THE ALTAR is the place where sacrifices are made. The temple in Jerusalem had an altar in it, and the priests would shed the bloods of animals on it to make atonement for the sins of the people. And without the shedding of blood, there is no remission or forgiveness of sins.
But because Jesus Christ paid the ultimate sacrifice, and made the eternal atonement for our sins when he shed his perfect blood on the cross, we have no need for a physical altar or animal sacrifice anymore. The wages of our sin is paid in full by the death of Christ, our Lord.
Therefore, the altar that we have in the church today is only symbolic. One doesn’t have to go up to the altar during “altar call” in order to have their sins forgiven. God looks at the heart. One can repent in their chair and be equally repentant as the one who raised their hand, stood up or went to the altar. Forgiveness is granted through grace by faith.
However, when churches do altar calls and ask people to come to the front, it is done as a public confession. IT IS NOT BIBLICAL, but you never know what God can do if you go up in obedience!! He can have the leader pray for you, or prophecy over you.
God can move supernaturally and bring deliverance to you for going up. It’s all a test of faith and obedience. It causes you to die to pride. And when you go up, it might be a little embarrassing, but if it doesn’t do anything else for you, I bet it’d cause you to not want to commit that sin again next time!
But altar or not, daily repentance is needed in the life of a Christian. God is always revealing things about us that is not like him. And when we come to knowledge of the truth, we have to be willing to sacrifice the lie and lay that sin down at the cross.
So it doesn’t matter if you are in the front of a church, sitting on your pew, in your car or in your house, as long as you repent!
Transparent For Christ Movement 