Kelly, our wonderful Trailhead Kids leader, sent me a link to a great blog over at Sojourn Church. It is titled "9 Reasons not to Ask Jesus into your Heart." You should read it because it is clear, succinct, and right.
I am not a fan of asking Jesus into your heart. I am not a fan of committing your life to Christ or making him Lord of your life or asking Jesus to be your friend, either. Strange thing for a pastor to say, right? Wrong.
After I became a believer and started working in a Christian high school, I came to see just how short those kinds of sayings fall from leading people to the real gospel. As a new believer (and a lover of all things English), I loved my job, most of the things about my school, and, of course, my students. One of the key frustrations I had, though, was that so many of my students claimed to follow Jesus but so few of them seemed to know him or love him.
So, about two months into the school year, I decided to have the students write essays on their relationship with God. I was amazed. Almost all of my students associated their salvation with an event where they "asked Jesus into their hearts" (or something very similar).
Even more amazingly, almost all of those same students claimed to have done it numerous times, usually connected to a yearly ritual they called the "camp fire" (I was a real newbie to the Christian world and had never been to a Christian youth camp).
When I asked them why they asked Jesus into their hearts - or committed their lives to Christ - so many times, they said their goal was to "do it for real" or "with all their heart" the second or third (or fourth) time. When I asked them to explain what they meant by "doing it with all their hearts," they would hem and ha, fumbling along, until they would usually come around to saying something like, "I just want to stop living like the world. I had slipped into my old way of life and I wanted to really live for Christ."
This sounds noble, but it was really quite stupid. I'm not saying those students were stupid - they were sincere and truly troubled by what they saw as a gap between their behavior and their profession. What I am saying is that the system that they were being sold was stupid - because it isn't the gospel.
The gospel is an incredible message of what God did for us in Jesus' death and resurrection. And it is insanely beautiful. He took my shame, my sin, and my place in judgement so that I could stand with him in the fullness of his blessing. He was covered with my shame so that I could be covered with his glory. He was crushed as my substitute in judgment so that I could stand as his brother in blessing.
The gospel is simply and profoundly a message of what God has done to gain our victory - a victory we could never win for ourselves. It is the good news delivered to us so that we might believe and be saved immediately and absolutely from the penalty, progressively from the power, and ultimately from the presence of our sin. The gospel is a message of good news to be believed about God's commitment to us. It is not a request for commitment from us.
The gospel says, Stop trusting your ability to work up to God and take hold of God, and instead start trusting in what God has done to take hold of you. What my students were hearing was, Don't you love Jesus and want to go to heaven? Well, you better start living like it if you want his blessing.
When I asked my students why Jesus had to die on the cross, they could all parrot, "for my sins." But if I pushed in a little and asked, why did he have to die? what did his death do? why is it important that he rose from the grave? what are you really trusting to make you right with God?
I got disturbing answers. Some, to be sure, when I dug in, would eventually get to the gospel, that Jesus was their substitute and that he completely satisfied God's justice for their sin. But many others simply could not give any explanation of the basics of why Jesus had to die, what his death did, or why the resurrection was essential.
When I really pushed them and they got a little tired of it, many would just say, "Look, I am doing my best. I think God understands."
This is why I get kind of ticked with the way Christians jack with the gospel. This is why I have such distaste for dumbed down (or just plain dumb) explanations of what Jesus did. My students were subtly misled to trust in their obedience to Christ instead of Christ's obedience for them. They were looking for security in what they had done to take hold of Christ instead of in what Christ had done to take hold of them.
And many of them simply did not get, let alone believe, the gospel. Some of the worst cases were students who were well-behaved and moral. They were the ones who often got praised and held up as examples to the other students. Some of them simply refused to hear the gospel because they had already said their prayer and had "gotten saved" and their moral lives proved it.
And yet, when I tried to talk to them about Jesus, their hearts were cold. Jesus said that those who were forgiven much would love much. These students loved little because they really didn't see themselves as bad and in need of much forgiveness. If I pushed into their failures, they became defensive and really kind of ugly. Sadly, many of them were really locked in to the suicide train of self-righteousness.
In the end, whether these kids grew in self-righteousness or beat themselves up because of their failures, the sad result was that many of them actually became inoculated against the real gospel. They either didn't think they needed it, or they thought they had already tried it and it just didn't work.
Scripture is clear: we are saved by faith in the person and work of Jesus. Our goal as those who share the good news of Jesus should not be to get people to do something with the truth - it should be to persuade them to believe the truth. And just because we can get someone to want heaven or forgiveness or a better life doesn't mean we have persuaded them to trust completely in the person and work of Jesus.
We don't need better salesmen. We need better messengers. We have been entrusted the greatest message ever given to mankind, and it carries its own power.
