Do NOT invite Jesus into your heart
(Disclaimer: This post is in no way intended to be sacrilegious or offensive, only biblical.)
So a few moments ago this little booklet appears on my front door, full of Bible verses about God promises of salvation through Jesus. Now on one hand, I gotta give some level of respect to the guy who took the time out of his day to distribute religious literature written in 400-year-old English to a complete stranger, in the summer, in Texas.
On the other hand, one particular page in the booklet has a brief "sinner's prayer" (I think Paul or Peter coined the term) that got under my skin. In the prayer a seemingly magical formula includes the phrase "I now receive Jesus into my heart" assuring the prayee eternal salvation. Now first off the above phrase "receive Jesus into your heart" (an excerpt from one of Jesus' famous sermons I think), although a very popular theory, is a misguided theological error.
When I think of asking Jesus into my heart I usually picture a small action figure-sized Jesus being greeted with a warm welcome as my huge fingers unbolted the tiny door to my heart to let Him in. However, I don't think that's exactly God's idea of salvation.
What does that phrase even mean anyway? It's found nowhere in the Bible, neither is such a concept of inheriting eternal salvation ever used by Jesus, His disciples, or any biblical writer. Worse yet, asking Jesus into your heart is as fundamentally a classic misrepresentation of what it means to follow Jesus as you can get.
The Bible almost always describes our hearts in negative terms rather than cute ones. The Prophet Jeremiah wrote, “The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is? (Jeremiah 17:9 NLT). Even Jesus Himself said, "For from the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, all sexual immorality, theft, lying, and slander. (Matthew 15:19 NLT). As a wise man once said, "the heart of the human problem is the problem of the human heart."
If we ever took an honest inventory of the collective corruption inside our hearts, it would be anything but pretty. So to ask Jesus to come into the open sewer of your heart would be kinda like proposing to your future bride at the city dump, building a home in the port-a-potty, and raising a family in the rat's nest in the corner. Jesus has about as much interest living in your heart or mine as we do switching our water service over from the city to the local septic tank.
But what Jesus is interested in is saving people from their sinful hearts.
The message of Jesus was never about moving into our filthy hearts and trying to make us better people. On the contrary, the message of Jesus is that you have a serious heart problem; in fact, we all do. The bad news is that our condition is fatal and there is no cure. Our only hope is a complete heart transplant, which fortunately for us is exactly what Jesus offers each and every one of us.
The prophet Ezekiel put it this way, "And I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit in you. I will take out your stony, stubborn heart and give you a tender, responsive heart. And I will put my Spirit in you so that you will follow my decrees and be careful to obey my regulations. (Ezekiel 36:26, 27 NLT).
The Bible says that when we turn to Christ He takes out our old heart and gives us a new one. That very process involving us exchanging our sins for a clean slate before God is what Jesus called being born again (John 3:3-5), an experience without which we cannot enter the Kingdom of God. But that doesn't happen by inviting Jesus in. God's forgiveness only occurs in the context of the truly repentant heart when we pray like David, "Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. (Psalm 51:10 ESV)
At the end of the day being "saved" is not about bringing Jesus into your life; it's not including Jesus into your lifestyle and trying to do better. But it is about giving away your heart to Jesus Christ, trusting Him to take away your sins, and allowing His heart to become yours (Galatians 2:20). It's ultimately about surrendering our filthy sins and being made new on the inside. It's volunteering for open heart surgery knowing you will never be the same. It's understanding that He gave up His life so that we could escape death and finally find the freedom we could never achieve on our own.
So if you've been considering inviting Jesus into your heart, don't. He's already made you a much better deal- an offer to trade straight up- His heart in exchange for yours, your sins in exchange for His grace, and all free of charge. If you dare to accept such an offer and surrender control of your heart to Him, it will literally save your life.
The million dollar question is whether we've undergone the Savior's knife and surrendered to Him our heart, and also our life, and whether we now have His Spirit is living on the inside. If you don't KNOW the answer to that question beyond a shadow of a doubt, you haven't yet begun to live. "Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life. (1 John 5:12 ESV).
