Getting Saved: A popular ‘evangelical’ confession, even among those who pride themselves on being “reformed” and “calvinistic,” is this oft-repeated phrase, “when I got saved” – “when did you get saved” – “I got saved…” Basically, different forms of the same unbiblical notion. On the surface it sounds harmless, but underneath it smuggles in an entire system of thought hostile to the gospel of Christ. From the outset, Scripture makes clear that salvation is not the product of man’s will, but God’s. Romans 9:16. Faith does not cause salvation; salvation causes faith. Acts 13:48. But these catchphrases of modern decisionism are in direct conflict with the language of Scripture. They shift the focus from Christ’s finished work to the sinner’s personal experience, recasting salvation as something conditioned on the day or the moment the sinner supposedly initiated it by believing, repenting, or “making a decision.” Such thinking does not merely distort the gospel, it replaces it with another. It subtly shifts the focus from Christ’s finished work to the sinner’s personal experience, making salvation hinge on the day or the moment the sinner supposedly initiated it by believing, repenting, or “making a decision.” It fabricates the unbiblical idea that salvation begins with the sinner’s will, rather than with God’s will. John 1:13.
Worse still, it is often used by those who in other contexts claim to deny “free will” because of man’s total depravity. Yet here they speak as if the decisive factor in salvation was not Christ crucified, but rather “when I believed, when I repented, when I accepted,” &c. When the gospel becomes “when I…” instead of “when GOD…,” it is no longer the gospel of free grace, but an experience-centered counterfeit. The gospel declares something altogether different. Scripture does not speak of salvation as something that springs into being when we act, but as God’s eternal purpose in Christ, secured at the cross, revealed in time by the Spirit, and faith itself rising in our hearts as the gift of His mercy. II Timothy 1:9. Titus 3:4-7.
Additionally, this sort of dialogue just reeks of Arminianism, and is entirely foreign to the language of Scripture. It shows that those who have joined ranks with the so-called evangelical movement speak “half in the speech of Ashdod,” borrowing the world’s man-centered vocabulary and mingling it with biblical truth, so that the pure language of the gospel is obscured. In Nehemiah’s day, this mixture meant the children of Israel “could not speak in the Jews’ language,” Nehemiah 13:24. In our day, it means many professing believers cannot speak in the language of Christ’s finished work. They default instead to the dialect of decisionism, “when I got saved,” “when I accepted Christ,” &c., phrases unknown to the apostles and alien to the New Testament witness, yet so entrenched in modern pulpits that many cannot imagine speaking of ‘salvation’ without them. Salvation is not an event man initiates, and Christ did not die merely to make salvation possible if and when we meet certain conditions. He died to save His people from their sins, Matthew 1:21, and by His one offering He secured that salvation forever. Hebrews 10:14. So to recast the cross as a mere “provision” that only becomes real when we add our repentance or faith is to preach another gospel. Galatians 1:6-9. Christ’s death did not make salvation a potential waiting to be unlocked; and the cross does not hang in suspense until we act. Furthermore, let’s not forget that faith and repentance are not currency we bring to God to purchase salvation; they are the fruits of the life God has already given us in Christ. Acts 5:31. Any gospel that begins with “when I…” instead of “when God…” is not the gospel of free grace. It is an Arminian-styled man-centered counterfeit that may sound pious but leaves the sinner looking to himself instead of to Christ. Hebrews 12:2. “He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.” I Corinthians 1:31. MPJ