Pray Up!

People in the Old Testament were sinners just like us, so sacrifices were performed—similarly to the cross itself—to atone for sin and bring forgiveness. The problem is that God says the wicked are not really repentant or humbly dependent on God. They think if they just perform the ritual then God owes them, like people today think if they just go to church, give, and have a quiet time, then God has to answer them. Without accompanying faith and dependence, these rituals are a waste of time.

In every generation people have tried to do religious rituals in an attempt to manipulate God’s favor—to put God in their debt as if he owes them. At least three times in my life a ministry group has mass-mailed me a “prayer rug.” The so-called prayer rug is a picture of what people think Jesus’s face looks like, and the note with the rug promises that if you will pray with your knees on this rug, God will give you $47,000 like he did with some poor soul under a mountain of debt. This ministry promises that if you do this prayer act, God will give you what you want. That’s not Christianity; that’s paganism!

The problem is that we can comfort ourselves by saying, “I’m not like that,” but we do the same kind of thing. We think if we are good or if we do certain things, God will listen to us and act on our behalf. It may not be a prayer rug; it might just be bargaining with God: “God, if you get me out of this jam, I promise I will walk more closely with you.” Or we think if I just give up my besetting sin—pornography, profanity, or my temper—then God will finally listen to me. If I can just turn over a new leaf, God will stop giving me the silent treatment. If I can just get this lust or this arrogance out of my life, maybe God will let us win the game, ace the exam, or get the job!

This approach to God is revealed clearly in our reluctance to approach God when we feel like we are in the valley. I ( Jon) remember going through a period of rebellion in my freshman year of college and thinking, “I can’t even pray to God for forgiveness right now because I don’t deserve for him to listen to me. He must be so angry with me right now.” Because of the sin in your life, you feel like you cannot pray or that it will not do any good. You think you must clean yourself up first. That is also manipulative paganism, not Christianity.

Therefore, no matter who we are, we have a huge problem. If you think you are good and God definitely answers your prayers, then you have a reality problem because the Bible says you are a sinner. And if you think you are bad and God will not listen unless you clean your act up, then you have a religion problem because God is not manipulated by ritual!

We have a big problem: God does not respond to the prayers of the wicked, and that is us. And if religion is not the answer, how can we pray at all? Humanity has had this problem since the garden of Eden—we have been separated from God. In Psalm 24 the psalmist asks a key question about who can approach God. The answer: “The one who has clean hands and a pure heart” (24:4). Clearly that is not us; only one man in history fits that description—Jesus of Nazareth, the King of glory (Ps 24:7).

Jesus lived the perfect, righteous life that we could never live; then he died the death we should have died, and God accepted his sacrifice because he is the righteous one (cf. Prov 15:8). Jesus was cut off from God—separated from the Father for us. He was the one who cried out and was unanswered because he bore our sin in his own body on the cross (Matt 27:46; 1 Pet 2:24). And it is through his atonement that the relationship with God that humanity lost in the garden is finally restored. His death tore in two the veil separating humanity and God so that now we have bold access to the Father (Matt 27:51; Heb 10:19-22).

God heard the cries of his righteous Son on the third day and rescued him from death. Then Jesus ascended the hill of the Lord to sit at the Father’s right hand. Now he always lives to make intercession for us (Heb 7:25). We have access to boldly approach the throne in prayer and not shrink back (Heb 4:16). Our prayers are heard by God because Jesus is our righteous mediator before the Father, and through his ­righteousness—not ours—God answers our prayers!

Proverbs 28:13

Since we are wicked and do not deserve for God to hear us, and since the only way we have access is through Jesus, then the only manner in which we should come before God is humble dependence. We recognize that it is only through Jesus that we have access. That is what it means to pray in Jesus’s name. It is not a magic formula to tack on at the end of the prayer; it is acknowledgement that Jesus is the one who grants us access to the Father so that he hears us!

Since we are sinners, the first step in our prayer life should be to admit our sin and confess it to God. Proverbs 28:13 says, “The one who conceals his sins will not prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them will find mercy.” Proverbs says not to hide or deny our sin but to confess it and abandon it. Adam and Eve attempted to hide their sin in the garden (Gen 3); we are called to do the opposite. We cannot minimize our sin, act like it is not there, or attempt to cover it. Also, confession is more than simply being sorry that we got caught or the fear of the consequences of our actions. Confession is admitting that you have sin in your life, agreeing that it deserves judgment, crying to God for mercy, and agreeing that you need to abandon it altogether. Some people try to confess their sin without forsaking their sin. They feel bad about it, but they do not take measures to kill it in their life. You must fight against your sin! You must be killing sin or sin will be killing you.

If you think you are good enough, you are dead wrong. The only way to come into God’s presence is to admit that you do not belong. Righteousness is found in repentance. As Proverbs has indicated, rituals that are not accompanied with penitent piety are detestable. We do not try to manipulate God; we humbly depend on his mercy through Christ.

The problem is that even Christians who know the good news start to act like pagans. We start to believe the lie that we have to clean up our act for God to respond favorably to us, and that if we do not clean up our act, God will zap us. That is not grace. We humbly and simply plead for the mercy of God through the cross of Christ. In Christ, God is always for us and never against us. He may discipline us for our good (Heb 12:5-13), but he will not condemn or judge us. So come to God in humble confession in prayer!

Jesus told the story of two men praying—a Pharisee and a tax collector. God accepted one man’s prayer and rejected the other man’s prayer. The shocking turn of events was that the story did not follow expected patterns. Everyone listening to Jesus expected the righteous-looking, religious Pharisee to be heard; and they expected the sinful tax collector to be given the silent treatment. But Jesus said the tax collector was heard because he was too ashamed to even lift his eyes to heaven as he said, “God, have mercy on me, a sinner!” (Luke 18:13). God did not only hear that man, but God also justified him. If you want to be heard by the King of the universe, then come humbly as a sinner and plead the mercy of Christ.