So a few moments ago this little booklet appears on my front door, full of Bible verses about God promises of salvation through Jesus. Now on one hand, I gotta give some level of respect to the guy who took the time out of his day to distribute religious literature written in 400-year-old English to a complete stranger, in the summer, in Texas.
On the other hand, one particular page in the booklet has a brief "sinner's prayer" (I think Paul or Peter coined the term) that got under my skin. In the prayer a seemingly magical formula includes the phrase "I now receive Jesus into my heart" assuring the prayee eternal salvation. Now first off the above phrase "receive Jesus into your heart" (an excerpt from one of Jesus' famous sermons I think), although a very popular theory, is a misguided theological error.
When I think of asking Jesus into my heart I usually picture a small action figure-sized Jesus being greeted with a warm welcome as my huge fingers unbolted the tiny door to my heart to let Him in. However, I don't think that's exactly God's idea of salvation.
What does that phrase even mean anyway? It's found nowhere in the Bible, neither is such a concept of inheriting eternal salvation ever used by Jesus, His disciples, or any biblical writer. Worse yet, asking Jesus into your heart is as fundamentally a classic misrepresentation of what it means to follow Jesus as you can get.
The Bible almost always describes our hearts in negative terms rather than cute ones. The Prophet Jeremiah wrote, “The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is? (Jeremiah 17:9 NLT). Even Jesus Himself said, "For from the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, all sexual immorality, theft, lying, and slander. (Matthew 15:19 NLT). As a wise man once said, "the heart of the human problem is the problem of the human heart."
If we ever took an honest inventory of the collective corruption inside our hearts, it would be anything but pretty. So to ask Jesus to come into the open sewer of your heart would be kinda like proposing to your future bride at the city dump, building a home in the port-a-potty, and raising a family in the rat's nest in the corner. Jesus has about as much interest living in your heart or mine as we do switching our water service over from the city to the local septic tank.
But what Jesus is interested in is saving people from their sinful hearts.
The message of Jesus was never about moving into our filthy hearts and trying to make us better people. On the contrary, the message of Jesus is that you have a serious heart problem; in fact, we all do. The bad news is that our condition is fatal and there is no cure. Our only hope is a complete heart transplant, which fortunately for us is exactly what Jesus offers each and every one of us.
The prophet Ezekiel put it this way, "And I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit in you. I will take out your stony, stubborn heart and give you a tender, responsive heart. And I will put my Spirit in you so that you will follow my decrees and be careful to obey my regulations. (Ezekiel 36:26, 27 NLT).
The Bible says that when we turn to Christ He takes out our old heart and gives us a new one. That very process involving us exchanging our sins for a clean slate before God is what Jesus called being born again (John 3:3-5), an experience without which we cannot enter the Kingdom of God. But that doesn't happen by inviting Jesus in. God's forgiveness only occurs in the context of the truly repentant heart when we pray like David, "Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. (Psalm 51:10 ESV)
At the end of the day being "saved" is not about bringing Jesus into your life; it's not including Jesus into your lifestyle and trying to do better. But it is about giving away your heart to Jesus Christ, trusting Him to take away your sins, and allowing His heart to become yours (Galatians 2:20). It's ultimately about surrendering our filthy sins and being made new on the inside. It's volunteering for open heart surgery knowing you will never be the same. It's understanding that He gave up His life so that we could escape death and finally find the freedom we could never achieve on our own.
So if you've been considering inviting Jesus into your heart, don't. He's already made you a much better deal- an offer to trade straight up- His heart in exchange for yours, your sins in exchange for His grace, and all free of charge. If you dare to accept such an offer and surrender control of your heart to Him, it will literally save your life.
The million dollar question is whether we've undergone the Savior's knife and surrendered to Him our heart, and also our life, and whether we now have His Spirit is living on the inside. If you don't KNOW the answer to that question beyond a shadow of a doubt, you haven't yet begun to live. "Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life. (1 John 5:12 ESV).
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