The Sinner's Prayer / April 2005
- Then the Lord spoke to Moses, Depart, go up from here, you and the people whom you have brought up from the land of Egypt, to the land of which I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying, To your descendants I will give it. And I will send an angel before you and I will drive out the Canaanite, the Amorite, the Hittite, the Perizzite, the Hivite and the Jebusite. Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey; for I will not go up in your midst, because you are an obstinate people, lest I destroy you on the way.
- Exodus 33:1-3
- Then Moses said to the Lord, See, Thou dost say to me, Bring up this people! But Thou Thyself hast not let me know whom Thou wilt send with me. Moreover, Thou hast said, I have known you by name, and you have also found favor in My sight. Now therefore, I pray Thee, if I have found favor in Thy sight, let me know Thy ways, that I may know Thee, so that I may find favor in Thy sight. Consider too, that this nation is Thy people.
- Exodus 33:12-13
- And He said, My presence shall go with you, and I will give you rest. Then he said to Him, If Thy presence does not go with us, do not lead us up from here. For how then can it be known that I have found favor in Thy sight, I and Thy people? Is it not by Thy going with us, so that we, I and Thy people, may be distinguished from all the other people who are upon the face of the earth?
- Exodus 33:14-16
- For He Himself is our peace, who made both groups into one, and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall [middle wall of partition].
- Ephesians 2:14
- Also the foreigners who join themselves to the Lord, to minister to Him, and to love the name of the Lord, to be His servants, every one who keeps from profaning the Sabbath, and holds fast My covenant; even those I will bring to My holy mountain, and make them joyful in My house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be acceptable on My altar; for My house will be called a house of prayer for all the peoples. The Lord God, who gathers the dispersed of Israel, declares, Yet others I will gather to them, to those already gathered.
- Isaiah 56:6-8
- And the Lord said to Moses, I will also do this thing of which you have spoken; for you have found favor in My sight, and I have known you by name.
- Exodus 33:17
- Then Moses said, I pray Thee, show me Thy glory!
- Exodus 33:18
- And He said, I Myself will make all My goodness pass before you, and will proclaim the name of the Lord before you; and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show compassion on whom I will show compassion. But He said, You cannot see My face, for no man can see Me and live! Then the Lord said, Behold, there is a place by Me, and you shall stand there on the rock; and it will come about, while My glory is passing by, that I will put you in the cleft of the rock and cover you with My hand until I have passed by. Then I will take My hand away and you shall see My back, but My face shall not be seen.
- Exodus 33:19-23
- Now the Lord said to Moses, Cut out for yourself two stone tablets like the former ones, and I will write on the tablets the words that were on the former tablets which you shattered. So be ready by morning, and come up in the morning to Mount Sinai, and present yourself there to Me on the top of the mountain. And no man is to come up with you, nor let any man be seen anywhere on the mountain; even the flocks and the herds may not graze in front of that mountain. So he cut out two stone tablets like the former ones, and Moses rose up early in the morning and went up to Mount Sinai, as the Lord had commanded him, and he took two stone tablets in his hand.
- Exodus 34:1-4
- And the Lord descended in the cloud and stood there with him as he called upon the name of the Lord.
- Exodus 34:5
- Then the Lord passed by in front of him and proclaimed, The Lord, the Lord God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth; who keeps lovingkindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin; yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, visiting the iniquity of fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth generations.
- Exodus 34:6-7
- For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth were realized through Yeshua the Messiah.
- John 1:17
- And the witness [the written record] is this, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life.
- I John 5:11-12
- And Moses made haste to bow low toward the earth and worship.
- Exodus 34:8
- And he said, If now I have found favor in Thy sight, O Lord, I pray, let the Lord go along in our midst, even though the people are so obstinate; and do Thou pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us as Thine own possession.
- Exodus 34:9
- Then God said, Behold, I am going to make a covenant. Before all your people I will perform miracles which have not been produced in all the earth, nor among any of the nations; and all the people among whom you live will see the working of the Lord, for it is a fearful thing that I am going to perform with you.
- Exodus 34:10
- Be sure to observe what I am commanding you this day: behold, I am going to drive out the Amorite before you, and the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Perizzite, the Hivite and the Jebusite. You shall make for yourself no molten gods.
- Exodus 34:11,17
- You shall observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread. For seven days you are to eat unleavened bread, as I commanded you, at the appointed time in the month of Abib, for in the month of Abib you came out of Egypt. The first offspring from every womb belongs to Me, and all your male livestock, the first offspring from cattle and sheep. And you shall redeem with a lamb the first offspring from a donkey; and if you do not redeem it, then you shall break its neck. You shall redeem all the first born of your sons. And none shall appear before Me empty handed.
