Christianity Today very graciously asked me to contribute to the “Sinner’s Prayer” discussion by distilling some of the ideas in my forthcoming book, Stop Asking Jesus Into Your Heart for an article. Here is an excerpt of that article:
“Belief and repentance are the only prescribed biblical instruments for laying hold of salvation. They might be expressed in a “sinner’s prayer,” but they are fundamentally postures of the heart toward God. It is possible to pray a sinner’s prayer and not have repented and believed. It is also possible to repent and believe without articulating such a prayer.”
“Shorthand phrases for the gospel can serve a good purpose, insofar as everyone knows exactly what they mean. But in light of the fact that so many in our country seem assured of a salvation they give no evidence of having, and so many others are unable to find assurance no matter how often they pray the prayer, I believe it is time to put the shorthand aside and preach simply salvation by repentance toward God and faith in the finished work of Christ. Or, at least, to be careful to explain exactly what we mean when we call for a response to the gospel.”
“Ultimately, my concern is not on what words or actions we might use to express our faith in Christ, but that we don’t substitute those words or actions for repentance and faith. “Praying the sinner’s prayer” has become something like a Protestant “ritual” we have people go through to gain entry into heaven. As “gospel shorthand,” it presents salvation as a transaction one conducts with Jesus and moves on from rather than the beginning of a posture we take toward the finished work of Christ and maintain for the rest of our lives.”
You can read the whole article here.
The cure is worse than the disease. In place of faith in a wrong thing (having prayed a prayer) …; instead of faith in the right place, the right One, in Christ, to be your Savior (Mt 1:21) …; the counsel is to trust in, have faith in, your current faith. Looking at yourself moment by moment, to see “where your hand is” right now, is not faith in Christ, it’s faith in yourself.
I was really excited to read this article in CT, and I linked to this blog from there. I’m working on a course discussing this very topic. (I teach various courses to adult groups at our church.) So I wish that your book were available now for me to consult.
I am fascinated to see how frequently Jesus is quoted in the gospels referring to various people essentially losing their chance at salvation. Terms like “cast into the outer darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth” and “branches are gathered to be burned” and “Gehenna” which was the perpetually burning trash pit.
Obviously we are talking about a crucial issue here. In the gospels, people get Heaven’s door slammed in their faces for a wide variety of reasons. They weren’t prepared, they weren’t good stewards, they didn’t minister to people’s needs, they didn’t produce fruit, and other reasons as well. It would be easy to construct a works-based requirement for salvation if one read only the gospels.
So I think you are right on in your concern. And I appreciate the balance between those who are OCD/paranoid about getting it right and those who believe that they have a fire insurance policy and that’s all they need.
I was disappointed, though, at the end of the article where you said we need to have the right “posture.” A good metaphor, I suppose, based in existential reality instead of simple affirmations – but devoid of meaning for me. I’m not sure how to know whether I have the right posture. I need something a little less metaphorical and more explanatory.
Is that coming in your book?
“Should we stop asking…..” is an important article, and I saw it first in Christianity Today, and intend to point others to it.
A thought that maybe you will address
‘When we ask the Lord to have mercy, (whether it is Spurgeon “God be merciful to me a sinner” ) saying it or anyone else, what are we really saying ? Is it possible for God to be any more merciful than He has already been (through the Cross etc.) ? Or is this kind of an earnest plea suggesting that He will be merciful depending on on how earnestly we pray words like these ” God be merciful to me a sinner”. I agree that the quality of repentance is important, not that He will be more merciful because of it but we enjoy Salvation that much more fully. I am suggesting that we learn to “claim/accept/appropriate” the mercy/grace already shown and thank Him earnestly repenting and growing in faith and belief in Him and what He did for us on the Cross. ” God be merciful to me …” may give the wrong impression to others learning from Spurgeon, and may even be hurting the Lord. I may be wrong, but this is my take at this point of time. YJK
Agreed! Preach it!
The essence of the gospel is accepting Jesus’ death on the cross as the payment for my sins. Shorthand yes, asking Jesus into my heart, no.
Once His, forever His.
Larry, I would be curious as to how to better phrase this.
To say that resting your hand on Jesus is faith in faith does not compute to me. I said nothing about the quality of that faith. At any given point, your hand should be resting on Jesus, not on itself. How is that faith in faith? Do you have a better metaphor than that one?
Thanks Pastor J.D for the excellent article. You have a lot of wisdom regarding what many people growing up in the church experience (including me)
I’m curious what your views are now on getting “re-baptized” if someone has doubts about the sincerity of their previous proffesion of faith and baptism. It’s a question that haunts me at times.
Thanks again for your timely article.
Thanks Pastor J.D for the excellent article. You have a lot of wisdom regarding what many people growing up in the church experience (including me)
I’m curious what your views are now on getting “re-baptized” if someone has doubts about the sincerity of their previous proffesion of faith and baptism. It’s a question that haunts me at times. Thanks again for your timely article.
I am so disappointed in this approach. A careful review of the book of Acts, as well as numerous places in the New Testament (1 Peter 3:20-11; Colossians 2:12-14; Galatians 3:27-27; Romans 6:3-4) make it clear that baptism, not the sinner’s prayer, was the means of entrusting your faith in Jesus and receiving his forgiveness, and assurance. This is also the uniform testimony of the church after the Bible was written and the Nicene-Constantinople Creed (386AD). You disregard this because you say it is a work, but it was never seen that way in the Bible, early church, or early Creeds. Unfortunately, a prior commitment to Calvinism clouds your sight, causing you to distort what the Bible actually teaches.
I must say that asking Jesus into your heart without obedience will do much good as asking a car to accelerate with no engine. I disagree with statement that belief and repentance are the only prescribed means of obtaining salvation. Acts 2:38 does not say for those Jewish men to believeand repent for the forgiveness of sins. Without forgiveness of sin there is no salvation. Immersion into water through obedience to God and repentance from the old way of life will get rid of sin according to Peter. It was a flowery notion to believe God was fine with however I wanted to come into a covenant relationship with him, but it wouldn’t have worked. We have to come to God on His terms. Much like the Levites, in order to serve Him we must be sprinkled with the blood and have our bodies washed with pure water. Hebrews 10:19-23.