By Mark W. Christy, PhD
In many evangelical churches, it is not uncommon for those who wish to convert to be led in what is known commonly as the sinner’s prayer. At many of these churches, there exists a desire to see people come to Christ which may indeed be genuine even while at times misguided. At others, the drive for success, which unfortunately is determined by the number of converts, may have become the primary motivating factor. Nonetheless, the usage of the sinner’s prayer is extremely broad-based, and therefore it deserves careful consideration as to its biblical faithfulness, especially since it is typically offered as a stand-alone means for salvation apart from any other biblical/gospel truths.
Typically, the sinner’s prayer will be offered in such a way where one is called upon to simply believe in God’s love and receive Christ as Lord and Savior. An example of this can be found in Rick Warren’s bestseller entitled The Purpose Driven Life where he tells prospective converts to “[b]elieve God loves you” and that He “wants to forgive you.”[i] Next, he directs them to “[r]eceive Jesus Christ into your life as your Lord and Savior. Receive his forgiveness for your sins.”[ii]
As Warren’s example demonstrates, the sinner’s prayer does at least mention sin even while it’s brevity and lack of focus on sin beyond this essentially leads to this aspect of the gospel being glossed over to some degree. This blurring of the sinfulness of sin can be readily seen in the following example of the sinner’s prayer from Joyce Meyer ministries where sin is first labelled as a mistake: “The problem is that we are humans and we’ve made mistakes (Romans 3:23). Big or small, the Bible calls these mistakes ‘sin’ and even one sin keeps us from having a relationship with God, and eventually leads to death. (Romans 6:23). But there is good news! Through Christ, you have hope! Jesus is waiting with open arms to save you—all you need to do is turn away from sin and towards Him (the Bible calls this repentance), and He’ll forgive you completely.”[iii]
As both of these examples should indicate, the various truths presented in the sinner’s prayer may be biblically faithful. Even so, this prayer in evangelism should be avoided for a plethora of reasons. To begin with, it offers a formulaic approach to a personal God that is by default impersonal in essence. Along with this, it tends to confine one’s commitment to Christ to a brief moment when the prayer is offered and salvation is supposedly granted. While it is true that God grants salvation to the repenting sinner, it is still quite possible that the person who professes repentance lacks a deep and determined commitment that is associated with authentic saving faith.
Another reason for rejecting the sinner’s prayer is the prominence it gives to the recipient of salvation over and against the giver of salvation. As the example above clearly demonstrates, God is typically stripped of His holiness and other qualities, and is reduced to little more than a loving God that is desperately hoping His creature returns to Him. This view of God, however, hardly bears resemblance to the view of God offered by Paul in Romans where his first emphasis was upon the wrath of God (Rom 1:18).
By allowing the decision of the convert to take precedence, the sinner’s prayer has the potential to offer a prospective believer with a false hope as no one can know with absolute certainty whether or not their heart is completely devoid of deceit in their approach to God. As Jeremiah puts it, “The heart is more deceitful than all else [a]nd is desperately sick; Who can understand it?” (17:9).[iv] Beyond the potential for self-deceit, the sinner’s prayer also implants faulty theology into the church because it suggests that one’s salvation depends upon one’s own decision. While the Bible most certainly calls upon people to repent and believe in response to gospel proclamation, it also teaches that one’s faithful response is initiated and even completed by God before creation even while it is worked out in the process of regeneration which begins in the heart of the believer even before they make the good confession (John 3:3-8; Rom 8:28-29; Eph 1:4; 2:5; 1 Thess 1:4-5; 1 Pet 1:23).[v]
This work of God in the convert’s life before the confession of faith is necessary due to the spiritual condition of the unregenerate sinner. Since the Fall of Adam and Eve, humanity has been living under the curse of death and trapped in a totally depraved state (Gen 3:16-19; Rom 3:10-18). The hearts and minds of humanity became fully defiled, utterly deceitful, full of evil, darkened in understanding, wicked in every intention, and completely without knowledge (Gen 6:5; 8:21; Eccl 9:3; Jer 17:9; Rom 1:28-31; Eph 4:17-18; Titus 1:15-16). As fallen sinners, we are all born slaves to sin (John 8:34; Rom 6; Titus 3:3). In their fleshly, fallen nature, sinners remain in a hopeless condition and have no means within themselves to bring about their own salvation.
Knowing this, New Testament evangelists including Jesus Himself never told people to ‘invite Jesus into their hearts,’ nor did they have them utter phrases like ‘I now allow you to take over my life.’[vi] These phrases along with many others common to various renditions of the Sinner’s prayer ultimately remove God from His rightful place upon His throne at the moment of conversion and instead give the convert the predominant role. As has already been noted, it does this in part by stripping God of all of His qualities excluding His love and mercy. God in all of His holiness and majesty becomes reduced to little more than a servant and stepstool who waits at beck and call upon any convert who would deign to acknowledge Him.
