There are many forms of the sinner’s prayer. The following is an typical example.<\/p>\n
\u201cJesus, I now realize I have sinned against you. Please forgive me of my sin. Please come into my life and change my heart. I want you to be my Savior. In Jesus name I pray. Amen.”<\/p>\n
The problem with sinner’s prayers is that often the sinner does not understand what He or she is saying or committing to. Thus, there are many false conversions and more conversions that don’t last. Even worse are the many professing Christians including pastors and evangelists that declare once someone has said (prayed?) the sinner’s prayer, he or she is saved forever no matter how wicked his or her lifestyle may become. Of course, there is no biblical basis for such a declaration. The claim is that once the sinner’s prayer is uttered, grace kicks in and one no longer need be concerned about his or her salvation. In essence, they can ignore Paul’s words in Philippians 2:12 where he says, “…work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.”<\/p>\n
To explain what Grace is, and its role in salvation, and to explain salvation, let’s consider two sections of scriptures. In the parable of the rich man (Luke 12:16-20) who became much more wealthy, Christ Jesus the Lord teaches us a vital lesson. It wasn’t the fact that he was rich that got him in trouble, but that he was not rich toward God. What does that mean? It can only mean that the relationship between God and him was either poor or nonexistent. This is implied by the fact that he does not mention God in his future plan. He was all about the temporal realm, which also indicates that God was seldom if ever in his thoughts.<\/p>\n
God said practically the same thing about the Laodecean church in Revelation 3:17-18. Although God said that they were lukewarm, He also said that they were “miserable, poor, blind, and naked.” Lukewarm means they had a little heat. At some point they had committed their lives to God through Christ Jesus the Lord. However, they were in danger of being violently thrown (vomited) out of God’s presence. Yet, no doubt He loved them, rebuked, and chastened them. Because of grace He gave them an opportunity to repent.<\/p>\n
The truth becomes clear in God’s word that grace is not a hell insurance policy that one can simply purchase with the “sinner’s prayer.” It is not a license to sin, disregard God’s will, to focus on self-aggrandizement, riches and pleasure in the temporal realm. Grace is the blood of Christ appealing to the mercy of God on our behalf. Individuals that live according to their will have rejected the Lordship of Christ. Thus, they have also rejected salvation and the grace that comes with it.<\/p>\n
To reject the Lordship of Christ (Romans 10:9) is to reject Him as Savior. No one receives the Savior that does not first and in the same moment receive His Lordship. Declaring Christ as Savior in the “sinner’s prayer” without first and equally accepting Him as Lord is not salvation. It’s just religion. Christ Jesus is the Savior, but He was Lord before He became a sacrifice. Romans 10:9-10 does not say to confess the Lord Jesus as Savior, but to confess Him as Lord. It says that believing in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead is believing unto righteousness, and that confessing Him as Lord is confession unto salvation. The formula is clear. If we confess Him as Lord, and hold deeply the veracity of His resurrection in our hearts, then He is our also our Savior. If He is not our Lord, it does not matter what we claim that we believe, He is also not our Savior.<\/p>\n
How do we know that we have received Christ Jesus as Lord? If we confess Christ Jesus as Lord, and believe in our hearts that God raised Him from the dead, we will not live as if we are autonomous and according to our whims and will. We will not live as the rich man and the Laodeceans. Instead, we will strive daily for full surrender to God’s will. We will develop a hatred for sin and love for sinners. Our hearts and minds will point toward God, not toward the tantalizing lure of the world system. The truth is that we will live rich toward God. Romans.10:12 says, “…for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him.”<\/p>\n
“Turn your eyes upon Jesus.
\nLook full in His wonderful face.
\nAnd the things of this world will grow strangely dim,
\nIn the light of His glory and grace.” (Helen H. Lemmel)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
There are many forms of the sinner’s prayer. The following is an typical example. \u201cJesus, I now realize I have sinned against you. Please forgive me of my sin. Please come into my life and change my heart. I want you to be my Savior. In Jesus name I pray. Amen.” The problem with sinner’s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-709","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","post-preview"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paIm2N-br","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.truthkeepers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/709"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.truthkeepers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.truthkeepers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.truthkeepers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.truthkeepers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=709"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.truthkeepers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/709\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":710,"href":"https:\/\/www.truthkeepers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/709\/revisions\/710"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.truthkeepers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=709"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.truthkeepers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=709"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.truthkeepers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=709"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}