This is the title of chapter12 in Evangelism: A Biblical Approach, by G. M. Cocoris. I found this to be a provocative statement. Revelations 3:20–‘Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me.-- I have seen and even been taught to likewise use this verse to tell people, in effect, "If you want to go to heaven you need to listen to Revelations 3:20, Jesus is knocking on the door of your heart, if you let Him in, if you ask Him in, He will save you and you will go to be with Him in heaven when you die." After reading Cocoris, I do not think this is biblical.
I will not go into all the arguments the author uses, you can read the book for that. I will mention one main objection to the thinking presented above. The context of Revelation 3. This is a letter from Jesus to the church of Laodicea. That verse was written to people already going to heaven. These Christians, however, did have many problems and the Lord addresses them. One big problem was their pride. They were relying on their material wealth instead of on God. One of the things the Lord says they need is found in verse 20, fellowship with Him. And that is what that verse is about. So I agree with Cocoris, after examining this and other verses, there is no biblical precedent for asking Jesus into your heart. This may then lead one to ask, what does the bible teach about who will go to heaven?
I believe we must start with understanding. The Bible teaches that there are things we must know to be saved. Matthew 13:13-16 and Romans 10:14 among others prove this. The two most important things to understand are; Christ died for our sins, and He arose from the dead. I understand this from 1 Corinthians 15:1-5. Having heard these things and understanding them we come to the crux of the matter. This is the key, this is what scripture says one must do to be saved, or go to heaven... B E L I E V E .... Believe what? What I just said, that Jesus died for our sins, He paid our debt we otherwise have to pay in hell, and He rose from the dead, He was resurrected as His believers will some day be to live eternally with Him in heaven!!! Along with these truths come others.
To believe he died for our sins we must believe that we are sinners. The Bible teaches this all over; Romans 3:23-- for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,-- , please see also Romans 3:10-12, Isaiah 64:6, Jeremiah 17:10, etc. So we are sinners and according to Romans 6:23– For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.-- That is why Christ died on the cross to pay our sin debt. Please also see Isaiah 53:5-6 and Romans 5:8.
You must believe that Jesus is the infinite God-Man. Please see John 20:30-31 and John 1:1+14. The only "Christ" that can save you is the God of the Bible. Believing Jesus to be a good teacher and man is not enough; that is not the Jesus of the Bible. But, believing him only to be God won’t do either, He must be a man to pay for sin, a perfect sinless man to pay for the sin of all who trust in Him.
Now that I have put forth what I understand to be the basics of what one needs to know and then to believe in to go to heaven, let me further explain what is meant when the scriptures admonish us to believe in Jesus. Ephesians 2:8-9 –For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.-- It is God’s grace that saves us through faith which He gives us as a gift. When the Bible tells us to believe in or on Jesus to be saved we are being told to put our faith in Christ. Jesus Christ is the object of saving faith. Biblical faith has two aspects, intellectual agreement and trust. Please see the Greek. We must understand, believe, know the facts above to be true. That is the first part. Then we must also trust or rely upon Jesus to save us. This has been a difficult truth for me to communicate, the supporting verses are above, let me add an illustration. You might believe a bridge to be safe but, you don’t believe in it in a Biblical sense until you go out on it and it supports you. The fact that it supports you is not part of the faith but, it is proof you put you faith in the right object, and Jesus will save you if you trust Him to do so.
If you believe the biblical facts about Jesus and are trusting in Jesus to get you to heaven and trusting nothing else like the fact you were a good person and have lived a good life you will be saved from hell to live forever with God in heaven. This makes you a believer, a Christian. Read God’s word, the Bible. In it He has given us instructions for living and for developing a personal relationship with Him that began when you put your faith in Him. In it you will learn about prayer. I suggest you start to pray often to the God who hears you. It is a conversation with Him. Talk to Him and listen to what He has to say to you.
(I wrote this the summer (2001) before I enrolled at the Moody Bible Institute. I believe I originally wrote it for an on-line forum. Anyway, I have saved it on my computer all this time and having just skimmed it over, I thought it could be helpful in getting my blog going.)
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7 comments:
To say, "there is no biblical precedent for asking Jesus into your heart", may be a bit picky, although in arguing that Rev 3 is not speaking in the context of evangilism I would agree. However I would suggest there is nothing wrong with the phrase "ask Jesus into your heart" in the context of evangilism, i.e. it's not breaking any rules... even though there may be no direct biblical precedent for that particular picture phrase.
If there is a Biblical precedent for asking Jesus into you heart I would love for someone to show me, so that I could intetegrate that into my thinking. Maybe then I would be inclined to rewrite this article.
The problem I have with the argument that even though it may not be Scriptural it isn't contrary to Scripture (which I think is arguable), is that the Bible has plenty to say about what one must do in order to become a Christian, to be born again. So I think we should stick to the language of Scripture as much as possible. In so doing we will minimize the possibility of misunderstanding or leading people astray.
The Bible teaches that we must believe in Jesus to be saved. We must trust in, rely on His death on the cross as the payment for the penaly due our sin, and on nothing else. To say that what you need to do in order to go to heaven when you die is to ask Jesus into your heart is at best unclear. I think it could promote easy believism. People pray a prayer asking Jesus into their heart as fire insurance against hell and they remain unconverted.
Am I being to picky or do I have a point?
If after wittnesing to someone for 5 mins, they pray for Jesus to come into their heart, and we walk away, then yes of course they got faulty insurance. But if we talk, fellowship, teach, instruct, and pray with someone for weeks or even longer, then they decide to belive and be saved, then at that point I personaly do not belive that they would be being misslead with the simple, personal word picture. But yes it would be better to just stick with biblical termanology as much as possible. I think in our culture, we as people relate to our hearts as being where our spirit lives in us. So when christians speak of reciving the Spirit of God into our lives, new belivers relate that as being into our hearts, even though that may not be litteraly true, it's just the way people relate to the situation. So by all means, explain that to people who are in the process of being saved, so they will have an accurate understanding, i.e. just don't walk away...
Galatians 4:6 (New American Standard Bible)
New American Standard Bible (NASB)
Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation
6Because you are sons, (A)God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, "(B)Abba! Father!"
Is this a fair,accurate refrence?
"But went the fullness of time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. Because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, 'Abba! Father!'" (Gal 4:4-6).
Notice that God sends the Spirit into our hearts because we are sons, because we have been adopted, because we have been redeemed. Cocoris says, "Biblically, faith is the means of salvation. The indwelling of Christ is the result" (86). I am not arguing against the doctrine of indwelling. I am arguing against teaching that one is saved by asking Jesus to come into their heart or life.
To often Christians "witness" without presenting the gospel. A person must understand the truths of the gospel before they can believe and be saved. That is what I want to stress.
"Notice that God sends the Spirit into our hearts because we are sons, because we have been adopted, because we have been redeemed." This almost implys a time gap between, getting saved and receiving Jesus into our hearts, when in reality, it happens at the same time. So stressing what you want to stress is very good and nessisary, yet I would say that in general, conversions can be an emoitional event, and also expressing the simotainious implanting of Jesus into the person would help the person comfort wise, showing that them that regeneration is not only spiritually mechanical, but is also a spiritually emotional, and loving event. Your stressing the importance of the facts, I'm streesing the importance of the musshy side. Both are very important.
As to the supposed time gap, I would refer you to the post on regeneration. There is a logical priority, not chronological.
I would not see this as a juxtaposition of facts verses feelings. Nothing I have said would deny the emotion involved in conversion.
The issue, again, is whether we should encourage the lost to ask Jesus into their heart or to believe the gospel. I don't see anything in the last comment that requires a modification of the original post.
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