Don’t Ask Jesus Into Your Heart!

When you ask most people at most churches what they did to get saved, they’ll give you a completely unbiblical answer.  You’ll often hear:

1. I asked Jesus into my heart.
2. I accepted Jesus.
3. I prayed the sinner’s prayer.

None of those are in the Bible.

We all know what those things mean, but they aren’t proper explanations of how to get saved.  We have a huge problem with people who think they’re Christians but are going to end up in hell.  We have atheists who sweetly asked Jesus into their hearts when they were six years old.  We have men who went down to the altar to pray the sinner’s prayer, but love pornography.

Being born-again is as radical as being born the first time.  Kids who are born-again don’t grow up to be atheists.  Born-again people don’t love lust.

The Bible says that in order to be saved, we must repent (turn away from sin), and put our faith in Jesus.  So, I say that we start using the proper biblical terms:  repentance and faith.

Jesus said:  

• “But unless you repent, you too will all perish, (Luke 13:5).”
• “The time has come, he said. The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!” (Mark 1:15).

Peter said, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” (Acts 2:38).

Paul said, “I have declared to both Jews and Greeks that they must turn to God in repentance and have faith in our Lord Jesus.” (Acts 20:21).

The Right Answer to Yesterday’s Poll

In yesterday’s post, I asked people to respond to the following question.  If you died today, and you stood before God, and He asked you, “Why should I let you into heaven?”  What would you say?

There were only four responses.  Two were correct, and two were wrong.  When I ask this question to strangers on the street, the correct answer is extremely rare.

The Bible is clear that the only correct answer is, “I have been washed in the blood of Jesus.”

Relying on our own good works (which is what every religion, except Christianity, is built on) to get to heaven is like bribing the judge.  God wants all of the glory for saving us.  If we are honest with ourselves, we know that we’ve all broken God’s law, and deserve eternity in hell.  We’ve all lied, stolen, and taken God’s name in vain.  Jesus said that if you look at a woman with lust, you’ve committed adultery with her in your heart.  We’re all going to stand before God as lying, thieving, blasphemous, adulterers.

Let’s say we’re standing before a human judge, and we’re guilty of murder.  If we tell the judge, ”I hope you’ll let me go, because I mowed your lawn, and washed your car this morning.  I also volunteered in a soup kitchen yesterday.”  The judge would add bribery to our list of crimes, right before he sent us to jail for a very long time. 

That conversation sounds eerily familiar to one that Jesus talks about in Matthew 7:21-23.  “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!”

There is only one way to get to heaven.  That is by repenting, and putting our faith in Jesus.  If we’re trusting in anything other than the blood of Jesus, we’re bribing the Judge of the universe, and we’re going to be cast into hell for eternity. 

We’re commanded to do a lot of things such as baptism, taking communion, confessing our sins, and helping people, but we do those things out of gratitude for being saved.  Not in order to be saved.

Ephesians 2:8-9 says, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.”

Poll Question

Please take a minute to comment with your answer.  If you died today, and you stood before God, and He asked you, “Why should I let you into heaven?”  What would you say? 

1. I go to church.
2. I’ve lived a good life.
3. I confess my sins.
4. I’ve been washed in Jesus’ blood.
5. I believe in God.
6. I ask to be forgiven for my sins.
7. I’m a Baptist or Buddhist or Methodist or Catholic or whatever denomination/religion.
8. I’m nice to people, and I help them.
9. I’ve been baptized.
10. I take communion.
11. I give money to charity.
12. I’d say something not listed above.  

Please feel free to explain your answer.  Thanks for your help.

The True Story of St. Patrick

The truth about St. Patrick is much more fascinating than any myth. He was kidnapped in Britain by Irish pirates and sold into slavery in Ireland. He said that he had two constant companions in his six years of slavery—hunger and nakedness. In those tough times, he remembered the words of his preacher father: “God is able to deliver you.” He committed his life to Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior and Master of All. Patrick’s life changed, and his captors began referring to him as “that holy youth.”  

Eventually, Patrick escaped back to England. After 20 years at home, he believed God wanted him to go back to Ireland. He returned and told the Druid chieftains about Jesus Christ. Over the next 30 years, he criss-crossed Ireland. Every day he spent in Ireland, he was in mortal danger, but he lived out the Bible verse, “to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Philippians 1:21), with a desire to whole-heartedly follow Jesus Christ, and a knowledge that he would one day go to heaven. Because of his dedication to God, 120,000 people decided to follow Jesus, and 300 churches were built. Patrick’s whole life was devoted to telling others how they could repent (turn from sin) and find forgiveness and eternal life in Jesus.  

