What does it mean to receive Jesus as your personal Savior? Is it a prayer that you pray? Is it asking Jesus into your heart? What is a savior? What is a personal savior?

When you follow the teachings of Jesus in the Gospels, (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John), and learn to follow the Apostles' teachings, the sermons they preached and the gospel call, did anyone ever use this terminology, "Ask Jesus to be your personal savior?" Did anyone appeal to people to ask Jesus into their heart? Have we not read closely the words of the apostolic preaching and their request for response? The angels that announced the birth of Christ in Luke chapter 2 verse 10 and 11 states,
Notice that the Bible states that there was born a Savior. Let me ask you a question. Were there saviors born at other times and places other than the Savior Jesus Christ our Lord?

I believe if we made a study of the word "savior," we would discover that God called many saviors or deliverers (for that is what a savior is), to deliver His people from their bondages. A savior implies the need of someone who is helpless, that cannot rescue themselves from their dilemma. Therefore God raised up saviors or judges in the Old Testament to deliver His people from their oppressions and bondages. But there was prophesied in the Scripture, One coming that would be the Savior that would pay a price for the entire world to be saved from the penalty of their sins and to break the power that sin brings with it. We read about this freedom in Romans chapter 3 through chapter 5, where it talks about the free gift of justification, the gift of being made right before God, through the propitiation, the atonement, the ransom, the death and burial and resurrection of Jesus our Lord. He was a Savior to save us and make us in right standing with God, a Holy God, through a gift of righteousness as Jesus brings us this gift through faith in His blood (Romans 3:25).

So when a person cries out to Jesus to be their personal Savior, they should be crying out to be saved from the penalty of their sin (justification) and the power of their sin called sanctification, to live a repented life towards God, away from darkness, into light, away from the authority of Satan, into a life of a new authority, the authority of Jesus our Savior and Lord. This is why the Bible calls for repentance, a change of heart and turning towards God, that continues through a faith that follows Jesus daily (Luke 9:23 KJV). As stated in Colossians 1:13‑14 and Ephesians 2:8‑9,
For by grace, God's unmerited, undeserved, favor and kindness, we are saved. This salvation is through our Deliverer, Jesus Christ, who has saved us from the penalty of our sin and the power of our sin. This is God's gift to us. It is not of ourselves, it is God's gift.
Romans 3:23 is telling us that everyone has sinned (present tense) and continues to come short of God's glory.

But the good news is, God is making us righteous (present tense), freely as a gift. This is by His undeserved kindness. This gift of being right with God, has come through redemption, ransom, propitiation, and atonement through Jesus' blood. That's how God offers us this free gift. It's the free gift of righteousness through Christ's atonement. God has made Jesus to be an atonement and a propitiation which is a word that means the Old Testament mercy seat of the ark. This is the place where we find mercy and forgiveness through faith in Jesus' blood. He is declaring His righteousness. He is giving His righteousness as a gift and He does this through the remission of our sins. This is truly God's good news.