If I have heard it once I have heard it a thousand times when Christians are evangelizing the lost they tell them to “Ask Jesus into their heart”. I want to state right from the start that THIS STATEMENT SAVES NO – ONE and I am going to show you why it doesn’t. I have debated and talked about this with many people and some say I’m splitting hairs, I’m being semantic and that God knows what we mean so it will be all right.  No it will not be alright and Heaven is at stake.

God has a plan for Salvation, a protocol plan and it must be adhered to with out any deviation. Lets first take a look at Gods plan for Salvation and what the Bible says we must to do be saved before we look at “why asking Jesus into your heart saves no-one.”

1st Corinthains 15 v 1-4 tells us the Gospel of Jesus Christ’s death, burial and Resurrection.

Now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received, in which also you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast the word which I preached to you, unless you Believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.

Here is the Gospel taught by the Apostle Paul, telling us about the Death, Burial and Resurrection of Jesus Christ. He has indicated in the 2nd verse that they have already Believed in this. This is what their hope and trust was in.

Ephesians 1 v 13 In Him (Jesus), you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation—having also Believed,

We see again here in Ephesians that they heard the gospel and Believed in it. They trusted it.

When the  Philipian jailer in Acts 16 v 30 asked Paul how to be saved Paul told him: “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved”

Romans 5 v 1 : Therefore, having been justified by faith (Belief), we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,

Peter in the book of Acts says:

From these few verses, and there are many more, we see that salvation is by FAITH alone in CHRIST alone and NOTHING added or taken away from that.  Believe on the LORD JESUS CHRIST and you will be saved.  John 3 v 16 is the most famous verse in the Bible in my opinion and it tells us exactly the same, that WHOSOEVER BELIEVES in Him will not perish but have eternal life.

Lets get back to our main subject. Asking Jesus into our hearts for salvation. Having read these few verses and knowing now that we are to Believe in Jesus for our salvation, can we reason together and agree that not once have we read anything in these verses that indicate we are to “Ask Jesus into our hearts” to be saved.  Where does this notion even come from. Well, I believe it to be a misinterpretation and  false understanding of a passage in Revelation 3 v 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.

We see here this idea of Jesus standing out side the door and He is knocking and looking in and if we open the door He will come.  This sounds very plausible except for the fact that Jesus is talking to believers out of fellowship and He is inviting them to get back into fellowship or be disciplined. THIS IS NOT A SALVATION PASSAGE.  Any attempt to use it as one is teaching a FALSE gospel which saves no-one. 

The next problem I have with “Asking Jesus into your heart” to be saved is the simple matter of “Asking Jesus!!”

Church age protocol for prayer is as follows. All prayer is to be offered to the Father, in the name of Jesus whilst in the Sphere of the Spirit (being in fellowship, or as Paul calls it in Corinthians,  a Spiritual believer.)

No-where in the Bible are we taught to pray to Jesus or to the Holy Spirit.  The following excerpt is from Darry Andersons (http://www.bhgm.org) teaching notes on ” The Church: Her worship in prayer and thanksgiving”   http://www.bhgm.org/Teaching%20Notes/Word/38_The%20Church_Her%20Worship%20in%20Prayer%20and%20Thanksgiving.doc

The practice of prayer should be given careful attention by every faithful believer. 

1)   It is most important that believers observe regular times of prayer.  They should avoid any irreverent use of prayer or useless repetitions as characterize the heathen world and follow the divine order prescribed for prayer under grace.  This is stated in the words, “”In that day you will not question Me about anything. Truly, truly, I say to you, if you ask the Father for anything in My name, He will give it to you.” (John 16:23), and prayer is to be “in the Holy Spirit.”

Jude 20

20 But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit,  (NAS)

2)   This order is not arbitrarily imposed.  However, to pray to Christ is to abandon His mediation by praying to Him, rather than through Him, thereby sacrificing the most vital feature of prayer under grace, prayer in His name.  To pray to the Spirit of God is to pray to Him, rather than by Him, and implies that we are, to that degree, depending on our own sufficiency.

3)   It may be concluded then, that prayer under grace is to be offered to the Father, in the name of the Son, and in the power of the Holy Spirit.

The last comment I want to make about our title ” Ask Jesus into your heart” is about the word “Heart”.

How many times have we seen the preacher when he talks about the heart of man pointing to his chest where the heart that pumps blood around the body resides. When the Bible talks about the heart it is always about the right lobe of the mentality. The heart is the mind where we store our norms and standards. It is where we do our thinking. When we learn something for the first time, we may not believe it, it just becomes a term or a frame of reference and is stored in the left lobe of the mentality but when we trust it and believe it, it shifts over into our right lobe or ” the heart” where we act on it and use it in our decisions and circumstances of life.  Why then do people want to “Ask Jesus” into their Right lobe of their minds. Jesus cannot fellowship with fallen man who has an old sin nature, Adam’s original sin imputed at the moment of physical birth and a propensity away from God. God the Father, Jesus the Son and the Holy Spirit can only fellowship with absolute righteousness which leaves us, mankind in a predicament. How can we be righteous enough to satisfy them. This is the genius plan of God through Jesus Christ. When we hear the Gospel, the Holy Spirit provides common grace to convict us of our “sin of unbelief” and when we choose to believe the gospel He makes that common grace efficacious or effective in our life and at that moment that we believe we become “New Spiritual Creatures”  or “Born Again” as we more commonly hear it explained. 2 Corinthians 5 v 17 Therefore if any man [be] in Christ, [he is] a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

So the problem is solved, God creates in us a new person where He can dwell. This new person He creates is as righteous as He is and this is how we are saved. By faith alone in Christ alone.

I hope from reading this that I have been clear and to the point that the false gospel of “Asking Jesus into your heart saves NO-ONE”