What does it mean to “Call upon the Lord?”

Note: When the term “believe” is used in this article, it is not meant to convey merely believing with the mind. The term “believe” is to be understood as the Bible defines it, “believing from the heart.” Such believing only results from new life imparted to people by God’s grace and its fruit is true righteousness in the life of the one believing.

 

Many evangelicals tell unbelievers that if they want to become Christians, they must repeat a “sinner’s prayer.” In light of the fact that we are justified by faith alone, is it biblical to tell unbelievers to pray such a prayer in order to be saved? After all, there is not a single occurrence in the Bible of a believer telling an unbeliever to pray a sinner’s prayer. If an unbeliever does not pray a sinner’s prayer, can he be saved? In the Bible, there are many examples of people coming to know Christ without saying a sinner’s prayer.  So why do so many Christians insist that unbelievers pray a prayer as a means to “getting saved?” This article is written to demonstrate that such a practice is unbiblical and often harmful.

To justify the idea that people must pray a sinner’s prayer to be saved, many evangelicals site Romans 10:13, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”  They conclude that a one-time “calling upon the Lord” (what they consider a sinner’s prayer) is the means to getting saved. Is a person saved as a result of a one-time “calling upon the name of the Lord?” I will demonstrate that there is no justification whatsoever for such an interpretation.

To prove my point, let us consider how the Bible consistently uses the phrase, “call upon the Lord.”  We will see that until a man believes God, he cannot, will not and does not “call upon the Lord” in the way calling upon the Lord is described in the Bible. This demonstration will show itself consistent with Romans 10:14, “How can they call on the one they have not believed in?”  So, let us consider what it means to “call upon the Lord.” 

I set forth that “calling upon the Lord” is a way of relating to God for life and not a one-time act of a sinner asking for forgiveness. We know from Scripture that before a man believes, he is a slave to his own desires and all of life is self-directed with the aim to gratify himself. As Isaiah says, “All we like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way.”  Paul says that we were dead in our trespasses and sins and that no one seeks God. Thus, the natural man does not “call upon the Lord” or submit to His direction and provision. But when a person is born again and believes, there is an immediate turning (repentance) to God. Now, instead of a self-directed life, the person “calls upon the Lord” as a way of life. Instead of self-sufficiency, there is a heart-felt dependence on God for all that is necessary. This dependency on God and renunciation of self-reliance is evidence of the new nature. Without this evidence, there is no assurance of salvation.

Now let’s turn to scripture to prove that “calling upon the Lord” is not a one-time “sinner’s prayer” but rather,  a life-long way of living. The following passages teach that: a) believers DO call upon the Lord;  b) unbelievers DO NOT call upon the Lord; and, c) when unbelievers appear to call upon the Lord, the Lord disqualifies it so it does not qualify as “calling upon the Lord.”

a) From the following verses (and many others), it is clear that believers DO “call upon the Lord.”

 “To you I call, O LORD my Rock; do not turn a deaf ear to me.  For if you remain silent, I will be like those who have gone down to the pit. Hear my cry for mercy as I call to you for help,  as I lift up my hands toward your Most Holy Place” (Psalm 28:1-2).

 

“Sacrifice thank offerings to God, fulfill your vows to the Most High, and call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you will honor me” (Psalm 50:14-15).

 

“Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I call to you all day long. Bring joy to your servant, for to you, O Lord, I lift up my soul. You are forgiving and good, O Lord, abounding in love to all who call to you. Hear my prayer, O LORD; listen to my cry for mercy.

In the day of my trouble I will call to you, for you will answer me” (Psalm 86:3-7).

 

The LORD is near to all who call on Him, to all who call on Him in truth” (Psalm 145:18).

 

Paul referred to Christians as people who “call upon the name of our Lord” as a way of living. “To the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be holy, together with all those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ–their Lord and ours” (I Corinthians 1:2). According to Paul, “calling on the Lord” is something believers do on a continual basis.

b) From the following verses (and others), it appears that unbelievers DO NOT “call upon the Lord” at least as defined by what Paul refers to as calling upon the Lord in Romans 10:13.

