Book 4 of Musings Repentance

The Book of Acts frequently refers to the idea of repentance.

Repentance and receiving forgiveness through the blood atonement were part of one whole, in the message of the Apostles. It would have been unthinkable to not follow the acceptance of forgiveness with a change of behavior.

When the Apostles preached Christ they always stressed repentance. I have noticed the tremendous sickness, the spiritual blindness, that afflicts Christian scholars. They have turned the new covenant into a mystical, sovereign action of God by which the believer is accepted of God and goes to Heaven through what is termed "faith." Since the eleventh chapter of the Book of Hebrews, the "faith" chapter, is a record of deeds rather than belief, we conclude that we are not defining "faith" correctly.

Because of this spiritual sickness, this blindness, the definition of "repentance" is called into question.

Precisely what is "repentance"?

Is repentance the same as sorrow-we feel badly about our sins?

I don't think it is limited to this, though sorrow may be included.

Is repentance a change of attitude such that we have affection toward God whereas before we did not?

I don't think repentance is limited to a change of attitude toward God, although such a change probably would be included.

Is repentance a change from another religion to Christianity?

I don't think so.

Is repentance another name for our assent to correct theological beliefs concerning Jesus Christ, His Deity, His atoning death, and His triumphant, bodily resurrection?

From reading the Book of Acts, I don't believe repentance is another name for the adoption of a belief system.

Does repentance mean we no longer approve of sinful behavior, we hate sinful behavior, and now we love righteous behavior?

I think every Christian would agree to this. I can't imagine any Christ not believing repentance means we now hate sinful and love righteous behavior.

So far so good. We approve of righteous behavior and disapprove of sinful behavior.

But what now?

Are we saying we approve of righteous behavior but cannot act this way?

This hardly is the Bible stance, because the Apostle Paul exhorted us to awake to righteousness and cease sinning.

I think the current position is, in spite of the warnings of the Apostle Paul, that we cannot stop sinning, but we are not to worry about this because we are saved by faith. This means we approve of righteous behavior and disapprove of unrighteous behavior (our agreed-upon meaning of repentance). Yes, the Apostle Paul warned us clearly that if we continue to yield to the sinful nature we will reap corruption. We cannot deny that Paul did write this.

So the current position is that we and God approve of righteous behavior, God has said through Paul that if we continue to yield to the sinful nature we will reap corruption. This we cannot deny. Nevertheless, although we continue to yield to the sinful nature we are accounted as righteous by our faith alone.

Now, precisely what does all this mean?

It means, apparently that because we believe in God's plan of salvation, and because we approve of righteous behavior and disapprove of sinful behavior, we are righteous in God's sight.

But suppose we hate our fellow saints. The Apostle John says we then are a murderer and no murderer has eternal life.

The current response is that if we hate our brother, we never were saved in the first place; we never were held to be righteous in God's sight.

It is an observable fact that the Christian churches of our day are replete with hatred, bitterness, and unforgiveness. Not only that, but every expression of the sinful nature is rampant in the churches.

To deny that every expression of the sinful nature is rampant in the Christian churches is to enter further into fantasy land.

So far so good.

What are we to say about these believers who act according to their sinful nature? Are we to claim they never were saved in the first place? Are we saying the only reliable evidence of salvation is godly behavior?

If this is true, how can we maintain that we are saved by faith apart from godly behavior? Is this not inconsistent?

Let us return to the thought of repentance.

During the last few years there have been churches in America where the people have felt God is calling us to repentance. Do the people mean by this that God is asking the Christian people to assert their belief in correct doctrine? Or do they mean God wants them to change their behavior?

But then the opposition will say God wants them to change their behavior, but if they do not they are saved anyway by faith alone.

If this is true, why should people make what in America is a truly heroic effort to cease living in the sins of the flesh? If God holds them perfectly righteous because of their doctrinal position, what is to be gained by turning from the demands of their sinful behavior.

Are they going to turn because they appreciate what Christ has done for them?

Those of us who are over thirteen years of age know very well that people are not going to turn from the Siren call of the American sinful culture just because they think God will be pleased. After all, doesn't God's grace shine more brightly when we debase ourselves in sin and He keeps forgiving us and viewing us as perfectly righteous? Doesn't this reveal His loving, merciful grace?

As Paul would say, I speak as a fool.

Most American believers will never make the desperate effort needed to overcome the lusts of the sinful nature until they are fully persuaded not doing so will result in harsh punishment-perhaps, as in the case of Esau, the total loss of inheritance.

