“The following is a suggested prayer” is found in many a tract, and after many a sermon, but it’s not in the Bible! Notice that Jesus never said the same thing twice, when people came to him asking how to have eternal life. To one he said “sell all you have, give to the poor, and follow me.” To another he said “keep the commandments” to love God and love your neighbor. To a third, he said “go call your husband”! Now Paul did write that “if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved” (Romans 10:9). Here’s the rub, people are generally asked to commit to Jesus on the spot. But you can’t submit to someone you don’t know! Not really. Nor can you trust someone you don’t know, either. “We must know, before we can love”, said Brother Lawrence, along the same lines. So I think the best counsel is to seek to know God, and begin to obey him in the process. The more we know God, the more we will be able to trust him, love him, and obey him. This is borne out by Paul’s response to seeing Jesus (Acts 9:5-6), he first asked “Who are you, Lord?”, that’s first getting to know him, and then he asked “Lord, what do you want me to do?” Beginning to obey God. This is very practical, no profession of faith, no prayer of commitment. As C.S. Lewis said, words to the effect of “Do you know something God told you to do? Then go and do it.” I used to pray the sinner’s prayer every time someone suggested it, and it never seemed to “take”. I don’t deny that people can begin their walk with God by praying a prayer, but again I insist that this is not Biblical. Getting to know God is:
Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. (John 17:3)
Growing in obedience and faith in God is:
Through him we received grace and apostleship to call all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith for his name’s sake. (Romans 1:5)
Notice also that the verses about having Jesus come to live in people’s hearts are addressed to believers! That’s another thing that people are told to pray, to become Christians. But this is what we see:
Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.” (John 14:23)
First obedience and love, and then God comes.
“… that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith …” (Eph. 3:17)
This was written to the saints who were at Ephesus! (Eph. 1:1)
And then the most famous verse about inviting Christ in:
Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me. (Rev. 3:20)
But this was spoken to the lukewarm church at Laodicea! Not to unbelievers, seeking conversion. It’s to the church, to believers.
Also we read that people are told to repent and believe the good news (e.g. Mark 1:15), and this I think fits with what I have been saying, repentance does involve turning from sin, but I believe the crucial part of repentance, which is not often mentioned, is turning to God. To seek to know him, and if we turn our focus to God, and seek to know him, that is the way to renounce and get deliverance from sin:
No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him. (1 John 3:6)
Abide in Christ, see him and know him, that is the prescription for stopping sinning, that is the way to repentance.
And believing the good news, trusting in God, requires getting to know him.
So that would be my view, at the end of tracts, and the end of sermons, to counsel people to seek to know God:
“Seek me and live!” (Amos 5:4)
And begin to obey God, being specific to ask God what do to, for each next step:
I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me in leading the Gentiles to obey God by what I have said and done— by the power of signs and wonders, through the power of the Spirit of God. (Romans 15:18-19)
It’s very practical, you don’t have to pray a prayer, and then wonder if it “took”. Certainly committing to trust God and surrender to him are laudable, and good to aim at, but I think they are powerless by themselves. I don’t think that’s the right starting point, any more than Jesus’ command to be perfect is to be the starting point for doing that. Getting to know God, beginning to obey him, by very specifically asking him what to do next, we will then start to love and trust and obey him more and more, that’s what Paul did at his conversion, and that’s what I believe we are called to do. Getting to know God, praying in order to get to know God, reading the Bible and fellowshipping to get to know God, I believe that is the starting point for all the aspects of conversion, I believe that is what we should tell people to do. Then the next step of obedience will be different for every person, like what Jesus did, like what Paul and Peter did, when people came asking what they must do to be saved.