 

Will evildoers never learn–those who devour my people as men eat bread and who do not call on the LORD?” (Psalm 14:4)

 

Everyone has turned away, they have together become corrupt;   there is no one who does good,  not even one. Will the evildoers never learn–those who devour my people as men eat bread and who do not call on God?” (Psalm 53:3-4)

 

Pour out your wrath on the nations that do not acknowledge you, on the peoples who do not call on your name. For they have devoured Jacob; they have devoured him completely and destroyed his homeland” (Jeremiah 10:25).

 

c) When unbelievers appear to “call upon the Lord,” the Lord disqualifies it. Notice that God disqualifies it because it is not from a heart of faith and repentance and dependence on God:

 

“When calamity overtakes you like a storm, when disaster sweeps over you like a whirlwind, when distress and trouble overwhelm you. ‘Then they will call to me but I will not answer; they will look for me but will not find me’” (Proverbs 1:27-28).

   

“My people are determined to turn from me. Even if they call to the Most High, He will by no means exalt them” (Hosea 11:7).

 

We may conclude the following from verses like these: As a way of life, believers DO call upon the Lord and as a way of life and unbelievers DO NOT call upon the Lord.   These observations are supported by Paul’s question, “How can they call on the one they have not believed in?”(Romans 10:14).  The conclusion can safely be made that calling upon the Lord is a way of relating to God by faith for life by people that know Him and not a one-time act of a sinner asking to receive forgiveness. 

Understanding the relationship between all of these concepts becomes important when a man asks, “What must I do to be saved?”  If your answer is, “You must pray to receive Jesus,” then your answer would be inconsistent with the testimony of Scripture. Following are the passages that provide appropriate answers to the question, “What must a person do to be saved?”

 

“Peter replied, ‘Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.  The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off–for all whom the Lord our God will call’ ” (Acts 2:38-39).

 

 “Now, brothers, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did your leaders.  But this is how God fulfilled what He had foretold through all the prophets, saying that His Christ would suffer.  Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord” (Acts 3:17-19).

 

“The eunuch asked Philip, ‘Tell me, please, who is the prophet talking about, himself or someone else?’  Then Philip began with that very passage of Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus. As they traveled along the road, they came to some water and the eunuch said, ‘Look, here is water. Why shouldn’t I be baptized?’ And he gave orders to stop the chariot. Then both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water and Philip baptized him” Acts 8:34-38).

 

“ ‘He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that He is the one whom God appointed as judge of the living and the dead. All the prophets testify about Him that everyone who believes in Him receives forgiveness of sins through His name.’     While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit came on all who heard the message. The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astonished that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles.  For they heard them speaking in tongues and praising God” (Acts 10:42-46).

 

“Therefore, my brothers, I want you to know that through Jesus the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you. Through Him everyone who believes is justified from everything you could not be justified from by the law of Moses” (Acts 13:38-39).

 

“The jailer called for lights, rushed in and fell trembling before Paul and Silas. He then brought them out and asked, ‘Sirs, what must I do to be saved?’ They replied, ‘Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved–you and your household.’ Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all the others in his house. At that hour of the night the jailer took them and washed their wounds; then immediately he and all his family were baptized.  The jailer brought them into his house and set a meal before them; he was filled with joy because he had come to believe in God–he and his whole family” (Acts 16:29-34).

 

 “Then I asked, `Who are you, Lord?’  `I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,’ the Lord replied. `Now get up and stand on your feet. I have appeared to you to appoint you as a servant and as a witness of what you have seen of me and what I will show you. I will rescue you from your own people and from the Gentiles. I am sending you to them to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.’ ” (Acts 26:15-18).