I am not a fan of asking Jesus into your heart. I am not a fan of committing your life to Christ or making him Lord of your life or asking Jesus to be your friend, either. Strange thing for a pastor to say, right? Wrong.
After I became a believer and started working in a Christian high school, I came to see just how short those kinds of sayings fall from leading people to the real gospel. As a new believer (and a lover of all things English), I loved my job, most of the things about my school, and, of course, my students. One of the key frustrations I had, though, was that so many of my students claimed to follow Jesus but so few of them seemed to know him or love him.
So, about two months into the school year, I decided to have the students write essays on their relationship with God. I was amazed. Almost all of my students associated their salvation with an event where they "asked Jesus into their hearts" (or something very similar).
Even more amazingly, almost all of those same students claimed to have done it numerous times, usually connected to a yearly ritual they called the "camp fire" (I was a real newbie to the Christian world and had never been to a Christian youth camp).
When I asked them why they asked Jesus into their hearts - or committed their lives to Christ - so many times, they said their goal was to "do it for real" or "with all their heart" the second or third (or fourth) time. When I asked them to explain what they meant by "doing it with all their hearts," they would hem and ha, fumbling along, until they would usually come around to saying something like, "I just want to stop living like the world. I had slipped into my old way of life and I wanted to really live for Christ."
This sounds noble, but it was really quite stupid. I'm not saying those students were stupid - they were sincere and truly troubled by what they saw as a gap between their behavior and their profession. What I am saying is that the system that they were being sold was stupid - because it isn't the gospel.
The gospel is an incredible message of what God did for us in Jesus' death and resurrection. And it is insanely beautiful. He took my shame, my sin, and my place in judgement so that I could stand with him in the fullness of his blessing. He was covered with my shame so that I could be covered with his glory. He was crushed as my substitute in judgment so that I could stand as his brother in blessing.
The gospel is simply and profoundly a message of what God has done to gain our victory - a victory we could never win for ourselves. It is the good news delivered to us so that we might believe and be saved immediately and absolutely from the penalty, progressively from the power, and ultimately from the presence of our sin. The gospel is a message of good news to be believed about God's commitment to us. It is not a request for commitment from us.
The gospel says, Stop trusting your ability to work up to God and take hold of God, and instead start trusting in what God has done to take hold of you. What my students were hearing was, Don't you love Jesus and want to go to heaven? Well, you better start living like it if you want his blessing.
When I asked my students why Jesus had to die on the cross, they could all parrot, "for my sins." But if I pushed in a little and asked, why did he have to die? what did his death do? why is it important that he rose from the grave? what are you really trusting to make you right with God?
I got disturbing answers. Some, to be sure, when I dug in, would eventually get to the gospel, that Jesus was their substitute and that he completely satisfied God's justice for their sin. But many others simply could not give any explanation of the basics of why Jesus had to die, what his death did, or why the resurrection was essential.
When I really pushed them and they got a little tired of it, many would just say, "Look, I am doing my best. I think God understands."
This is why I get kind of ticked with the way Christians jack with the gospel. This is why I have such distaste for dumbed down (or just plain dumb) explanations of what Jesus did. My students were subtly misled to trust in their obedience to Christ instead of Christ's obedience for them. They were looking for security in what they had done to take hold of Christ instead of in what Christ had done to take hold of them.
And many of them simply did not get, let alone believe, the gospel. Some of the worst cases were students who were well-behaved and moral. They were the ones who often got praised and held up as examples to the other students. Some of them simply refused to hear the gospel because they had already said their prayer and had "gotten saved" and their moral lives proved it.
And yet, when I tried to talk to them about Jesus, their hearts were cold. Jesus said that those who were forgiven much would love much. These students loved little because they really didn't see themselves as bad and in need of much forgiveness. If I pushed into their failures, they became defensive and really kind of ugly. Sadly, many of them were really locked in to the suicide train of self-righteousness.
In the end, whether these kids grew in self-righteousness or beat themselves up because of their failures, the sad result was that many of them actually became inoculated against the real gospel. They either didn't think they needed it, or they thought they had already tried it and it just didn't work.
Scripture is clear: we are saved by faith in the person and work of Jesus. Our goal as those who share the good news of Jesus should not be to get people to do something with the truth - it should be to persuade them to believe the truth. And just because we can get someone to want heaven or forgiveness or a better life doesn't mean we have persuaded them to trust completely in the person and work of Jesus.
We don't need better salesmen. We need better messengers. We have been entrusted the greatest message ever given to mankind, and it carries its own power.
