Sinner’s Prayer…

“Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall“ (2 Peter 1:10)

I was moved to expound a little more on last week’s blog entry titled: A Different Perspective of John 3:16. The reason being is I received a devotional from a friend of mine that ended with the ever so famous “Sinner’s Prayer” and thought how imperative it is to make sure our calling is genuine. The way the “acceptance” of Jesus Christ is being presented through the “Sinner’s Prayer” is actually creating more false converts than genuine ones. Christ Himself spent time explaining the scriptures to someone (John 4:3-42) He never lead them to recite a simple prayer. As A.W. Tozer once said in his sermon: “Jesus said follow me, not repeat after me.”

Accept Christ into our Hearts

Although there are many versions of the Sinner’s Prayer, here is an example of the prayer itself:

“Dear Jesus, I agree with you that I’m a sinner in need of salvation. I also believe that you died in my place, taking the punishment I deserved for my sins. I accept your offer of forgiveness and eternal life. I now receive you as my Savior. Help me to live from now on to please you. In Jesus name, amen.”

First off, the “Invitation to allow and accept Jesus into our hearts” and the “Sinner’s prayer” is not so much of a bad thing if it comes with a true repentant heart willing to turn from your sins crying out for mercy, grace, and forgiveness in the privacy of your own home. However as Christians we ought to desire what scripture teaches us and not something fabricated by man’s wisdom correct? As scripture reminds us: “Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men” (1 Cor. 1:25),

Having said that, many still refer to Romans 10:9 “…if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved” as a means to confess this in public, however this does not say anything about “publicly” accepting Jesus and reciting a prayer. They also turn to Luke 12:8 “…everyone who confesses Me before men, the Son of Man will confess him also before the angels of God” as another means of public acceptance, however the context of this passage tells us 1) It was a reference to the Pharisee’s hypocrisy: “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. But there is nothing covered up that will not be revealed, and hidden that will not be known” (Luke 12:1-2), 2)  The encouragement to not be afraid: “I say to you, My friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that have no more that they can do. But I will warn you whom to fear: fear the One who, after He has killed, has authority to cast into hell; yes, I tell you, fear Him!” (Luke 12:4-5) and 3) The boldness to stand and confess the name of Christ in front of those who blasphemes against God: “ When they bring you before the synagogues and the rulers and the authorities, do not worry about how or what you are to speak in your defense, or what you are to say; for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say.” (Luke 12:11-12) Again, this has nothing to do with a public prayer or acceptance.

Personal Experience

The reason I believe the Sinner’s Prayer and the easy “acceptance of Jesus” can do more harm than good is from my own personal experiences. In 2009 I went with my brother to have his son dedicated at a Pragmatic Christian Church however, before the actual dedication the Pastor made an alter call for the parents to come forward and “accept / invite Jesus” into their hearts. My brother, who lives a life of sin and without any dedication to Christ looked at me and said, “We don’t have to do this right…didn’t we accept Jesus when we were at Word of Life?” (a Word Faith Positive Confession Prosperity Movement). This made me realize how damaging the Sinner’s Prayer and the thought of “Inviting Jesus into our hearts” publicly really is, for he sincerely believed because he uttered a simple prayer about 16 years prior, that everything was okay and that Heaven would welcome him in even though his life was filled with sin and rebellion.

In my research regarding the Sinner’s Prayer I ran across this quote that I thought would be appropriate for this blog entry. Paul Harrison Chitwood wrote in his book The Sinner’s Prayer: An Historical and Theological Analysis,

At the same time, explaining the concept of inviting Christ into your heart is not always an easy thing to do. For children, who have not yet developed abstract thinking skills and struggle to understand symbolism, the idea can be most confusing. Even for adults the notion may seem obscure, even unintelligible. What does it really mean to ask Jesus into your heart? By simply staying true to the biblical requirements of salvation (calling on the name of the Lord, belief/trust, repentance, and confessing Jesus as Lord) this confusion can be avoided (pg.94-95).

When we confess Jesus as Lord and when we truly believe in Him, we WILL be obedient to Him. This is not caused by man’s power to “invite” Jesus into our hearts, or by uttering a few words, but can only be caused through the Grace of the Holy Spirit.

Truth is, once we “truly” believe in Him our lives will change, it will be revolutionary a transformation that is not superficial but spiritual…we will strive to be obedient, we will avoid sin and falsehood at all cost, and we will worship Him daily as our Lord…that is true acceptance of Jesus Christ, it is not lukewarm or half-hearted but it is complete. We can’t accept Him as Savior but not Lord, we can’t make the decision to say Jesus forgive me of my sins, cleanse me…but I don’t want you as my Lord, I don’t want to follow you, obey you, submit to your word, or leave my old habits and sins behind…that’s the words of someone who is unsaved and deceived!

