A Better Phrase Than “I Accepted Jesus Into My Heart”

“If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead you will be saved.”

Romans 10:9

One of the most common phrases that many Christians use when describing the moment that they believed is the phrase: “I accepted Jesus into my heart.” Many great Christians I know use this phrase, so I’m not critiquing or judging them, but it is important to recognize that the phrase does not come from the Bible. 

The Bible offers a very clear statement for describing how and when a person becomes a Christian. We find this statement in the book of Romans when the Apostle Paul writes that “if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead you will be saved.” This biblical statement shows just how simple it is to become a Christian, but it also brings up some helpful points that the phrase of accepting Jesus into your heart leaves out. 

First, following Jesus involves an external and verbal declaration rather than a subjective and internal experience. Our faith is primarily focused outward toward Christ, rather than inward toward ourselves. Of course, our heart is important, but as Jesus said, “Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks” (Luke 6:45). The heart and mouth are intricately connected.

Second, this confession of faith in Jesus recognizes both his lordship and his deity (being God). The same Greek word for Lord that Paul writes is the very word used for the name of God in the Greek Old Testament. So this confession involves believing and confessing Jesus as God. Many religious belief systems respect Jesus, but only true Christianity declares him Lord and God. 

Third, related to declaring Jesus Lord is the fact that such a statement means that he is now in charge of how we live. By calling him Lord, we are saying that we will follow him and his ways and his teachings. Of course, we fail, far more often than we want to, but this is where the next part is so important. 

In another letter, Paul says that the Gospel of Jesus is that he died for our sins, was buried, and was raised from the dead (I Corinthians 15). This gospel message also defines what makes someone a Christian when they believe it in their heart (the “heart” just means all that makes us who we are, the core and center of our humanity.)

We believe we are sinners against a holy and perfect creator God. We believe that  Jesus came to earth to die in our place and to forgive us of our sins. We believe that he also lived a perfect life that will be credited to us if we only trust in him. We believe that God raised him from the dead three days later and that he will eventually return to judge all human beings who have ever lived. If we trust in Him to save us and not ourselves, we can be certain we will have eternal life with God.

Of course, we can and should also have a relationship with Jesus now! We can read the Bible to get to know him, we can worship and sing, we can become members of a church, we can pray, and we can even experience his presence right now. Often, that’s all people really mean when they say they accepted Jesus into their heart. But why not just say it like the Bible does? Why not just say I became a Christian when I declared Jesus Lord and believed in my heart that God raised him from the dead?

Photo by Nicola Fioravanti on Unsplash