Good People, The Sinner’s Prayer and Salvation

My grandfather, Irvin Temple, was an uneducated cotton farmer from north Louisiana. He was a heavy drinker who loved to fight and carouse.  For all of his faults, he had some good qualities.  He loved his dad, who suffered greatly from rheumatoid arthritis.  When my grandpa heard that there was a church that had a man visiting who could “heal” people, he picked up him up and took him for prayer.  My great-grandfather was not healed that night.  The Lord had a different plan.   Instead, my grandfather was dramatically, instantly saved.  He was healed of a physical ailment that he had been struggling with.  He was immediately delivered from all desire for alcohol, baptized with the Holy Spirit, and called into ministry. 

 Why is it that some are immediately saved, but others never see their need for salvation?  Why do some make a profession of faith and then walk away from it?  Why do some go to the altar at every opportunity, profess to be saved, but never show any fruit of salvation? There are three popular ideas that have an effect on the gospel and how it is received.  The first of these is prevalent in society—good people go to heaven.

Ask any person you encounter, “Are you a good person?”  Almost everyone will say, “Yes, I am a pretty good person” or “I am trying to be.”  It shouldn’t surprise us. 

 Ask any person you encounter, “Are you a good person?”  Almost everyone will say, “Yes, I am a pretty good person” or “I am trying to be.”  It shouldn’t surprise us.  Proverbs 20:6 tells us, “Most men will proclaim every one his own goodness…”  When we compare ourselves to those around us, we consider our better qualities against their worse qualities—and we come out looking good.  Yet, the standard of comparison is not our neighbor, or the ruffian we went to school with, the standard is God Himself.  “Be ye holy; for I am holy” (1 Peter 1:16).  We fall woefully short of this standard because we are not good.  We are sinners.  “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23).  We are not good.  We are depraved from birth, with a broken, twisted nature inherited from Adam, through the fall in the Garden of Eden.  There is no good deed, nor religious ritual that we can do to fix it.  We are lost.  Until a person sees their spiritual hopelessness, they will never see their need for a Savior.

 Another idea regarding the issue of salvation is often put this way, “Give Jesus a try.  He will make your life better.”  During a mission trip to Pakistan a number of years ago, I prayed with a woman whose face was a horrible mask of scar tissue from an acid attack.  She had been assaulted simply because she was following Jesus. From an earthly standpoint, her life became much harder after she was saved. Psalm 34:19 was her reality, “Many are the afflictions of the righteous…”  Her hope was not in a better life.  It wasn’t better.  Her hope was in the knowledge that her sins were forgiven.

 Evangelist Ray Comfort, of Living Waters Ministries, uses an illustration that I have appreciated in countering this false idea that Jesus came primarily to give us a better life.  Imagine being on a plane and the flight attendant approaches you with a parachute.  “Put this on.  It will improve your flight.  You will enjoy the movie more.  Your meal will taste better.  You will rest well.  Give this parachute a try, and see how much better your flight is.”  As you ease into the straps of the parachute you are hopeful.  After a few minutes, though, you notice that the parachute is heavy.  It is not comfortable.  Your meal tastes the same as it did.  The movie is no more enjoyable than it was.  Worse, some of the other passengers are pointing at you.  They are laughing at your discomfort.  When the flight attendant walks back up the aisle and spills hot coffee in your lap, you realize you have been lied to.  Your flight has not gotten better.  If anything it has gotten worse.  In disgust you take off the parachute, vowing to never put one on again.

 Now imagine a slightly different scenario.  You are on a plane and a flight attendant approaches you with a parachute.  “We have just received terrible news.  This plane is going to crash.  We have lost all power to the engines.  The stress has caused the pilot to have a heart attack.  There is no way to safely land over these jagged mountains.  We are not sure how much time we have, but there is no question.  We are going to crash.  The only hope for survival is to put on this parachute.”  I don’t know about you, but I would put the parachute on.  It would not matter what food was served or how it tasted.  I would not care what movies were playing or how many times I had already seen them.  It would not matter who was laughing and whether or not I was the only one wearing a parachute.  And when the flight attendant poured hot coffee in my lap, it would only make me look forward to jumping out of the plane.

 Jesus did not come with the priority of making our lives better (although I would readily say it is better to be with Christ).  He came to save us from our sins (Matthew 1:21).

 Why do some people make professions of faith, yet are clearly not saved?  Could it be that a poor methodology has contributed to making false converts? 

 Why do some people make professions of faith, yet are clearly not saved?  Could it be that a poor methodology has contributed to making false converts?  I have been in many churches where the “sinner’s prayer” was recited at the end of the sermon.  “Do you want to be saved?  Then repeat after me…”  Usually every head was bowed and every eye was closed (except for those of us who were peeking around to see needed to get saved).  The words were repeated very casually, sometimes accompanied by yawns, or the sounds of chewing gum.  Then a declaration was made.  “If you just prayed this prayer, congratulations.  You are saved.” 

 Imagine a man who has betrayed his wife and wants to be reconciled, forgiven.  Would he approach his wife accompanied by another man recruited to tell him what to say?  Of course not.  If he were genuinely repentant, he would not need to be fed the words of another.  He would pour his heart out.  How would the offended wife receive an apology repeated from a third-party?  Would it move her to forgive?  Repentance is not a matter of words only, but a matter of the heart. “The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit.”  He will never despise a broken and contrite heart (Psalm 51:17).

 Salvation is ultimately about the issue of sin.  Christ came to save sinners.  The way of salvation is through Him alone (Acts 4:12).  “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9).  Jesus took our place by paying the penalty for our sins, the death sentence, so that we could have eternal life (Romans 6:23).  Though Christ never sinned, God treated him as a sinner, so that Jesus could make us acceptable to God (1 Corinthians 5:21).  On our behalf, Christ satisfied the wrath of a Holy God. 

 Like me, you are not a good person.  You are a sinner.  Put your trust in Him, His death and resurrection, not for a better life, but for the assurance of sins forgiven.