Maybe you’ve been told your whole life that the Sinner’s Prayer is how you are saved, how you “accept Jesus into your heart,” how you finally cross the line from lost to forgiven.
But what if I told you that not a single person in the New Testament ever entered into a saving relationship with Jesus by saying a prayer, not even the chief of sinners himself?
I say that with confidence because I was once duped into saying the Sinner’s Prayer. Later, after deep study of the Bible, I can show you with certainty that the Sinner’s Prayer is unbiblical. Today, I’m going to share with you what Scripture actually teaches, and why the Sinner’s Prayer is not the way God tells sinners their sins are washed away.
Although it does take a variety of shapes these days, the Sinner’s Prayer was explained to me this way: “Salvation is as easy as ABC. Accept. Believe. Confess.” The confess part went like this (tell me if this sounds familiar): “Just pray this prayer, say these words, and you’re forgiven. Invite Jesus into your heart. Ask Him to come in. Acknowledge your sin. Thank Him for dying on the cross.”
There’s emotion. There are tears. There’s relief. And millions walk away believing they have been saved after saying a quick prayer. But here’s the problem. That formula does not appear anywhere in Scripture. Not one person in the New Testament is shown to have their sins washed away by reciting a prayer.
In fact, the phrase “invite Jesus into your heart” does not occur in the Bible at all. The Sinner’s Prayer itself is not a biblical command, not a biblical example, and not a biblical promise.
Now let’s talk about Saul of Tarsus, the man who would later be known as Paul. Saul was a persecutor of Christians, breathing threats and murder against the church. He was traveling to Damascus with authority to arrest followers of Jesus when Christ appeared to him in a blinding light. Saul fell to the ground. He heard the voice of Jesus. He trembled and asked, “Lord, what do You want me to do?” (Acts 9:6).
Jesus did not respond, “Pray this prayer.” He did not request, “Ask Me into your heart.” In the next verse:
The Lord said to him, “Arise and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.”
This is where many people assume Saul entered into salvation. They say Saul was saved on the road to Damascus. After all, he saw Jesus. He believed Jesus was Lord. He was broken and trembling. Surely this is the moment, right? Not so. Scripture is very clear: Saul’s sins had not yet been washed away.
Saul went into Damascus. He was told to wait there till Ananias told him what he needed to do. Without further instruction, Saul waited for Ananias for three days, spending his time fasting and praying. In the depths of regret and grief (something Paul would later call “godly sorrow” [see 2 Corinthians 7:9–10]), he prayed. This was the right and reasonable response as he waited for Ananias. He prayed and repented for three days. Take special note: Although it was good for Saul to be repenting and praying towards the Lord for these three days, but he was still in his sins. He had not yet done what the Lord had sent him into Damascus to do. After all of that praying, Ananias arrived and still said to him:
And now why are you waiting? Arise and be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on the name of the Lord.
Acts 22:16
Without delay, Saul obeyed. He was baptized. That is the moment Scripture identifies as when the Lord washed away his sins, when he called on the name of the Lord. Not on the road. Not during three days of prayer. But when he obeyed what the Lord commanded. Notice Acts 2:21:
And it shall come to pass that whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.
Someone may say, “See! Here’s the Sinner’s Prayer. Just call on the name of the Lord.” My question, then, is if this is the Sinner’s Prayer, why didn’t the audience on this occasion actually respond with the Sinner’s Prayer? No, they responded with, “Men and brethren, what shall we do?” (v. 37). You see, calling on the name of the Lord throughout Scripture means to appeal to His authority and do as He commands. In Acts 2, the audience asked how to call on the name of the Lord in this situation. What was the Lord commanding? In the next verse:
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.
Just like Ananias told Saul:
And now why are you waiting? Arise and be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on the name of the Lord.
Acts 22:16
In tracts, YouTube videos, youth rallies, and church buildings everywhere, vulnerable sinners are constantly told to say a 13-second prayer, and they will be saved. For example, the website Christian Channel has a page called “What Must I Do To Be Saved?” the Sinner’s Prayer is presented (without scriptural support, of course), and then after the Sinner’s Prayer, it says, “Congratulations! If you prayed this prayer in all sincerity, you are now a Child of God.”1 This must be the biggest lie in religion in the past one hundred and fifty years. That’s right; the Sinner’s Prayer is a manmade doctrine first presented in the twentieth century. Here’s how the Bible actually explains how one becomes a child of God:
You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.
Galatians 3:26–27
Faith is manifested—not through a quick prayer—but through baptism, which is where someone is clothed in Christ’s blood and righteousness.
Going back to Saul of Tarsus, we recall that he was sincere. He believed in the death and resurrection of Jesus. He was penitent. And he prayed for three days. Yet, when Ananias commanded him to be baptized, he was still in his sins. If there was ever a time a “Sinner’s Prayer” could have saved someone, this would have been it. And if a three-day prayer wasn’t enough for Saul, then why do so many people instruct sinners to say a thirteen-second prayer to be saved? Why do people think they can reinvent the salvation process with the manmade doctrine of the Sinner’s Prayer?
Why is the Sinner’s Prayer not powerful enough to save the sinner? Of course, the answer is as simple as saying Jesus never asked for it! It’s not in the Bible! But let’s expand on that.
For one, the Sinner’s Prayer does not introduce the sinner to the blood of Jesus Christ. Scripture is clear that it is the blood of Jesus that saves (see Revelation 1:5). Romans 6 teaches that when someone dies to sin through repentance, they are to be baptized into Jesus’ death, which is where He shed His blood. Jesus Himself has given us baptism as the gift that introduces us into His death and resurrection.
Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
Romans 6:3–4
Now, let me be clear about something. Prayer itself is not the problem. Prayer is a good thing. It is a meaningful way for someone to verbalize what they are feeling and what they are appealing to God for. But prayer is never presented in Scripture as the moment when sins are washed away.
The apostle Peter says that the appeal to God for a clean conscience is not a thirteen-second prayer. It is through the new birth of water and Spirit. Follow this line of reasoning:
For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit; in which also He went and made proclamation to the spirits now in prison, who once were disobedient, when the patience of God kept waiting in the days of Noah, during the construction of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through the water. Corresponding to that, baptism now saves you—not the removal of dirt from the flesh, but an appeal to God for a good conscience—through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who is at the right hand of God, having gone into heaven, after angels and authorities and powers had been subjected to Him.
1 Peter 3:18–22 NASB
God saves a person with the blood of Jesus through the resurrection of Christ at the point of baptism. Peter is careful to explain that this is not a removal of dirt from the flesh, but an appeal to God for a clean conscience. This is what Jesus described as being born again in John 3:3–5.
And it is critically important to emphasize this point: in baptism, we are not depending on our own works. Baptism is a passive command, grammatically speaking. “Be baptized” is something you submit to, not something you accomplish by your own power. Jesus even addresses this misunderstanding in Luke 17:10:
So likewise you, when you have done all those things which you are commanded, say, “We are unprofitable servants. We have done what was our duty to do.”
Obedience does not place God in our debt. It simply means we have trusted Him enough to do what He says. Like Jesus said:
If you love Me, keep My commandments.
John 14:15
When I quote Jesus in Mark 16:16, or Peter in Acts 2:38, people often respond by saying, “You’re trying to be saved by works.” In a sense, yes I am. Colossians 2 says that in baptism, God is the one who is working. It is not a human work that earns salvation. It is the work of God, performed by His power.
In Him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead. And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses.
Colossians 2:11–13
So yes, I believe in salvation by works, but only the works of God. Looking at this passage, tell me: where does God work? Inside the manmade Sinner’s Prayer or in the new birth of baptism? If the Sinner’s Prayer cannot be found anywhere in Scripture, and if it had to be invented to fit a theological system, then when we follow through and say the Sinner’s Prayer, whose works are we really trusting? Which one is depending on the works of men? The person who believes and obeys Jesus when He says, “He who believes and is baptized will be saved,” or the person who invents a new practice in order to avoid taking Jesus at His word?
The early church never pointed sinners to a prayer they needed to recite. They pointed them to Jesus, to repentance, to baptism, and to new life in Him.
The Sinner’s Prayer is often defended because it’s convenient. No need to find water or prove allegiance to the King of kings. Just quickly check this box and you’re in. I want to share something personal, because I know how powerful this kind of teaching can be.
When I was in sixth grade, a friend invited me to a youth rally. It started with entertainment—a clown show to be exact. Then came a passionate sermon about hellfire and judgment. At the end, anyone with a “pricked heart” who wanted to invite Jesus into said heart was asked to come forward. Before I knew it, I was following my friend up to the “alter.” We were ushered into a private tent, where a youth pastor led us through the Sinner’s Prayer. I said it. I believed it. I thought my sins were gone. And, honestly, it felt great.
Two weeks later, we were invited to a “judgment house.” It was a large building (I think it was a gymnasium at a church building) decorated like a city slum. Youth were led through corridors where actors portrayed real-life scenarios. The story followed a man who was generally a good person, but who repeatedly refused opportunities to say the Sinner’s Prayer and invite Jesus into his heart. After witnessing several refused opportunities, we turned a corner in the maze of the “judgment house,” and we watched this character get involved in a horrific car crash and get burned alive. For a DIY production of a local church, it was pretty convincing. After this man’s death, actors playing angels told him he was about to be tortured forever in hell. They reminded him of all the chances he had to say the Sinner’s Prayer, and how he never did.
Then the lights came on. A pastor stepped forward and told the youth, “If you don’t want to end up like this man, now is the time to accept Jesus into your heart.” Kids who hadn’t prayed before were shaking. They were crying. And they followed his lead by repeating the Sinner’s Prayer.
I believed that was how salvation worked. But it is not what the Bible teaches. In fact, not once in all of this journey did someone share a Scripture with me to convince me. Instead, it was their passion and my emotions that convinced me that this was the right way to do things. Investigate it yourself. Read the New Testament and ask the question how sinner’s are invited to partake in the kingdom of God. Look at when Scripture says their sins were washed away. And ask yourself whether what you were taught lines up with what God actually says. The Lord never tells sinners to invent their own way back to Him. He tells them what to do. He tells them how sins are forgiven. He tells them to believe the gospel, repent of their sins, and be born again of water and spirit.
So if you have trusted the Sinner’s Prayer, I am not attacking you. I am urging you to do what Scripture itself commands. Test everything by the word of God. Do not take my word for it. Do not take a preacher’s word for it. Read the New Testament carefully and honestly.
Do you have further questions about salvation and baptism? Good! Post them in the comments, and let’s discuss them. And if we’ve already made videos on what you bring up, we’ll happily post the link. For example, at this point in the conversation, a lot of people bring up the thief on the cross. They say he was never baptized and that Jesus saved him without baptism. Did you know there’s actually just as much evidence to say he was baptized? And even if he wasn’t, his salvation experience is irrelevant to ours. Let’s study it together right here.