Is Repentance part of the Gospel?

[Donald]

Is Repentance part of the Gospel?

I have been playing chess for about 40 years or so and a few years ago, I found a site on the net, where I can play up to 12 games simultaneously, with people all over the world, for free.
I always set each game up, giving each of us “10 days to move”, so that this doesn’t place demands upon my time; (I regularly take a week without logging in, if I am busy), without losing a game by “timing out”.

Anyway, yesterday I got a personal message from someone named “Ahmed”, living  in Cairo Egypt: (He sent me, a personal message through this chess program!)

Note: On the settings part of this site, I can tell about myself; Even though I posted few personal details about myself, I did include this message......

Chess is fun, but it’s just a game. Life is real and it is going to end for all of us.
Therefore, BE READY for eternity and trust Jesus as your personal savior right now.
10 seconds after you die, will be too late.
(1) We are all sinners.. Romans 3:23
(2) Our sin will send us to hell, but God wants
         to give us the gift of eternal life...Romans 6:23
(3) He did this, by sending His Son Jesus,
         to die in our place on the cross... Romans 5:8
Knowing these three facts, opens the door for you to go to heaven. But you don’t go through that door, until you “ask Jesus to save you”....
“For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” Romans 10:13

Ask Jesus to save your soul today and I will see you in heaven one of these days!

Anybody who clicks on my “user name”, can access this message.
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Here was Ahmed’s response to this message..........

Hello, Don,
No one should be worshipped, begged, or asked for salvation but Allah, the creator of all creatures. Allah or the god father as you call it in Christianity, created evrything and all people, including jesus. Jesus is merely a creature of god as much as you and me and all other people. So plesse ask Allah and only Allah to forgive you.
Regards, Ahmed.
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My first response to Ahmed............
Hi  Ahmed
I am glad to hear from you.  Of all the thousands of religions in the world, we can know that Christianity is the only true faith, because of “the Bible”.  The Bible tells us of God’s Character and that one of the most important things to know about God, is “His Holiness”!  God, is so Holy, that He hates “sin”, above all else; We can never come into his presence in our sinful state.  Christianity is unique, because it is the only faith that takes care of our sin Problem, by God having sent His Son Jesus, to die in our place.  Forgiveness must be paid for.  We either pay for it ourselves, by going to hell; Or we let Jesus pay for it, by His death on the cross; By asking Him to save us.  Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me." (John 14:6)
See you later, Don
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Ahmed’s quick response.....
Are you saying that by just believing in jesus and asking him for forgiveness I will grant peace in the eternal life
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My response to Ahmed......
No, this is what “God says” in the Bible!  We will never be able to fully understand why God would sacrifice His only Son to save us, but He did.  I hope, that you are able to get hold of a Bible, and read it for yourself.  God’s Word(the Bible), is this world’s only source of Truth!  But until then, the Bible says that “real salvation”, is as close to you, as your mouth.  The Bible says.... "That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation." (Romans 10:9-10)
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Ahmed’s next response.....
So, let's say, if I steal, lie, or fornicate, or di whatever sin in this world, then l would be salvaged in the afterlife by just brlieving in jesus and asking him for forgiveness
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My next response to him......
The Bible says, that all sin has a root!  And that root is, Rejecting Jesus Christ as your savior..... “He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.” (John 3:18).  The Bible tells us, that it’s not stealing or lying or fornication that sends us to hell, it is Rejecting Jesus.  And the Bible also tells us, that Accepting Jesus as our Savior, will give us a victory over all of these sins, Because God will come to live within us.  Jesus said.... "Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me." (Revelation 3:20)
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Ahmed’s next response.....
Still so many people beieve in just and they still do all the sins of the world, why didnt jesus forbid them
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My response to this......
The fact is, anybody can “say” that they “believe”, even if they don’t truly believe.  And if you don’t truly believe, than no change is made in you.  We will find a lot of things that God does or doesn’t do and not understand them; But the main fact that we must remember, is that God loves “us”! And He wants to save “us”!  It does not matter, what the rest of the world does, it only matters what we do!  God loves Ahmed and sent Jesus to die for Ahmed to pay for Ahmed’s sins.  And if Ahmed will believe that Jesus died to pay for his sin and to give him a victory over his sin, than Ahmed can be saved today, by asking Jesus to save him.  This is how Don got saved.
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Ahmed’s next response.....
So why jesus doesn't save those who believe in him but still do sins
And why doesn't he forbid them from doing sins in the first place. ?
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My response to these questions......
I am happy to answer any question that you have, and these are two great questions;

