![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/prayer.jpg\")
The so-called sinner\u2019s prayer is the prayer of an alien sinner for the forgiveness of sins. An alien sinner is one who has never been saved and is not yet a citizen in the kingdom of God. The sinner\u2019s prayer has had many incarnations over the years but it usually goes something like this,<\/p>\n
\u201cDear Lord Jesus, I know I am a lost sinner deserving nothing better than eternal hell. I believe\u00a0You died on the cross in my place, paying my sin debt, so I could be saved. Right now I put my faith and trust in You to forgive my sins, come into my heart, and save me, giving me eternal life and a home in heaven.<\/p>\n
\u201cThank You, Jesus, for\u00a0Your free gift of eternal life, and for forgiving my sins. Amen.\u201d<\/p>\n
While the above prayer is, indeed, indicative of humility and contrition, the idea that one who is an alien sinner can pray for forgiveness \u2014 with an inherent right to expect his sins to be forgiven\u2014is foreign to the New Testament. Neither Jesus nor the apostles nor any New Testament prophet or evangelist ever said or implied that an alien sinner need only pray for forgiveness of sins in order to be saved. Since \u201cfaith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God\u201d<\/i>\u00a0(Romans 10:17), such a prayer cannot be prayed in faith.<\/p>\n
One who was encouraged to pray such a prayer might well be asking, \u201cHow, then, is an alien sinner to be saved?\u201d One must believe, repent, confess, and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins.<\/p>\n
And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned.\u201d\u00a0<\/i>(Mark 16:15-16)<\/p>\n
Then Peter said to them, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.\u201d\u00a0<\/i>(Acts 2:38)<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd now why are you waiting? Arise and be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on the name of the Lord.\u201d\u00a0<\/i>(Acts 22:16)<\/p>\n
That if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.\u00a0<\/i>(Romans 10:9-10)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
The \u201csinner\u2019s prayer\u201d is mistakenly based on a misunderstanding of the prayer of the tax collector in Luke 18:10-14. The fact that the tax collector was already a child of God under the Law of Moses is implied by the fact that he was praying in the temple. Gentiles, being\u00a0\u201caliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world\u201d\u00a0<\/i>(Ephesians 2:11-12), were not allowed in the temple.<\/p>\n
Another passage sometimes appealed to, in support of the \u201csinner\u2019s prayer,\u201d is Acts 8:22. But this man was already a baptized believer (Acts 8:13).<\/p>\n
The once-blind man had it right.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow we know that God does not hear sinners; but if anyone is a worshiper of God and does His will, He hears him.\u201d\u00a0<\/i>(John 9:31; see also Proverbs 28:9)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
by Bob Myhan The so-called sinner\u2019s prayer is the prayer of an alien sinner for the forgiveness of sins. An alien sinner is one who has never been saved and is not yet a citizen in the kingdom of God. The sinner\u2019s prayer has had many incarnations over the years but it usually goes something…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27],"tags":[1510,47],"class_list":["post-24310","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-prayers","tag-salvation"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":24314,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/praying-a-sinners-prayer\/","url_meta":{"origin":24310,"position":0},"title":"Praying a Sinner’s Prayer","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 3, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jarrod Jacobs via \u201cCommon Questions -- Bible Answers\u201d (Southside church of Christ, Owensboro, Kentucky) A while back, I received a sample packet of tracts from \"The Tract League\" (a.k.a. \"Faith, Prayer, & Tract League\") out of Grand Rapids, MI. According to their form letter addressed to the \"Pastor,\" they\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":39923,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-sinners-prayer-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":24310,"position":1},"title":"The Sinner\u2019s Prayer","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 18, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jeffrey W. Hamilton Text: Acts 9:1-19 \u00a0 I.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A key feature of salvation in many denominations is the praying of the sinner\u2019s prayer. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0It is generally presented at the end of a service to tell people how they may be saved. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0B.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Each \u201cSinner\u2019s Prayer\u201d varies in detail, but generally carry\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Audio"","block_context":{"text":"Audio","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/audio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":55915,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/does-the-case-of-cornelius-prove-the-sinners-prayer-doctrine\/","url_meta":{"origin":24310,"position":2},"title":"Does the Case of Cornelius Prove the “Sinner’s Prayer” Doctrine?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 17, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"by Wayne Jackson Does not the case of Cornelius, the Roman soldier (Acts 10), prove that God hears the prayers of those who have not been baptized? The angel told Cornelius, \"your prayer has been heard\" (Acts 10:31), and yet the centurion was not baptized until later. Can you explain\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":24123,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/does-god-hear-the-prayers-of-those-who-are-not-yet-saved\/","url_meta":{"origin":24310,"position":3},"title":"Does God hear the prayers of those who are not yet saved?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 22, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I am writing, after reading\u00a0your article, wondering your understanding of the Scriptures that point to God willing not to hear because of sins or God not hearing a sinner\u2019s prayer, or even yet, God hears open to the prayers of the righteous? From those Scriptures I arrive at the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":51981,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/can-i-be-forgiven-of-the-sins-that-i-committed-after-saying-the-sinners-prayer\/","url_meta":{"origin":24310,"position":4},"title":"Can I be forgiven of the sins that I committed after saying the sinner’s prayer?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 20, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I got saved by saying a sinner's prayers at 19. I spent most of my twenties high-handedly sinning and being agnostic or universalist - I believed all religions were partially true. I read the Bible and Quran occasionally for inspiration. Three years ago I started going to a Baptist\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":16366,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/does-god-respond-to-the-prayers-of-the-alien-sinner\/","url_meta":{"origin":24310,"position":5},"title":"Does God respond to the prayers of the alien sinner?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 13, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: In my study of God's Word, I've come to the conclusion that God does not respond to the prayers of an \"alien sinner\" when asking for God's blessings on himself.\u00a0 However, what are your thoughts on whether God responds to an \"alien sinners\" prayers when praying for someone else?\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24310","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24310"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24310\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24310"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24310"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24310"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}