The Sinner’s Prayer

2022-02-02

There is a practice called the sinner’s prayer. It may be a prayer telling the Lord that you know you are a sinner, and that He died for you. These are good things to tell Him.

This is a prayer that may be said when one makes an initial profession of Christ. It may be that the evangelist says the prayer, and the professing new Christian repeats the prayer. It may be also that one even believes that the prayer they repeated was how they became a Christian. Many became Christians in such an encounter, but the danger is that one can put faith in a prayer and not in the finished work of Christ at Calvary.

This sinner’s prayer can also be paired with unbiblical concepts and confusing jargon such as “asking Jesus into your heart” or some bold promise that you have turned from all your sins. Since the Bible says “that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Acts 2:21), we feel like we need to force the situation and have people pray such prayers. I do not believe there is any need, and biblically there is no pattern where we compel professing Christians to do such things (at least that I can think of).

The night I became a Christian, no one led me in any prayer. However, that night, I did pray to God on my own. Christians will “call on the name of the Lord” automatically because they are regenerated.

The end of this discussion is this: Do not look on any works you have done in your life, including any such prayer. You want to look on Jesus Christ, who accomplished your salvation by dying on the cross for the sins of humanity and rose from the dead.