- Exodus 34:18-20
- You shall work six days, but on the seventh day you shall rest; even during plowing time and harvest you shall rest.
- Exodus 34:21
- And you shall celebrate the Feast of Weeks, that is, the first fruits of the wheat harvest, and the Feast of Ingathering at the turn of the year.
- Exodus 34:22
- Three times a year all your males are to appear before the Lord God, the God of Israel.
- Exodus 34:23
- Then the Lord said to Moses, Write down these words, for in accordance with these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel. So he was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights; he did not eat bread or drink water. And he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the Ten Commandments.
- Exodus 34:27-28
- Behold, days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them, declares the Lord. But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord, I will put My law within them, and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.
- Jeremiah 31:31-33
- See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Messiah. For in Him all the fulness of Deity dwells in bodily form, and in Him you have been made complete, and He is the head over all rule and authority; and in Him you were also circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, in the removal of the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Messiah; having been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised up with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead. And when you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us and which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.
- Colossians 2:8-14
- And they shall not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, Know the Lord, for they shall all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, declares the Lord, for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more. J
- ER 31:34
- And it came about when Moses was coming down from Mount Sinai (and the two tablets of the testimony were in Moses' hand as he was coming down from the mountain), that Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone because of his speaking with Him. So when Aaron and all the sons of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone, and they were afraid to come near him.
- Exodus 34:29-30
- And He also told this parable to certain ones who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and viewed others with contempt: Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee, and the other a tax gatherer. The Pharisee stood and was praying thus to himself, God, I thank Thee that I am not like other people: swindlers, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax gatherer. I fast twice a week; I pay tithes of all that I get. But the tax gatherer, standing some distance away, was even unwilling to lift up his eyes to heaven, but was beating his breast, saying, God, be merciful to me, the sinner! I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself shall be humbled, but he who humbles himself shall be exalted.
- Luke 18:9-14
- And he [the thief on the cross] was saying, Yeshua, remember me when You come in Your kingdom! And He [Yeshua] said to him, Truly I say to you, today you shall be with Me in Paradise.
- Luke 23:42
- Come now, and let us reason together, Says the Lord, Though your sins are as scarlet, they will be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they will be like wool.
- Isaiah 1:18
- Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return to the Lord, and He will have compassion on him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon.
- Isaiah 55:7
- And it will come about that whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be delivered;
- JOEL 2:32
- Moreover the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, in order that you may live. And you shall again obey the Lord, and observe all His commandments which I command you today. Then the Lord your God will prosper you abundantly in all the work of your hand, in the offspring of your body and in the offspring of your cattle and in the produce of your ground, for the Lord will again rejoice over you for good, just as He rejoiced over your fathers; if you obey the Lord your God to keep His commandments and His statutes which are written in this book of the law, if you turn to the Lord your God with all your heart and soul. For this commandment which I command you today is not too difficult for you, nor is it out of reach. It is not in heaven, that you should say, Who will go up to heaven for us to get it for us and make us hear it, that we may observe it? Nor is it beyond the sea, that you should say, Who will cross the sea for us to get it for us and make us hear it, that we may observe it? But the word is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you may observe it.
- Deuteronomy 30:6,8-14
- But what does it say? "The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart" that is, the word of faith which we are preaching, that if you confess with your mouth Yeshua as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved; for with the heart man believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation. For the Scripture says, "Whoever believes in Him will not be disappointed."
- Romans 10:8-11
- To Thee they cried out, and were delivered; in Thee they trusted, and were not disappointed.
- Psalms 22:5
- For by grace are your saved through faith, and not of yourselves, it is the gift of God.
- Ephesians 2:8
It is a simple prayer, just three parts. OLord, please forgive me of my sins. Please come into my life. Please give me the gift of eternal life.
For many, this prayer was the turning point of their lives. This is when they accepted the Lord into their lives. They prayed this simple prayer because they were confronted with the goodness and mercy of God. That goodness was contrasted with their sins and they humbled themselves to the Lord. That is why this simple prayer is often called the Sinners Prayer.
If you are like most believers, you will remember offering this prayer as a result of a personal encounter with the Lord. It may have been at a church when they issued the altar call, it may have been a friend who sat down with you and spoke of accepting the Lord, or you may have had a specific event in the your life that brought you to the moment. Regardless of the circumstances, all believers share this prayer, or a version of this prayer, as their basis for turning to and accepting the Lord.
