On yesterday’s broadcast, someone asked about repentance. We have discussed this at length before. You can listen to that broadcast below.
I also spoke about repentance recently at Metro Bible Fellowship. You’ll find it at the end of this post as well.
When it comes to repentance there are seven things that are important to know.
- Repentance is a big word, a God word.
- Repentance is initiated by God. In Acts 18:11, Luke wrote that God granted even the Gentiles repentance unto life.
- Repentance is a change of mind and it conveys the idea of turning from sin to God. Bonnell Thornton described repentance this way: Some often repent, yet never reform; they resemble a man traveling in a dangerous path, who frequently starts and stops, but never turns back. Repentance covers the whole process of turning from sin to God.
- Repentance is most often used to describe the conversion of the lost. It is the process of going from unbelief to belief in Jesus Christ.
- Repentance is accompanied by godly sorrow. This is much deeper than merely feeling sorrowful for getting caught doing something wrong. Godly sorrow recognizes the emptiness of the life of sin and the painful consequences it brings about in the lives of others. 2 Corinthians 7:10
- Repentance cannot be reduced to a formula. Confessing sins and asking God to forgive those sins does not equal repentance. Far too many believers apply this formula on a daily basis, yet never experience a change of heart or mind.
- God’s kindness leads us to repentance. “Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, tolerance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness leads you toward repentance?” (Romans 2:4) This kindness is most clearly seen and experienced through faith in the finished work of Jesus regarding the forgiveness of sins.
I’ll end this post by sharing two quotes on repentance.
Evangelical repentance is repentance of sin as sin: not of this sin nor of that, but of the whole mass. We repent of the sin of our nature as well as the sin of our practice. We bemoan sin within us and without us. We repent of sin itself as being an insult to God. Anything short of this is a mere surface repentance, and not a repentance which reaches to the bottom of the mischief. Repentance of the evil act, and not of the evil heart, is like men pumping water out of a leaky vessel, but forgetting to stop the leak. Some would dam up the stream, but leave the fountain still flowing; they would remove the eruption from the skin, but leave the disease in the flesh. —Charles Haddon Spurgeon
True repentance will entirely change you; the bias of your souls will be changed, then you will delight in God, in Christ, in His Law, and in His people. –George Whitefield
Broadccast:
Metro:
This is life changing, but I have one question re: sin, is sin not trusting in God? It’s clear that we need to repent from sins that are more obvious but what about not trusting in God and trying to take things into your own hands? if I don’t sometimes walk in faith due to my emotions then basically not showing love all the time is sin? Thanks for any light you can shed on this and God bless you.
Hey Marcos, great question. Paul defined sin as anything that is not of faith. God wants us to get to the root, not just deal with the fruit. Repentance is a change of heart and mind. It happens when we realize that the cause of our sins is a heart that is not trusting Jesus.
Repentance is turning from unbelief to belief, specifically, faith. The word faith appears 15 times in the Old Testament,(NIV)and 231 times in the New Testament.
Eph. 2:8 “For it is by grace you have been saved, through FAITH–and this IS NOT FROM YOURSELVES, it is the gift of God…”
Like Bob pointed out, God grants us repentance, and God gives us faith. God initiates it all, we either respond or reject. As one that rejected many times before finally responding, I for one, am grateful that God is patient.
Since repentance is changing your mind from believing that you can make yourself right before God to believing that only Christ Jesus can make you right, faith is being sure and certain of this.
Romans 4:5 “However, to the man who does not work,(to make himself righteous), but trusts God who justifies the wicked, his FAITH is credited as righteousness.
Romans 9:30-32 “What then shall we say? That the Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have obtained it, a righteousness that is by FAITH; but Israel, who pursued a law of righteousness, has not attained it. Why not? Because they pursued it not by FAITH but as if it were by works….”
Repentance brings faith, because we change our mind and believe not that we can attain a righteousness of own, but that we must be made righteous by Jesus.
