Salvation and the “Sinner’s Prayer”

In our society, we have become prone to an immediate gratification spirit. We want what we want, when we want it, with as little effort and suffering as possible. I took Martial Arts for about 12 years, and in our ceremony for the passing of one belt to another, there was a question that was asked at every belt level and of every individual. The question was “do you believe everything worth having is worth suffering for?” Many Western individuals lack any sense of believing in something enough, wanting something so badly, that they are willing to suffer to have it. The mentality today, at least in Western Civilization, tends to be one where people are only willing to go after something if (1) there is a considerable chance for financial gain, (2) there is little work involved, (3) “it will make me look better,” and/or (4) “I can be elevated in the status I hold from a political or social standpoint.”

Some of you might be thinking, “well, yes, that is the world, they do go after things like that!” However, if you look around the Church today, you find this same attitude infesting the lives of her members. God is a god who is here for our gains, Jesus is the friend we’ve never had, and the Spirit is the one who will make everything better. All we require is that you profess Christ as Lord and repeat a little prayer and then you’re home-free. I am not knocking the sinner's prayer, if it is said with true remorse and longing to seek Jesus Christ in a real and deep experience. But, is it enough?

I believe with all my heart what scripture professes: that we are saved by grace through faith. However, we have slowly done away with any definition of faith that involves the holiness that Christ has called us to. Faith is now the equivalence of belief (or rather, professing formulaic propositions), which is something that is far from biblical. James says “Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do. You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder” (2:18-19). He clearly believed that belief, just acknowledging that Jesus is God, is not enough.

Our family knew a gentleman who lived a truly worldly life. When he was confronted with this, he would say, “I believe in Jesus, so I am good to go! What else do I need?” Most Christians at this point would say that there are certain patterns of life that we, as followers of Christ, are asked to conform to. Jesus says “If you love me, you will obey what I command” (John 14:15). Again he says, “If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching” (John 14:23). Christians, by the authority of Scripture, are then justified in saying that there is more to being a Christian than just saying they believe in Jesus.

The most known bible verse of all time, John 3:16, states “For God so loved the world that he sent his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” Jesus is quoted elsewhere as saying "I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life” (John 5:24). By these verses, the person who believes that Jesus is the Son of God, come to save the world, is justified in their belief that belief is enough.

How do we reconcile the two sides of the coin? On the one hand, we have the understanding that God calls us to be holy. He not only calls us, but he transforms us and empowers us to live holy lives (for example: Ex 19:5-7; 22:30-31; 31:12-14; Lev 11:43-46;19:1-3; 20:6-8; 20:7-9; 20:25-27; 21:5-7; 22:8-10; Deut 7:5-7; 14:1-3; 14:20-22; 26:18-19; 28:8-10; Ezra 9:1-3; Job 15:14-16; Ps. 89:4-7; Isa. 4:2-4; 62:11-12; Jer. 2:2-4; Ezek 20:11-13; 36:22-24; 37:27-28; 38:15-17; 39:26-28). On the other hand, we have Jesus telling us that all we need to do is to believe in him and we will be saved; this rightly affirms that our justification is through faith by the grace of God. But if we leave it all to grace, it can become very easy to slip into the heresy of universalism.

Rather than declaring that we have been wrong in our terminology for the last 2,000 years, I think it is more important to regain our understanding of what salvation, grace, and the call to holiness entail. Therefore, I want to propose the following questions for discussions. None of these questions declare my stance on any of this; rather they are questions that I have had popping up in my mind off and on for the last year or so. Some of these have been questions that I have thought of myself, others are questions that have been asked of me by someone else.

1. What is salvation? Is there any suffering on our part for salvation?

2. Are there different “levels” of salvation?

3. Is God’s grace really free?

4. Is there a difference between being saved and being a Christian?

5. If it all comes back to grace, can we really use any sort of test of orthodoxy for one’s beliefs?

6. Again, if it all comes back to grace, why can’t we cross the line to universalism?

7. What does the call to holiness have to do with salvation (if anything)?

8. If holiness, or Christlikeness, is our ultimate calling of God, can someone truly be saved without showing the fruits of this transformation?

9. When James says that we are to “show our faith by what we do” does that mean that if someone doesn’t live out their faith, that they are merely “professing with their mouth,” along with the demons, that there is a God?

10. hould the Church (universal) use a test of orthodoxy to determine if someone is saved? If so, what do you think it should be? If not, then are we giving permission to throw out orthodox doctrine?