The Sinners Prayer

First you have the cart in front of the horse. Faith is one of the fruit of the spirit. Man cannot muster up faith. when GOD regenerates one of his own, then that is when he can act on the faith that comes in the new birth. I can see that I will be called on the carpet for that statement but nevermind. Faith comes by hearing, but who is it that hears?

 

Yes, to the regenerated person. Not all men have faith.

 

The main problem I have with the 'Sinner's Prayer' is that I don't find it in Scripture; it certainly isn't the prayer that Jesus taught us....

 

The sinner's prayer is what the Bible refers to as calling upon the name of Jesus for salvation (Rom. 10).

"Calling upon" is prayer.

But I'm not in favorite of every exercise of the sinner's prayer in our day.

 

Exactly Whether out loud or in our hearts, it is still the same thing.

I agree as well. Some make it seem as though it was the prayer that saved, whether by their misunderstand or miscommunication. The fact is the sinners prayer is us calling out to God, in faith, that HE might save us.

It is God who saves, not the prayer.

 

The Bible most certainly does have the sinner's prayer.

Luke 18:9 And he spake this parable unto certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others:
10 Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican.
11 The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican.
12 I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess.
13 And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner. 14 I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other: for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.

The Pharisee was self-righteous, he did not believe he was a sinner. He thought himself better than others, especially the publican.

The publican on the other hand had an honest heart and knew he was a sinner. He knew he had no merit to claim before God. But he had faith that God was good and very merciful. And so he asked God that he would simply show mercy to him, this was his only hope.

And Jesus said the publican's prayer was accepted, and he went down to his house justified, with all his sins forgiven.

And all men can have faith, faith comes by hearing the word of God. If you have ears, then you can hear God's word and believe.

Rom 10:17 So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

It's not a matter IF you can hear God's word and believe, rather it is if ye WILL hear and believe.

Heb 3:7 Wherefore (as the Holy Ghost saith, To day if ye will hear his voice,
8 Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness:

Believeing is a matter of the heart. If a person prays the sinner's prayer and sincerely confesses they are a sinner and asks for God's mercy as the publican did, they will be saved.

If a person prays the prayer simply because they are pressured into it, but does not sincerely mean it, then they are not saved.

Rom 10:9 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.
10 For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

It has to be real, it has to be sincere, it has to come from the heart.

 

They should not pray the sinner's prayer unless they are believing. The sinners prayer is the first stop once the sinner believes. My how much focus the sinners prayer gets as the apparent entry to salvation, its always by faith and faith alone. A sinner confesses the Lord because they believe, they admit they are a sinner and need the Lord to save them because they come to that place and believe it as fact. The sinner's prayer is the first prayer as a believer yet praying will be their daily communication with the Lord from that time onwards.

Darren

 

Well Darren, that goes without saying. You are not going to pray to God if you do not believe he exists. And you are not going to pray for forgiveness unless you believe there is a chance God will be merciful and forgive you.

Heb 11:6 But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.

But faith comes by hearing the word of God. Let me ask any person here how they know about Jesus Christ? How do we know that God created the universe in six days?

By the scriptures of course. Without the scriptures, the word of God, we would know nothing of God. We know that God created the universe by the scriptures. We know of Abraham's faith by the scriptures. We know that Jesus was the Son of God and died for our sins because of the scriptures.

No man would have ever dreamed up the gospel. It did not originate with man's will. If man had his way, man will ALWAYS choose to save himself by good works. Look at all the false religions in the world. Every single one teaches that a man can earn salvation through good works.

No, the gospel, being saved by the sacrifice of God's Son who shed his blood for us, came by the will of God, and we know of it by God's word. So if you believe in Jesus, it is because you heard God's word.

Faith always comes by hearing God's word.

 

Agree 100%.

Rom 10:14 How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?

I only want to point out that the "praying" is not the saving, the saving already happened before they prayed once they believed. The sinners prayer is just that a prayer where they can speak to God, confess their faith in the Lord Jesus, His life and resurrection and confess their sins, letting God work in their heart, much the same as praying does for every christian.

Darren

 

Hmmm....that's not what I understand the Sinner's Prayer to be: amongst UK evangelicals at least it is the prayer by which you 'ask Jesus into your life'....whatever that means...

 

Have you tried asking them what they mean?

 

It tends to vary depending on whom you speak to, but a typical example would be:

"Dear Lord Jesus, I acknowledge that I am a sinner, believe you died on the Cross to take the penalty for my sins, and invite you into my life as my personal Saviour".

Now, I have no problem with the first part (as has been said, that's pretty much the prayer of the publican), nor the second (although Penal Substitutionary Atonement is not the only way of looking at the Cross), but it's the third leg with which I take issue, if nothing else because of it's vagueness.

 

At least he's not speaking to Neo. Though this is a format of the "sinners prayer" the issues is not one of format but willingness of the person praying to submit themselves to the Lordship of Jesus Christ in their life. Personal savior is one emphasising that the person praying the prayer has personally attested to the ability to Jesus being able to save them.

 

The man who calls on God in Romans 10, Paul says some things about him. Paul says the word is nigh him, even in his mouth and heart, and defines this word as the word of faith which we preach. This word says, confess the Lord Jesus and believe that God raised Him from the dead. Call upon the name of the Lord Jesus and thou shalt be saved. A few verses later the following question is asked: "how then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed?" So, the one that calls on Jesus Christ already believes in Jesus Christ. "Whosoever beleiveth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God." "He that beleiveth on me hath everlasting life." The person that calls on Jesus Christ is already born of God and already has everlasting life.

 

This is an "order of salvation" problem. A person isn't going to make any kind of prayer about his salvation unless the Holy Spirit is working on him aka regenerated him. Conversion is the human response to regeneration.

Why would a servant of Satan pray to God/Jesus?

 

Exactly right.

 

Darren, I am in total agreement with you. If a person truly accepts they are a sinner in danger of Hell, and believes Jesus is the Son of God who died on the cross for their sins and rose from the dead, then they are going to pray to Jesus. The prayer is evidence of faith.

But the faith comes by hearing God's word. In my own experience, I heard a preacher preach about sin when I was 11 years old. And I believed the scriptures that said I was a sinner. I knew I had done wrong things, I had lied, I had probably even stolen at this age. And I understood the holiness of God and that even one little sin would keep me out of heaven. And when the preacher taught how Jesus was the Son of God, and that all my sins were laid on him that I might have forgiveness, I believed it.

So when the preacher invited those who wanted to be saved to come down and ask Jesus for forgiveness, I practically ran down. I wanted to be saved right then and there, I did not want to go to hell.

Now, I was probably already saved because I believed the word of God. But when I prayed and confessed to God that I was a sinner, and asked that Jesus would come into my heart and forgive all my sins it gave me assurance. I do think it important for a person to know when he or she called on Jesus for salvation. Sometimes a person can worry and fear that they may not be saved, I think it is good to remember that time we sincerely prayed and asked Jesus to forgive all our sins, it gives a person assurance.

 

Good post!! Agree 100%. The Word of God is powerful, spiritual, it is one of the means God uses to draw sinners to Christ. The idea that a person has to be regenerated in order to believe the Word of God is in denial of the power of the preaching and truths of the bible/gospel/Word of God. The Word of God cuts to the heart, there is no sub section of cutting to the heart of the regenerated sinners or not cutting to the heart of the unregenerated sinners... Such a thing is not taught in scripture.

Darren