The Doctrine Of Repentance

[Jordan Kurecki]

I wrote this recently in response to a bunch of people arguing about Lordship Salvation and what Repentance is and if it necessary for salvation.

 

 

I would like to make a few comments about repentance, Repentance absolutely is necessary, there are many who will not get saved because they know that getting saved will change them, and many of them do not want to be saved out of sin, I have met people who told me they believed Christ died for them, they believed they were a sinner, but they would not trust in Christ, because they love their sin too much. So in this situation, this person must repent of their sin and have a changed of mind and heart about sin in general, usually the king pin sins in their lives.

I believe the Lord has really given me clarity on this issue of repentance.

When I got saved, There were a lot of things in my life that I did not even know were sinful, so when I got saved it wasn't like I made a conscious decision to turn away from all my sins, it was more of like I just knew I was wicked and I "believed on the Lord Jesus Christ"

Lordship Salvation is heretical, because every day I realize more and more just how wicked I truly am and God shows me every day areas where he is in fact not Lord in my life, and any honest believing Christian who takes any time to evaluate themselves will agree with this.

In Acts 17:31 Paul talks about how God commands all men everywhere to repent, this is in the context of him speaking to idol worshipers, This is because in order to truly trust in Jesus Christ and him alone, you must turn from your idols that you are trusting in, this is also the same thing I believe Paul is talking about in 1 Th 1:9.

Peter says in Acts 2 to repent, but he's talking in context to the Jews who have rejected Jesus, so I believe he's commanding them to repent of their unbelief of the Messiah and their rejection of him, a almost identical event takes place in Acts 3 with another command to repent.

Then of course you have the example in Luke 13:3 to repent, if you look at the context, it's very OBvious that what Jesus is commanding to repent of is self righteousness, which prevents a person from truly believing on Christ.

So then we come to the question, must a person repent of sin to be saved? well it all comes down to what you mean repent of sin, if you mean that in order to be saved a person must be willing to go home, and pour out all their alcohol, throw away their pornography, and stop sinning, and this is what you mean when you say "turn from your sins" than you are preaching heresy and you have placed the focus on a self works. I believe repenting of sin is simply that if your love of sin is preventing you from placing your faith in Christ, because you know he will changed you and you don't want to be changed, than yes you must repent of your sin because it is preventing you from trusting in Christ.

For example, Jesus said it is better to pluck your eye out, then to be cast into hell with both, Jesus is simply teaching that you need to turn from anything that is preventing you from receiving salvation, 

4Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. 25For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. 26For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? 

If someone loves their life to much to turn to Christ, then they will die and go to hell, so repenting of sin, really is turning from the love of sin which is preventing one to receiving and trust on Christ.

The prOBlem is many people never study out the context of when the word repent is used, and they often reference something they have heard from someone else like a parrot and they will simply quote something like Luke 13:3 and say "look it says to repent, so you must turn from your sins to be saved". This is dangerous especially to people who go around telling people that they have to turn from their sin to be saved, a lost person cannot stop sinning if they do not have the spirit of God, and when you tell people this you are placing a huge stumbling block in the way of them being saved, and it can often turn into works salvation.

I challenge you people who hold such strong views about repentance to actually go and look at the context of how the word is used and do a biblical study on it.

 

I think the sad thing is a lot of people divide over it, because they misunderstand the way some people explain it. One person says turn from your sins, and he means what I said above, another says it and means Lordship Salvation. 

 

I believe this issue is diving a lot of people because of a misunderstandings of this doctrine.

 

[Salyan]

Excellent explanation.

[John81]

Excellent explanation.

Succinct reply.  

[Ukulelemike]

I dunno.

 

Reading your explanation seems like it is placing sin in an unimportant place, like, just place your faith in Jesus and let sin sort itself out at some later point.

 

Yet, it is sin that causes us to be lost, sin that offends God and sin that sends a person to hell. A person can't be saved if they don't know they are lost, and they can't know they are lost if they don't know WHY they are lost. And the only way, then, to be saved, is for that sin to be dealt with. Jesus died, rose and resurrected from the dead, to deal with our sin, and in being saved, we are receiving, knowingly, the payment He made for sin. Thus, repentance must be in some form acknowledging that sin and its consequences, while proclaiming faith in Christ to cleanse us from sin and save us.

 

I have always seen repentance to be a two-part thing:  At salvation, repentance is admitting your sin and being willing to remove it from your life. No action, just a knowledge, and willingness. Then, once saved, as the Spirit opens our eyes to what IS sin, we remove them from our life, and get out from under their influences-this is the action part.

 

I don't see this as Lordship salvation, because it is done not so much because you accept Jesus completely as Lord, but because you understand the consequences of your sin, and the payment for them having been made, you no longer should live in them.  And of course, we can't forget the influence the Spirit has in this part, as well as proper teaching in a good, godly church, not just good or bad feelings about things. And as we practice repentance, we more see Jesus as Lord of our lives and seek more and more to make Him such.

