Do NOT ask Jesus into your Heart

// August 20th, 2008 // salvation

It irks me, really irks me, when I hear someone explaining how to get saved, but they forget crucial parts of the Gospel, or the explanation is confusing.

So often I hear “Believe that Jesus died on the cross and you will be saved” or “Ask Jesus into your heart”, or believe.

Asking Jesus into your heart is a concept not found in the Bible. Dennis M Rosker, pastor of Duluth Bible Church in Duluth, Minnesota wrote a great article on this topic:
7 Reasons NOT to ask Jesus into your Heart.

But what about “Believe Jesus did on the cross and you will be saved” ?
Yes Jesus did die on a cross, and you must believe that, however this is not the whole Gospel.

The Gospel is simple: I deserve eternal death because I sin (Rom. 3:23) and it has to be paid for (Rom. 6:23). In my place Jesus Christ paid for my sin and even though he was God, allowed himself to die on a cross (Rom 5:8) as a man in my place. He took the penalty and shame for every sin I committed instead of me. He spent three days in the grave, then rose from the grave alive (Rom. 6:9), conquering sin and proving He was God. He then ascended into Heaven where he sits at the right hand of His Father where he says to the father: See Jonathan, he is perfect. He has no sin. His sin is paid for. All of it. (Rom. 8:1) Because of that I can have fellowship with God, I am perfect before God.
How is one saved? Just believe it. Have faith that Christ did it all, and acknowledge that we are helpless on our own, and deserve what he paid for!
Romans 5:1, 1 Corinthians 15:1-4

Often times people (even evangelicals who believe in grace & no works) forget the simple concept of substitutionary atonement, meaning Christ took my place to pay for my sins, to make peace with God.

When preaching the Gospel, Preach the full Gospel.

One Response to “Do NOT ask Jesus into your Heart”

  1. Anonymous says:
    August 20, 2008 at 10:42 am

    Lest the “decision” to believe be limited to too narrow of a concept out of the proper context of what gives it meaning and depth and proper, fitting expression and the inevitable, natural, proper and fitting outworking of the choice to believe in the life of the person making such a choice, the context of a choice to believe only in Jesus and his work only for deliverance from the penalty, power and presence of my (and every other person’s) tendency to think, and act in ways that are un-God-like and un-healthy for me or any person, is the history of (the Bible’s narrative stories that are real, accurate historical history that show us) God’s revealing his ways and his person to me (this particular person, just now, having just this moment first become a born-again believer by means of my “decision” to believe), based on the preponderance of the consistency of what God revealed of himself personally and individually to me (this person) through-out the life of (me) this person’s experience, through what God made in nature as experience by (me) this person (that show me his power, majesty and potential to make new and amazing things), through what God did and does in nature as experienced by (me) this person (that show me his power, majesty and amazing potential to make cool things), through the situations of good and bad that God offered down through the life of this person (that show me his ways and his heart’s desire to want to have a special, redeeming relationship with someone as undeserving as I am), through the people with God-like character and people with un-God-like character that interacted with this person during his/her life time up to this point (that show me how his ways and his heart’s desire for each man, woman and child can be responded to), through the situations that represented and reflected and were actually God himself expressing his own unchanging heart of love, and nature to deal in mercy and loving-kindness, using patience and an unchanging plan to lead people like me (and especially me, this person now believing for the first time) to respond to his yearning and calling and invitation to me individually and personally (through nature, people, the Bible and the situations in my life), to come and look at him only, and forget all the rest, and to focus only on him and believe his heart, and trust his character and place my utmost confidence in his ways and commit in my deepest heart to his person, to my own personal, un-end-able, eternal relationship with such a person, who has always pointed to the need that he himself solve my problems which I could not solve, who did solve all my problems to the largest extent, when he sent Jesus to come and become the only ever perfect man, who was tested and passed the test, and proved himself to act and live in all the wonderful ways he wants me to be and act and live and wants to somehow make me able to somehow become just like Jesus in his strength, and Jesus did not once deserve what I deserve by never once responding wrongly to the bad that life offered him, and who then went ahead and, even though perfect and sinless, somehow paid for what I can not pay, and, in a mysterious way, took care of what I could not take care of, the part of God’s holy nature that must be dealt properly with, with justice, to settle up once and for with each person individually for all the improper thoughts and actions that person has committed against his person (including all the bad things that were committed against me!), so any man, woman or child can come into his presence (and even me!) in a welcomed and most intimate and accepted entrance into his presence, which is life-changing and will never leave me the same again, because now I can return into his presence always, at any moment and return to him often and whenever I need to, even though life will continue to offer me good and bad, and even though he will not deliver me from the presence of sin in my own heart and in the hearts of bad people around me until one day in his perfect plan I will pass from this earthly life into his eternal home in his own special place that he called paradise and heaven, based solely on what Jesus did for me!

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