The Sinner's Saving Prayer

Luke 18:13 “And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner.”

I remember the first tome that I heard an invitation to accept Jesus Christ as my personal Savior and Lord, was watching Pastor D. James Kennedy’s church service and associated featured topic on the Sunday Television broadcast, just before the show concluded. I’m sure that most, if not all TV Ministers and Evangelists have often urged lost men and women to pray this “sinner’s prayer” if they desired to be saved. Our pastor gives a “sinner’s prayer invitation at the end of every Sunday Worship service.

Jesus says in Luke 18:14, “I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.” The account does say that this publican, after praying thus, “went down to his house justified”. But, one commentary explains that there is more here than appears on the surface. It is not merely God’s mercy that is needed for He has already been merciful to let us continue to live at all. The word translated “merciful” is used only one other time in the New Testament and is there translated “make reconciliation for.” In Hebrews 2:17, speaking of the saving work of Christ, it says that He came “to make reconciliation for the sins of the people”. It is also closely related to the words for “propitiation” (meaning Christ being the only suitable, satisfying and saving sacrifice) and “mercy seat” (referring to the sacrifice on the Arc of the Covenant inside the Holy of Holies in the Tabernacle.

This parable of the Pharisee and the publican in the book of Luke is set in the context of the Jewish temple worship, where sinners would bring their sacrificial offerings to cover their sins, knowing that “it is the blood that makes an atonement for the soul” (per Leviticus 17:11). Such sacrifices were completely worthless, however, if offered in a spirit of religious pride and/or self-righteousness (“everyone who exalts himself will be humbled”). There must be repentance and faith in God’s promise of forgiveness through the death of an innocent substitute, pre-figuring the true “Lamb of God” (Messiah) whose coming death would truly make eternal reconciliation for the sins of the people. The publican prayed in this vein, and he was saved.

The commentary clarifies that in our day, on the other side of the cross, a sinner’s saving prayer must say, in effect: “God, be propitiated (that suitable, satisfying and saving sacrifice) to me on the basis of the death of Christ for my sins.” Such a prayer, offered in sincere repentance and faith in God’s promise, brings justification (remission of sin and absolution from guilt and punishment; or an act of free grace by which God pardons the sinner and accepts him as righteous, on account of the atonement of Christ) before God.