 

IN fact, I have always believed that while we should continually endeavor, as believers, to give God more and more control over our lives as Lord, we should deal with God as Father, and daily intreat Him as such, as we seek forgiveness. It always did scare me when Jesus said, "Why call ye me Lord, Lord, but do not what I say?" I wants Jesus to be my Lord, 100%, but even now, after more than 40 years as a Christian, I feel almost unable to fully call Him such, because I DO see the prOBlems in my life, my own inadequacies, and shortcomings. Praise God it is He that will perfect, He that will forgive, and I will confess my sins to Him when I need, and seek more and more to make Jesus the Lord of all my life.

[mkrishna]

Good points. If there is not willingness to turn from sin and start following Jesus, there is no true repentance. As you said, it is not cleaning up your life first and then becoming saved, that is the false extreme lordship view, but repentance/salvation will result in changes in a person's life, as the holy spirit deals with them. Of course, we won't be perfect after salvation, but our desires will be different from before salvation. There is a good explanation on salvation/repentance on our church's website:

http://www.independentbaptistchicago.com/resources/how-to-get-to-heaven/

[John81]

I dunno.

 

Reading your explanation seems like it is placing sin in an unimportant place, like, just place your faith in Jesus and let sin sort itself out at some later point.

 

Yet, it is sin that causes us to be lost, sin that offends God and sin that sends a person to hell. A person can't be saved if they don't know they are lost, and they can't know they are lost if they don't know WHY they are lost. And the only way, then, to be saved, is for that sin to be dealt with. Jesus died, rose and resurrected from the dead, to deal with our sin, and in being saved, we are receiving, knowingly, the payment He made for sin. Thus, repentance must be in some form acknowledging that sin and its consequences, while proclaiming faith in Christ to cleanse us from sin and save us.

 

I have always seen repentance to be a two-part thing:  At salvation, repentance is admitting your sin and being willing to remove it from your life. No action, just a knowledge, and willingness. Then, once saved, as the Spirit opens our eyes to what IS sin, we remove them from our life, and get out from under their influences-this is the action part.

 

I don't see this as Lordship salvation, because it is done not so much because you accept Jesus completely as Lord, but because you understand the consequences of your sin, and the payment for them having been made, you no longer should live in them.  And of course, we can't forget the influence the Spirit has in this part, as well as proper teaching in a good, godly church, not just good or bad feelings about things. And as we practice repentance, we more see Jesus as Lord of our lives and seek more and more to make Him such.

 

IN fact, I have always believed that while we should continually endeavor, as believers, to give God more and more control over our lives as Lord, we should deal with God as Father, and daily intreat Him as such, as we seek forgiveness. It always did scare me when Jesus said, "Why call ye me Lord, Lord, but do not what I say?" I wants Jesus to be my Lord, 100%, but even now, after more than 40 years as a Christian, I feel almost unable to fully call Him such, because I DO see the prOBlems in my life, my own inadequacies, and shortcomings. Praise God it is He that will perfect, He that will forgive, and I will confess my sins to Him when I need, and seek more and more to make Jesus the Lord of all my life.

Thank you for this posting. I've been trying to pinpoint exactly how to say what seemed off in the OP but couldn't, for some reason, put it together as I wanted to so I chose not to respond to that.

 

One of the paradoxes of being in Christ for a long time and growing in the Lord over that time is we become more and more aware of our sinfulness and how our "little sins" now seem so big, and this no matter how many sins we've cast off and gained victory over.

 

I liked your explanation regarding repentance. Repentance isn't a one time thing. When we recognize we are a sinner needing saved and turn to Christ we have repented of going our own way. Then, as we grow in Christ it's just as you say, the Holy Ghost brings specific sins to our attention which we need to repent of. This is a part of our sanctification.

[wretched]

All very cerebral and all have truth in there somewhere.

 

The Spirit convicts us of our sin, of His Righteousness and of our Judgement by Him to come. If you are trying to explain mentally what is repentance to a lost person, you are missing the point entirely.

 

Not by wisdom of words, lest the Cross of Christ be made of none effect.  Give them of the Gospel from the Word and without feeble attempts at defining repentance and the Spirit will convict them (or not).

[Jordan Kurecki]

Let me make it clear, I do not believe a person can truly be saved without an understanding of sin, that would be easy believism, I mean if you don't realize that your sin is wicked and taking you to hell, then you prOBably don't really know what it means to trust in Christ for salvation.

 

I had forgotten about this aspect of the issue thanks for the reminder.

 

I am not one of those people who believes in going around 1-2-3- pray after me.

 

But I'm also not someone who thinks if you struggle with lust or drugs or whatever that you are not saved because you haven't made Christ Lord of your life..

[Ukulelemike]

Let me make it clear, I do not believe a person can truly be saved without an understanding of sin, that would be easy believism, I mean if you don't realize that your sin is wicked and taking you to hell, then you prOBably don't really know what it means to trust in Christ for salvation.

 

I had forgotten about this aspect of the issue thanks for the reminder.

 

I am not one of those people who believes in going around 1-2-3- pray after me.

 

But I'm also not someone who thinks if you struggle with lust or drugs or whatever that you are not saved because you haven't made Christ Lord of your life..

Agreed!

[Genevanpreacher]

Sorry. Wrong place.

Edited April 19, 2015 by Genevanpreacher

[1Timothy115]

"perfecting of the saints" "unto a perfect man"

Ephesians 4:11-15