Bob said: Repentance is a change of mind and it conveys the idea of turning from sin to God. The phrase “turning from sin” never has and never will have anything to do with obtaining Eternal Life. Lest you can
boast. God Bless
Repentance, as I am coming to see it more clearly, has nothing to do with what we do for God in trying to abstain from sin. True repentance, as I see it, first identifies with Who Jesus is and What he has accomplished for us through his finished work on the cross. (think of the penitent thief, the only work he could do was believe in Jesus) Secondly, it identifies with who we are in Christ as a new creation– from this renewed mindset flows the by-product of good works, turning from sin (putting off the old way) and turning to God (putting on the new way.
John said: Repentance, as I am coming to see it more clearly, has nothing to do with what we do for God in trying to abstain from sin. Amen John, you have just given Paul’s True Gospel. Remember what your intro page states Bob, “First Life Then Change” God Bless
Paul, obviously you missed point #2 of the post. Repentance is initiated by God. He is the One who causes us to turn and that brings about our change of heart and mind.
Thanks for your reply Bob. For many years the truth of the grace message that is faithfully presented by PTP has set me free. God Bless
Great insights everyone!
Have you ever struggled with those 3D patterns and then after staring for the longest time , aloof a sudden you finally can see the hidden image popping out of the page? So it is with this universe and this life – all of a sudden we glimpse the devine beauty and meaning at the same time we cringe at the depravity of the human fallen condition within and around us.
Good analogy, Myles! I love those 3D pictures that have the “hidden” ones. Unfortunately, when it comes to repentance, I’m still waiting for the hidden image to pop out on the page. Growing up, I was taught the old, “I used to ________but now I don’t”, then when I first started listening to PTP way back when, I remember BG saying that didn’t count, because we could always start back doing __________again. That just hasn’t clicked with me yet. Not saying it’s wrong, just that it hasn’t clicked. I also like the analogy that Bonnie made,
That helps me a little bit.
I think of not turning back to __________sort of like the Red Sea parting. I can’t remember who was preaching, either BC or RP, but it was mentioned that the Israelites couldn’t get back to Egypt even if they wanted to, because the Red Sea was in the way. God wasn’t going to open up the sea to let them cross back. When we stepped into a faith believing relationship with God, the Red Sea closed behind us, so to speak. Maybe that’s true repentance? The crossing of our “Red Sea” from unbelief to belief?
I still have that proverbial checkmark by this topic, but I’m not worried. I know the Holy Spirit will make it clear when it’s time.
People are in the natural. They can’t help it. Things that are felt but not seen, thigns of the Spirit of God, like the wind blowing the tree branches, can be missed or dismissed by the Christian in the natural, in the flesh. God is in the supernatural, showing us the thigns we do not perceive in our flesh but only through the Spirit of God: Intuition, wisdom, revelation, faith those are good words. Thank you Lord for helping me to change the way I see and for showing me thigns I could never see in the natural, only through you, in the supernatural. Amen.
Corrector: Oops! Fat fingers on an iPhone – “aloof” was supposed to be “all of”
Jesus tells us that the world is wrong about sin. He says that sin is not believing in him. We either believe that or we do not believe in Jesus. If we do not believe in Jesus, we remain condemned, according to Jesus.
The Law given through Moses locked up the world and made us prisoners of sin. Gal 3:23-25
We were locked up by the Law UNTIL faith is revealed, when you repent, change your mind about Jesus. Now that faith has been revealed we are no longer under the Law.
Constantly focusing on your “sins” keeps your eyes upon yourself and puts you under the law which makes sin your master.
Romans 6:14
Many Christians believe that you can lose salvation. Usually, this is due to false teaching that God is counting your sins against you. That is unbelief in Jesus, since it was the sacrifice of Jesus that put into effect the will of God where he promises to remember your sins no more.
Anyone that comes to understand this truth and continues to treat as an unholy sacrament the blood of Jesus is still condemned. Hebrews 10:29
We cannot change the nature of our flesh which is sinful and remains so after we are saved. The only way that we will not sin is to love one another as Jesus commanded and that only happens when we die to the Law.
I had no idea that George Whitfield was so wrong about repentance. wow. No wonder those who came after him are such a mess.