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Is it biblical to use the phrase "ask Jesus into your heart"?
[From moderator] This question is about the phrase 'ask Jesus into your heart' and whether it has any biblical basis. It is not about the meaning behind the phrase (receiving salvation through Jesus Christ). We ask that you stay on topic to focus on the phrase only. Thank you.
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Asked September 12 2013
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Anonymous (via GotQuestions)
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S. Michael Houdmann
Supporter
"Do you want to be saved? Then just ask Jesus to come into your heart." While this statement is not anti-biblical, neither is it expressly biblical. The wording generates a mental image that can ea...
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Mary Jane Daigle
Supporter
I have no problem to ask Jesus into my heart - even if it's not in Scripture - it is implied. The heart is what pumps the blood, which is the life of the person.
Jennifer Rothnie
Supporter
While 'Ask Jesus into your heart' can seem like a 'fuzzy phrase,' and sometimes be misused or misunderstood, it does have biblical support: Eph 3:16-19 17"I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith."... (dwell meaning 'to inhabit/settle' and heart being 'kardia', the heart - the seat of our desires and decisions, the affective center of our being). Also: Col 1:27, John 14:15-24, Heb 3:3-6, And II Peter 1:19 "So we have the prophetic word made secure, to which you do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star arises in your hearts" 'Arises' here does not mean "Comes into", but the greek anatello means to rise up after completing a necessary process, or to fulfill a goal. He must be present in the heart, working, for the process to happen and thus later be completed. Though, it is often better to think of ourselves as abiding with Christ (and thus, Christ transforming us) then from the opposite view of Christ abiding with us - though both are true! (II Peter 1:8-11) This is because we are abiding "with Him", to be transformed into His image and are heirs of -His- kingdom. Also, the spirit of the Son is our helper that dwells in our hearts to point us to Christ (Rom 5:5, II Cor 1:22, Gal 4:6, 1 John 3:19-24, II Tim 1:14) - and over emphasis on the phrase 'invite Jesus into your heart' can distort or miss entirely the role of the Spirit. 1 John 4: 9-16 explains better how it works. God loved us, so He sent His son as the atoning sacrifice that we might live through Him. If we acknowledge Jesus is the son of God (and love each other), God abides with us and us with God. The proof that God lives in us is His own spirit that He gave to dwell within us. As such it is not contradictory to say 'invite Jesus into your heart', but the phrase does collapse the gospel message in exchange for a saying with a lot less content. If used as a tool to help explain the gospel, this is fine - if used to replace the gospel message or hide pieces of the gospel, it is an error. Most importantly, it should not be used as a 'replacement gospel' and taught instead of "If you declare with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe with your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved".
Darlanne Denzer
Supporter
I think context is very important, not to mention, how we perceive certain words and statements. Maybe the question should be, what do we think the phrase "asking Jesus into your heart" means? While I do not use the phrase myself, as it just sounds somewhat cliche and typical, I don't see a problem with the idea of asking Him into my heart, which would mean, my thoughts, my life, my everything and therefore, my spirit. In Chronicles, Solomon is told to serve the Lord with a loyal heart, and that God searches our hearts. Wouldn't that be pretty closely related, that asking Jesus into our hearts is good thing? Chronicles 28:9 “As for you, my son Solomon, know the God of your father, and serve Him with a loyal heart and with a willing mind; for the Lord searches all hearts and understands all the intent of the thoughts. If you seek Him, He will be found by you; but if you forsake Him, He will cast you off forever.
Ema Sabau
Supporter
The salvation is more then saying that formula: "Jesus come into my heart". Salvation is a process. First a person have to UNDERSTAND that he(she) is LOST under God's condemnation being born in sin. We have today too many so called "saved" with out knowing anything about God's condemnation. This is very well reflected in the life of so many "saved" people. There is no love for Jesus Christ and not at all walking according God's Word. Second of all is this: After a person realized that he(she) is lost to come before God repenting genuinely for all their sins and ask God to MAKE him(she) a child of God. That involves a total and unconditional surrender. It is very ease to invite Jesus in your heart but extremely hard to surrender to Him. People invite Jesus in their life and live as they like. When a person surrounds the life to God he(she) is totally dependent on Him. Or this is not preach in our days in great majority of churches. After the first and second step took place then God is renewing that person and send Holy Spirit to take over that person and gives power to live according to God expectation. At the beginning little but day by day growing trough reading God's Word,praying,having relationship with other Christians more mature then him(her). Part of growing represents being part of a biblical church. When I say "biblical church" I mean church which believe the entirety of God's Word and live accordingly. Salvation TRANSFORMS a person radically from inside outside. Where is no transformation there is only intellectual believe. And to be very honest, Satan and his angels believe a lot more then any human being. A saved person has a living spirit which enables that person to communicates with God. Without Holly Spirit nobody can communicate with God. Can't understand His Word and can't hear His voice..
