Magic Words, Movie Stars and the Sinner’s Prayer
It is one of the first things I learned when I became a Christian. I have used them repeatedly. I don’t think they are wrong. It’s just that I am not sure what to do with them. They are the ‘Magic Words’ of evangelism.You know them I am sure. You may have heard of them as the “Four Spiritual Laws”. You may know them as the “ABCs of Salvation”. The “Roman Road” comes to mind. But they are almost all magic words.Let me explain.
When we lead someone to the Lord Jesus Christ and they want to be forgiven their sins and go to heaven when they die, we run through some sort of Scripture program of what it means to be saved. We lead them in the sinner’s prayer and they are saved, Praise the Lord! Then, we tell them they need to start reading their Bible, be baptized and worship (or some variation of those things). And that’s it.
There is a question that used to sit at the back of my head is now working its way onto this page. The question is, “Is that it?” I look at Alcoholics Anonymous and they do a whole bunch more to get sober than we Christians do to get saved. An Alcoholic admits that his or her life is unmanageable and that they are powerless. We do that, too. They come to believe in a power greater than themselves that can restore them to sanity. We are still tracking. They make a decision to turn their lives over to God. Ditto.
Then something insane happens. The person in AA make a fearless moral inventory of their lives. They confess their sins to another human being. I could go on, but it is just insanity. They go beyond admitting that they are a hopeless drunk and take care of business.Sure, I know there are Christians that go farther than simply admitting they are sinners saved by grace, but not a lot. If we are to truly become like Jesus, we need to do more than just get saved. I can hear some of you thinking that is blasphemy. Is it? What would happen if we truly got our garbage out in the open and let God deal with it? What would be the result if we began to deal with our broken relationships and make restitution for the things we have done wrong? I think amazing things would happen. It is imperative that we move past the “magic words” and started to do the hard work of letting God into our lives for real change. That is a journey and not a destination.
How about an example ripped from today’s headlines (Dramatic, yes?): A young Hollywood starlet just was busted for Driving Under the Influence even though she just go out of rehab two weeks ago. She probably learned a lot about addiction and alcoholism. I am sure she didn’t drink in rehab. Obviously, sobriety is more than not drinking. How do I know? Because she gets out and goes right back to her old habits and ends up drinking and driving, again. She needs to change some habits and become a different person, not just quit drinking. It isn’t good enough for her to admit she has a drinking problem, she needs to face lifestyle habits and personal issues for real change to take place. The same is true for us. We admit our sins, and ask Jesus to forgive us. Then, we need to change our old habits and replace them with new ones. Transformation is more important than information. Without it, we, like this young starlet, will end up right back where Jesus found us. In other words, we need more than magic words. What do you think? Let me know.