Your first question was....
“So why jesus doesn't save those who believe in him but still do sins”

The fact is, “He does” save those who are still sinning!  We don’t have to “stop sinning” to get saved; We must only be sorry for our sin and “willing” to turn from it.  We are not saved by anything that “we do”, but by “simply believing” that Jesus died for us on the cross, to pay for our sins: Then was buried and three days later, rose from the grave to prove who He was!  The fact is, being saved does not make us “perfect”, it only gives us the ability to overcome our sinful acts.

Your second question was.......
“And why doesn't he forbid them from doing sins in the first place?”

God made human beings, with a “free will”, because He wants us to love and worship Him, voluntarily.  If God forced all of us to live right, than we would be robots not human at all; And God would not get any glory out of that!  God does not “force” anyone to do anything; We must trust Him, because we want to or it wouldn’t be real.

See you later
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Ahmed’s next response(a few house ago).....

So sinnerss will be saved too.
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My response to this(just now)......

Yes!   If they believe on  Jesus "alone", for their salvation.  This is called "the Gospel": (The good news)

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There you have it!  The reason for this thread, is because of what went through my mind, as I typed this final response!  Repentance is not in it!  But it is almost identical to Philip’s response to the Ethiopian eunuch in Acts 8:37.

About 20 years ago, I realized that there were two kinds of “repentance”:
(1) Repentance with the hands: (Where we stop sinning!)
(2) Repentance with the heart: (Where we feel sorry for our sin!)

The second is needed for salvation, while the 1st is needed to grow in Christ!
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Any time that I have shared this observation with “anyone”(other preachers), I have been burned at the stake as a heretic.  But the Bible seems to agree with it!

 

[John81]

Other than those who believe we can, and they do, live sinless after salvation, I've never heard repentance described as "to stop sinning".

I've always heard repentance to mean we recognize our sinfulness, we agree with God concerning sin, we are sorry for our sins and desire to turn from our lost sinful condition and accept Jesus as our Saviour and Lord. When we repent we turn from going our own way to going God's. This is a lifetime process. In God's eyes we are no longer sinners, we are the saved even though we still struggle with sin in our lives.

When dealing with Muslims on this matter I've noticed they have different views on the words we use and different understandings of just what things such as sin, salvation, the world, and the next life actually mean. This can make it very difficult to get them to the point of really understanding what it is we are saying.

One stumbling block for Muslims is they view the idea of "being saved" and yet still being a sinner as incompatible with any true God. In Islam they teach following allah results in a changed life (the change must come from their own efforts) so when they abstain from eating pork or drinking alcohol they see themselves and changed and not sinners. Meanwhile, when they see a professing Christian doing things which they know are contrary to the Bible and they hear Christians saying they are still sinners, to them that sends an inconsistent message and show them (in their mind) either a false or weak god or simply delusional people needing Islam.

In Scripture we read of those who were born again how their lives immediately changed in such a dramatic manner everyone around could see it. Yet today it's common for someone to profess Christ and them those who spend a lot of time with them to hear this and proclaim they didn't have any idea they were a Christian. This is especially the case in The West. From what missionaries have said in many other countries when a person is born again there is a dramatic transformation in them we don't so often see in our own country.

Real repentance doesn't make us instantly perfect or sinless but it should make a true, obvious change in our lives.

[Ronda]

Brother Don, How wonderful that you were given the opportunity to witness to a muslim. Most (muslim's) won't even allow a conversation to proceed that far. I have had a few conversations (similar) with muslim's on facebook. The conversations did go much the same, but when it comes to repentance, I have generally told them that YES, sin is "wrong", and accepting Jesus doesn't give a a license to sin (Romans 6:1-2 and v.6) but that when we believe upon and accept Jesus it doesn't mean we automatically stop sinning... but that we are then led by the Holy Spirit to repentance of the heart (as you said...we feel sorry for our sin) and that the Holy Spirit will convict us inside when we do sin, that as we grow in faith we then have less of a desire to sin and more of the desire to live our lives pleasing to God.  Sin becomes repulsive to us after accepting Jesus as our savior.

