I was bothered by an article I read about the rapture. It said, “…by not committing your life to Jesus and by declining to follow Him, you have left Him with no choice but to leave you behind.” It seems like the author is saying that even if we ask Jesus to forgive us and believe on Him, if we don’t then commit our lives to Jesus, we will not be taken in the rapture. The author then goes on to say “The sin decontamination process is very simple – you simply ask Jesus Christ, the Son of God, for it. First, admit your sinful state. Next, ask Jesus to forgive you of your wrongdoings. Finally, make Jesus Christ Lord of your life by surrendering your will to Him.”
This sounds an awful lot like Lordship salvation. I agree with the first two parts, but the surrendering part does not sound like Biblical salvation to me. Am I correct in believing that the committing part follows the salvation, and does not contribute to it? Or is committing to Jesus also a requirement?
Different people have different views on this. Mine is that committing your life to the Lord is not a pre-requisite for salvation, it’s something we do out of gratitude after receiving it. In my opinion the Bible makes it clear that we are saved because of what we believe, not because of how we behave. One of the clearest salvation passages is Ephesians 1:13-14. It says our salvation was guaranteed from the moment we first heard the Gospel and believed it.