Not Faith Plus Prayer

Not Faith Plus Prayer

Some may view prayer as a condition for salvation, not knowing that we are saved by faith and not by prayer. Since the Lord Jesus Christ has already borne our sins and was judged by God, all we need to do is to believe; we do not even need to pray. Prayer is asking God to do it, but faith is believing He has already done it. We are to believe that God has judged Jesus Christ who died in our stead. The cross has already completed the work of redemption, so that whoever believes in what God has done shall be saved.

Someone may raise the question, Does it not say in Romans 10.13 that "whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved"? Does this not then imply that no one can be saved without prayer? Yet we find this verse is immediately followed by another which declares: "How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed?" (v.14a) The correct order is: first believe, then call. Call after there is faith. Hence calling is an expression of our believing; it is not an independent and additional condition. Faith includes asking, faith spontaneously leads to asking.

Moreover, the asking here is not in the sense of ordinary prayer, it is rather a calling upon the name of the Lord. It is the same as "confess with thy mouth Jesus as Lord" in the passage preceding it. It is similar to the calling on the name of the Lord as described in 1 Corinthians 12: "No man can say, Jesus is Lord, but in the Holy Spirit" (v.3). The name of the Lord is salvation to us. Whoever calls on His name, that is, saying Jesus is Lord, shall be saved. How can anyone say Jesus is Lord if he does not already believe that Jesus is indeed Lord? How can anyone believe that Jesus is Lord and fail to call upon His name? So prayer is not a condition for salvation, faith alone is.