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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadJames Hastings Dictionary of the NT: Acceptance (2)
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ACCEPTANCE.—The state or relation of being in favour, especially with God. It is a common OT conception that has been carried over into the NT. In the former it has both a ceremonial significance, involving the presence of an approved offering or a state of ceremonial purity, and also an ethical significance, involving divinely approved conduct. The Hebrew expression ðָùָà ôָðִéí ‘to lift up accept the face or person of one,’ becomes in NT ðñüóùðïí ëáìâÜíåéí , ‘to accept the person presence,’ which, however, with its derivatives, ðñïóùðïëçìðôåῖí and ðñïóùðïëÞìðôçò , always implies the acceptance of the outward presence, without regard to the inward or moral qualities; hence, in a bad sense, partiality, as in Luk_20:21 (cf. Mat_22:16 and Mar_12:14). In a good sense the idea is expressed by åὐÜñåóôïò , ‘well-pleasing’ (Mat_3:17 ‘This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased’; cf. Mat_17:5); cf. also äåêôüò , ‘acceptable’ (Luk_4:24, Php_4:18), used with ἐíéáõôüò , ‘acceptable year’ (Luk_4:19) and with êáéñüò , ‘acceptable time’ (2Co_6:2), of a period or time when God’s favour is specially manifest. In numerous passages in the Gospels and Epistles acceptance with God comes only through and in Jesus Christ (Joh_14:6, Eph_1:6 ‘accepted in the Beloved,’ Rom_14:18, Heb_13:21). So also the disciple’s conduct and service are to be such as will find acceptance with Christ (Eph_5:10, 2Co_5:9; cf. Heb_12:28). See, further, art. Access.
As applied to our Lord Himself, the idea of His acceptance both with God and man is of frequent occurrence in the Gospels. Of Jesus as a growing boy this twofold acceptance on earth and in heaven is expressly affirmed (Luk_2:52). His perfect acceptance with the Father is testified to, not only by a voice from heaven both at the beginning of His ministry (Mat_3:17 ||) and towards its close (Mat_17:6 ||), but by the constant affirmations of His own self-consciousness (Mat_11:27 ||, Mar_12:6 ||, Joh_5:20; Joh_8:29; Joh_10:17; Joh_15:9 etc.). The favour with which He was regarded by the people when He first came declaring ‘the acceptable year of the Lord,’ is proved not only by such notices as, ‘The common people heard him gladly’ (Mar_12:37), but by the crowds which followed Him constantly all through the period of public favour. So far as acceptance with men is concerned, there is, of course, another side to the picture. ‘No prophet,’ He said, ‘is acceptable in his own country’ (Luk_4:24). His own brethren did not believe on Him (Joh_7:3-5), His own townsmen thrust Him out of their city (Luk_4:28-29), His own people were guilty at last of that great act of rejection which found utterance in the shouts, ‘Not this man, but Barabbas’ (Joh_18:40), and ‘Crucify him, crucify him’ (Luk_23:21), and was visibly set forth to all coming time when He was nailed to a cross in full sight of Jerusalem (see Rejection). He who had been accepted for a time was now ‘a root out of a dry ground,’ the ‘despised and rejected of men’ (Isa_53:2-3). And yet it was from this same root of rejection and sorrow that the acceptance of Christ was to grow into universal forms. Being lifted up from the earth, He drew all men unto Him (Joh_12:32). And though as the well-beloved Son He had never for a moment lost favour in His Father’s sight, it was through enduring the cross and despising the shame that He sat down at the right hand of the throne of God (Heb_12:2; cf. Php_2:8-11).
E. B. Pollard.