True acceptance of Jesus Christ will change you entirely, you will accept His enemies as your enemies, His persecution as your persecution, His ways as your ways, and His cross as your cross—dying to our sins. As A.W. Tozer so eloquently stated: “If He can’t be Lord of your life He can’t be Savior of your soul.”

Scriptural

While the Sinner’s Prayer does make people feel a bit overwhelmed even to the point of believing its a movement of the Holy Spirit, especially if they are reciting it in front of the church or a group of people…truthfully all this is doing is giving the unbeliever a false hope of salvation. For immediately after they recite this prayer most times they are told they are now part of God’s Family, Forever Forgiven, and Eternally Saved—sadly this is not true.

The common steps someone is told before reciting the Sinner’s Prayer is this:

1. Admit that you’re a sinner in need of God’s forgiveness.  We “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”  (Romans 3:23)
2. Believe that Jesus Christ died for you on the cross, came back to life from the grave, and is your only way to heaven.  “God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us”  (Romans 5:8)
3. Turn from trusting in anything or anyone else for eternal life and trust only in Christ.  “And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12)
4. Accept Jesus’ offer to forgive your sins and become your Savior.  In Christ we have “the forgiveness of sins.”  (Colossians 1:14 )
5. Confess Jesus as Lord and Believe in your heart… (Romans 10:9-10)

Although all these steps are biblical some are taken out of its context in order to support this tradition or ritual, and as mentioned before the actual “Sinner’s Prayer” is never found in the bible. Jesus never lead anyone through a “Sinner’s Prayer”, and neither did His disciples or Paul the Apostle. According to history, this prayer is something Anglo-American Puritans and evangelicals came up with in the early 17th-18th century…if that’s the case does this mean everyone “before” this era was “NOT” a Christian because they never uttered the Sinner’s Prayer?!? Of course not.

We need to realize that scripture never mentions that these steps needed to be presented in a church service and within an alter call for it to work…that was man’s idea. When someone is aware of these things through either your counsel or a good sound sermon, what they do after knowing these things is between them and God and ultimately only two things will happened: 1) Either they will reject Him an make no changes to their life or 2) Truly accept Him and through God’s grace their lives will drastically change. We need to remember it is God’s sovereignty that chooses to save us (1 Peter 1:3) and as we read in the Book of John it is God who draws us near to Christ (John 6:44).

Assumptions

I would just like to state there are some who assume those who oppose the Sinner’s Prayer or the Simply-Accept-Jesus-and Be Saved method hold to a “Works-filled” faith of adding requirements to be saved “earning” their way into heaven legalistically…I have even read commentaries connecting this opposition with Calvinism. Personally even before I discovered Calvinism or Armenianism I found many things contrary to doctrine simply by reading it. I didn’t need a group of certain believers to persuade my thinking, far from it! Rather it is clear as day that through Scripture the Sinner’s Prayer is nothing but a religious tradition created by man, no different than the very Catholic rituals many of these Christians oppose themselves.

Ironically they claim those who oppose the Sinner’s Prayer as legalistic, yet it is they who follow and support this man-made tradition.

“I” Have the Power

When someone urges an unbeliever to recite the Sinner’s Prayer it really places the work of Salvation in the hands of the person “leading” the unbeliever. Why do I believe that? Because we are hearing way too much people saying: “We have lead this much people and that much people to Christ...”, “Come to our Harvest, where thousands are lead to Christ“, and “We have this number of converts and are working to lead even more this season…” etc.,  Of course, the person leading the unbeliever will never admit that he/she “lead” an unbeliever to Christ, but with so much proclaiming it is because of what “they are doing” people are lead to Christ, I wouldn’t doubt the feelings are definitely there…(The Sin of Counting)

On the other hand if we tell someone about Christ, what He did on the Cross, how His mercies and grace can wipe away our sins, how we are to continually live our lives avoiding sin and to have a relationship with Him through reading the scriptures in context, wouldn’t that leave the “leading” to God? To present people with the unadulterated words of God and leave their salvation in His hands…when they come to “Believe” in Him it becomes solely the work of the Holy Spirit…not influenced by another man, system or ritual…but by the Almighty Himself.

As scripture teaches us:

“Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers through whom you believed, as the Lord gave to each one?  I planted, Apollos watered, but GOD GAVE THE INCREASE. So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase.”  (1 Cor. 3: 5-7)

And as magnificent as Peter’s sermon was…it was still the “Lord (who) added to the church daily those who were being saved” (Acts 2:47).

I Believe!

This “belief” does not come by simply uttering the words “you believe” as the Sinner’s Prayer suggest, for anyone can say “I Believe.” Rather, it is truly knowing that Jesus Christ and His words are ultimate truth, that the scriptures is the means of Eternal Life and that without it we are completely hopeless.

