Christ in the Heart

One of the troubling things a minister has to bear is the possibility of having in his church’s congregation those who look like Christians and yet have never received Christ. I have certainly met many people who go to church and yet make little of Christ himself. Jonathan Edwards has written on this eloquently:

Persons may receive him in profession, and carry well outwardly towards him, and may wish that they had some of those benefits that Christ has purchased, and yet in their hearts not receive Christ. They may be hearty in nothing they do towards Christ; they may have no high esteem of Christ, nor any sincere honour or respect to Christ. They may never have opened the door of their heart to Christ, but have kept him shut him out all their days, ever since they first heard of Christ, and his salvation has been offered to them. Though their hearts have been opened to others … yet Christ has always been shut out, and they have been deaf to all his knocks and calls. They never could find an inclination of heart to receive him, nor would they ever trust him.

- A History of the Work of Redemption, J. Edwards, pp. 240,241 (Banner of Truth, 2003)

The heartbeat of a godly minister, and indeed any Christian, is to want to see such people come to saving faith in Christ and not just to become church members. Yet we ourselves are incompetent to see into hearts let alone sort the problem! It’s another reason why we need to pray with some vigour that God would bless the ministry of the word, such that the word can penetrate deep into the hearts of hearers.