Ask Jesus into Your Heart. Or Not.

I came across a short essay that I wrote in 1996 in an attempt to answer the question, "Where does it say that Jesus is in our heart?"  (It is rather popular in evangelical circles to claim that people must "ask Jesus into their heart" to be saved.  I was wondering where they got this "ask into your heart" thing.)

I found three Scriptures that came as close as I could get to this concept.  You'll notice that not a single one mentions heart... or any other internal organ either, for that matter.

John 14:20 On that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. 

John 17:22-23 ... so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.

1 Corinthians 6:19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God...

I then wrote the following.  (OK, so it's sorta stream of consciousness.  Roll with that bit, eh?)

Saying that "Jesus is in your heart" seems to compartmentalize him, even constrict him. It puts Jesus in a part of us.  And he sits there inactively.  There is no mention of him working through us, of him drawing us to be more like him, discipling us, etc.  It's a completed sort of statement  It's a location rather than a state of being or a position of operation. 

Now consider the similar statement that one needs to "ask Jesus into their heart."  This implies that a finite creature can actually direct the actions of an (the) infinite creator.  In my recent studying of the book of John I see numerous references to belief and that Jesus came that we might believe.  No where do I see that he came so that we might put him in our hearts.  

Add to this the prayer of Jesus in John 17.  He asked that we might be in him and him in God so that we may be completely one, so that 1) the world would know God sent Jesus and 2) the world would know God loves us.  It seems to me that the purpose of Christ in us is in no way tied to our salvation (as "asking Jesus into our heart" would have us believe) but is specifically that the world would have a better understanding of God.

Today people use the "Jesus in my heart" thing as a dividing line.  There's us -- we have Jesus safely tucked away inside our blood pumping organ.  And there's them -- they don't have Jesus anywhere in them.  Not even in their livers or kidneys.  Rather than focusing on the unity that John 17's "they may be one as we are one" should point us toward, we first of all twist the concept of Jesus in us and then use it as a sword point to poke others with. 

The moral of the story?  Christians are dorks.  (Which is another way of describing the doctrine of sin, I suppose.)

One Church

As I pack up our house for a brief move (while we have work done on our kitchen and basement) I keep coming across pictures, notes, magazine articles, etc. that I've had squirreled away in boxes or cubby holes for years. 

I came across an old notebook (from about 1996?) in which I had notes from a book I was reading at the time.  As I reread my notes I hit this great quote:

"Something else you see if you spiritually belong to the church is that belonging to it means being catholic -- it means belonging to the whole church, belonging to all others who belong to Christ.  Being a church member is not the same as belonging to a denomination, or a congregation, or a theological persuasion.  If the church is the body of Christ, there can't be more than one church, because there's only one Christ.  Anyone clinging to him must cling to the others who are clinging to him." -- Taking the Word to Heart (I think it's by Robert C. Roberts.  But I didn't write the author's name down in my notes.)

I think this is something the church is constantly struggling with.  We hold so tightly to our own ideas about what church is or what we have to believe to "count" as a Christian, or what our political beliefs must be to be a "proper" Christian that we forget we all follow the same God, and the same savior, and have the same Spirit and we are, whether we like it or not, all one church.