This primacy afforded to the human responder within common examples of the sinner’s prayer has led to what many have labelled decisionism and easy believism where converts come away believing that all that is necessary for salvation is their utterance of a few lines contained within the prayer. Such belief, though arguably prideful, is hardly surprising when their own pastors direct them to take confidence in their own utterances of the sinner’s prayer. In his book entitled Seven-Mile Miracle, Steven Furtick offers an example of this sort of misguiding by a pastor. He directs those converting to start a “new relationship with God” by praying: “Father, forgive me of my sin. I know now that I am unworthy to stand in your holy presence unless you cleanse me by the blood of Jesus. So make me new by your free grace. Accept me because of the sacrifice Jesus offered for me on the cross. Amen.”[vii]
Upon examination of Furtick’s prayer, one finds God to be completely left in a passive role while the convert is directed to take full charge of his/her salvation. The convert prays, asks for forgiveness of sin, declares his/her unworthiness and need for Christ’s atonement, and then directs God to make him/her new. While any person coming to God for salvation could indeed utter similar phrases and even perhaps, due to ignorance, make some slight theological errors in their wording, none of this prayer makes any mention of God’s role in salvation. Among other things, God is the one who must work (by regeneration) in a person’s heart so that they may be enabled to even offer Furtick’s prayer faithfully (and in a saving manner). Furtick, unfortunately, fails to even mention any of this in his goal to make salvation quickly and easily available to his readership. Even worse, he goes on to assure the new convert of his/her salvation so long as he/she prayed “with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings.”[viii] Once again, the convert is directed not to God but himself/herself despite the biblical teaching concerning the deceit within the human heart and the true source of salvation lying firmly within the decision of God Himself. As Proverbs 28:26 puts it, “He who trusts in his own heart is a fool, [b]ut he who walks wisely will be delivered.” Furtick’s willingness to direct converts to assess the sincerity of their own hearts (which is common practice among evangelicals) ultimately directs them to take the path of fool. Those who are wise, however, should carefully consider whether or not their lives demonstrate obedience as the writer of Proverbs has declared.
A closer look at Furtick’s prayer reveals yet another common issue with the sinner’s prayer. In it, he refers to the saving grace of God as “free grace.” While the grace of God is offered freely to all repentance sinners, labelling it as such without significant clarification may have the effect of cheapening God’s grace among those who respond to God by employing Furtick’s prayer.
In the past, Dietrich Bonhoeffer rejected such grace in his work entitled The Cost of Discipleship. According to him, “Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession, absolution without personal confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the Cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.”[ix] Offers of such grace would of course de-emphasize any demands placed upon the convert. While typical construction of the sinner’s prayer at least makes mention of repentance, the brevity of any such wording when accompanied by little else is almost certain to lead to an epidemic of cheap grace.
Unlike the cheap grace peddled in the sinner’s prayer, the Bible offers a gospel that makes significant demands of those who would receive grace for their sins. As Jesus declared, “If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple. Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple” (Luke 14:26-27). Here, Jesus speaks of what Bonhoeffer labels as ‘costly grace.’ According to him,
“Costly grace is the Gospel which must be sought again and again, the gift which must be asked for, the door at which a man must knock. Such grace is costly because it calls us to follow, and it is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ. It is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life. It is costly because it condemns sin, and grace because it justifies the sinner. Above all, it is costly because it costs God the life of His Son: ‘ye were bought at a price,’ and what has cost God much cannot be cheap for us. Above all, it is grace because God did not reckon His Son too dear a price to pay for our life, but delivered Him up for us. Costly grace is the Incarnation of God.”[x]
By rushing to offer converts a quick means to salvation along with an easy way to find assurance in it, the costliness of grace as unfolded by Bonhoeffer is all but dissipated in the mind of the convert. This dissipation rests in part on the distorted and unbiblical portrayal of repentance within common versions of the sinner’s prayer. Basically, repentance as depicted in the sinner’s prayer becomes little more than formulaic utterances spoken in haste. In contrast, Paul offers seven indicators for authentic biblical repentance in 2 Corinthians 7:11. True repentance rids converts of complacency and renders them eager to address sin in their lives. By living obedient lives, these converts would vindicate themselves by being indignant in regard to their own sin. Along with their hatred of sin including their own, true repenters demonstrate a genuine fear of God which will help keep them from sin (cf. Ex 20:20). They will have longing for restoration in their relationships (which have been broken by sin) and a renewed zeal for holiness. Finally, those who offer real repentance desire justice in all matters and seek to live justly themselves.
In conclusion, churches, pastors, evangelists, and all Christians would do well to abandon the use of the sinner’s prayer. Instead, potential converts should be instructed with the gospel that affirms God’s holiness as well as their sinfulness which has necessitated His wrath. After exposing their sinfulness and utter helplessness before God, they should be informed about Christ and His work on the cross. Then and only then, these converts must be told of their need to repent of their sins and follow Christ obediently by trusting Him to be their Lord and Savior.
[i]Rick Warren, The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth am I Here For? (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2002), 58.
[ii]Ibid.
[iii]“How to Know Jesus,” Joyce Meyer Ministries, available at: https://joycemeyer.org/study/how-to-know-jesus.
[iv]All biblical references are taken from NASB1995.
[v]For more discussion on when Christians being chosen before creation, see “Are Christians Personally Chosen Before Creation?” by Mark W. Christy, available at: https://battlehardenedbeliever.com/?p=2154; “The Golden Chain of Election unto Glory: An Interaction with Leighton Flowers on Romans 8:28-30,” by Mark W. Christy, available at: https://battlehardenedbeliever.com/?p=2157.
[vi]Kurt Gebhards, “False Assurance: A Biblical Look at the Sinner’s Prayer,” in Evangelism: How to Share the Gospel Faithfully, by John MacArthur et al. (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2011), 135.
[vii]Steven Furtick, Seven-Mile Miracle: Journey into the Presence of God through the Last Words of Jesus (New York: Multnomah, 2017), 26.
[viii]Ibid.
[ix]Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1995), 44-45.
[x]Ibid., 45.