Why Do Christians Say That Jesus Lives in Their Hearts?

Q: Why do Christians say that Jesus lives in their hearts? — S.I.

A: When people accept Christ as Savior, He gives us new life where He becomes the center of our thinking, our speaking, and our actions. We commit everything to Him because He promises to give us strength to live according to what pleases Him.

The biblical use of the word “heart” symbolizes the whole realm of the affections. Into this area Christ comes to transform our affections, with the result that the things for which we formerly had affection pass away and the things for which we now have affection are new and of God. If Christ dwells in the heart, it means that He dwells also in the mind with its varied function of thinking and determination to glorify God in all that we do. In this process the human personality is neither absorbed nor destroyed, but is enriched by this union with Christ.

Now this does not mean that we live perfectly because we are still in our human bodies that are subject to the world’s temptations. When we falter and sin by doing things that aren’t right it’s because we’ve taken our eyes off the Lord. God’s Spirit will speak to us and convict us of sin and we will repent and be brought back into fellowship with Him.

This frustrates many new believers, because they think that at the moment they are saved they will never be tempted again. They feel defeated and this is right where Satan wants them. He does not want Christians to be victorious in their walk with Christ. Someone has said, “The perfect Christian is the one who, having a sense of his own failure to attain, is determined to ‘press toward the mark … of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus'” (Philippians 3:14, KJV).

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(This column is based on the words and writings of the late Rev. Billy Graham.)

(c)2019 BILLY GRAHAM DISTRIBUTED BY TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES, INC.