An Inside Look at the Sinner’s Prayer

We have all heard this call from our pulpits: “Do you want to be born again? Then, pray this prayer and invite Jesus into your heart.” What generally follows is a short prayer that supposedly turns a sinner into a saint. This prayer in turn leads to the following statement: “Now that you have prayed this prayer, Jesus has come into your heart. You are now a child of God.”

Introducing the sinner’s prayer: an evangelistic tool that is used in evangelical Christian circles as a way for someone to ask Jesus Christ to come into their heart and be their Lord and Saviour. The sinner’s prayer has come to be accepted as the gateway into a relationship with Christ. Asking a church member when he or she got born again fits into asking when they prayed the sinner’s prayer.

A look at the Scriptures

Reading the New Testament from Matthew to Revelation will plough up an uncomfortable truth: nowhere in the Scriptures is the sinner’s prayer mentioned. Nobody in the Bible was ever instructed to ask Jesus into their heart in order to be saved. Contrary to the flow of the game, Jesus and His apostles called on their hearers to repent and believe. The message of repentance formed a core component of Jesus’ and His apostles’ evangelistic message. They emphasized that repentance was necessary for salvation and that it involved turning away from sin and turning towards God.

“After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. ‘The time has come,’ he said. ‘The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news’!” Mark 1:14-15 (NIV).

“When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” – Acts 2:37-38 (NIV).

What is repentance?

So what is repentance? The word “repent” comes from the Greek metanoeō which means “to think differently” or “change one’s mind.” Repentance simply means to change one’s thinking concerning one’s life and actions in the light of God’s truth as revealed in Scripture. Repentance then gives birth to confession where we identify sinful actions in our lives and seek God’s forgiveness and help in overcoming them. Confession is a sincere acknowledgement of wrongdoing, a tipping of one’s hat to God’s truth, and a commitment to live a life in accordance with God’s will.

As a case in point, let’s say person A earns a living by robbing banks. He justifies his way of thinking with statements such as “I can’t get a job in this failing economy and bank robbing is what I need to do to stay alive” and “Everyone steals! Most of the cash in banks is stolen money!” If A were to choose to follow Christ, he would need to change his thinking about his lifestyle, i.e., repent. He has to recognize that what he does is in violation of God’s holy laws, is punishable by God, and accordingly confess it to God so as to receive God’s forgiveness and salvation.

This is precisely what happened to Zacchaeus. Zacchaeus was a tax collector employed by the Roman Empire. The Jews under the Empire had to pay hefty taxes, and tax collectors shamelessly slapped on extra money for themselves. By abusing his power to seize anything he desired, Zacchaeus amassed immense wealth. The Jews were helpless to oppose him because he had the full backing of the Roman government. But Zacchaeus had a change of heart when he met with Jesus. He changed tack and repented of his sinful lifestyle.

“But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, ‘Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount‘” Luke 19:8 (NIV).

According to the Bible, repentance always leads to behaviour change. John the Baptist urged people to “produce fruit consistent with repentance” (Matthew 3:8). A person who has sincerely turned from their sin and put their faith in Christ will without doubt show indications of a transformed life (2 Corinthians 5:17; Galatians 5:19–23; James 2:14–26).

State of the Church

Why do we have so many hypocrites in the church? Why do we have so many church leaders leading double lives? You must have come across “believers” who are blatantly sinning and turn aggressive when confronted with their unbiblical lifestyle. These are persons who have not changed their minds (repented) concerning their sin despite having prayed the sinner’s prayer. They prayed the prayer but did not repent. Consequently, they are not born again. More’s the pity that there is no shortage of pastors who happily assure such individuals that they are now born again on the basis of their rattling off the sinner’s prayer. The absence of the message of repentance allows the enemy to easily pack “believing unbelievers” into our churches. Satan enjoys nothing more than using the false assurance from the sinner’s prayer to trick unbelievers into believing they are born again.

Jesus narrated a parable in Matthew 13:24–30, warning us that tares would be sown among the wheat. Jesus forewarned us through this parable that until He returned, there would be “believing unbelievers” in the Church. There would be double-faced churchgoers who hold with the hare and run with the hounds. Our present-day presentation of the Gospel message, which lacks the key ingredient of repentance, has made this parable a current reality.

It is not enough to just assent to the Gospel’s rudimentary truths. Knowing the basics about Jesus is not enough to gain entry into God’s kingdom. No charm offensive, such as saying a ritualistic prayer, can get one into the good graces of eternity. Jesus urges us to come around to the fact that we are sinners who need to turn from our sins. This can only be achieved by digging deep into one’s soul and not by mumbling superficial prayer formulas. Apostle Paul writes to Timothy, his protégé: “Reflect on what I am saying, for the Lord will give you insight into all this” – 2 Timothy 2:7 (NIV).

It is frightening to contemplate the sheer number of people living their lives in today’s world under the delusion that, just because they echoed a certain prayer once in their lives, they are now saved and headed to heaven. These people openly profess their faith in Christ, may even superficially resemble believers, but ultimately prove to have never undergone a genuine conversion. A certain pastor deceived them and assured them that they were saved and headed to heaven. They stake their faith in the sinner’s prayer and brush aside their impugning character flaws that prove they’ve never experienced the new birth.

Many who pray this sinner’s prayer end up praying it several times with no positive change. They lack a true understanding of what it means to repent. The sinner’s prayer is an eye-popper to those who believe that salvation is obtained through personal effort. They believe that the more good works they do, including the sinner’s prayer, the greater the likelihood that one of their actions will be the right one.

Conclusion

The sinner’s prayer is hazardous because it makes people believe they are already saved when they are not, and it also makes them resistant to the truth. They will dismiss the true Gospel of repentance and consider it a fake whenever they hear it preached. Many pastors are to blame for this, as they are more concerned with expanding their congregations and raising large sums of money than they are with cultivating genuine disciples for the heavenly Kingdom.

While repentance is an inward activity, the New Testament presents water baptism, not the sinner’s prayer, as an outward sign of membership in the Body of Christ. Baptism is a public declaration of faith in God and a symbol of the washing away of one’s sins and the beginning of a new life in Christ. We should encourage potential believers to have faith in and follow the Saviour day by day instead of having them perfunctorily recite the sinner’s prayer. We should also let them know that being born again is just the beginning; that being born again is a lifelong journey of growth and transformation as we continually respond to God through prayer, the Word, and confession of sin.