The Purpose of Repentance

by Don Watson

Peter is preaching this powerful sermon on the day of Pentecost. The Holy Spirit has been poured out on the disciples and people hear his message in their own tongue. He explains that God validated the “Messiahship” of Jesus by the great works and miracles he performed, and even though He was killed by the Jewish authorities, God resurrected Him and then He ascended to heaven where He is at the right hand of God, the Father. Then Peter concludes his message by saying, "So let everyone in Israel know for certain that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, to be both Lord and Messiah!" (Acts 2:36) And the people were pricked to the heart and asked, "Brothers what should we do?" (Acts 2:37) And Peter said, "Each of you must repent of your sins and turn to God, and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. Then you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit." (Acts 2:38)

It appears that, in order to be saved, we must repent of our sins, turn to God, and be baptized in order to be forgiven. Other texts seem to say similar things: "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins." (1 John 1:9) Here the apostle John seems to indicate that we must confess our sins to God if they are to be forgiven. Paul and Silas were in prison when an earthquake broke open the jail cells and when the jailer saw what happened he was about to take his life, when Paul stopped him and assured him that none had escaped. He had heard Paul and Silas singing praises to God and knew they had a real connection with their God, so he ran to them and asked, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" And "They replied, "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved-you and your household." (Acts 16:30-31) So here the Bible seems to indicate that, in order to be saved, we must believe in the Lord Jesus.

So has Jesus simply reduced the number of commands, the number of rules required for us to obey in order to secure God's approval and our salvation? According to the Talmud, there were 613 mitzvot ("commandments") in the Torah required in order to be accepted by God. Did Jesus whittle that down to five? Are Christians saved by works, something we do? Do we have a list just like the Jews did, except a shorter list? Most of us, of course, would give an emphatic, "No! Absolutely not!" and quickly quote "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith-and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast." (Ephesians 2:8-9) But let's face it. If I hold a gift in my hand and offer it to you, but require you to do ANYTHING AT ALL to receive it, it is no longer a gift. It may be a good deal, but it is not a gift!

The Bible is very clear that our salvation or eternal life is a gift of God, and absolutely free. "The Spirit and the bride say, "Come!" And let the one who hears say, "Come!" Let the one who is thirsty come; and let the one who wishes take the free gift of the water of life." (Revelation 22:17) "For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 6:23) "And the result of God's gracious gift is very different from the result of that one man's sin. For Adam's sin led to condemnation, but God's free gift leads to our being made right with God, even though we are guilty of many sins." (Romans 5:16) "So the promise is received by faith. It is given as a free gift. And we are all certain to receive it . . . if we have faith like Abraham, the ‘father of all’ who believe." (Romans 4:16)

The source of confusion for some of us may lie in the fact that God not only saved us, but He also wants us to KNOW we are saved and EMBRACE that salvation. In other words, God has done something FOR us, something that we were powerless to do by ourselves; He died FOR us (Romans 5:8). That death paid the price for our salvation (1 Peter 1:18-19), it reconciled us back to God (Romans 5:10), it justified us (Romans 5:9), and forgave us (Ephesians 1:7). All these are past tense verbs used by the scripture to emphasize the finished work of Christ. When He said, "It is finished!" it really was finished! But unless we were raised in a Christian environment – and not just any Christian environment, but a really good one that really understands the gospel – we probably don't know we WERE saved 2000 years ago when Jesus died. Jesus sent His Holy Spirit that we could know this ourselves, empowering us to be His ambassadors to let people know that they have been reconciled to God by the blood of Jesus and that "God does not count their sins against them." (2 Corinthians 5:18-21)

When the Holy Spirit brings to us this amazing Good News (The Gospel), through a person or TV program or just a still small voice, we have a choice. We can either BELIEVE it or we can REJECT it. And if we will believe it, there's no way we can perish (See John 3:16) Now, our belief (Something we do), doesn't make us saved – we ARE saved (Because of something Jesus did). But God wants us to not only BE saved, but to KNOW we are saved. Because then, He gets US back and that is the reason for redemption. We were kidnapped by Satan and our sin when Adam fell, but when Jesus, the second Adam, died for us and paid our penalty and took away our condemnation, He got us back. That's what He wants. He wants US back.
Belief, repentance, and baptism are very important to Him because all these things are the ways God gets us back. But notice this text in Romans 2:4 "Don't you see how wonderfully kind, tolerant, and patient God is with you? Does this mean nothing to you? Can't you see that his kindness is intended to (lead you to Repentance) turn you from your sin?" God knows that as long as we feel condemned, we will never be drawn to Him, so He first saves us, takes away our condemnation, then uses this Good News, this Gospel, to turn us from our sins that hurt us to the God who loves us. That's God, giving us repentance!

Peter and Paul, in the stories we referenced above, continued delivering the Good News of Jesus who died and saved everyone – even killers of Jesus and gentile jailers. They are calling these listeners to embrace this Good News and come back to God (Repent) who lost them in Eden. How do they do that? They simply BELIEVE that it is true – Jesus has saved them. "By Grace you are saved, through faith." (Ephesians 2:8) We're saved by Grace (Unmerited favor – by nothing we do) but we come to KNOW that by faith – by believing it instead of rejecting it. And it is the knowing of it that brings peace and power in our life and a relationship with the resurrected Christ.

