Man’s Gospel:
“Stop Asking Jesus Into Your Heart” (J. D. Greear)

God’s Gospel:
I pray…that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. (Ephesians 3:16-17)

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I get the point that people are trying to make. Much of modern preaching is misleading. But the people who keep saying “Stop asking Jesus into your heart” or “The gospel never teaches us to ask Jesus into our hearts” are often just additional examples of the problem. They accuse people of turning the gospel into misleading slogans, but they do the same thing themselves. Even their corrections are misleading slogans.

The criminal on the cross was saved when he said to Jesus, “Remember me when you come into your kingdom.” Apparently there was enough implied understanding behind the statement. There is nothing wrong for someone to pray, “Jesus, come into my heart.” The Bible explicitly uses this language in the context of prayer and in the context of doctrine. And there is nothing wrong with expecting to receive salvation at a certain point in time with a prayer. The real issue is whether someone who says this has enough implied understanding behind the statement.

Of course we should ask Jesus into our hearts. There is a right context to it and a wrong context to it. But to say don’t do it or that the Bible does not teach it is to preach a different gospel. No matter what correction you need to make about somebody, you should never say something like, “Stop confessing Jesus as Lord” or “Stop saying Jesus is the Son of God.” When you do that, you become a worse heretic.