Since current preaching will not emphasize the numerous New Testament warnings against continuing in sin, but will stress that we are held to be righteous because of our beliefs, the American Christians will continue in the sins of our culture. Our government will be weak morally. God's judgment will fall on our land because we have not repented. It will be only God's mercy if America is not finally defeated by China or by some coalition of countries.

We believers are to repent, and this means turn from our wicked ways.

Perhaps the following passage sums up what I think was in the minds of the Apostles when they preached repentance.

First to those in Damascus, then to those in Jerusalem and in all Judea, and to the Gentiles also, I preached that they should repent and turn to God and prove their repentance by their deeds. (Acts 26:20)

According to the above, repentance involves a turning to God. I don't believe anyone would disagree with that statement.

It is the next part that is at issue in our day.

Paul admonished people to prove their repentance by their deeds.

By their deeds!

What does it mean to prove our repentance by our deeds?

We notice first that repentance has to be proved. We prove our repentance by doing something.

What do we do? It think it would be obvious it means we cease doing the works of Satan and do the works of God. Would you agree with this?

Many of those who believed now came and openly confessed their evil deeds. A number who had practiced sorcery brought their scrolls together and burned them publicly. When they calculated the value of the scrolls, the total came to fifty thousand drachmas. In this way the word of the Lord spread widely and grew in power. (Acts 19:18-20)

My personal belief is that repentance must be proven. I don't believe it is possible to have true repentance apart from a change in overt behavior.

If I am correct, what we are preaching today is some kind of metaphysical gospel. It does not operate in the real world. We postulate that an individual can have a genuine faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and this faith will cause him to be righteous in God's sight even though there is no change in his behavior.

He embraces the benefits of the atonement, He believes Jesus is Lord, He believes Jesus rose from the dead, and he believes Jesus is coming again. He is sorry that he has sinned against God.

He embraces these theological facts in his mind. He has faith in them. He believes he is forgiven.

He now is oriented correctly to the Divine salvation. But is this what repentance is? Is repentance a correct theological position? Is this what faith is? Is this what the Apostles preached?

Did the Apostles preach a Statement of Faith, such as we find in many denominations? The humorous part is that the demons subscribe totally to our statement of faith because they know Christ is the Son of God, was born of a virgin, died for our sins, and so forth. They know these things better than we do. Yet for some reason God does not account them as righteous. Isn't this strange?

No, the Apostles did not preach a statement of faith. They preached that we should turn from our wicked ways and serve God. This the demons do not do and cannot do. They are in the chains of immorality forever. There is no salvation from sin available to them.

If faith is a correct theological position, why then would the Apostle Paul tell us to prove our repentance by our deeds?

I think we have been massively deceived. God's purpose in all His covenants is that man behave righteously, love mercy, and walk humbly with God. God never, never, never changes His goal for man. Man is to be made in the moral image of God.

But we have changed God's goal. We have said man is to believe certain facts, and if he does he is counted as righteous even though he continues to live according to his sinful nature.

I cannot always follow the reasoning of today's Evangelical scholars. It is as though God's principal desire for man is that he adopt a specific viewpoint toward the Lord Jesus Christ; and if he does this, God counts Him as righteous and will bring him to Glory when he dies.

In addition, it is believed generally that once an individual has genuinely adopted the correct theological viewpoint, is genuinely "saved," he never again can be removed from God's favor.

I think this illusion has been developed by using certain New Testament verses as axioms and deducing a philosophy from them.

The present teaching assuredly does not agree with the robust teaching of the Apostles. Their preaching and teaching reveals their desire to turn men from the sinful nature so they reap eternal life instead of corruption.

The current illusion is a massive, massive error. When it is compared carefully with the New Testament text it vanishes. There simply is no intellectual substance present. This teaching evokes an image of some sort of salvation, but it is nebulous, a fantasy, a schizophrenic removal from the real world. It does not transform people morally but permits them to remain unchanged in the hope they have been made acceptable to God because of their theological orientation.

We are in contact with people who use our books to teach prisoners in various jails and prisons. The reaction of the prisoners is revealing. Many of those who have experience as church members reject our teaching as "legalism" and "works."

Those newly saved find our writing simple and logical-easy to understand.

There have been instances where prisoners who were seasoned Christians accepted what we are teaching about righteous behavior because they realize if they had lived righteously they would not be in jail. These no longer have confidence in the "faith alone" position.

