Dr. Jerry Nelson

www.soundliving.org

See the following suggested prayers for salvation (emphases added):

Prayer in Billy Graham’s Steps to Peace with God 2008

Dear Lord Jesus, I know that I am a sinner and need Your forgiveness. I believe that You died for my sins. I want to turn from my sins. I now invite You to come into my heart and life. I want to trust and follow You as Lord and Savior. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Prayer in Navigators’ Bridge Illustration 2008

Dear Lord Jesus,I know that I am a sinner and need Your forgiveness. I believe that You died for my sins. I want to turn from my sins. I now invite you to come into my heart and life. I want to trust and follow You as the Lord and Savior of my life. In Your name. Amen.

SoundLiving.org:

Lord Jesus Christ, I admit that I am weaker and more sinful than I ever before dared to admit, but through you I am more loved and accepted than I ever before dared to hope. I thank you for paying my debt on the cross, taking what I deserved in order to offer me complete forgiveness and your righteousness. Knowing that you have been raised from the dead, I turn from my sins and trust you as my Saving-Lord. Amen.

In all the above you will see a response of faith and repentance.

In the following please notice an absence of explicit repentance:

Grace Evangelical Society

Jesus died on the cross for the sins of the whole world (John 1:29). He has removed the sin barrier, which separated us from God. However, we still lack spiritual life, eternal life. To get that life, we must simply believe in Jesus for it. There are no strings attached. Our eternal salvation is “not of works, lest anyone should boast” (Eph 2:9). Simply believe in Jesus and He guarantees you will never die spiritually. You will go to heaven when you die, and spend eternity in God’s kingdom. It really is that simple.

Fellowship Bible Church, Colorado Springs (a Grace Evangelical Society church)

You become a Christian by: 1. Realizing that you (along with all people) have sinned and fallen short of God’s standards.  2. Personally believing that Jesus Christ, who was God in human flesh, died for your sins on the cross and rose again.

R.B. Thieme Bible Ministries

“Eternal life is available to you, right now. In the privacy and freedom of your soul, you can tell God the Father that you are believing in Jesus Christ, and that is the moment of eternal life.”

Frank Minirth, formerly of Minirth-Meyer Clinics

“When one becomes a Christian, he consciously believes in Christ. He does not need, nor is he required, to will a commitment to obedience, though he may do so.” Frank B Minerty, Journal of the Grace Evangelical Society, Autumn 1993—Volume 6:11

Kim Riddlebarger adds an interesting perspective:

“Faith is not repentance, nor obedience, nor does it include them as component parts. This is why Protestants have insisted upon faith alone. And this is why Protestants have been careful in how they have used the classical categories of knowledge, assent and trust. Faith lone justifies, hence sola fide. The faith that saves is a faith that involves the mind, the heart and the will. The whole person turns to Christ through faith. Thus, the type of ‘dead’ faith that James is talking about is not lacking information, nor lacking orthodoxy, nor lacking obedience, but lacking genuine trust in Christ himself. The threefold distinction is supported by the biblical data… Faith links us to Christ. It is through faith that we are united to him. And thereby, we receive his saving benefits by grace through faith. The Reformed, then, have historically linked faith, repentance and obedience together, not calling the latter two elements within saving faith itself, but understanding them as corollaries within the ordo salutis. That is, one who has exercised faith in Christ, and is united to Christ by that faith, will repent and will struggle to obey and yield. But these things are not conditions for, nor component parts of, faith itself. They are ‘effects’ – signs that there has been an exercise of saving faith.”  (Kim Riddlebarger, pastor of the Christ Reformed Church of Anaheim, CA  in Michael Horton, Chapter 3 of Christ the Lord, 103-104)

Faith and Repentance in Christian Conversion