While many of us share this spiritual turning point, let me ask a more basic question. Where is this prayer or pattern of prayer in the Bible? Where in the Bible does it say that God hears this prayer, makes His dwelling place within the person, grants the gift of eternal life, and the privilege of living with Him?
Let me save you some time. You wont find this in the New Testament.
Please dont misunderstand me. I am not suggesting that the Lord does not hear this prayer, or that our common testimony is not true. I am saying that the basis, the authority, and the promise of this prayer comes somewhere other than the New Testament. I am saying that it comes from the Torah, where all truth in the Scripture originates.
Im sure you remember the events in the wilderness when the children of Israel sinned against the Lord by making the golden calf. God had brought Israel out of Egypt and led them to the mountain. God had given the Ten Commandments, but the people were afraid of His voice. They dispatched Moses up the mountain to receive the rest of Gods instruction. They didnt make it forty days before they forgot the Lord. It was a small group who called for the golden calf and worshiped it, but they were able to bring judgment upon all of Israel.
When Moses came down the mountain, he threw the two tablets and shattered them. The Levites joined Moses, and three thousand of the children of Israel died at their hands. Those who worshiped the golden calf perished. But something else happened that many people do not remember. God removed His presence from the camp, separating Himself from all of them.
Whenever Moses or the children of Israel needed to do business with God, they were required to go out of the camp to the tent of meeting, because the Lord had declared that He would no longer be in their midst.
They still had the promise of the land, a guarantee made to their fathers, but the Lord held them in contempt. The children of Israel were obviously humbled and voluntarily removed all ornaments from their outer apparel. Moses would go to the tent of meeting outside the camp and each man would remain at the entrance of his tent until Moses returned.
Finally, Moses couldnt take it anymore. We dont know exactly how long this situation lasted, but Moses appealed to God in this manner.
Moses recounted to the Lord his own relationship with Him. Moses asked God to turn His favor toward him so that he might know the Lord and His ways. He also asked the Lord to consider the rest of Israel along with himself.
Following the petition of Moses, there is one of the most intriguing conversations between God and mankind in the Bible.
In the Hebrew text, the words with you are not present. Therefore, the Hebrew text only says, My presence shall go, and I will give you rest. Moses responds with Thy presence does not go, do not lead us up from here. Apparently, the translators felt the need to put in the words with you to help us get the meaning, but I disagree with the first insertion. I believe that the Lord said He would let the children of Israel proceed on to the promised land, but without His presence. However, Moses asserted that Gods presence was the only thing that was of value.
I once heard a widow say, upon receiving a large amount of life insurance, that it wasnt worth anything to her. Her husband wasnt there to enjoy it with her. The same was said by Moses. If God wasnt going to be with them, then what good was the promised land? They might as well wander in the wilderness for all the good that it was.
For a moment, examine how Moses describes the value of Gods presence. Is it not by Thy going with us, so that we, I and Thy people, may be distinguished from all the other people who are upon the face of the earth? In recent days, some leaders within the Messianic movement have asserted that the Messianic Jews have a unique calling in the Lord and should be distinguishable as believers by Gods design. Part of that assertion is based on this statement by Moses. They use this assertion to separate themselves from other non-Jewish brethren in the New Covenant. This separation takes the form of declaring associate memberships instead of full memberships in their organizations, why the Torah should not be taught to all people (it is for Jews only), and why the Two-House teaching is heresy (just Jews are Israel now). I would like to clarify my position as a Jewish believer on the distinguishable aspects of our Jewish calling.
It is true that God wants Jewish believers to be distinct and separate. He also wants all of His children to be just as distinct and separate. Our distinction is to be established in Him, not in culture or tradition. Our separation is to be from the unbelieving world and other gods, not from one another. In fact, the Torah specifically states that showing distinction between the native and alien when both are trusting the Lord is forbidden. The alien is to be considered as though he was native (home) born within the camp of the righteous. The middle wall of partition is not acceptable to the Lord. It was brought down by the redemptive work of the Messiah.
The sacrifices and prayers of the non-Jews are just as acceptable as that of believing Jews. Isaiah said it this way and Yeshua quoted the same words.
I would remind everyone that when Moses was speaking of Israel in his day, Israel was a mixed multitude of native born with aliens, strangers, and sojourners, who had joined themselves together in the name of the Lord. Therefore, his distinguishing statement included all the tribes of Israel, not just the House of Judah, and the aliens and sojourners with them.