Dear reader, every time you are discouraged, the gospel will bring you back to God. You are loved while you are a sinner and while you are a doubter, and while you are discouraged, because "While you were powerless, Jesus died for the ungodly!" (Romans 5:6) Coming back – That's repentance, and it is the Cross that saved us that also brings us back.

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Commentary

Comments: 9

William Noel
17 December 2011 at 2:43 pm

Don,

Paul's instruction to the Corinthian jailer was not to repent, but to believe. Repentance is enabled by belief. So I hope your next column will explore the question of what really is involved in believing. Modern Christianity has reduced it to a trivial choice made in a moment, the giving of mental assent without obligation on our part, and never reconsidered. My reading of the scriptures shows that it is something far different and more important than even repentance, because it requires us to willingly entrust our lives, existence and destiny to someone we have not seen and fully expect not only that they can fulfill their promises to us, but have confidence that they actually WILL do that for us. It is the confidence that grows from belieft that allows us to see His guidance and embrace the empowerment He offers so we can go and do what He commands.
Rudy Good
24 December 2011 at 2:35 pm

Don,

Thanks for this reminder of the "Good News" and the scripture complilations you included.

It is interesting that the "free gift" part of salvation is something we have to be reminded of again and again. It is so natural to feel there is some "obligation". I agree with William that mere mental assent is not the belief that embraces salvation, but the suggestion that "obligation" needs tobe added to mental assent contradicts the scriptures. God calls us (enables us) to repent. Repentance is the missing ingredient and it is also part of the gift. Obligation eliminates the opportunity that God's grace gives us to respond out of pure gratitude.
1. William Noel
  27 December 2011 at 1:58 pm
  
  Don,
  We may be saying the same thing with different words. I used "obligation" in the classic definition where a person chooses to enter into it instead of it being imposed on us regardless of our wishes. Perhaps a more familiar word would have been "commitment." Choosing to obligate ourselves to God carries the meaning of a far greater level of commitment, one that is far more difficult to break like marriage as compared to meeting someone for lunch but not making the appointment for a minor reason.
Don Watson
03 January 2012 at 7:20 pm

William, You are so right about the "act of belief" in traditional Christianity. It has been reduced to the way we purchase our ticket to heaven and our hall pass out of hell. It is a common understanding in many churches, if not the majority, that we are lost [damned to hell] until we believe in Jesus Christ as our personal Savior. Traditional Adventism believes that Jesus didn't save us at the Cross, but only made it possible for us to be saved. Jesus death was not our Salvation, but He only made the provision. Only when we believe are we really saved. All this becomes very confusing and complicated. What is it that we have to believe to really be saved [And we quote the text that the devils believe and tremble and obviously they aren't saved]? And what if we leave the church, but 10 years later get cancer. How could we ever know if our "belief" was sincere – would it even be possible to be sincere? Then how about really good people who the Holy Spirit is working with but die before they actually pray the prayer of belief. Can God really just save people because they're honest at heart and doing all they know? If so, why have the "belief" thing at all? So am I saved by something I do, or something Jesus did, or does it take both?

But I would like to suggest that belief is radically simple, deep, and sincere IF we get the Good News right. If we accept that we are saved because of what Jesus did FOR us on the cross, then we discover that we ARE saved, we ARE accepted as sinners, we ARE forgiven before we ask. And the "belief thing" is not what makes those things true, but it is God calling us to believe something that IS true, rather than us thinking that something that WE do makes us saved. Anything WE do is tainted. Everything that HE does is perfect. That's why John 3:16 is so powerful. Because if we will simply believe this wonderful good news – that God gave us Jesus, and He paid the price FOR us – we cannot perish but have everlasting life. Good Gospel produces Good Belief. What do you think?
Bill Garber
05 January 2012 at 3:53 pm

Don,

Seventh-day Adventists reject the so-called belief in, once saved, always saved. I agree. However it is not because I doubt the permanence of salvation. It is that the notion of a person being able to become saved that is problematic. There was never a time when any of us were not saved.

That is the message Jesus declares in John 3 when speaking with Nicodemus. God’s love for the world caused Him to save the world without condemnation. That is, without making distinctions. And that means the world, the whole world, and everyone encompassed by the term, world, will not die but have eternal life.

Jesus declares that God sent him to the world that the world would be informed of their salvation. That is what I take as the meaning of Jesus’ assurance that anyone, rather than only those, who believe Jesus’s words of assurance will not die but have everlasting life.

Belief in the words of Jesus, let alone knowledge of Jesus, is immaterial to one’s salvation by God’s grace. The many living and dying prior to Jesus life had no awareness of Jesus, yet are encompassed by God’s love for the world and God’s saving act that results in eternal life.

