This statement is one of the most confusing, convoluted,
messed up statements that is uttered in many churches!!! Amazingly, we ask this statement so often to
those children in our fellowship and, because they are children, their tendency is to think in a very concrete manner.
If there is anything we need to be crystal clear on, it is the Gospel. I have
said many times to our congregation that there is not a Gospel for adults and a
Gospel Jr. for children. There is one Gospel and it must be embraced totally,
no matter if you are a child or a senior adult! There was a time that I used
this phrase, but as my children grew up and I listened to their questions, I
began to think through things biblically with the Gospel as my focus - I then realized that describing Jesus “coming
in your heart” clouds the Gospel truth… it doesn’t clarify it. Below is a great
article written on this subject for you to think through.
10 Reasons NOT to Ask Jesus into your Heart
By Todd Friel
The music weeps, the preacher pleads, “Give your heart to
Jesus. You have a God shaped hole in your heart and only Jesus can fill it.”
Dozens, hundreds or thousands of people who want to get their spiritual life on
track make their way to the altar. They ask Jesus into their heart.
Cut to three months later. Nobody has seen our new convert in church. The follow up committee calls him and encourages him to attend a Bible study, but to no avail. We label him a backslider and get ready for the next outreach event.
Our beloved child lies in her snuggly warm bed and says,
“Yes, Daddy. I want to ask Jesus into my heart.” You lead her in “the prayer”
and hope that it sticks. You spend the next ten years questioning if she
really, really meant it. Puberty hits and the answer reveals itself. She
backslides. We spend the next ten years praying that she will come to her
senses.
Telling someone to ask Jesus into their hearts has a very
typical result, backsliding. the Bible says that a person who is soundly saved
puts his hand to the plow and does not look back because he is fit for service.
In other words, a true convert cannot backslide. If a person backslides, he
never slid forward in the first place. “If any man is in Christ, he is a new
creation.” (2
Corinthians 5:17) No backsliding there.
Brace yourself for this one: with very few if any
exceptions, anyone who asked Jesus into their hearts to be saved…is not. If you
asked Jesus into your heart because you were told that is what you have to do
to become a Christian, you were mis-informed.
If you have ever told someone to ask Jesus into their heart
(like I have), you produced a false convert. Here is why.
1. It is not in the Bible.
There is not a single verse that even hints we should say a
prayer inviting Jesus into our hearts. Some use Rev. 3:20. To tell us that
Jesus is standing at the door of our hearts begging to come in.
“Behold, I stand at the door and knock.” There are two
reasons that interpretation is wrong.The context tells us that the door Jesus is knocking on is
the door of the church, not the human heart. Jesus is not knocking to enter
someone’s heart but to have fellowship with His church. Even if the context didn’t tell us this, we would be forcing a meaning into the
text (eisegesis). How do we know it is our heart he is knocking at? Why not our
car door? How do we know he isn’t knocking on our foot? To suggest that he is
knocking on the door of our heart is superimposing a meaning on the text that
simply does not exist.
The Bible does not instruct us to ask Jesus into our heart.
This alone should resolve the issue, nevertheless, here are nine more reasons.
2. Asking Jesus into your heart is a saying that makes no
sense.
What does it mean to ask Jesus into your heart? If I say the
right incantation will He somehow enter my heart? Is it literal? Does He reside
in the upper or lower ventricle? Is this a metaphysical experience? Is it
figurative? If it is, what exactly does it mean? While I am certain that most
adults cannot articulate its meaning, I am certain that no child can explain
it. Pastor Dennis Rokser reminds us that little children think literally and
can easily be confused (or frightened) at the prospect of asking Jesus into
their heart.
3. In order to be saved, a man must repent (Acts 2:38).Asking Jesus into
your heart leaves out the requirement of repentance.
4. In order to be saved, a man must trust in Jesus Christ (Acts 16:31). Asking Jesus into your heart leaves out the requirement of faith.
5. The person who wrongly believes they are saved will have
a false sense of security. Millions of people who sincerely, but wrongly, asked
Jesus into their hearts think they are saved but struggle to feel secure. They
live in doubt and fear because they do not have the Holy Spirit giving them
assurance of salvation.
6. The person who asks Jesus into his heart will likely end
up inoculated, bitter and backslidden. Because he did not get saved by reciting
a formulaic prayer, he will grow disillusioned with Jesus, the Bible, church
and fellow believers. His latter end will be worse than the first.
7. It presents God as a beggar just hoping you will let Him
into your busy life.This presentation of God robs Him of His sovereignty.
8. The cause of Christ is ridiculed. Visit an atheist
web-site and read the pagans who scoff, “How dare those Christians tell us how
to live when they get divorced more than we do? Who are they to say homosexuals
shouldn’t adopt kids when tens of thousands of orphans don’t get adopted by
Christians?” Born again believers adopt kids and don’t get divorced.
People who ask Jesus into their hearts do. Jesus gets mocked
when false converts give Him a bad name.
9. The cause of evangelism is hindered. While it is
certainly easier to get church members by telling them to ask Jesus into their
hearts, try pleading with someone to make today the day of their salvation. Get
ready for a painful response. “Why should I become a Christian when I have seen
so called Christians act worse than a pagan?” People who ask Jesus into their
hearts give pagans an excuse for not repenting.
10. Here is the scary one. People who ask Jesus into their
hearts are not saved and they will perish on the Day of Judgment. How tragic
that millions of people think they are right with God when they are not. How
many people who will cry out, “Lord, Lord” on judgment day will be “Christians”
who asked Jesus into their hearts?
So, what must one do to be saved? Repent and trust. (Heb.6:1) The Bible makes it
clear that all men must repent and place their trust in Jesus Christ. Every man
does have a “God shaped hole in their hearts,” but that hole is not
contentment, fulfillment and peace. Every man’s heart problem is righteousness.
Instead of preaching that Jesus fulfills, we must preach that God judges and
Jesus satisfies God’s judgment…if a man will repent and place his trust in Him.
If you are reading this and you asked Jesus into your heart,
chances are good you had a spiritual buzz for a while, but now you struggle to
read your Bible, tithe, attend church and pray. Perhaps you were told you would
have contentment, purpose and a better life if you just ask Jesus into your
heart. I am sorry, that was a lie.