The Lord responded to the request of Moses for Gods presence to remain with the camp.
But Moses goes even further with his request!
What follows is nothing short of spectacular. The stage will be set for the second set of tablets.
The definition of seeing the Glory of God is to be in His presence, and to hear the name of the Lord proclaimed. God did this for Moses, but there was a condition. Moses would be placed in a rock that was beside God. He was placed in the cleft of the rock where the rock was broken. From this vantage point, Moses would see the glory of God but not Gods face.
If you already know the Lord, then you can see the picture of each of us coming to know the Lord. We, too, know about the rock beside God, the one called the Rock of Salvation. We know that the Rock has a broken part and that we are hidden in the cleft (the broken part) of the Rock of Salvation. Yeshua is the Rock of Salvation. He is our vantage point to see the glory of God as well.
Moses was instructed to bring his own set of tablets. We, too, are required to bring the two tablets of our heart when we come to the Lord.
There was Moses on the mountain top, in the cleft of the rock, calling upon the Lord. No matter the circumstance, each of us has a similar testimony. For me it was at the age of 12, the night after seeing The Ten Commandments movie for the first time. I laid in my bed weeping and calling upon the name of the Lord to forgive me and save me. I knew I was Hebrew and had a Jewish name because my father had told me. I was a first born son. But seeing the story was the first time heritage ever meant anything to me. The story of the Passover and the exodus was the story of me and my ancestors.
This is one of the few places in the Bible where God describes God. Theology is the study of God. These two verses are Gods study of theology. The sages of Israel have concluded that there are thirteen attributes of God being described here. They are called the thirteen attributes of Gods mercy.
Let me summarize the list of thirteen.
1. The Lord (mercy for the righteous)
2. the Lord (mercy for those who have been judged)
3. God (mercy for those who repented)
4. compassionate
5. gracious
6. slow to anger
7. abounding in lovingkindness
8. abounding in truth
9. keeps lovingkindness for thousands
10. forgives iniquity
11. forgives transgression
12. forgives sin
13. the guilty are not unpunished
The first three attributes are within the words The Lord, the Lord God. I have always been fascinated by the wisdom of the sages who see this and, at the same time, insist that the Lord our God is an absolute One. I believe the Lord has expressed Himself as a Unified One (parts forming a unity). This passage and the teaching of the sages supports the Unified point of view.
There is much that can be said about these two verses, but I want you to note that grace and forgiveness are concepts not exclusive to the New Testament. Gods description of Himself begins with mercy, but it includes grace, followed by forgiveness. This appears to be in contrast to the words of the Apostle John.
John is not saying that grace and truth first came with the Messiah in the New Testament. He is not contrasting Yeshua with Moses. He is saying that grace and truth given in the Torah were emphasized and made visible (realized) by Yeshua. Grace and truth were already in the Law of Moses. This point is particularly true as we consider the Sinners Prayer. If you will notice, the Sinners Prayer is a natural response to the 13 attributes of God.
But the Scribes have placed a very powerful element in this passage of scripture to draw special attention to this. At the ninth attribute, keeps (preserves) lovingkindness, is an enlarged nun in the Hebrew text. The letter nun means the quickening of life. But an enlarged nun means the abundance of that life. The Messiah said that He had come to give us life and life abundantly (John 10:10). This is the meaning of the enlarged nun. Yeshua was the promised Son of God. The attribute of keeps lovingkindness means that God keeps His promises made to the Fathers. He remembers the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and they receive the same blessings and heritage of the Lord. Yeshua is the Life. Not only did Yeshua say this of Himself, but the Apostle John summarizes the Biblical record by saying this:
Moses responded to Gods description of Himself by doing what every person does when confronted with the glory of God. He bowed low.
In this humble state, in the cleft of the rock with the presence of God, Moses prays the Sinners Prayer for Himself and all of Israel.
In its simplest form, Moses is asking the Lord to come back into the camp, forgive their sins, and to cause Israel to live before the Lord. When we ask the Lord to come into our lives, forgive our sins, and give us the gift of eternal life, we are praying the prayer of Moses in the cleft of the rock. It is the Sinners Prayer.
This is the prayer that God responded to.
This is the covenant that God made with Israel when He brought them out of Egypt. This is the covenant made with the Torah (the teaching of Moses) with His commandments. The Torah and the covenant with Israel is the result of accepting the Lord (Gods presence joins them in the camp), being forgiven of their sins, and receiving the gift of life (the inheritance of the Lord).