 

Besides the fact that there is no record of believers exhorting unbelievers to “pray a sinners prayer” in order to be saved, these accounts indicate that people are justified by believing alone. Consider the record of the first gentile conversions recorded in Acts. “‘All the prophets testify about Him that everyone who believes in Him receives forgiveness of sins through His name.’ While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit came on all who heard the message” (Acts 10:43&44).  It would appear that these Gentiles were justified simply by believing (from the heart) and without praying a sinner’s prayer. They simply believed from the heart. This is in keeping with Paul’s preaching, “Through Him everyone who believes is justified” (Acts 13:39) and Paul’s response to the jailer, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved–you and your household” (Acts 16:31).  Finally, we can examine Paul’s own testimony and find that Paul did not pray a sinner’s prayer when God regenerated him. “ ‘On one of these journeys I was going to Damascus with the authority and commission of the chief priests. About noon, O king, as I was on the road,  I saw  a  light from heaven,  brighter than the sun, blazing around me and my companions. We all fell to the ground, and I heard a voice saying to me in Aramaic, `Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.’  ‘Then I asked, `Who are you, Lord?’  `I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,’ the Lord replied. `Now get up and stand on your feet. I have appeared to you to appoint you as a servant and as a witness of what you have seen of me and what I will show you.  I will rescue you from your own people and from the Gentiles. I am sending you to them to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me’” (Acts 26:12-18).

The only passage that records the act of someone “calling out to God for mercy” at what appears to be the moment of justification is found in a parable in Luke. “To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else, Jesus told this parable: ‘Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: `God, I thank you that I am not like other men–robbers, evildoers, adulterers–or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’ But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, `God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’ I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted” (Luke 18:9-14). Can we conclude from this one parable that the publican went away justified because he prayed a sinner’s prayer? Or is it not more likely, based upon the rest of the Bible, that the publican believed for the first time that he was rightly condemned before God and as a result of believing this, he cried out, “God have mercy on me, a sinner.”  To reconcile the biblical teaching that we are justified by faith alone, we must conclude that his prayer was the immediate result of his faith and not that which produced it. At the very least, one would be hard pressed from this one parable alone to build a case that sinners must pray a sinner’s prayer in order to be justified.  But from this parable and many other scriptures, one can make a case that those who believe do cry out to God for mercy. Faith comes first, then a lifetime of calling upon the Lord.

Based upon these observations, the following scenario is fully possible.  While the gospel is being explained to someone, he could remain silent. God could cause him to suddenly see himself as a condemned sinner under the wrath of God, understand the Gospel and believe it from the heart and therefore be justified (as what appears to have happened to the Gentiles in Acts 10), all without him saying a word. Now true believing would definitely involve desiring the gift being offered to him in the Gospel. But desiring is not equivalent to “calling upon the Lord” as Paul considered it. I do not tell unbelievers to pray a sinner’s prayer but I do invite them to receive God’s gift of reconciliation by turning in faith to Jesus. If an unbeliever is told that he must pray a sinner’s prayer in order to be saved and subsequently he does pray it, there is a possibility that he will think that being saved is a result of praying the prayer, an act that in itself is “a work.” Worse yet, an unbeliever may falsely assume he is a Christian simply because he repeated a sinner’s prayer.

This world is filled with people who were told to repeat a sinner’s prayer at one time in their life. Often, such people were told that because they prayed that sinner’s prayer, they are CHRISTIANS. During the subsequent days and weeks, they do not notice anything different than before. They conclude that what Christians preach does not work because nothing happened to them. Worse yet, they falsely think that because they repeated that prayer, they will escape the coming judgment.

On the other hand, we can say that unless a person “calls upon the Lord” as a way of living, he will not be saved from the wrath of God that will be poured out at the judgment. Let me repeat this. A person MUST “call upon the Lord” as a way of living for the rest of his life or he will not be saved from the wrath of God coming upon those who disobey the gospel.  But “calling upon the Lord” in this biblical sense is not the same thing as a one-time “sinner’s prayer.”