The prevailing teaching in the jails and prisons is "grace, rapture, Heaven." We teach the Kingdom of God and His righteousness-"His righteousness" meaning the righteous behavior produced in us as Christ is formed in us.

This is a clear-cut issue in the jails, not a theological dispute. Salvation is primarily a belief system, or it is moral transformation that results from contact with the living Savior. Either Jesus is real, and as we walk with Him He leads us in paths of righteousness, or else our salvation resembles the Gnostic faith in that we are accounted righteous because of the things we believe.

I would suggest when the Apostles of the Lamb preached repentance they were indicating not only a belief system but a change of behavior that proved the people genuinely believed what they were being taught.

Notice how repentance and forgiveness of sins are related.

God exalted him to his own right hand as Prince and Savior that he might give repentance and forgiveness of sins to Israel. (Acts 5:31)

Notice also that it is repentance, a change of attitude and behavior, that results in eternal life. This agrees with Paul's teaching in the sixth chapter of the Book of Romans that shows eternal life to be the product of slavery to God and holy behavior.

When they heard this, they had no further objections and praised God, saying, "So then, God has granted even the Gentiles repentance unto life." (Acts 11:18)

"Repentance unto life"!

I would submit that the following verse suggests a turning to God in behavior, not just a turning to God in belief. Turning to God is held to be related to faith but not the same as faith.

I have declared to both Jews and Greeks that they must turn to God in repentance and have faith in our Lord Jesus. (Acts 20:21)

Turn to God in repentance. Have faith in our Lord Jesus. Two separate but related actions.

The following response of Peter would come across to the Jews as an exhortation to stop sinning and begin to live righteously. The first Christian church comprised 5,000 Jews devoutly keeping the Law of Moses. So they certainly did not view Peter's exhortation as meaning they merely were to change their belief system.

Peter replied, "Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. (Acts 2:38)

Water baptism dramatizes our sincere repentance, our recognition that our former way of life was not acceptable and we now are prepared to change our ways.

Water baptism is a sign that we are entering the crucifixion of Christ and are ready to walk in newness of life; that is, in changed behavior.

Again, I do not think the Apostle, by the following words, was speaking of receiving a new teaching. The ordinary person, if he was commanded to repent, would think immediately of a change in his behavior. We have removed the normal response of a person to an admonition to repent by persuading him it means only to have faith that Christ is what He claims to be.

In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. (Acts 17:30)

Repentance is an integral part of the program of salvation. John the Baptist began the message of repentance. The Jews, the rich and the poor, went down to hear John. He warned them about continuing in sin. John made clear what it means to repent.

But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to where he was baptizing, he said to them: "You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not think you can say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father.' I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire. (Matthew 3:7-10)

The Jews did not have a mystical, metaphysical viewpoint concerning the meaning of John. They knew what "produce fruit in keeping with repentance" meant. They knew what John meant by "good fruit."

The Jews knew the Torah. They knew the Ten Commandments. They understood John to mean they should begin to keep the Law.

When the Apostles came to those who had been baptized to repentance with John's baptism, they did not tell them they no longer had to live righteously. They told them about Christ Jesus and the promise of the Holy Spirit.

John preached repentance. Jesus preached repentance. The Apostles taught repentance. They all meant that people should turn from their wicked ways and serve God in uprightness and humility.

We are preaching a false gospel today. We have been blinded. We have been deceived. We have changed the original Gospel of the Kingdom of God and His righteousness into a fantasy, in which people are accepted by the Lord on the basis of their beliefs.

Yet the One whom we all call Lord said, "If you love Me, keep My commandments."

We say it is not necessary to keep His commandments. We are saved by believing in Him apart from keeping His commandments and those of His Apostles.

If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land. (2 Chronicles 7:14)

It is time now for us who are called by the name of the Lord to humble ourselves, to pray, to seek God's face, to turn from our wicked ways, because our nation is in serious trouble.

"Humble ourselves. Pray. Seek God's face."

"Turn from our wicked ways." Not just to think about God's grace, but to actually turn from our wicked ways.

If America is to be saved from destruction, then the Christian people must cease from their worldliness, their lusts, their self-will, their lukewarmness, and begin to walk before the Lord God in iron righteousness, fiery holiness, and stern obedience to the Father.

Repent, then, and turn to God, so your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord, (Acts 3:19)