must immediately leave all behind. He tells people to “pick up their cross and follow Him”, etc…Much more could be said of all the warnings that were given in front of the gospel. Jesus and the disciples made it clear that this road was hard and much would have to be given up in order to gain eternal life. The focus was ALWAYS on the responsibility of the individual to his Rabbi. To be a disciple of a rabbi was akin to changing your entire identity and will to that of the rabbi you were following…and this was done at any and all cost and without question.

Today, we posit to the public that all they have to do is “ask Jesus into their heart” and they will be saved. Otherwise, they will burn in eternal fire. We are afraid to tell people that they must live by a different code of conduct and they must be willing to give up everything to follow Him because we are scared that it will “scare” off potential converts. The reality is that is what the gospel was designed to do. The biblical approach to the gospel kept the body of Christ pure, holy,…set apart. Tares would be few and far between because the cost was so high. Not that it was impossible to come to the Father for it had now become easier than ever before! “Give up your life and follow Me and you will receive New Life in its stead.” That is the message. That is the Truth.

In my opinion, it is time that we as Christians really know what exactly is the Truth and what is tradition. WE are responsible for what we say and what we teach. We will be judged by every word that proceeds out of our mouth. May Yahweh remain True and every one of us a liar. But, in the meantime, let every one of us do our best to “study to show ourselves approved, a workman that rightly divides the Word of Truth” (2 Tim 2:15). We should hold firmly to only the Truth and putting down that which is tradition at the drop of a hat.

What does it meant to be a child of God? I will finish this article by letting the Apostle John answer himself:

I John 5:1 Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the father loves his child as well. 2 This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out His commands. 3 This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome, 4 for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. 5Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.

Finally, this belief is not an intellectual assent, but a sincere life change that requires one to leave everything behind to follow His every command. We tell our children, “If you want to live in my house, you will live by my rules”. But for some reason we don’t like to believe that the God of the universe has any rules in His house. Every covenant (contract) has clearly defined rules and guidelines. Could it be possible that our ancient forefathers started a process of erasing the boundaries and guidelines to such an extent that today it is very unclear which way is up and which way is down? Could this explain the 600+ warring denominations that we have today? I believe in part it does. If we are ever to witness the awesome power of God as displayed in New Testament times, we had better start getting back to doing bible things in bible ways and start calling bible things by bible names. The power of God only rest through His Truth. Anything less is sustained only for a time by His amazing grace.

Jim Staley