The Prayer of Faith

The position of Evangelicals since the 1950s is that saving faith becomes effective through “the prayer of faith,” a prayer to receive Jesus in your heart. They base their belief in "the prayer of faith" on one Bible verse:

… as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in his name (John 1:12; NASB).

Let’s examine this verse closely. The eternity of a great number of people weighs in the balance. Millions of people are relying on having "received Jesus in their hearts" to be saved. In other words, they trust that they won't go to Hell on the basis of their "prayer of faith."

The "prayer of faith" was popularized through the evangelistic campaigns of Billy Graham, then became embedded in Evangelical church culture through the "altar call," an invitation for people to come to the front of the church to pray with someone trained to lead them in this prayer, also called "the sinners prayer."

Most Evangelicals believe that they are guaranteed salvation because they “received Jesus in their hearts” the day they recited this prayer. But did they? Does John 1:12 justify this theology of salvation? Let's examine it.

Breakdown of John 1:12

1. Believing in Jesus' Name

Firstly, receiving Jesus is defined for us in John 1:12 so we don't need to treat the concept of "receiving Jesus" like some subjective or vague concept. It's not. We don't need to guess at what receiving Jesus means because the Apostle John (who wrote the verse) uses a poetic device called Hebrew parallelism. Because of this parallelism, we know that receiving Jesus is the same as believing in his name.

… as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in his name (John 1:12; NASB).

Can you see the parallelism? The two ideas of receiving Jesus and believing in his name are presented side-by-side, meaning that they are synonymous. This is the most common style of Hebrew poetry in the Bible, much like rhyme is in the English language. Parallelism here proves that receiving Jesus and believing in his name mean the same thing.

So, what does it mean to believe in Jesus' name? His name is everything he represents. It's his reputation, his fame. If I come to you in the name of a king, I come to you in representation of all he stands for. If he stands for justice, I come representing justice. If he stands for war, I represent war.

When you believe in Jesus' name, you believe in his righteousness, his forgiveness, his love, and his Kingdom. If you believe in all those things, surely you'll be willing to be baptized, will you not? Baptism, after all, is performed in his name. Therefore, baptism is the great sign that the person being baptized has believed in Jesus' name.

Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins (Acts 2:38).

2. Opening Your Home

Secondly, notice that to interpret receiving Jesus as praying "the prayer of faith” is to take the verse completely out of context because Jesus explains in the same book, the Gospel of John, what receiving him means—and it’s not saying a prayer! He defines it as opening your house to him or his disciples. "Receiving Jesus" is demonstrating hospitality towards someone sent by Jesus.

Truly, truly I say to you, the one who receives anyone I send, receives me… (John 13:20; NASB)

Receiving Jesus is receiving anyone he sends. Certainly Jesus continues to send out messengers even to this day. Have you opened the doors of your home to those people? Have you given 'one of these little ones' even 'a cup of cold water to drink?' (Matthew 10:41-42; LEB)

Jesus defines receiving him as offering water to those he has sent. When we open our homes, we open our hearts. When we care for a messenger, we accept his message. If the messenger is from Christ, we receive Christ. Do you support the ministry of someone sent by Jesus, sharing with them what you have? If so, you have received Jesus.

3. Jesus' Little Ones

Our Lord goes on to call the people he sends prophets, righteous people, and disciples. We read this in Matthew 10, a chapter in which Jesus uses the word receive eight times! What a great chapter for us to learn what Jesus means by receive him. There again, Jesus underscores the principle that the one who receives someone he sends, receives him.

You will be hated by everyone because of me… even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don’t be afraid…

The one who receives you receives me, and the one who receives me receives the One who sent me. The one who receives a prophet in the name of a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward, and the one who receives a righteous person in the name of a righteous person will receive a righteous person’s reward.

And whoever gives one of these little ones only a cup of cold water to drink in the name of a disciple, truly I say to you, he will never lose his reward (Matthew 10:22; 30-31; 40-42; LEB).

Did you notice how the Lord calls the people he sends his little ones? The expression little ones highlights the fact that these people who Jesus sends are very dear to him. In contrast, the World has great contempt for these little ones. Jesus loves them but the World hates them. That’s not odd since the people Jesus sends promote the Kingdom and their persecutors promote the World.

Imagine a mother sending her four-year-old son across the street to buy a loaf of bread. She watches from the apartment window to see how the store owner will treat her little one. What would she do if they hit him? What would she do if they throw him out of the store? At the very least they would lose a client, and at most she would storm down from her apartment to retaliate violently. In some cases, surely a mother would call the police and the storeowner would have a lawsuit on his hands. Likewise, any place that rejects one of Jesus’ little ones will arouse the wrath of Jesus.

The Return to Baptism

If the prayer to receive Jesus into our hearts is based on a misinterpretation of John 1:12 (which we examined above), then those who use the “prayer of faith” for evangelism ought to reexamine and consider the more than 30 Bible verses that clearly present baptism in water as God’s method of evangelism. They need to stop ignoring these passages.

If a preacher dares to disregard the method of evangelism Christ Jesus himself established, they will be disregarded by Christ. We ignore him, and he’ll ignore us.