Glenn Harrell
Supporter
The "heart", used some 900 times throughout the bible, is a metaphor for the mind, will and emotions; the total inner, spiritual man. The best thing that could ever happen to the human heart is that Jesus comes into it and does what only he can do. He said of the heart, "Out of your heart comes evil thoughts, murder, unfaithfulness in marriage, vulgar deeds, stealing, telling lies, and insulting others." Matt. 15:19. This very heart is what we use to believe in him...Romans 10 ..."and if you believe with all your heart that God raised him from death." This heart is transformed by his presence so that we can understand things eternal. "Now set your heart on what is in heaven, where Christ rules at God's right side." Colossians 3:1 Yes, let Christ in. Invite him in. Welcome him in by all means. For the heart will remain desperately wicked without his presence. This is quite biblical. It may be a mystery but it is real. "And the mystery is that Christ lives in you, and he is your hope of sharing in God's glory." Colossians 1:27
Ed Smith
Supporter
There is nothing in the Bible about asking Jesus to come into your heart. Even the idea is not in the Bible. Jesus said He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned. Mark 16:16 (KJV) There is no such thing in the Bible about praying the "sinners prayer." We mucst first obey the gospel then Jesus will dwell in us through faith. We aresaved by God's grace. But consider this illustration:Bill, tells his sixteen-year-old son, Billy, that he will buy him a brand new car if he will only mow the small front yard. Billy mows the yard and gets the car. Is the car a gift or did Billy earn it? Billy could not have gotten the car unless he mowed the yard. Something was required of Billy in order for him to receive the gift. The question is, "Did Billy earn the car for mowing the yard?" Surely Billy did not earn the car. This is how God's grace works. Grace is generally defined as favor not earned. God offers us favor, and, in fact, we cannot earn it. At the same time we cannot receive God's favor unless we do what He tells us to.
mark wilkinson
Supporter
There is a children's Sunday School song that comes to mind here. 'If you want joy, real joy, wonderful joy, let Jesus come into your heart.' Yes, there are many times this phrase is used in Christian circles and, as stated by others above, it can miss the point that to become a Christians involves repentance towards God and trust in Jesus as Lord - a matter of relationship not mere words. However, the song goes on to add, 'Your sins He'll take away, your night He'll turn to day, Your heart He'll make over anew and then come in to stay...' In this way the phrase is qualified - and, hopefully, explained to children as they sing it. What the Bible actually teaches is that our hearts are desperately wicked (Jer 17:9), that the Lord looks upon the heart not externals (1 Sam 16:7), and that we need a new heart 'of flesh' to replace our hearts 'of stone' (Ezek 11:19-20). We all ought to pray the prayer of the Psalmist (51:10, 17) - 'create in me a clean heart O God...a contrite heart You will not despise.'
D W
Supporter
The heart is deceitful above all things, Jeremiah 17:9. The heart is the equivalent of the sinful nature. The sinful nature is composed of the mind, the will and the emotions. It is "soulish." Therefore, to ask Jesus into my heart I would be asking Him to disrupt the sinful machinations in my life, replacing them with His Holy Spirit, His Very Own Spiritual Nature. While I abhor formulae after salvation, the formula for receiving God's Spiritual Nature is found in Romans 10:8-13. Persons praying "Jesus come into my heart" should be introduced to that passage, along with John 14:6, John 3:16-17, John 3:3, John 5:24 and Ephesians 2:8-9. The "Roman Road" would also be helpful. http://www.booksie.com/Don_Watson Become a Fan
Benny Alexander
Supporter
While asking Jesus into your heart - isn't biblical, Its not a bad thing either. This statement is widely used when the audience are just waiting to accept Jesus as their Savior. Before understanding much about Salvation, How Jesus could save their life and growing biblically - when preachers call them to accept Jesus, They use a simple team "Ask Jesus to come into your heart" - Basically Its accepting Jesus as their Lord and Savior. Once they grow into their Christian life, It should be easy for them to understand "How Jesus save them"! Salvation is a continuous process, and when the new comer continue to work out, They should be able to understand it. This is just my humble thought based on my own personal perspective it would an easy sentence to make a person to understand who never read a Bible.
