| The Sinner's Prayer, Part 4 |
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| Written by David Lawrence |
| Monday, August 15 2005 00:00 |
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We asked in this first of this series of devotional studies two questions: "At what point does one make the crossing from death to life?" (John 5:24) And "when does faith become saving faith?" Jesus provides us with an answer in the story of the Pharisee and the publican. When the publican went up to the temple to pray, and realizing his sinfulness before God asked God for mercy, Jesus said that he went down to his house justified. The prayer was an expression of his faith. His faith in God and his awareness of need was so great that he cried out for mercy. In the same way, we may be assured that when our faith is strong enough to impel us to cry out to God for mercy, and when we trust in Christ knowing that we cannot trust in ourselves, surely our faith is saving faith. We know that he had made the crossing from death to life by that point. Can we know for certain the exact minute when God declared him justified? I think not. And neither can we know ourselves. It becomes a matter of intruding into the secret things not revealed to try to pin-point the exact moment. What we know for certain is that by the time one's faith finds expression in such a prayer, the sinner is justified. We must navigate these waters carefully lest we convey the idea that something we do accounts for our justification. But faith that does not impel a response of some kind is no saving faith. His plea for mercy is a sure sign of what is in his heart. Whether his faith reached the point of being saving faith a few moments earlier or just at the time he cried out is not for us to know. He was saved on the grounds of the mercy of God, through the blood of Christ, by the faith he manifested when he cried out to God for mercy. |
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