Why do you assume that “receiving” is active rather than passive?
We receive faith. As many as received Him to them gave He power to become Children of God.
Resisting, on the other hand, is active. “You do always resist the Holy Spirit...”
Receive vs resist. The latter condemns. “He who believes and is baptized shall be saved; he that believeth not shall be damned.”
Those who are lost own it by active resistance. Those who are saved have not actively done anything. They have passively received.
Those who resist demonstrate that “they are of their father, the devil.”
Those who receive demonstrate that they are “My sheep (who) hear My voice, and they know me and follow Me.”
All salvation is, then, of “grace through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, so that no man can boast.”
I might point out that “a gift” is RECEIVED.
2 reasons:
1 - In the previous verse, he comes to his own, and they do NOT receive him...but to all who do - who DO!
11He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. 12But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.
2 - Receiving him is equated with believing in him. And it is spoken in the active sense, not the passive - we believe, not we receive belief.
This goes deeper into the Greek than I understand, but look for the word "active":
As many as received him (osoi elabon auton). Effective aorist active indicative of lambanw "as many as did receive him," in contrast with oi idioi just before, exceptional action on the part of the disciples and other believers.
To them (autoiv). Dative case explanatory of the relative clause preceding, an anacoluthon common in John 27 times as against 21 in the Synoptists. This is a common Aramaic idiom and is urged by Burney (Aramaic Origin, etc., p. 64) for his theory of an Aramaic original of the Fourth Gospel.
The right (exousian). In 5:27 edwken (first aorist active indicative of didwmi) exousian means authority but includes power (dunamiv). Here it is more the notion of privilege or right.
To become (genestai). Second aorist middle of ginomai, to become what they were not before.
Children of God (tekna teou). In the full spiritual sense, not as mere offspring of God true of all men (Acts 17:28). Paul's phrase uioi teou ( 3:26) for believers, used also by Jesus of the pure in heart (Matthew 5:9), does not occur in John's Gospel (but in Revelation 21:7). It is possible that John prefers ta tekna tou teou for the spiritual children of God whether Jew or Gentile (John 11:52) because of the community of nature (teknon from root tek-, to beget). But one cannot follow Westcott in insisting on "adoption" as Paul's reason for the use of uioi since Jesus uses uioi teou in Matthew 5:9. Clearly the idea of regeneration is involved here as in John 3:3.
Even to them that believe (toiv pisteuousin). No "even" in the Greek, merely explanatory apposition with autoiv, dative case of the articular present active participle of pisteuw.
On his name (eiv to onoma). Bernard notes pisteuw eiv 35 times in John, to put trust in or on. See also 2:23; 3:38 for pisteuw eiv to onoma autou. This common use of onoma for the person is an Aramaism, but it occurs also in the vernacular papyri and eiv to onoma is particularly common in the payment of debts (Moulton and Milligan's Vocabulary). See Acts 1:15 for onomata for persons.
http://www.studylight.org/com/rwp/view.cgi?book=joh&chapter=001&verse=012
xzins: “Receive vs resist. The latter condemns. “He who believes and is baptized shall be saved; he that believeth not shall be damned.” / Those who are lost own it by active resistance. Those who are saved have not actively done anything. They have passively received.”
No.
In the verse you quote, he that believes is ACTIVE, not passive. He that believes, not he that receives belief.
“16 Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.”
Once again, belief is presented as something we do - a verb - not a noun we receive as a gift.