Is Prayer Enough for Sinners to be Saved?

It is common nowadays to hear the message that permits sinners just to pray, for them to be saved. Founders of several new meetings have told their members that only prayer is needed for them to be cleansed. But is this so in scripture?

“You can be saved right now by inviting Jesus as Lord and Saviour into your heart and saying to Jesus, ‘I confess my sins and turn away from them. I surrender my life to you, confessing you as Lord and Saviour; come into my mind and be with me right now. Forgive and cleanse me. Amen.” This is an example of what they teach.

We are in the new covenant period, which means that something apart from prayer is necessary for sinners to be saved. It is important that all who come to Christ accept his authority, since he really is Lord and Saviour as the other communities say. But as the early Christians preached, it is necessary to for sinners too be baptised.

If we go to the Old Testament, David is an example when he confessed his sinfulness and pleaded with God to give him a clean heart. God immediately removed the sins of David and gave him an honest and pure heart (2 Samuel 12:13). Today we can still rely on this same faithful merciful God. Like David we can lift our hearts in praise for overflowing mercy. But remember that David was part of a special agreement or covenant with God. God had made this covenant with the whole nation of Israel, and Israel was the only nation given a promise about prayer and forgiveness (Deuteronomy 4:7; 2 Chronicles 6:36-39; Nehemiah 9:28). David had entered this covenant by birth and circumcision.

Jesus also belonged to this covenant people, but something new was happening. When he died on the cross a new covenant was being brought in. This had been indicated by John the Baptiser and Jesus when they taught that the Jews should not depend on being children of Abraham (Matthew 3:9). Jesus told Nicodemus, one of the leaders in the nation, that his fleshly birth was not sufficient for him to enter the Kingdom of God, and that in addition he needed to be born again.

This confused Nicodemus as he was thinking he had to enter his mother again! But Jesus did not mean literal birth and he explained to Nicodemus, “Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born of water and spirit, he cannot enter the Kingdom of God” (John 3:5). Notice that Jesus does not tell Nicodemus simply to pray a prayer such as Psalm 51 because the kingdom is near (Matthew 3:2; 4:17).

Now Jesus has established a new covenant with new conditions and new measures for entering it. You can remember that no-one in the Old Testament period was told to be born of water and spirit. Something new is required for the Jews to enter the new covenant. He tells how John began commanding them to be baptised if they wanted their sins to be cleansed, to be baptised in water (Matthew 3:5,6). Many people, including some of the Pharisees and Sadducees, went down to the River Jordan to be baptised and Jesus himself followed them: a thing that pleased God. After this Jesus’ disciples baptised more than John (John 4:13,26). These events confused the Jewish leaders. They, including Nicodemus, needed to learn that being Jews gave them no special places in the Kingdom of God. A new spiritual birth is needed, of water and spirit. Note the force of the repeated words of Jesus “No one can enter the Kingdom of God unless ….”. Because it appears several times, it indicates the essential truth. What person of faith can reject the role of water? Who could, in this emphatic context, choose to say a sinner needs prayer alone?

To sum up, the command to sinners is “be baptised”. “Then Peter said unto them, Repent and be baptised every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins” (Acts 2:38.

Bro Gift Baile (Mulanje, Malawi)