Comments
There are so many things I could say about what you just wrote. I grew up in one of those Christian schools. I was one of those kids who had said "the magic prayer" and when I was 16 and bad things started happening in my family I hated and resented that God, because my understanding and faith was as dead as the persons in Africa who has never heard of Christ. Today I look at the lives of many of my classmates and it is sad. So many of them have no relationship with Christ or the church and so many of them have been wondering away for years now. It makes me very sad. I wish so much that those classmates had the joy that comes with truly knowing Christ.
Just wanna say thanks. This is really good - a message I'd like to share & plan to quote to others! Keep em' coming!!!!
That is a great idea. I received an email from another former student on facebook asking questions about this same thing.
Thanks for the suggestion!
Thanks for the feedback. I am glad that you love Jesus and that you look back with warmth on your conversion. I didn't write this to demean your or anyone else's personal experiences. I wrote it to share my observations and clarify what I see as an underlying and unnecessary problem with the way we do evangelism.
Here is a simple question: can you believe the gospel and not "ask him into your heart?" Of course, because the gospel has nothing to do with asking Jesus into your heart. Faith has to do with hearing, understanding, and trusting the truth that Jesus was our substitute in judgement so we could be accepted on the basis of the righteousness he gives to us. On the other hand, can you "ask Jesus into your heart" but not believe or even understand the gospel? Of course, for the same reason. And many people have.
So, while I don't want to demean your experience at all, I would like to challenge your thinking. Why would we tell people to do something to be saved when the real issue is whether they have believed the truth of the gospel?
God can work in spite of our poor presentations of the gospel - but why would we intentionally challenge him to?
I guess it gets down to issues between the heart and the head. Can you believe in your head only? In your heart only? What if your brain doesn't function as well as mine?
Your presentation of the Gospel is certainly much better than mine, you being a pastor and all. Does that mean I'm challenging God because I'm not as good? I think not.
The issue comes down faith - what is someone trusting for their salvation. When someone says to me that they "asked God into their life" or they "committed their life to Christ," I don't hammer them - but do ask clarifying questions. Everyone has faith in something - so the question for me as a leader in the church is, Are they trusting the right thing?
This can be equally true, by the way, for someone who has the catechism memorized and can spout all the right answers. Just because they know the text book answers doesn't mean they have come to a place of faith in the person of those answers.
This eliminates the question of "head and heart" knowledge. I have no idea how to tell those two things apart - if they even are two things. Faith unites the head and heart - do you know the truth (required to believe it) and are you persuaded that it is true and, as a result, trust it?
Back to the children who've asked Jesus into their heart. Really, how many elementary age or middle school (or even high school for that matter) children can rightly divide the Word? Not many. So to ask them to articulate the 5 points of Calvinism or to understand escatalogical theology just isn't going to happen. My point is this--faith can be simple, and perhaps it should be. Jesus himself said, "Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it". I think we let the children say things like "Jesus is in my heart" and then we ehlp them and watch them grow into mature Christians.
Thanks so much for this post. I'm afraid it took me into my early adulthood to really understand this. But once I embraced it or rather it embraced me, I haven't been the same since!
So glad to see you in your new position at Edwardsville (and the "fire" in your belly)!!! What a blessing you must be to your congregation.
Much love,
Cheryl
I agree that the "Jesus lives in my chest-cavity" imagery can be somewhat less than helpful, and growing up in a Pentecostal church whose legalistic semi-Pelagianism had us running to the altars every week out of fear of "losing our salvation" (whatever that even means), I know full well the pitfalls of the works side of this age-old equation. I do think that some kind of conversion experience/epiphany/encounter can be useful as a kind of line of demarcation in our lives, but the problem (especially for overly-churched kids like I was) is that often there is no difference in between the moment before “conversion” and after, so it’s a let-down.
The question then is how do we affect a cultural shit that emphasizes to our kids the meaninglessness of our “righteousness” in light of His perfection, in a society that prides itself in self-assurance and self-confidence? How do we illustrate the fact that works are an outgrowth of salvation and not an avenue to it in a world where churches seem to be keeping score?
I fully agree that a child has no need or capacity (nor, in fact, do I) to complete understand issues of Calvinism, God's sovereignty, eschatology or whether the earth is 7,000 or 7,000,000,000 years old. (I'm not attacking - I'm just having some fun with this)
But a child - or anyone else who is truly going to be counted among the people of God - must believe the gospel. (Now before anyone goes and gets hissy on me, I am not arguing for or against an age of accountability, nor am I trying to make a point about the validity of a covenant family relationship).
The gospel is simple. It is so simple a child can believe it. Jesus was my substitute. He paid the debt I owed for my sins so that I could be made right and be with God. He rose from the dead - that proves God's anger is over! To me it is way easier to teach a child that Jesus was their substitute than try to explain meaningless phrases like "Ask Jesus into your heart."