Consider this passage from Romans. “If you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.  For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. As the Scripture says, ‘Anyone who trusts in Him will never be put to shame.’ For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile–the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on Him, for, ‘Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved’” (Romans 10:9-13). Since Paul is quoting here from Joel 2:32, it is most logical to conclude that he has the final salvation in mind when he uses the word saved. Based upon the immediate context of Joel, the salvation referred to relates to the final judgment day. “The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the LORD comes. And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the LORD shall be saved: for in mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the LORD hath said, and in the remnant whom the LORD shall call” (Joel 2:31&32). While the word “saved” in some sense can apply to all Christians as something that God has done in their past, the Joel and Romans 10 contexts loudly suggest that Paul is specifically referring to the salvation that will be fully realized at the final day. We know that in order for a person to be saved on that final day, regeneration and justification must have taken place during his life on earth. But we know also that if regeneration and justification have taken place, there will be resulting fruits that accompany new life in Christ. One that is mentioned in the Romans passage is “confession.” Confession is a fruit resulting from regeneration, not the cause of it. Since the Old Testament exclusively uses (including Joel 2) the phrase “call upon the Lord” to describe a characteristic of those who were living by faith, it is logical to conclude that Paul believed that  “calling on the Lord”  was  a   fruit  that  resulted  from regeneration, not the cause of it. Based upon the Old Testament’s consistent use of the phrase “call upon the Lord,” those who “call upon the Lord” as a way of life are the ones who will be saved in the final day of judgment. It is therefore safe to conclude that the passage in Joel is not referring to today’s common practice of people praying a one-time “sinner’s prayer” in order to be saved and that the phrase “call upon the Lord” in the Romans 10:13 passage is NOT referring to a one-time “sinner’s prayer” that results in justification. Rather, it indicates a way of life that always results from true regeneration, namely, a life of dependence on God by faith. New creatures in Christ trust in the Lord with all their hearts and they don’t lean on their own understanding. In all their ways they acknowledge Him. Their lives are characterized by a continuous “calling upon the Lord.”

 

So what is a biblical invitation to sinners?

 

The biblical invitation in its simplest form is “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.” And to be consistent with the rest of Scripture, I teach that this salvation is a result of a life-long believing on Jesus as evidenced by a holy life of obedience to Him. But since most people think that believing is merely an intellectual exercise, we should say some things to help them understand what happens once a person “believes from the heart.” Before I was saved, I enjoyed my life and did not want anyone messing with it, including God. I had many friends and looked forward to every party. I look back now and realize that I lost that life I once held so dear. My life is completely different. Jesus gave me a totally new heart. I now hate those things I once loved. Before I was saved, I used to think that anything having to do with God was boring. Now, I love Him and enjoy Him. I love the things He loves and hate the things He hates. He made me into a new creature (II Corinthians 5:17).  When talking with those who seem to be considering Christ, I tell them that when a man “believes from the heart,” his life will never be the same. Because he has a new heart, he will gladly surrender control of his life to God. He will joyfully give up his status as God’s enemy and enjoy true peace with God forever.  I often quote Jesus words,  “Whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it” (Luke 9:24). I tell people that any man who truly “believes from the heart,” is willing to die for Jesus and suffer for His name’s sake. 

To be saved, a person must simply believe the gospel “from the heart.” We can ask the person if they truly believe the gospel “from the heart.”  If he says, “Yes,” we can then ask him if he believes that God will accept him into heaven. If his answer to this question is, “No,” then we need to go back over the gospel with him. If his answer is, “Yes,” we can ask him why he thinks God will accept him into heaven. If he believes the gospel “from the heart,” he will indicate, though perhaps not perfectly, that he will be accepted by God into heaven because Jesus took his punishment and God has promised to receive all who come to Him through Jesus. We should invite people like this to be baptized as a means for them to declare their allegiance to Christ. If we live in a country where there is danger of being killed after being baptized in the name of Jesus, their declaration will demonstrate all the more that they “believe from the heart.”

In summary, to have a person “pray to receive Christ” is leading them down a path that could be met with peril because it falsely conveys that justification is a result of a work rather than faith which results in works. There are many people that falsely think they are Christians just because they prayed a “sinner’s prayer.” We must be careful to stick to the scriptural model that exhorts people to simply believe the gospel from the heart. If they believe the gospel from the heart, they will be justified and they will be new creatures that begin to live a life that is characterized by “calling on the Lord.” And only if they continue to call upon the Lord as a way of living until they die will they be saved from the wrath of God that is coming upon the earth at the final judgment.



One Responseto “What does it mean to “Call upon the Lord?””

  1. Bernie says:

    Do you have a printable version of this?

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