Michael Goodman
Supporter
The bible tells us that the New covenant is about God writing His laws upon our hearts and minds and inward parts. 2Cor.3-3 then tells us that this is done, "not with ink, and not in tables of stone but in the fleshly tables of the heart and with the Spirit of the living God." Ezekiel36;27 also makes the point that with the New covenant God will "put My Spirit within you and cause you to keep His commandments." Jesus also promised to "never leave or forsake "us and to be with us "closer than a brother". As we all know a brother can only be by our side and to be closer than that is be inside of the person. So to invite Jesus into one's heart is quite okay as far as I'm concerned.
lynn Sander
Supporter
The phrase "ask Jesus into your heart" does not appear in the bible. Neither does the word "Trinity". If my information is correct, "Trinity" didn't appear until the 2nd century and formally accepted in the 4th century. Is it biblically incorrect then to use this word that has been assigned to one of the foundational biblical doctrines of the Christian faith? Likewise, there are numerous passages in the bible talking about the importance of the heart : the Holy Spirit searching the heart, the Lord looks at the heart, the Lord weighs the heart, He made His light shine in our hearts, in our hearts set aside Christ as Lord, trust the Lord with all our heart, etc. Rom 10:9-13 That if you confess with your mouth, Jesus is Lord, and believe IN YOUR HEART that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is WITH YOUR HEART that you believe and are justified... 2 Cor 1:21-22 God put His Spirit IN OUR HEARTS... Gal 4:6 God sent the Spirit of His Son INTO OUR HEARTS... Eph 3:17 that Christ may dwell IN YOUR HEARTS through faith... If Christ is to dwell in our hearts, it follows that we must first ask Him in. The concept of asking Jesus into our hearts is definitely biblical. If you personally don't like the phrase, then don't use it but I don't believe it is edifying or a good testimony to a lost and broken world (with HEARTS that desperately need a Savior) to look down on someone who does.
Holuwadamilarey Hardeloye
Supporter
If we look critically at Jeremiah 17 :9 , it is practically impossible to ask Jesus to come into our heart. The heart is deceitful and desperately wicked . Do you want Jesus to come into such an environment? What we can do is to beg Jesus to take control of our heart so that we can do what is right and just before Him. For all have sinned an fall short of the Glory of God. This is my understanding of this question . Thanks.
Mayowa Lewis
Supporter
I believe it is biblical to certain extent. John 14:15-18 NKJV “If you love Me, keep My commandments. And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever— the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you. John 14:23 NKJV Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him. John 15:5, 7 NKJV “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. So I believe that by asking Jesus into our hearts, we are technically asking for His Spirit (the Holy Spirit) to indwell with us.
Vincent Mercado
Supporter
No. It has no biblical basis at all. I have searched and I cannot find this phrase anywhere in Scripture. While most Christian groups insist on going by the bible alone "sola scriptura", they fail to realize that this phrase is a tradition - it is a beautiful thing to do, I'm sure God willed this be done. It is probably is one of those traditions that Paul passed on to us by mouth, and not by letter. c.f. 2 Thessalonians 2:15
Judy Sheridan
Supporter
Asking Jesus into your heart means we must repent of our sins and believe in Him, giving every part of our life over to Him. Being a child of God is much the same as an innocent little child who trusts his/her parent to love, direct, care for and protect him/her in every way. To rely first on Him and not try to lean on our own understanding. Jesus told us that we must be like a child to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.
Marvin Reynolds
Supporter
No, the bible does not say it that way. However, stating is it has some force in making it clear that the HEART if defined as your soul which Jesus is involved with when you accept what God has done for your via Christ in his death and resurrection for all mankind by faith. Hence who you REALLY are in God is sealed forever by the SPIRIT of God based on faith. At best this is hard to explain as proof does not exist in what we expect but Faith gives your heart the truth and makes you ready to follow what God opens for you to do.
