Repent and Believe…

[Jerry]

Refusing to believe is a sin. Being an unbeliever is a condition that needs to be remedied.

Repentance and faith are the two sides of salvation - you can’t have one without the other. You turn FROM sin TO the Saviour. They are not opposites though. They both are required to be saved.

1 Thessalonians 1:9
For they themselves shew of us what manner of entering in we had unto you, and how ye turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God;

It doesn’t make sense Biblically to make them mean the same thing. Believe and repent of your unbelief. God is not into needless repetition.

[MikeWatson1]

The thing is.. before conversion, a sinner is dead is sin. 

So any kind of commitment to lessen sin in your life means nothing.  It had to be all Jesus converting you. Then after...you can lessen sin in your life.

When God repented it had zero to do with sin..but a change of mind.

If you are saying people like me are saying repent and believe..... is saying believe and believe ...

Thats not it.. its saying change your mind about Jesus and believe in Him.

Its not a commitment of behaviour from us.. but believing on Jesus Christ. 

We can then commit to good behavior once our sin is forgiven. 

John 3:16, 5:24, 6:40, Romans 10:9-10. 

Maybe we are saying the same thing in different ways. But there is nothing about sin we can flee from before conversion..or commit to flee from.

[Jerry]

It’s not about lessening sin in your life - but changing your mind about it, turning from it in your heart.

Actually, everytime God repents of something. It still has to do with sin - though the sin of man. Jeremiah 18 teaches if God is blessing the righteous and they turn to wickedness, God repents and changes how He deals with them, bringing correction or judgement until they turn from their sin. If God is bringing judgement or affliction to the wicked and they repent of their sin, God repents (ie. changes His mind) regarding how He is dealing with them, and then brings peace and blessing instead.

[MikeWatson1]

2 hours ago, Jerry said:

It’s not about lessening sin in your life - but changing your mind about it, turning from it in your heart.

Actually, everytime God repents of something. It still has to do with sin - though the sin of man. Jeremiah 18 teaches if God is blessing the righteous and they turn to wickedness, God repents and changes how He deals with them, bringing correction or judgement until they turn from their sin. If God is bringing judgement or affliction to the wicked and they repent of their sin, God repents (ie. changes His mind) regarding how He is dealing with them, and then brings peace and blessing instead.

The key thing is the change in heart to believe on Jesus. So therefore i think we are saying the same thing.

[TheGloryLand]

3 hours ago, MikeWatson1 said:

The key thing is the change in heart to believe on Jesus. So therefore i think we are saying the same thing.

When we here the true gospel the first time, we have convections, and we repent of our evil ways. We accept Jesus Christ as our personal savior, believing with all our heart and mind. For now we are born again, repented sinners.

[MikeWatson1]

2 hours ago, TheGloryLand said:

When we here the true gospel the first time, we have convections, and we repent of our evil ways. We accept Jesus Christ as our personal savior, believing with all our heart and mind. For now we are born again, repented sinners.

 

How do you repent of your evil ways BEFORE conversion, when you are dead in sin?

 

I understand knowing you are a sinner.. and then believing on the Lord Jesus Christ.  But repenting of sin-- as an action.. as a commitment.. before being saved.. is just something you can't do if you are a sinner.

 

But again.. I think we are saying the same thing in a different way.

[Jerry]

Being dead in sins spiritually is not the equivalent to being dead physically - otherwise you wouldn’t even be able to understand the Gospel, trust in the Lord Jesus Christ.

[Jerry]

I forgot to add this: a physically dead person cannot sin either…

[MikeWatson1]

11 hours ago, Jerry said:

Being dead in sins spiritually is not the equivalent to being dead physically - otherwise you wouldn’t even be able to understand the Gospel, trust in the Lord Jesus Christ.

This is true. What im saying is if we are a sinner before conversion... and after we still sin.. though propelled by the Holy Spirit to sin less.. then what sin do we turn from before conversion? Because that is a ton of sin..seeing we are imperfect. 

So this is the problem,  is why im saying you can only turn from sin after conversion,  because their is simply no overcoming it before getting converted. 

Someone can believe on Jesus Christ..yea.. and that is all. 

 

Edited November 8 by MikeWatson1

[BrotherTony]

5 hours ago, MikeWatson1 said:

This is true. What im saying is if we are a sinner before conversion... and after we still sin.. though propelled by the Holy Spirit to sin less.. then what sin do we turn from before conversion? Because that is a ton of sin..seeing we are imperfect. 

So this is the problem,  is why im saying you can only turn from sin after conversion,  because their is simply no overcoming it before getting converted. 

Someone can believe on Jesus Christ..yea.. and that is all. 

 

I'm not sure that I agree with that statement. This sounds like the gobbly gook I hear from Calvinists. There are many who have gone from extremely immoral to being very moral without salvation. There are many who were involved in various sins that turned away from these things and many years later were saved. 

[TheGloryLand]

22 hours ago, MikeWatson1 said:

This is true. What im saying is if we are a sinner before conversion... and after we still sin.. though propelled by the Holy Spirit to sin less.. then what sin do we turn from before conversion? Because that is a ton of sin..seeing we are imperfect. 

So this is the problem,  is why im saying you can only turn from sin after conversion,  because their is simply no overcoming it before getting converted. 

Someone can believe on Jesus Christ..yea.. and that is all. 

 

Before conversion, we turn away from the sin of Adam, that’s is still in us to we die. The flesh, for it is weak in need of a Savior, not by works, but by faith we are Saved.

[MikeWatson1]

19 hours ago, BrotherTony said:

I'm not sure that I agree with that statement. This sounds like the gobbly gook I hear from Calvinists. There are many who have gone from extremely immoral to being very moral without salvation. There are many who were involved in various sins that turned away from these things and many years later were saved. 

Well, I agree with knowing you are a sinner before salvation and by free will, believing on the Lord Jesus Christ. So that's not really calvinism. 

[MikeWatson1]

Just to clarify on the repenting God did when Israel turned from their evil ways. 

The thing here is that their turning from evil ways here is called... works.

So since salvation isnt by works ..and turning from evils ways IS works.. hence the issue with repent meaning 'turn from sin'.

So there is what I was meaning.

Edited November 11 by MikeWatson1