Stop Asking Jesus Into Your Heart

If your childhood was anything like mine, you grew up hearing that to go to heaven you had to ask Jesus into your heart. Or, maybe you were told to walk the isle at church and accept Jesus by repeating a prayer that the pastor said. This is exactly what happened to me.

I remember going to a youth event that a close friend had invited me to. At this event we played games and enjoyed snacks and then we listened to some man tell a story from the Bible which ended up being a whole fifteen minutes long. After he finished, he asked everyone in the group to close their eyes and bow their heads as he prayed. I was okay with this.  I mean, I didn't know much about church or God, but I knew that when people prayed they'd usually bow their heads and close their eyes. At the end of this mans prayer, still having my head bowed and eyes closed, he said something I had never heard before. He said that if we wanted to accept Jesus into our heart, we should raise our hands. He told us that we had to do this if we wanted to go to heaven.

Now, I had no idea that I wasn’t going to heaven. I had always thought that only the really bad people didn't get to go there. But, if this guy, who was teaching at a church, told me that I had to ask Jesus into my heart to go to heaven then hey, I would do it.

So, I did what he said. I raised my hand and waited to see what I needed to do next. After a few minutes the guy said, “Thank you, I see your hand in the back.” But that was it! After he finished his prayer, I was expecting him to come back to me and give me some directions on what to do. I had no idea how to do what he asked or even why I needed Jesus to go to heaven.

In reality, I needed this man to explain the gospel to me. I needed to hear about my sin and the need for repentance. I needed him to talk to me about Hell as the consequence for my sin. I desperately needed him to explain the holiness of God to me and I needed him to do all of this by using Scripture, but he did not. He simply finished the prayer, said good night to everyone and left.

From that experience I concluded that just saying "I believed in Jesus" must be what he meant, so, that is what I intellectually did. I did believe that Jesus was real and that he was a guy who lived two thousand years ago and somehow died for the sins of the world.

My second experience with this was about four years later when I was seventeen years old. This time a family from a church that I had attended once or twice had me over to their home for dinner. After dinner they sat me down and told me that Jesus loved me and that I needed to ask him to come into my heart. At this my ears perked up because these people were finally going to tell me how to do this and more importantly why I needed to do this. But unfortunately, once again they did not tell me why, they just told me to repeat a prayer that they would say and in doing this I would be “Saved.” So, I did this and the very next day I went right back to my old self. I was relieved because I thought that now I wouldn't go to Hell, but there was nothing new about me.

In reality, I didn’t understand the gospel, I had no concept of sin or depravity, I didn’t understand what the holiness of God was, and I had absolutely no comprehension of what repentance was. I was not a new creature, I had not been redeemed, I was not born-again.

I fear that this is where hundreds, thousands, if not millions of people are in our world today. They believe they are going to heaven simply because they asked Jesus into their heart.

The problem with this is that nowhere in the Bible does it say that this is what we are to do. When dealing with salvation, the Bible gives clear instructions.

The first thing an individual needs to understands is that the God of the Bible is perfectly holy and righteous, and we are not. Humanity was plunged into sin in Genesis 3 when Eve was deceived by Satan and Adam and Eve sinned.

Romans 5:12 tells us this, "Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned". A sin is a transgression against the Law of God.  

1 John 3:4 "Everyone who practices sin also practices lawlessness; and sin is lawlessness". God in His righteousness requires us to be righteous if we are to be with Him. This is the problem, we are separated from God because of our sin, both our sinful nature and our sinful actions condemn us to eternal torment in Hell.

Matthew 25:46 "These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.” Because of this, if we are ever to be reconciled to God, our sin had to be dealt with and our sinful nature had to be changed.

For this to take place God sent His son Jesus Christ to earth. Jesus came and lived a perfect life, among sinful men. He suffered, was crucified and died on the cross paying the sin debt that we owe.

Colossians 2:14 "having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross". 

That, however, is not the end of the story, He did not stay dead. Jesus Christ conquered death and rose from the grave three days later.

1 Corinthians 15:3-4 "For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures". 

This explanation is what is so often left out of the modern gospel. The revealing of an individual’s sin is essential for them to understand their need for Jesus Christ. Once this need is explained and they see their desperate condition, then and only then do we invite them to come to Christ. But even now, we still are not to call them to “Ask Jesus into their heart.” We are to call them to repent and believe in Jesus Christ.

Matthew 4:17 "From that time Jesus began to preach and say, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

2 Peter 3:9 "The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance". 

This repentance consists of a brokenness over ones sin, a turning from one’s sin and a turning to God with a change of ones will. It involves a radical transformation in the life of the individual.

2 Corinthians 5:17 "Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come".

With that being said, it must be understood that this repentance is required for salvation, but it is not a human work that brings about salvation. Repentance is a work that God does in the heart of a sinner. God regenerates the dead heart of the sinner and draws them to Himself, changing their desires and granting them repentance and faith in Jesus Christ. When this takes place, the individual is born again, they are redeemed and transformed into new creatures. They are justified before our holy God based on what Jesus Christ did for them in His death, burial and resurrection.

THIS is the message that needs to be told to the lost. They do not need to ask Jesus into their heart, they need to repent and place their trust in Christ and Christ alone.

So, as a Christian please stop telling people to ask Jesus into their heart or to accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior. Begin calling them to repentance and faith in Jesus Christ. Show them why they need saving, namely God is perfect, and they are completely sinful therefore they are enemies of God, headed for Hell.

Show them what Jesus did for them and what is now required of them, that they are called to repentance and faith in Jesus Christ.

Do not stop short of this or you are not presenting the full gospel.