Webster’s Dictionary describe the word Believe as: to accept something as true, genuine, or real, to have a firm conviction as to the goodness, efficacy, or ability of something, to accept the word or evidence as truth. Does this consist of your belief of Jesus Christ and the Scriptures? Many would probably answer yes…however just remember the two things Christ said about those who called Him”Lord”: “Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and DO NOT DO WHAT I SAY?” (Luke 6:46), and “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, BUT ONLY THE ONE WHO DOES THE WILL OF MY FATHER WHO IS IN HEAVEN.”(Matt. 7:21). Furthermore, He also said to those who proclaimed their “love” for Him: “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments” (John 14:15), “He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me” (John 14:21), “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word…” (John 14:23) and “He who does not love Me does not keep My words” (John 14:24)

You see, genuine faith or belief comes with obedience. As John MacArthur pointed out:

“…faith that says but does not do is really unbelief. Jesus was not suggesting that works are meritorious for salvation, but that true faith will not fail to produce the fruit of good works. This is precisely the point of James 1:22-25; 2:26. “~ MacArthur Study Bible”

To say we believe and not obey His Words only makes us religious. The danger with the Sinner’s Prayer is it gives people, especially the unbeliever the idea that all we have to do is believe and we are eternally saved…this is a false view of salvation. Although Jesus Christ Himself said: “…whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16) we need to understand the context of why He said that, how it was a rebuke to Nicodemus’ sin of unbelief for it was also Jesus who said: “…unless you believe that I am He, you will die in your sins” (John 8:24) Furthermore, when Jesus said “whoever believes in Him” again…(and I know I’m repeating myself)…it wasn’t a superficial belief of just uttering the words, rather it is truly believing in His word and obeying it that makes us genuine believers…one just needs to look at the examples of the Disciples and Paul the Apostle to know this is true.

In Conclusion

Because the Sinner’s Prayer has been utilized for so long, and there may be some who continued with their walks with Christ even after initially saying the Sinner’s Prayer, I can’t speak for everyone. However whether this utterance works or not there are MANY who I know personally who have recited this prayer and is still living in sin, enslaved to their bad habits, show absolutely no obedience to His words, and are so confused on their salvation and sanctification that it brings me to believe it does not work at all. Again, even though some may have continued their walks with Christ after reciting the Sinner’s Prayer, it definitely WAS NOT the prayer that saved them but God’s uncompromising Grace.

The Sinner’s Prayer may have made those who believe in it a little more aware of Christianity, made their dedication to church more consistent, and have brought more religion into their lives, but if they are not avoiding Sin, Falsehood, and the Lusts of the World, and if they are not living each day in close relationship with Christ through Scripture then all the Sinner’s Prayer have done is introduce them to “religion.”

Most times you would probably see a request to accept Jesus into your heart followed by a short prayer about here…you won’t today. Rather I am going to leave you with few words from my Savior and God Jesus Christ and leave it up to the Holy Spirit to handle it.

“If I speak truth, why do you not believe Me? He who is of God hears the words of God ; for this reason you do not hear them, because you are not of God” (John 8:46-47)
“Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps My word he will never see death.” (John 8:51)
“If I glorify Myself, My glory is nothing ; it is My Father who glorifies Me, of whom you say, ‘He is our God ‘; and you have not come to know Him, but I know Him; and if I say that I do not know Him, I will be a liar like you, but I do know Him and keep His word” (John 8:54-55)
“Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I AM” (John 8:58)

As the Pharisees noticed through the words Jesus spoke and the actions He took, Jesus did make Himself EQUAL with God. The forgiveness of every sin you’ve committed and will commit, the escape of God’s wrath from everlasting torment, and the life you can spend eternally in Heaven can ONLY be found in our God, the second person in the Trinity—Jesus Christ. “And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12)

In Christ,
Marc

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For more information regarding the Sinner’s Prayer, Alter Calls, Seeker-Friendly, etc. please visit the links below:

http://carm.org/sinners-prayer – Tony Miano
http://carm.org/what-is-sinners-prayer – Tony Miano

http://media.sermonindex.net/0/SID0495.mp3 – A.W. Tozer sermon pt. 1 “The Sinner’s Prayer”
http://media.sermonindex.net/0/SID0147.mp3 – A.W. Tozer sermon pt. 2 “The Sinner’s Prayer”

http://www.gty.org/resources/articles/A255/seekerfriendly-churches – John MacArthur
http://www.gty.org/resources/articles/A393/pragmatism-modernism-recycled – John MacArthur
https://discerneverything.wordpress.com/2012/10/17/pragmatism-is-it-in-your-church/ – John MacArthur