Dear Lord Jesus, I know that I am a sinner, and I ask for Your forgiveness. I believe You died for my sins and rose from the dead. I turn from my sins and invite You to come into my heart and life. I want to trust and follow You as my Lord and Savior. In Your Name. Amen.The go to text for justifying the Sinner's Prayer is Romans 10.9:
If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.But notice some contrasts between Billy Graham's Sinner's Prayer and the saving prayer of Romans 10.
In the Sinner's Prayer a person confesses sin and acknowledges that Jesus died for your sins. In short, the Sinner's Prayer is working within the framework of penal substitutionary atonement.
But none of that is found in Romans 10.9. There is no mention of guilt, no mention of an atoning sacrifice. In Romans 10.9 the belief isn't that Jesus died for our sins, but that Jesus rose from the dead. And the confession that is made isn't "I'm a sinner" but that "Jesus is Lord."
In short, most versions of the evangelical Sinner's Prayer are prayers about penal substitutionary atonement, a prayer about sin and forgiveness. But the prayer of Romans 10.9 isn't that at all.
Romans 10.9 isn't a Sinner's Prayer.
Romans 10.9 a Christus Victor prayer.
