I’ve never been comfortable with the common evangelistic use of ’sinners prayers’. Even before I affirmed, in a conscious way, ‘the doctrines of grace’, I had my concerns about this method of Christian Initiation.  

It seemed to me that many where zealous to get unsaved people to simply ‘ask Jesus into their life’ and if the ‘unsaved’ agreed to this then somehow this marked a ’success’ for the evangelism attempt. Yet no one ever seemed to be disturbed about the lack of ‘conviction of sin, judgement and righteousness’, or the lack of repentance, or the lack of evidence that God was at work in the person- or perhaps more telling- the fact that the person never went to church or ‘continued’ in their profession!

Don’t get me wrong- I think there is a time - to lead a person who is convicted of their sin- towards repentance and ‘calling upon the name of the Lord’. However- most people who are encouraged to ‘ask Jesus into their heart’ these days know very little of God’s conviction, repentance or what it means to trust in Christ.

The confusion over today’s ’sinner’s prayer’ is largely due to two things

1) A lack of understanding of God’s dealing with people in the work of Salvation (this is called soteriology)

2) A lack of understanding of the biblical means of Christian Initiation (our response to the gospel)

How God Saves a person

  1. The work of the Holy Spirit in convicting and regenerating an unbeliever

John 16:7-11 (New International Version)

“7But I tell you the truth: It is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. 8When he comes, he will convict the world of guilt[a] in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment: 9in regard to sin, because men do not believe in me; 10in regard to righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer; 11and in regard to judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned.”

Footnotes:

  1. John 16:8 Or will expose the guilt of the world

The Holy Spirit begins to work in the sinners conscience convicting him of his lost condition and need for Christ.

John 3:3-8 (New International Version)

“3In reply Jesus declared, “I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.[a]”

 4“How can a man be born when he is old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely he cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb to be born!”

 5Jesus answered, “I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. 6Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit[b] gives birth to spirit. 7You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You[c] must be born again.’ 8The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”

Footnotes:

  1. John 3:3 Or born from above; also in verse 7
  2. John 3:6 Or but spirit
  3. John 3:7 The Greek is plural.”

The Holy Spirit imparts new birth (spiritual life) to the sinner who prior to this new birth (regeneration) is dead in sins and tresspasses.

A.W. Pink describes the convicting and regenerating work of the Spirit of God in the following quote.

“The sinner is now enlightened in the knowledge of his own terrible condition. He may, before this, have received much scriptural instruction, subscribed to a sound creed, and believed intellectually in “the total depravity of man”; but now the solemn declarations of God’s Word concerning the state of the fallen creature are brought home in piercing power to his own soul. No longer does he compare himself with his fellows, but measures himself by the rule of God. He now discovers that he is unclean, that his heart is “desperately wicked,” and that he is altogether unfit for the presence of the thrice holy God. He is powerfully convicted of his own awful sins, feels that they are more in number than the hairs of his head, and that they are high provocations against Heaven, which call for Divine judgment on him. He now realizes that there is “no soundness” (Isa. 1:6) in him, and that all his best performances are only as “filthy rags” (Isa. 64:6), and that he is deserving of nought but the everlasting burnings.

By the spiritual light which God communicates in regeneration the soul now perceives the infinite demerits of sin, that its “wages” can be nothing less than eternal death, or the loss of Divine favor and a dreadful suffering under the wrath of God. The equity of God’s law and the fact that sin righteously calls for such punishment is humbly acknowledged. Thus his mouth is “stopped” and he confesses himself to be guilty before God, and justly liable to His awful vengeance, both for the plague of his own heart and his numerous transgressions. He now realizes that his whole life has been lived in utter independence of God, having had no respect for His glory, no concern whether he pleased or displeased Him. He now perceives the exceeding sinfulness of sin, its awful malignity, as being in its nature contrary to the law of God. How to escape the due reward of his iniquity, he knows not. “What must I do to be saved?” is his agonizing cry. He is convinced of the absolute impossibility of contributing anything to his deliverance. He no longer has any confidence in the flesh; he has been brought to the end of himself.

By means of this illumination the renewed soul, under the guidance of the Spirit through the Word, now perceives how well-suited is Christ to such a poor, worthless wretch as he feels himself to be. The prospect of obtaining deliverance from the wrath to come through the victorious life and death of the Lord Jesus, keeps his soul from being overwhelmed with grief and from sinking into complete despondency because of the sight of his sins. As the Spirit presents to him the infinite merits of Christ’s obedience and righteousness, His tender compassion for sinners, His power to save, desires for an interest in Christ now possesses his heart, and he is resolved to look for salvation in no other. Under the benign influences of the Holy Spirit, the soul is drawn by some such words as, “Come unto Me all ye that labor and are heavily laden, and if will give you rest,” or “him that cometh unto Me I will in no wise cast out,” and he is led to apply to Him for pardon, cleansing, peace, righteousness, strength.”

2) The biblical Response to the Gospel

The modern evangelical ‘call’ is ‘only believe’. The biblical Gospel ‘call’ is ‘repent and believe’.

Mark 1:14-15 (New International Version)

 The Calling of the First Disciples

 14After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. 15“The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!”

Again A.W Pink deals with this in the following quote.

“Other acts besides turning unto Christ flow from this new principle received at regeneration, such as repentance, which is a godly sorrow for sin, an abhorring of it as sin, and an earnest desire to forsake and be completely delivered from its pollution. In the light of God, the renewed soul now perceives the utter vanity of the world, and the worthlessness of these paltry toys and perishing trifles which the godless strive so hard to acquire. He has been awakened from the dream-sleep of death, and things are now seen in their true nature. Time is precious and not to be frittered away. God in His awesome Majesty is an object to be feared. His law is accepted as holy, just and good. All of these perceptions and actions are included in that holiness without which no man shall see the Lord. In some these actions are more vigorous than in others, and consequently, are more perceptible to a man’s self. But the fruits of them are visible to others in external acts.”

A.W Pink quotes taken from Regeneration or the New Birth