Over and over again, the passages in scripture that describe people who are saved and people who are lost are passages that can be seen to describe human life in present terms, life as we suffer it in the living of it, rather than some ultimate outcome for eternity. There is no doubt that souls with a mere realization of their ultimate death and nothing more are in every sense of the knowing, lost. In fewer instances otherwise, the passages are equally and obviously metaphorical at other levels.

There are certainly some passages that appear to need to be bent severly to avoid their describing the ultimate loss of souls for eternity, though in the end those passages seem far fewer than the passages that must be equally severaly bent if one is to deny that salvation is as universal as creation.
Don Watson
06 January 2012 at 3:15 am

Wow, Bill. That is some radical great stuff you just shared. I'm not sure I'm completely clear on your position but I really agree with most of it. The other stuff would be exciting to hear more about. I believe Jesus is the lamb slain from the foundation of the world (Rev 13) which to me means that as soon as man sinned, man was saved. I don't believe people are born lost then GET saved. Every person is born saved until such a time as they reject the voice of God speaking to them via the Holy Spirit. That means that people in the Old Testament, before Jesus, who of course didn't pray the sinners prayer or walk to the altar and accept him as their personal savior, were saved by the death of Jesus as surely as we who live after Jesus. That means babies are saved, and the heathen are saved, and muslims are saved, etc, etc, etc.

But I believe, at least for now, that does not mean we will all BE saved. I believe Jesus died to give us BACK our choice [ei. we lost it when Adam sinned, and we cannot just decide to quit sinning so we can be saved] but now that He's saved us all, we can choose to stay with Him or reject him. and there are some that SEEM to truly reject him.

Another thought however on the universalist side of the argument, how would the really bad people here on earth have turned out if they had had all the advantages of say someone like Billy Graham, or Dwight Nelson? What if they hadn't been abused, yelled at, had to watch their Dad beat their mother – etc.? Might they have turned out different and ended up in the "saved column?" Are some of us saved because we are lucky enough to have had the right parents, the right religion, the right country?

Here's another thought. The wages of sin is death, right? The wicked, Revelation 20 says, end up in the lake of fire and it devours them. But what if God recreates them when He recreates the new Earth, but without the horrendous disadvantage of a sinful nature. They would still have experienced the 2nd death [which seems to be important to God if sin is to be eradicated] as surely as Jesus did [Who was resurrected on Sunday morning – in other words it was not absolutely essential that He truly stay dead forever] They would certainly have the life-altering experience of going through the Great White Throne Judgement, and an eternal destruction experience in the fires of hell – feeling totally separated from God and all those they loved. All that, plus anything else God senses needs to happen to make them and the universe safe and sin-free, might be all that was needed to save everyone.

No one really knows, of course, and that is certainly not something God has revealed in His Word and certainly not to me personally, but I like that senario a lot better than the sadistic eternal fire view of most Christian churches and even the narrow view that only a few really good people will be saved. Perhaps we will all be surprised when we get to heaven – and I think it will be a pleasant surprise.

My main point in this article, however, is that God took the initiative and saved us while we were powerless and ungodly and sinners (Romans 5:6-8). Romans 5:9 says we WERE justified by his blood, and vs. 10 says we WERE reconciled by his blood. Eph 1:7 says we WERE redeemed by His blood and calls that redemption, "The forgiveness of sins." The 2 Cor 5:19 says that the WAY God reconciled us to Himself was by "Not counting our sins against us!" This is beautiful stuff and if we will believe this and not reject it, "WE WILL NOT PERISH BUT HAVE EVERLASTING LIFE!" PRAISE GOD. Thanks again, Bill.
1. William Noel
  06 January 2012 at 6:43 pm
  
  To that discussion I would add Paul's declaration in Hebrews that "…he is able to save unto the uttermost all who come to him by faith." How far is the "uttermost"? How inclusive is "all"? How far do the answers to those questions reach outside my conceptual limits that I like to place on God?
  1. Bill Garber
    06 January 2012 at 9:34 pm
    
    Exactly …
    
    The temptation is to read "… he is able to save unto the uttermost all who come to him by faith" as a statement about how to be saved.
    
    Not at all.
    
    This is a statement to people who are already approaching God by faith.
    
    This is a statement to assure people that God is able to save to the uttermost.
    
    In the alternate reading, our salvation is dependent on however we are able to muster faith. In reflection our faith becomes something we will be tempted to boast about … and should we be saved, we will have reason to boast to the degree that mustering our faith in any way resulted in our salvation.
    
    … or so it seems …
Don Watson
06 January 2012 at 8:35 pm

William, Thanks for that addition. These questions are probably more important than all our answers. The Jews and many of us today as well, are real good about building a wall of beliefs that are mortared and immovable. If anything comes up that differs from our wall of traditions we reject it like the Religious leaders of Jesus day did when He came with a different doctrine of the Messiah than they had. There is nothing wrong with us having a set of beliefs that we find dear and important, but if we do not remain open to questions and other possibilities, we can find ourselves in the same situation as the Jewish leaders who rejected Jesus because His wall didn't match up with their wall. Thanks for reminding us that we need to constantly stay open and "unmortared" ready to listen and follow the Spirit.

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