Featured "Ask Jesus into your heart"/"The Sinners Prayer"

I think sloppy choice of words in evangelism
can lead to lack of assurance of salvation

This is another reason to stay away from unbiblical terminology: you will never find a verse that says of you ask Jesus into your heart your saved, or give your life to Christ and you will be saved, so if we use unbiblical terminology, they will never be able to find that in the scripture and they will have to trust in our words instead of Gods words to know if they are saved or not.

 

In relation to Revelation 3:20 probably the most popular verse used.

Notice, however, that the verse does not mention the heart at all.

Where does it say you open the door to him by asking him into your heart?

Neither does the individual ask Jesus to do anything; rather, Jesus asks us to do something.

I believe Jesus comes in and we open the door to him by repentance and faith.

The idea of Jesus “coming into your heart” is nowhere used in any preaching in the Bible.

If it causes us some measure of panic to have to use passages other than Revelation 3:20 when we share the gospel, keep in mind that the earliest Christians did not have this verse. Revelation is the last book of the Bible to be written. How was it possible for Peter and Paul and James to ever see anyone get saved without this verse? They never had it! But if I read the book of Acts correctly, they had a measure of success in sharing the gospel even in spite of this handicap.

The problem is that many people cling to the symbol but never understand the reality it is intended to represent. Most likely, tens of thousands of people have "invited Christ into [their] hearts," thinking that a mystical experience is what saves them. Then, they go on their merry way, living their lives as they did before. If you were to ask them, "How do you know that you are going to heaven?" they would respond, "Because I invited Christ into my heart." But if you probe, there is nothing beneath the shallowness of that reply. They did what someone told them to do, but never really embraced.

 

praying for Jesus to come into your heart is not a condition for salvation but him coming into your heart is a consequence of salvation.

When sharing the gospel, we should be careful what we say and how we say it. Even the word believe can be misleading if it is presented as mere intellectual assent (agreeing that certain facts are true) instead of as trust (relying on those true facts). Judas Iscariot believed certain facts about Jesus, but he never trusted Jesus for salvation. Salvation is not about believing a list of facts. Salvation is not even about asking God to forgive you. Salvation is about trusting in Jesus as your Savior, receiving the forgiveness He offers by grace through faith.

 

The Gospel is not


Asking Jesus into your heart
Giving your life to Jesus
Giving your heart to Jesus
Making Jesus Lord of your life
Asking God for forgiveness

The Gospel is not you as a sinner giving your heart and life to Jesus, But it’s that Jesus gave his life for us on Calvary.

The Gospel is that God accepted what Jesus did for you on the cross

The way you get saved is not by:

Praying a prayer
Saying sorry to God
Being a good person
Getting baptized
Asking Jesus into your heart

You get saved when you receive Jesus by putting your faith and trust in the death burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ as the payment for your sins

A lot of times young people don’t know for sure if they are saved.

Typically what happens is this, a person hears a message, they give an invitation and ask anyone if they want to get saved and they take that person and have them pray a prayer asking Jesus into their heart, or asking Jesus to save them, or something along those lines

People then often later on say things like:

Was I sincere enough?
Did I do it correctly?
Did I repent enough?
Did I say the right words in my prayer?
Did I really mean it?
How can I be saved and do (insert sin here)

The problem is the focus becomes something we do rather than what Christ has done. Our focus tends to be inside rather than us looking to Christ

John 3:14-16 KJV

[14] And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: [15] That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. [16] For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

 

How is that even comparable?
The concept or doctrine of the trinity is taught in plenty of passages, but a prayer to ask Jesus into ones heart is never taught.

At best teaching someone to ask Jesus into ones heart is unclear and at worst it is misleading and unbiblical, plus it creates confusion in people.

Show me anything remotely close to that in the preaching of the Apostles in Acts.

 

Faith in the Gospel of Christ is what makes the prayer effectual. If a person is trusting in the words they used to pray a prayer it shows that their faith is misplaced.

Your statements here are showing exactly the problem that I am trying to address. When people start to ask questions like “did I pray the right words” then I would suspect it’s because the person who dealt with them was unclear and this person was probably confused (perhaps by our pet phrases and unbiblical terminology?)