I’m grateful for the opportunity to share a blog post today on “Open the Bible” with Colin Smith:

“I accepted Ken as my husband.”

For the record, I have never spoken about my husband in these terms. I’ve never said to my children, “Twenty years ago, I accepted your daddy as my personal husband.” This conjures up an image of me on my throne, holding out my golden scepter to Ken as he approaches carrying a pillow with a diamond ring. The thought makes me laugh out loud!

So why do I use this language when I speak of Jesus? When I say, “I accepted Jesus as my personal Savior,” do I impose the same throne and scepter imagery on my relationship with Christ? I certainly hope not! Instead of laughing, this thought makes me cringe.

I never thought much about this phrase, “accepting Christ,” before listening to a message by Pastor Colin Smith. Pastor Colin said that besides being offensive, it would never enter his head to say that he “accepted” his wife back when they got married. He married her because he loves her!

Now I understand what we mean when we say we “accepted Christ” (though I can’t find that word combination in the Bible). We mean that we received His gift of salvation (Eph. 2:8). We recognize that He alone can save us from our sin, reconcile our broken relationship with God, and grant us both entrance into heaven and escape from hell.

But the Bible says that true believers are the ones who treasure Jesus with all their hearts, not the ones who merely accept Him as a good solution to their problems.

Surprised by Hidden Treasure

When I met my husband, Ken, I was a single girl who longed to get married. I didn’t want to navigate life without a partner. I didn’t want to sit alone in church. I wanted someone to do my taxes for me and take care of my oil changes.

And while Ken solved all of these problems and more, that’s not why I married him. Had he been the only single guy for a hundred miles, it would have been ludicrous to marry him just because he could do my taxes. I married him because…

Read the rest here.

Have you read Pastor Colin’s “Unlocking the Bible” series? Especially since, on my podcast, Live Like It’s True, we take a lot of time to consider the overarching story of the Bible, and how the various narrative sections support the overarching structure, these books have been an invaluable resource to me! I highly recommend them.

Check them out here: