A Matter Of The Heart

“You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might."

-- Deuteronomy 6:5 --

A popular evangelist posted the following on Facebook:

Christians, we need to stop telling people to “accept Jesus into your heart.” This isn’t biblical language. Just about everyone “accepts Jesus into their hearts” but aren’t truly saved. Instead, let’s say “repent and believe the gospel/believe in Jesus,” like the Bible says.

If this person left out “but aren’t truly saved” I would not be spending time writing this. He lumped a countless number of souls who he knows nothing about into those who are not truly saved. I remember asking Jesus to do the same thing when I came to faith in Him as a twenty year old sailor over fifty years ago. Does this mean I am not saved?

Does the Bible actually say, “repent and believe the gospel?” A search through my ESV, NASB95, KJV, and NKJV Bibles yields zero results. Additionally the phrase “repent and believe in Jesus” is also not found in these versions. I also unsuccessfully searched for the phrase “believe in Jesus.” Thus, none of these phrases constitute biblical language according to this evangelist’s definition. My point – don’t always accept what some popular evangelist says on Facebook or any other media as gospel truth. You can easily be led astray into believing a perverted gospel (Gal. 1:6–10)!

True faith in Christ does not come from a set of rules based on biblical language. It is a matter of the heart. The Bible says a lot about the heart. It is the seat for our thoughts, attitudes, motivations, and actions. We give thanks to the Lord from the heart (Ps. 9:1) and curse Him from the same heart (Job 1:5). Evil thoughts and intentions stem from the heart (Gen. 6:5; 8:21) as well as emotions and passions (2 Chron. 7:10; 1 Sam. 1:8). “The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick; Who can understand it?” (Jer. 17:9). Jesus said, “The good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth what is good; and the evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth what is evil; for his mouth speaks from that which fills his heart” (Luke 6:45). When asked by a lawyer “which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Jesus said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind” (Matt. 22:36–37).

Only God knows and sees the heart. “God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart” (1 Sam. 16:7). He alone knows “the hearts of all the sons of men” (1 Kings 8:39; Luke 16:15; Acts 1:24). “The LORD weighs the hearts” (Prov. 21:2; 24:12). The LORD searches the heart and tests the mind (Ps. 7:9; 26:2; Prov. 17:3; Jer. 17:10). God “knows the secrets of the heart” (Ps. 44:21). “Sheol and Abaddon lie open before the Lord, How much more the hearts of men!” (Prov. 15:11). “He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is” (Rom. 8:27). The word of God is “able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart” (Heb. 4:12). It is “God who examines our hearts” (1 Thess. 2:4).

It is not my job to determine whether or not someone is truly saved because I don’t know that person's heart. There were several people over the years that looked, acted, and spoke like professing Christians. I discovered that one of them was a Mormon after five years of working with him. Another one was well churched with very high moral standards, yet, after several years of meeting with him for lunch at work, he could not tell me that Christ died for his sins. I cannot save a single soul. All I could do is obey my marching orders – “Go into the world and preach the gospel” (Mark 16:15).

The apostle Paul pronounced, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek” (Rom. 1:16). He refers to this gospel as “the word of the cross” (1 Cor. 1:17–18). Paul warned the churches at Galatia to not be disturbed by those who are preaching “a gospel contrary to what you received” – those preaching a false gospel are to be accursed (Gal. 1:6–10). In his first letter to the church at Corinth Paul wrote, “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” (1 Cor. 15:1–4).

“If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation” (Rom. 10:9–10). “For the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart” (Matt. 12:34; Luke 6:45).

May Christ “dwell in your hearts through faith” (Eph. 3:17).

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations cited in this post are taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®, Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.

John Gandiello is the author of "Know Your Theology - Understand Why You Believe What You Believe."

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