People ask, “Is the sinner’s prayer biblical?” And here is the honest answer, child of God: the phrase “sinner’s prayer” is nowhere in the Bible, and neither is the idea that saying the right approved words saves you. But a sinner praying to God for mercy? That is very much in the Book. The Lord Jesus told us about it.
Two men went up to the temple to pray. One, a Pharisee, prayed with himself, listing his works and thanking God he was not like other men. The other, a tax collector, would not so much as lift his eyes:
“…God be merciful to me a sinner.” (Luke 18:13, KJV)
No formula. No list. No comparison. Just a guilty man throwing himself on the mercy of God. (And that word “merciful” reaches all the way back to the mercy seat, where blood was sprinkled for sin. He was pleading the atonement.) And hear the Lord’s verdict:
“I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other…” (Luke 18:14, KJV)
Justified, before he did a single work
“Justified” is a legal word, declared righteous, and it was settled while he was still standing in the temple, before he had performed one work. Because salvation is “by grace… through faith… not of works” (Ephesians 2:8–9), and a recited formula would be a work like any other. God has always looked for one thing: “a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise” (Psalm 51:17). So the words save nobody, but the Saviour saves everybody who calls: “whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Romans 10:13). Do not trust a prayer you prayed; trust the Christ you called upon. Glory to God.
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The Gospel, Stated Plainly
Everything I teach on this site rests on one message from Scripture. Read it in God’s own words from 1 Corinthians 15:1-4, Romans 1:16, and Ephesians 2:8-9.
“And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God. For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.”
2 Corinthians 5:18-21 (KJV)
Watch the teachingNew verse by verse studies go out every week on YouTube, King James Version, with the passage on the screen. Subscribe to The Prevailing Word of God, taught by John Kempf of Melbourne, Florida.