Recently, my five-year-old niece handed me a picture she drew. She pointed to each stick figure and told me who they were. Then she pointed to a cross in the corner with a heart around it. “And that’s Jesus,” she said.
The simple representation of Jesus struck me. Because the heart is what it boils down to.
Let me explain.
Proverbs 4:23 (KJV) says, Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life. The wickedness in our hearts, our very own sin nature, separates us from God. But God made a plan, the plan of salvation, so we could have a relationship with Him. He did this because He loves us.
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. – John 3:16 KJV
In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. – 1 John 4:9-10 KJV
But is up to us to choose whether or not we accept Christ. And this begins in our hearts when we believe that God sent Jesus, His Son, on our behalf to die on the cross for our sins.
That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. – Romans 10:9-10 KJV
In this way, salvation begins with the heart. The wickedness of our hearts prompted Christ’s sacrifice, and in a way, it ends with the heart. Because when we accept Jesus as our Savior, He takes up residence in our hearts (Ephesians 3:17).
I’ve often considered salvation to be complicated simply because I can’t fully explain God’s desire for a relationship with us. Especially when I consider that He had every right to wipe His hands of us and walk away. But when I focus on the heart of the matter, salvation is actually pretty simple.
God loves us. God wants us. And God made a way for us to be with Him.
This is an updated edition of a post originally published on Jennifer Purcell
Featured Image by Jeff Jacobs from Pixabay