Why did Patrick do this? And how did he know that “to live is Christ, and to die is gain”? Long before he returned to England, he had remembered the words of his father, and knew that God was able to deliver him not only from slavery but also from his sin. He knew that he had broken God’s law.  

This St. Patrick’s Day, consider this: Have you kept God’s law (the Ten Commandments)? For example, have you ever told a lie? Have you used the name of God or Jesus as a cuss word (blasphemy)? Have you ever looked at someone with lust? 

If you’re like the rest of us, you can honestly say that you have broken all of those at some point in your life. God says if we’ve broken even one of the commandments just once, we’re lawbreakers, and it’s like we’ve broken them all. 

Because God is infinitely just, He must punish sin wherever it’s found. And because we’re all guilty of sin, we all deserve to go to hell, a horrible place of eternal punishment. But God doesn’t want you to be a slave to sin on this earth, and he doesn’t want you to go to hell when you die. God’s Son, Jesus, came to earth and lived a perfect, sinless life. When Jesus died on a cross, He took the just punishment for our sins—for all the times we’ve lied, blasphemed, or otherwise broken the law— so He could set us free. Jesus rose from the grave just three days after his death, and He’s alive today.

Justice has been served, and Jesus extends to you a wonderful offer of eternal life. He asks you to simply receive it by turning from your wrongful ways (repenting), and trusting Jesus to remove the shackles of sin, be the leader of your life, and take you to heaven. There is nothing you can do to earn your way into heaven. All you can do is humble yourself before God, and accept this free gift. 

How would you complete that sentence from the Bible? “To live is _________.” If your answer is anything other than Christ, you cannot say the second half of that verse: “to die is gain.” If you’re living for adventure, sex, money, or something else, then to die is to lose it all. To learn more about God and how to follow Him, take time daily to read and obey the Bible, and talk to God in prayer.

O’Brian

My wife and I walked up to O’Brain who was sitting on a bench in the park.  I’d guess that he’s around 20 years old.  I gave him a gospel tract, and asked if he had a Christian background.  He said he didn’t have a religious background of any kind, and was trying to figure out this whole religion thing.  I asked him if he would mind if we explained Christianity to him.  He appeared anxious to hear what we had to say. 

I said, “Would you consider yourself to be a good person?” 

He said what almost everyone else says, “Yes.” 

I said, “Do you think you’ve kept the Ten Commandments?” 

He said, “Most of the time.” 

I went through a few of them, and he admitted to being a lying, thieving, blasphemous, adulterer-at-heart. 

It seemed like he was convicted, and I asked whether he would be guilty on Judgment Day.  He said that he would be guilty.  So I asked whether God should send him to hell, and he admitted that hell is what he deserved.  I asked whether that concerns him, and I could tell that he was definitely concerned.  At this point I felt like the good news was about to leap out of my chest.   

I gave him an analogy.  Imagine you’re standing in front of a judge, and you’re guilty of all of these crimes.  The judge says you can go to prison, or you can pay a million dollar fine.  You probably don’t have a million dollars, so you’re about to be led off to prison, when someone steps up and pays your fine.  Justice has been served, and you can be set free.   

That’s what Jesus did.  Jesus took your punishment, and paid your fine, and you can be set free.  But you have to repent (turn from your sin), and put your faith in him to accept that free gift.   

At this point he asked kind of a weird question.  He asked whether I would be willing to give my life for others, like Jesus did.  It kind of caught me off guard, but my wife told him that it wouldn’t be possible for me to die for others in the same sense as Jesus, because Jesus lived a completely sinless life, and his sacrifice is the only one that makes any difference.

 I asked, “Does all of this make sense?” 

He said, “Yes, I want to go to heaven with you guys.” 

I’ve never asked anyone else these questions before or since, but I asked whether he believes Jesus lived a sinless life, whether Jesus was God in the flesh, and whether he believed that Jesus rose from the dead.  He said yes to all of those questions. 

I loaded him down with everything I had.  I gave him a more in-depth tract, and an episode of the “Way of the Master.”  He said he has a Bible, and I encouraged him to read the book of John.  Looking back, I wish I could have done more for him.  Maybe there is something more I should have done, but I know that he’s in God’s hands.  It would be a miracle if I ever saw him again, because he lives two hours away, but I hope we see each other again.  Please pray for O’Brian.

Heart of Stone

If there was a kid drowning in a swimming pool, and someone was sitting by the pool reading a book, and just let the kid drown, they’d be callous jerks.  It would be that person’s moral and legal duty to get up and try to save the kid.  

The thing is, I know Christians who sit around reading the Bible or praying or watching TV while people are dying and going to hell.  They have a heart of stone.  Christians are supposed to have been given a heart of flesh.  If you’re hoarding the cure for eternal death, while people around you are dying, you should question whether you’ve actually ever received that heart of flesh.