Bryan Myers
Supporter
The phrase, "ask Jesus into your heart" is most definitely NOT Biblical. Neither is it a tradition passed down by Paul or any of the other apostles as insinuated by some of the answers that I have read concerning this topic. The phrase has gained popularity over the past several years with the rise of televangelism, which began in the radio format. The problem with this phrase and others like it, is that it attempts to side step the plan of salvation as revealed in the Scriptures: Hear the gospel (Rom 10:17); Understand that you are a sinner in need of Salvation(Jn 8:24); confessing of sin (Mt 10:32) and repentance (Lk 13:3); being baptized for the remission of sin (Mk 16:16, Acts2:38); and remaining faithful (Rev 2:10). This is the ONLY manner that GOD has revealed for mankind to attain Salvation. To attempt to change what GOD has set, is in itself a violation of Scriptural authority. 2John 9-11 teach that if ANYONE exceeds the gospel teaching or doctrine they do not have either the Father or the Son; and to condone that false doctrine is to participate in their evil deeds. In Acts 20:28-31, Paul gives instructions to the elders of Ephesus (and us) to be on guard of the flock and that the destructive heresies would come from within. This thought is also conveyed by Peter in 2Pete 2:1-3. In fact, warnings against false teachers and false doctrine permeate the New Testament, yet largely go ignored because of the desires of people to not want to offend another person. How about offending GOD? If you want to worship GOD in Spirit and in Truth as commanded by Jesus (Jn 4:23-24), ALL doctrine and traditions which give the appearance of religiousness but are in fact vain worship (Mt 15:8-9) have to be set aside. Also see 2Cor 11:12-15; Gal 1:8-9: Col 2:18-23; 1Tim 4:1-5; 6:3-8; and 2Tim 4:3-4 for further study on this topic.
Dale Casselman
Supporter
Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life, and no one can come to the Father, except through Me." John 14:6 He also says, "No one can come to Him unless the Father draws him." John 6:44 Now let's go take a look at the thief on the cross, hanging next to Jesus. In one gospel, he and the other criminal hanging next to Christ are mocking Him. Another gospel has this man sticking his neck out for Jesus. He says that he, and the other man deserve their punishment, but, this man (speaking of Jesus) is innocent. Now in the gospel of John. He asks Jesus to remember him when He comes into His kingdom. So the thief is in rebellion, and is completely carnal minded. In fact, they said to Jesus, "if you are the Christ, come down from the cross, and take us with you". So this man was not saved yet. Then he starts to be transformed. His heart is changed to a compassionate heart for Jesus, and he admits he is a sinner. This is an act of contrition. He now understands righteousness. Now this man is born of God, he has a new circumcised heart, and the mind of Christ. He proclaims Jesus' deity. He is saved, and it was and is a complete work of God. The man did nothing. He did confess Jesus is Lord, he also believed Jesus would be raised from the dead, and he repented. All possible because of the work of the Spirit. Up until this it would have been impossible for him to be transformed because he had no idea what righteousness was. He only knew sin and a sinner's perspective on what righteousness is, which, of course, is more sin. So it does not take some silly little prayer, and a march up to the front of the church to be saved. Or some song and dance act. It does not even take baptism. It takes the Spirit of God working on the inside to make that change. And this will change your free will from wanting all that goes with sin, to wanting God's righteousness. So just to be clear, it is your free will, choosing Christ. But only because The Spirit changed you first, so that you could stop choosing sin and choose Christ. Here is the remarkable thing: You can never not choose Christ now. He says that nobody can snatch us out of His hand, and this would include you, also. In fact, He says that even when we are faithless. He remains faithful. So the Paraclete seals you right on into glory. I look at it like this. We are presently seated in Christ Jesus in the heavenlies. This is right now. We have the Spirit of God on the inside, so we are sandwiched between God on the outside, and God on the inside. You know if you are born again. It isn't a feeling. It is a whole new you. Long answer, but, I kinda just got going and couldn't stop myself. Lol.. I hope this helped you. I love you, as do all the brethren.
Murrel Lowry
Supporter
I believe that it is. If you look at one of the definitions for the word heart, you will find it as "the center of Being". Each of us has a center of being. Without The Christ, the Son of the Living God in our center of being, I believe we can't truly know, love and follow Him as we are directed. God said a lot in His Word. But He expects us to read it and figure out some things so that we will know beyond the shadow of a doubt what we do is right according to God's Word. Into my heart. Biblical? I can think of no other place I would want Him to be. Anytime, any place. Our Savior, didn't die just from the wounds He received. He died from a broken heart when the ones He came to redeem turned away from Him.
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