If a child (or an adult) cannot articulate a basic understanding of the gospel, how can they believe it? When it comes to this stuff, what you believe is just as important as that you believe.
Great questions. I don't have complete or perfect answers.
I will say this - when we share the gospel with our kids (or anyone else for that matter) we need to resist the temptation of going the easy route (getting them to do something) instead of taking the harder but essential route (persuading them to believe something).
I have dozens of anecdotes of how this has worked out in my own home with my kids, but they all essentially come back to Lauren and I being intentional to preach the gospel to our kids continually. We taught them about Jesus, the purpose of his death, the importance of his resurrection - pretty much all the time.
That also required us undoing some of the stuff that over-eager child evangelists did. The whole "ask Jesus into your heart" thing actually sent my daughter into a tail spin of insecurity (I didn't do that - what if I didn't do it right - what if I didn't really mean it) - but notice the emphasis: I, I, I. The gospel takes our eyes off what we do and puts them on Jesus and what he has done.
Thanks! I hope you and Jason are doing well. I think of you guys often.
I loved that statement near the end of your comment: self-righteousness is very different from Christ-righteousness. So true. I would add that self-confidence is very different from Christ-confidence. We can be confident, assured, and bold in our position in Christ because we stand on his record, not ours! It is an incredible message.
Thanks for the comments.
Thanks for stopping in. Knowing the exact date and time of your "conversion" isn't important. What is important is knowing that you are forgiven by God because Jesus was your substitute in judgement.
For some people, they don't know exactly when they started believing the truth. They just know they do now. Now there is usually a point where it dawns on you that you have faith. You know? There is usually a point where it's like- wow, I believe this stuff. Jesus died for me and satisfied God completely for my sin. But the issue isn't whether you have had an experience - the issue is whether you know and believe the good news.
Thanks for stopping in - and for the kind words! We are doing great - we absolutely LOVE Edwardsville and the work at Trailhead.
TM
I'd love to see you there!
Steve
First time I heard anything like what you are saying was at a weeklong youth camp when I was about 15. One of the older guys in the group (about 18 or 19) had already reached a jaded point and said one night at our evening devotion (late in the week when a lot of kids would have the "campfire" experience if they were going to have one at all), that he was frustrated with all these commitments because what he saw every year was that we all went back home, school would start, we'd get back to our routines and in a couple weeks, none of it would matter...there would be no lasting change. I knew he was right, but he had only pointed out the problem without knowing a solution. Now I can see looking back, it was just like you said -- we were subtly led to trust in our obedience to Christ, not in his sacrifice for us. Now I'm 43, and there have been so many times in my life since then when I've come to a point of conflict or challenge where I know I need to pray, and I can't figure out the situation and I don't know how to pray, much less what to do, and I have come to God and said, "I'm powerless; if something is going to change here, you have to do a miracle". Then I feel guilty, because I have that residual hangover of training from my good Baptist upbringing that I need to offer something, do something, ask what God wants of me. But maybe that place is just where God wants us a lot of times; surrendered, when we have a total dependence and realization that in fact, we can do no more, and it really IS up to him. I'm not saying God doesn't require something of us; I think we have a responsibility to holy living, renewing our minds, studying to show ourselves approved. Maybe it's just as bad to believe in "easy grace" where you say a short prayer, do nothing to change, and walk away feeling justified as it is to say a short prayer, commit really hard, and drive yourself nuts trying for an unattainable self-produced righteousness. But between the extremes there is a balance in there somewhere. It is bad to presume upon grace, discounting its worth because it is free to us; and yet it is bad to presume that once you are made aware of your sin, you've got it from here on out and can clean yourself up if you can just commit to make Jesus your self-help coach. But in my own life, I think if I err to one side or the other, I probably err to the self-righteousness extreme, and I'm probably better off when I'm at that place where I just give up and ask God to take it. It's not that I want to avoid my Christian duty, but I've learned that when I try to help I tend to make things so much worse.
--Dave Powell
Great feedback - thanks for sharing it. I think you are right that it is just as bad to say your prayer and then presume on grace as it is to say your prayer and then try really hard to earn it. Both of them are missing the gospel.
I have found that when someone really gets grace (which generally only happens after someone really gets how sinful and helpless they are) - you don't have to convince them to pursue and obey Jesus. They won't be perfect, but they will delight in the one who delights in them. They will follow Jesus, not to earn his acceptance, but because they already know that they are unconditionally accepted by him.
It's like when you fall in love. You voluntarily lay down your desires, your freedom, your self-will for her. It doesn't earn their love - it is a response to their love - and it deepens your own experience of love.
Thanks for joining the conversation.
Steve
Walk in freedom and joy!
Steve