I was surprised. I went on YouTube looking for videos that presented Rev 3:20 as an evangelistic verse. Many, if not most, of the videos said it wasn’t an evangelistic verse.  

Then I went online looking for articles suggesting that Rev 3:20 is an invitation to everlasting life. Again, most of the articles indicated that it wasn’t an offer of everlasting life to unbelievers.  

Yet in my experience I’ve found that many laypeople and even pastors believe that Rev 3:20 is an evangelistic verse. I’ve heard many testimonies of people who say they were born again when they opened the door of their life by inviting Jesus to come in.  

That was my experience as well. I invited Jesus into my life hundreds of times between ages six and twenty. But when Warren Wilke shared Jesus’ promise of everlasting life with me, I was born again.   

There are seven powerful reasons why Rev 3:20 isn’t a salvation verse and why one is not saved by opening the door of his or her life to Christ.

First, the Lord invites believers, not unbelievers, to open the door. He was writing to the church at Laodicea (Rev 3:14). He indicated that He loved them and that He rebuked and chastened them (Rev 3:19). The word translated as chasten means child training. Believers are loved by Christ and rebuked and trained by Him.  

Second, Rev 3:19 states that the way the door is opened is by being zealous and repenting. If a believer in the spiritual far country (Luke 15:11-32) invites Jesus into his life, but remains unrepentant in the far country, Jesus does not come in and dine with him.  

Third, what the Lord promises here is fellowship, not everlasting life. Dining with Christ is a picture of fellowship.  

Fourth, the next verse, Rev 3:21, indicates what the believer in fellowship with Christ can gain. Fellowship with Christ is how a believer can be an overcomer and thereby be chosen to rule with Christ in the life to come.  

Fifth, no other verse in the Bible says that one is born again by opening the door of his life. John 1:12 does refer to receiving Christ. But John explains that receiving Him is “believing in His name,” not inviting Him into one’s life.  

Sixth, the only condition for everlasting life is faith in Christ, as John 3:16 and scores of verses in John’s Gospel and the rest of the Bible show. It is, sadly, quite possible to invite Jesus into one’s life without believing in Him for the gift of everlasting life.  

Seventh, the Lord did not say that if we open the door, He will come into a person. He said that He would come in to us. The Greek is eiseleusomai [I will come in] pros auton [to him].” Nearly all English translations read in to not into (e.g., NASB, ESV, NKJV, KJV, RSV, WEB, HCSB, ASV). The NIV reads “I will come in and eat with that person.” The NET Bible reads, “I will come into his home” and it has a footnote that says: 

Greek “come in to him.” The expression in Greek does not mean entrance into the person, as is popularly taken, but entrance into a room or building toward the person. Some interpreters understand the door here to be the door to the Laodicean church, and thus a collective or corporate image rather than an individual one. 

I’m glad that many videos and articles indicate that Rev 3:20 is not an evangelistic verse. Too many people have invited Jesus into their lives repeatedly, never gaining certainty that they are eternally secure. Only when one believes in Christ for everlasting life will he gain that life and that certainty. 

Keep grace in focus and you will remain assured of your salvation and will evangelize others clearly.