The Sinner’s Prayer, From Men or From God?

Jesus said, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him, and will dine with him, and he with Me” (Revelation 3:20). What a beautiful invitation. What wonderful fellowship is offered. What a terrible misunderstanding some have of this verse. Maybe you’ve heard someone say something like, “You need to pray the sinner’s prayer and ask Jesus to come into your heart.” And then the above scripture is used to support this invitation. Would it surprise you to know that in Revelation 3:20 Jesus is not speaking to anyone who has not already received Him? Jesus is speaking to the sinful church at Laodicea, one of the seven churches of Asia. The church there had become arrogant and, they believed, self-sufficient. Jesus was left on the outside looking in (Revelation 3:14-22). It is their door He is knocking on, wanting back in their lives.
The fact is the “sinner’s prayer” for salvation is of men and not of God. No one convicted of their sin was ever commanded to ask Jesus to come into their hearts. Some may appeal to passages such as Luke 18:13, the tax collector who begged for mercy, and Luke 23:39-43, the thief on the cross. Both of these accounts of forgiveness occurred under the law of Moses. The Bible says that “The Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins,” (Mark 2:10). The old covenant remained in force until Jesus died (Hebrews 9:16,17). The terms of the new covenant were not in effect until the day of Pentecost in Acts 2. There, when Peter had preached Jesus, he answered the question, “What shall we do?” with this answer, “Repent, and let each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” (Acts 2:38). The New Testament consistently portrays baptism as part of one’s conversion (Acts 8:12,13, 38,39; 9:18; 10:48; 16:15,33; 18:8; 22:16), not “an outward sign of an inward grace” performed at a later date.
Jesus offers a simple, yet profound way to be saved: believe and be baptized (Mark 16:16). If we do that, He says we’ll be saved. If we don’t, we’ll be condemned.
Please don’t believe everything you see on a video or read in the paper, including this column, without reading the Word. Get the Bible out for yourself and “see whether these things are so” (Acts 17:11).