Only since about 1950 (which constitutes less than 4% of the Church’s 2000-year history) has it employed the method known as the prayer of faith for evangelism.

Prior to the revival meetings of the 1900s there was a long history of preachers who insisted that baptism saves. Examine the methods of Peter, Paul, Clement, the Apostolic Fathers, Patrick, and Columba and you’ll note the prominence of baptism. Here's an image of Patrick evangelizing two women in Ireland in the 5th century:

Other great preachers of the past include Francis of Assisi and Girolamo Savonarola in Italy and George Whitefield, John Wesley, and Charles Grandison Finney in the U.K. and America. Although these men didn’t emphasize baptism per se, they believed that it was necessary for salvation. Here are images of Finney and Whitefield, respectively:

The prevalence of infant baptism is why we have the Anabaptists, Baptists, and Pentecostals—groups which upheld the truth that people should be re-baptized at the age of accountability. If you study preachers up to the time of the large-scale evangelistic crusades of American preachers such as Billy Sunday and Billy Graham, there was no one who questioned the need for baptism, not even the famous Charles Spurgeon. In the history of the Church, all preachers with the exception of the modern ones included baptism in their theology regarding salvation.

Martin Luther on Baptism

Since those who oppose baptism’s role in salvation normally consider themselves to be followers of Luther’s doctrine of “faith alone,” let’s hear a few words from Martin Luther on baptism. The following is from his Greater Catechism:

‘He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved.’ That is, faith alone makes the person worthy to receive profitably the saving, divine water. For, since these blessings are here presented and promised in the words in and with the water, they cannot be received in any other way than by believing them with the heart. Without faith it profits nothing, notwithstanding it is in itself [baptism] a divine superabundant treasure.

As he expounded upon Mark 16:16, Luther also wrote the following:

We must also learn why and for what purpose it [baptism] is instituted; that is, what it profits, gives and works. And this also we cannot discern better than from the words of Christ above quoted: ‘He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved.’ Therefore state it most simply thus, that the power, work, profit, fruit, and end of baptism is this, namely, to save.

For no one is baptized in order that he may become a prince, but, as the words declare, that he be saved. But to be saved we know is nothing else than to be delivered from sin, death, and the Devil, and to enter into the Kingdom of Christ, and to live with him forever.

In his Greater Catechism in the section entitled On Baptism, Luther declared:

Baptism is no human trifle, but instituted by God Himself, moreover, that it is most solemnly and strictly commanded that we must be baptized or we cannot be saved, lest anyone regard it as a trifling matter... For it is of the greatest importance that we esteem baptism excellent, glorious, and exalted, for which we contend and fight chiefly, because the World is now so full of sects clamoring that baptism is an external thing, and that external things are of no benefit.

Someone may think that Martin Luther was never confronted with the question of baptism being a “work.” Well, he was. Luther dealt with that matter in his Greater Catechism, stating the following:

But if they say, as they are accustomed: “Still baptism is itself a work, and you say works are of no avail for salvation; what then, becomes of faith?” Answer: Yes, our works, indeed, avail nothing for salvation.

Baptism, however, is not our work, but God's (for, as was stated, you must put Christ-baptism far away from a bath-keeper's baptism). God's works, however, are saving and necessary for salvation, and do not exclude, but demand faith; for without faith they could not be apprehended.

Justified by Baptism

The starting point of the theology that denies the saving role of baptism is the false teaching that a person obtains Jesus’ righteousness by faith alone. The right starting point is Christ. Our Lord Jesus Christ is the embodiment of faith working through love.

The false teachers start with the writings of Martin Luther. We start with the writings of James. Martin Luther said “justification is by faith alone” and James said ‘a person is justified by works and not by faith alone.’

Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar? You see that faith was working together with his works, and by the works the faith was perfected. And the scripture was fulfilled that says, ‘And Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him for righteousness,’ and he was called God’s friend.

You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. And likewise was not Rahab the prostitute also justified by works when she welcomed the messengers and sent them out by a different route (James 2:21-25; LEB)?

What do the enemies of baptism do with these verses? What will they do with the undeniable teaching that although Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness (Romans 4:3; Genesis 15:6), that Abraham was justified by works?

They can do nothing because the Bible is clear: Abraham was justified by works of faith. He was justified by works which proved that his faith was a living faith. Likewise, the faith of anyone who believes in Jesus must be a faith that works through baptism. You are justified through the work of baptism.

Jesus on Baptism

Christ amalgamated faith with works. We must do the same. Jesus’ faith worked, and so must ours. His faith had feet, and so must ours.

Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John in order to be baptized by him. But John tried to prevent him, saying, ‘I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?’ But Jesus answered and said to him, ‘Permit it now, for in this way it is right for us to fulfill all righteousness.’ Then he permitted him (Matthew 3:13-15; LEB).

Jesus showed us his faith by his works. He came in a body and lived out his faith. Part of that living out of his faith was being baptized. Jesus was baptized in order to fulfill all righteousness. Does anybody dare think themselves superior to Christ? Does anyone dare challenge baptism, the very ordinance he established?

And he said to them, ‘Go into all the World and preach the Gospel to all Creation. The one who has believed and has been baptized will be saved; but the one who has not believed will be condemned’ (Mark 16:15-16; NASB).