The Simple Sinners Prayer

By: M.E. Townsend

‘You can receive God’ grace offered to you by believing in Jesus to be all that God said and all that you need.

If you are not saved and want to be, just repeat this simple prayer:

“Dear Lord Jesus, I invite you into my life, I believe with all my heart that God raised Him from the dead. Please forgive me from all my sins. In the Holy Name of Jesus I ask You. Amen.”

Congratulations! You are saved and on your way to heaven if you prayed that prayer and sincerely meant it – or are you?

Walking out of the church, the unrepentant sinner basks in the knowledge that where he was once lost, he now is saved. He no longer fears the wrath to come, but breaths a sigh of relief – not fearing judgment or hell - he has prayed the prayer – he is on his way to heaven, or is he?

“Therefore if any man be in Jesus the Christ, he is a new creation, old things are passed away, all things are become new.” II Corinthians.5:17

Have all things become new for the one who prayed the simple ‘sincere’ prayer? Are they a new creation after believing ‘with all their heart’? Do they profess ‘Christianity’ yet continue in their sinful lifestyle? Have they seen the darkness of their own soul – the self-deception of their own heart? Have they acknowledged the wilful disobedience of their sin and their desperate need of a Saviour? If not, then they would be wise to remember that the demons in hell sincerely acknowledge and believe that Jesus is the Son of God. They know far better than we who Jesus is, yet this has not brought them to salvation.

This theology of praying a simple prayer, asking Jesus into your heart, reflects a broader assumption among many evangelicals today that one is saved by making a decision to have a personal relationship with God. This gospel of “submission, commitment, decision, sincerity or having a personal relationship with God” is not scriptural and fails to comprehend that everyone has a personal relationship with God –

A relationship as one condemned who will stand before the Righteous Judge. Stand to receive punishment due the unrighteous, unregenerate, unforgiven sinner, or stand as the redeemed covered in the Righteousness of the LORD, whose heart was broken as we acknowledged our sins, sins that are now forgiven by the King of kings and LORD of lords – there is no other way.

“How can I be right with God?” is no longer a question that need be ask when happiness rather than God’s holiness is the issue at hand. Salvation is not a matter of divine rescue from the judgment that is coming on the world, but a matter of self-improvement in order to have the best life now. The Bible makes it clear that all men must repent and place their trust in Jesus the Christ. Every man’s heart problem is righteousness. Instead of preaching that Jesus fulfills, that Jesus will give us the desires of our heart, we must preach that God will judge and Jesus has satisfied God’s judgment…if man will repent [turn] and place his trust in the LORD who alone is Mighty to save.

We can take our place before Almighty God with the prostitutes and publicans or with the tax collector who entered the temple, but stood afar off. Not raising his eyes toward heaven but beating his breast he cried unto the LORD: “have mercy on me a sinner” or we can stand before God as the Pharisee who entered the temple and approached the altar with head held high, in pride and arrogance thanking God that: “I am not like other men - extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector” - who then proceeded to give God a list of his virtues - 'his works' of righteousness.

“…Jew and Gentile both are under sin. For as it is written: There is none righteous, no, not one, There is none who understands; there is none who seeks after God. They have all gone out of the way, they have together become unprofitable, there is none who does good; no not one. Their throat is an empty tomb; with their tongue they have practiced deceit; the poison of asps in under their lips, whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood. Destruction and misery are in their ways; and the way of peace, they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes” Romans 3:9-19

“Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins might be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the LORD.” Acts 3:19