Have you prayed the sinner’s prayer? That phrase is associated with becoming a Christian. Yet, can we legitimately designate any prayer as the sinner’s prayer? And is no prayer, after conversion, a sinner’s prayer? The Bible is full of sinners who prayed. In many cases, an irrepressible awareness of sin, made all the worse by a recognition of God’s holiness, prompted those prayers. We call this confession, and it is an essential fruit of true repentance. In this fallen world, it has a significant role in our walk with God. So let us examine some of the sinners’ prayers.
The Sinner’s Prayer
Okay, there is one legitimate candidate for the title, The Sinner’s Prayer. In the parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector, Jesus contrasts two praying men. The Pharisee’s prayer was much longer. He listed his fine qualities, his accomplishments, and how he outperformed other candidates. Basically, he prayed his LinkedIn profile page.
A Sinner’s Plea
Crush my pride
Or I shall be
Like those who look
But never see.
Strike the crown
And overthrow
The tyrant Mine
Who fosters woe.
Bare them vile
And break their charm,
My siren lusts
That lure to harm.
Dash, dispel
All hopes and dreams
That buttress soul
With mortal schemes.
Gracious Lord
Then beautify
This shattered clay
With God come nigh.
TW
In contrast, the tax collector’s prayer was short and pathetic, “God be merciful to me, a (literally “the”) sinner!” (Luke 18:13). This man took his resume and stamped over it in big, bold, all caps, SINNER! His only plea: mercy! Not very impressive on paper, but Jesus said, “This man went down to his house justified,” then gave us an important prayer principle, “For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted” (Luke 18:14). In this case, humility was expressed with self-effacing demeanor and stark simplicity. But sometimes it exhibits more eloquence.
The Sinner King
So, how would you react if someone slapped you in face? Well, the prophet, Nathan, did not literally slap David, yet his words stung as much, “You are the man!” (2 Sam. 12:7). What man? The man that had enraged King David. A rich man with “many flocks and herds” (2 Sam. 12:2) who deserved to die because he stole his neighbor treasured only lamb. He was the man in Nathan’s parable – just a fictional character. But David didn’t recognize it. How could he with that big plank in his eye?
Then Nathan laid out before David what all of Israel whispered in secret. The king coveted the wife of one of his most loyal, honorable soldiers. He took her for his own pleasure, tried to cover-up her inconvenient pregnancy, and when that failed had her husband killed. The only one who had managed to overlook the whole affair for the past several months was David. His official statement: “The sword devours one and now another” (2 Sam. 12:25).
David’s immediate response to Nathan’s charge was, like the tax collector’s, short and to the point, “I have sinned against the LORD” (2 Sam. 12:13). His response received God’s promise of forgiveness. Yet, the months of spiritual consumption warranted more.
The Sinner’s Psalm
What does humble confession look like when it follows a pattern of self-deceit and trivialization? It looks like Psalm fifty-one.
Have mercy on me, O God,
according to your steadfast love;
according to your abundant mercy
blot out my transgressions.
Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,
and cleanse me from my sin! (Ps. 51:1-2)
Here, as with the tax collector, the plea is for mercy. No basis for receiving mercy is found in David, but entirely in God whose love is steadfast and whose mercy is abundant. David pulls out his thesaurus, not to pad his resume, but to paint the ugliness of his sin. He transgressed the law of God and the light of nature. He has stained his soul in the mire of iniquity. The guilt of sin has made him unclean and unfit to be in the presence of a holy God.
Then he moves to the root cause. He sins because he is a sinner (Ps. 51:5). It’s in his DNA. His is a desperate case. He needs a clean heart and a right spirit (Ps. 51:10). The joy of salvation is gone until God restores it (Ps. 51:12).
Finally, there is a reorientation of David’s heart. “Then I will teach transgressors your ways….” What ways? God’s way of mercy, “… and sinners will return to you” (Ps. 51:13). The song of praise that shame had silenced must sound again from a broken, contrite, and forgiven heart (Ps. 51:14-17). Hope is restored as a humble, confessing heart is lifted by grace from the depths of guilt to the heights of forgiveness.
CorporateConfession
Beside these, there are examples of leaders who led in confession, like Ezra and Nehemiah (Ezra 9:5-10:1; Neh. 9:33-35), Jeremiah (Jer. 14:20), and Daniel (Dan. 9:3-19). As we recognize that God’s people live in community, we should grieve over the sins in the community (1 Cor. 5:1-2; Jas. 4:1, 9; Amos 6:4-6).
To confess means to say the same.
The Silence of the Lamb
However, do not overestimate the power of confession. It does not merit forgiveness. To confess means to say the same. God says sin deserves death (Gen. 2:17) and banishment from his presence (Gen. 3:24). Confession agrees, but it cannot change that.
Actually, the power of confession is in the silence of the Lamb of God.
He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,
yet he opened not his mouth;
like a lamb that is led to the slaughter,
and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent,
so he opened not his mouth. (Isa. 53:7)
Jesus, though sinless, refused to defend himself before the Sanhedrin, Herod, and Pilate. Though he was blameless; he drank the cup of divine wrath for me. When I confess my faith in Jesus Christ, I say the same as God. Only the blood of God’s Son can satisfy God’s righteous wrath and wash away my sins. The merit for his perfect obedience has been placed in my account. On my spiritual resume, the word SINNER has been blotted out, and in its place in big, bold, blood-red letters is RIGHTEOUS. I have the righteousness of Christ by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. By God’s grace, may you be able to say the same.