If the conversation gets that far... They then say that God has no son. I then tell them something which is important for a muslim to know about Jesus something they are not taught and have never heard of previously: That God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are one. John 10:30 "I and my father are one", 1 John 5:7 "For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one." and John 1:14 "And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth."

Every time, it is something they had never heard before!!! And it's important for them to know that because they have been taught (from their evil qu'ran) that Jesus was merely a prophet, merely flesh and blood! Their idea of Jesus is that He was "just a man" and they cannot understand how God has a son. Once I get the chance to give those 3 verses above (John 10:30, 1 John 5:7, and John 1:14, if given the chance for the conversation to go that far), they are far more receptive to hear more about Jesus!!! They've been taught falsehoods from the time they were born... when we know some of the falsehoods they were taught, we can then show them how Jesus (the Word) was made flesh, and dwelt among us and THEN explain how the punishment for sin is eternity in hell, BUT that Jesus gave His life as a ransom, Jesus "paid the price" for our sins, but that we must BELIEVE and ACCEPT His wonderful gift of salvation. I then go on to tell them that there is NO WAY we can live our lives without sinning, that EVERYONE has sinned, and since God is perfect and God hates sin, there is only ONE way to have those sins dealt with by believing and accepting Jesus and what Jesus did for us.  I also then show them, (as you did) John 3:16-18 and how that a person is condemned (to hell) if they chose NOT to believe and accept Jesus. I then tell them that even though they would like to think they are being obedient to God by TRYING not to sin... they (if they are honest with themselves) have to admit that they still sin. And I then ask them how will God deal with those sins.  

Witnessing to muslims usually goes one of two ways... it's either a very short conversation (they refuse to listen to anything) or it's a long detailed conversation. Those long detailed conversations are much more fruitful than the short ones (of course). I have found that muslim women are much more receptive to the gospel than muslim men because the women are treated horribly and many of them do understand that it's wrong/sinful the things that are done to them within islam. I could give many examples... women's bodies are mutilated (it's called hufaad), women do not have any recourse when they are raped... the men claim it is the woman's FAULT when they are raped because the woman supposedly is responsible for the desire of the man (even if it's only a 3 year old girl!) which takes the blame of the sin off of the man and places it onto the victim. They also worship muhammed who married a 6 year old girl (named aisha) and consummated the marriage when the young girl was only 9 years old! They worship her also and call her the mother of islam (imagine a 9 year old girl being the mother if islam). Pedophilia runs rampant throughout islam. As I said, the muslim women are generally more receptive to the gospel than the muslim men. The muslim men are usually much more prideful (and they have it better in their culture than do the women). They also believe in a ridiculous thing that the men who die by "jihad" (martyring themselves for the despicable cause of "allah") that they will receive more than one "houri" (up to 72 virgins) upon such a kind of death. Which is another reason muslim men are harder to witness to than the muslim women... the men can't see the sinfulness of "houri".

Anyways... what a wonderful thing you did (witnessing to the muslim man). It is a rare opportunity to be given enough time to converse that far with a muslim man (and they will NOT converse with any woman about such things, so I am useless in witnessing to muslim men). 

God bless you in your endeavor to serve Jesus!

[swathdiver]

21 hours ago, Donald said:

About 20 years ago, I realized that there were two kinds of “repentance”:
(1) Repentance with the hands: (Where we stop sinning!)
(2) Repentance with the heart: (Where we feel sorry for our sin!)

The second is needed for salvation, while the 1st is needed to grow in Christ!
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Any time that I have shared this observation with “anyone”(other preachers), I have been burned at the stake as a heretic.  But the Bible seems to agree with it!

 

Repentance and faith are two sides of the same coin.  In the matter of salvation, we turn from sin to Christ, we make repentance towards God and put our faith in Jesus Christ. (Acts 20:21)

Would a better description of your (1) be that this repentance is made to maintain fellowship with God?  In addition, the Lord does chasten a sinner as a father chastens his son.  We lose earthly and eternal rewards because of our sins.