Consider What the Bible Says About Salvation
If you ask someone, “What must I do to be saved?” or “How do I become a Christian?” a common and perhaps frequent answer is you have to ask Jesus into your heart.
While this isn’t entirely incorrect, it isn’t fully correct either. It’s also an answer that has no direct biblical support.
Our Savior never told people to invite him into our heart. And the New Testament writers never said that to become a Christian we had to ask Jesus into our hearts.
What Is Our Heart?
The primary definition of heart is the physical organ in our bodies that pumps blood through it. The secondary definition of heart is a general location in our body: our upper chest or breast.
It isn’t until we get to the tertiary definition of heart that we gain some useful spiritual insight. In this understanding, our heart is the vital center and source of our being, emotions, and sensibilities.
Though the definition of soul is quite different, our heart does seem to function a lot like our soul.
Our hearts can be good (Luke 8:15) and pure (1 Timothy 1:5). In contrast, our hearts can be full of evil (Matthew 15:19). And we can have a hard heart, not allowing us to see the things of God (Matthew 19:8, Mark 8:17, and Hebrews 3:15).
What Jesus Says About Our Heart
Jesus says we’re to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength (Mark 12:30). This is the greatest commandment.
Jesus could also sense who loved God in their hearts and who didn’t (John 5:42). So does Father God (Acts 1:24)
Another time Jesus says that if we don’t doubt in our hearts, that what we proclaim will happen (Mark 11:23).
He also says that a good man brings good things from the goods stored up in his heart, whereas an evil man has a heart that brings forth evil (Luke 6:45).
Later, in his parable about the sower, Jesus talks about those with a noble and good heart who hear his good news, retains it, and produces a harvest (Luke 8:15).
In contrast are those who allow the devil to snatch his good news from their hearts; they will not be saved (Luke 8:12).
Yet in none of these cases does Jesus tell us to ask him into our hearts.
How to Be Saved
In looking at what Jesus does say about salvation, he often gives individual instructions appropriate to specific people.
We would be remiss, however, to apply their personal directives to our own path or turn them into a generic formula that applies to everyone.
What Jesus often says is to repent (Matthew 4:17) and follow him (Luke 9:23). In John he pointedly says to believe in him (John 3:16).
These ideas all interconnect. We repent, believe, and follow him. This is how to be saved; this is how to become a Christian.
Yet receiving salvation through Jesus is just the beginning of our new life with him; it isn’t the end. We respond to the good news of his salvation in how we live our lives once we are saved. In doing so, we work out our salvation (Philippians 2:12).
This isn’t to earn our salvation (Ephesians 2:8-9) but to let our light shine (Matthew 5:16).
Paul says that to be saved, we must declare aloud that Jesus is Lord and believe that he rose from the dead (Romans 10:9-10). Merely believing isn’t enough. We must proclaim Jesus’s lordship. That is, we tell others about him.
What About Our Hearts?
Paul writes that through Jesus, we have the Holy Spirit in our hearts (2 Corinthians 1:22). Later Paul explains that our creator made his light shine in our hearts (2 Corinthians 4:6).
And as sons of God, he sends the Spirit of Jesus into our hearts (Galatians 4:6). Last, in our hearts, we are to revere Jesus as Lord (1 Peter 3:15).
As such, Jesus dwells in our hearts through faith by Holy Spirit power (Ephesians 3:16-17). And we’re to let the peace of Jesus rule in our hearts (Colossians 3:15).
Through this we see that God is in our hearts as both Holy Spirit and as Jesus. The Holy Spirit is in our hearts, and Jesus is in our hearts. This may be the impetus for the idea of asking Jesus into our hearts.
Given this, it’s not wrong to ask Jesus into our hearts, but doing so glosses over what it really means to follow him. Salvation isn’t a onetime event, but a journey that lasts a lifetime. This is the key to eternal life.
Though asking Jesus into our hearts is a child-friendly explanation, it’s also overly simplistic. The Holy Spirit and Jesus come into our hearts after we’re saved, not to bring it about.
Instead of asking Jesus into our hearts, we should repent and believe in Jesus (John 3:16 and Romans 10:9-10).
This is what we must do to be saved, to become a Christian.
Peter DeHaan writes about biblical Christianity to confront a status quo faith and live a life that matters. He seeks a fresh approach to following Jesus through the lens of Scripture, without the baggage of made-up traditions and meaningless practices.
Read more in his books, blog, and weekly email updates.
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