With that accomplished and in place, God gives instruction to follow His leading into the land and not to make any more idols.
He commands them to keep the Passover, the Feast of Unleavened Bread, and the redemption of the first born.
He commands them to keep the Sabbath.
He commands them to keep the Feast of Weeks (the seven Sabbaths following the Passover) and the Feast of Ingathering (booths or tabernacles) when the year turns in the early fall.
The Lord summarizes these observances as the pilgrimage feasts of Passover and Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Weeks, and the Feast of Tabernacles (Spring, Summer, and Fall).
Are these done so that one might be saved? Of course not. Salvation was shown bowing low in the Rock of Salvation, calling upon the name of the Lord, accepting the Lord, receiving forgiveness of sins, and the Lord giving us life by His presence. This covenant with God was then sealed by the two tablets with the Ten Commandments
When God said that He would make a covenant with Moses and Israel, He actually said that He would cut it. The translators prefer the word make, but it actually is the word cut. When God made a covenant with Abraham, He sealed the covenant with the rite of circumcision (cutting the flesh). When God made the covenant with Israel, He cut the stone and wrote the Ten Commandments.
Now consider the New Covenant. We already see that each of us brings our own set of tablets to the Lord (our heart). We understand that we approach God through the work of the Rock of our Salvation (Yeshua the Messiah). We see the grace and forgiveness of God by the sacrifice of Yeshua. We humble ourselves and pray the Sinners Prayer. God then makes the New Covenant with us by cutting the Ten Commandments into our hearts. This is what is expressed by Jeremiah when He foretold of the New Covenant.
The only difference between the covenant made in Exodus 34 and covenant spoken of by Jeremiah is the written location of the Ten Commandments. The difference is not in the content of the Ten Commandments. Instead, of cutting the covenant into tablets of stone, the New Covenant is cut into the tablets of the heart. This cutting to make a covenant is just as the rite of circumcision was made in the flesh with Abraham and his descendants. Here is the incredible part! Paul explaining the New Covenant says the cutting in the heart is both the commandments of God (Yeshua is God) and circumcision.
Moses knew that he had favor with God, but he wanted to know the Lord and to know His ways. This is also the purpose of the New Covenant to know the Lord.
When Moses came down the mountain with the new tablets, his face shone brightly. There was a visible change in his appearance.
The same is true of a new covenant believer upon receiving the Lord. There is a visible change in the persons life. His friends and family will notice that he or she is a different person. This is the evidence, like Moses, of coming to terms with the glory of God and the acceptance of Gods presence. There will be other evidences with the indwelling Spirit of God including a new heart to obey Gods commandments.
Lets go back to the simplicity of the Sinners Prayer. There are instances where the New Testament Scriptures address this. You may remember this teaching from Yeshua in the Gospel of Luke.
Maybe you remember the Sinners Prayer at the cross. Yeshua was crucified between two men. One of those men issued this prayer:
The key word in the request by the thief was the word remember. Remember can mean recall to mind or retain some information. But the Hebrew meaning for remember is action based and means to speak for or act on my behalf. The thief was asking for Yeshuas grace and mercy on his behalf. He was asking for Yeshua to forgive his sins. He was asking for God to make His presence in his life. Yeshuas response was the assurance of His presence with him in the future.
Moses and Yeshua are not the only ones to invoke the use of the Sinners Prayer. The prophets of Israel have called upon Israel to be reconciled to God in the same manner.
There are other calls to repentance and humility before God, but lets address a more practical matter. I trust that as a result of this article you have remembered when you asked God to remember you. If you have never prayed this prayer, if you have never bowed your heart to the Lord, asked for His forgiveness, and accepted Him into your life, may I encourage you to do it. It is simple to do and you will find that the Lord is full of mercy. He is full of compassion, and He will be gracious toward you. He will forgive you of your sins, transgressions, and iniquities. He will make a covenant with you on the tablets of your heart so that you might walk upright before Him, obeying Him from the heart. It is just like Moses said.
Circumcision of the heart is a profound concept taught in the New Testament. Maybe this is the reason the Apostle Paul quoted this passage from the Torah and from the Psalmist when he said this:
The Sinners Prayer is the instruction of the Torah; its fulfillment is in the Messiahs promise. You will not be disappointed by the results.
The Torah teaches us that believing the promises of God is faith; faith is counted as righteousness; righteousness has kissed justice; justice demands sacrifice; and with sacrifice comes salvation. Yeshua showed us that He is the Promised Son. If you believe in the promise then you have faith. When that is joined with the grace of God, you have life.
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