Repentance

Hey guys, I wrote this paper during the summer, and briefly talked about it with you guys tonight at the Bible study. It is about repentance and the paper will explain the rest. God bless!

Repentance-A profound change of mind from sin-centeredness to God-centeredness. In its fullest sense it connotes a change of one's orientation in life, involving a deliberate redirection for the future. (Acts 26:20) First off, God DEMANDS that everyone repents (Acts 17:30). This note is due to the witnessing of many false, and unbiblical, definitions of repentance. Also, it is due to the countless false preaching and acts of false repentance that fills the church in the world today. People have diverted from the Bible and have formed their own ideas and continue to perform their own actions as ways of repentance, thus giving them a false sense of security of their salvation which damns many of them to hell. It saddens me greatly to see "alter-calls" being performed, "sinner's prayers" being recited, and seeing people who believe that their works will justify their sin and earn them a home in heaven with the Father. You will find none of these in the Bible! If it is unbiblical then it is not of God (Luke 16:17/ 2Timothy 3:16).This is Biblical repentance. Repentance has 3 different uses in the Bible. It is used in terms of salvation, confessing to the Father, and evangelizing.

Repentance in the form of salvation is one of the most important things to understand as a human being in regards to Christianity. God is sovereign and cannot have anything to do with sin (Daniel 4:25/ Isaiah 53). Humans are born into a sin-nature (Romans 5:12). And humans cannot understand God or know Him (Romans 3:11-18).Humans are called to live perfectly according to God's law. We cannot, due to our sin nature, and thus because of us breaking God's law He cannot help but discipline us with hell because the God of the universe is perfectly Just. But, after Jesus was crushed on the cross (and fulfilled the wrath of God), the law only reveals our sin. The Bible tells us that salvation is by faith in Jesus Christ alone and the death He died ont he cross (Romans 3:21-28). So the question is, how does a sinful, created being who has disobeyed its Creator come into a relationship with its Creator? The answer is conversion from a humans old-nature to his/her new nature (John 3:3). This is not at all by our choosing, but God's choice of revealing to us our sin nature and thus provoking us to truly repent (Romans 9/ John 5:21). There are three heresies in the church that are dealt with in salvation. 1. Alter-calls are the calling of a person to kneel down and pray a prayer to God after being worked up emotionally due to a pastor's convicting sermon. This does not save you, and you will find it nowhere in the Bible. 2. The "sinner's prayer" is a prayer that sends many to hell. It is the reciting of a prayer by a person to God saying that they are sinners and repent OF their sins. It sounds legit but is far from it. Again, nowhere in the Bible and you will find it nowhere in the church until the last 50 or so years. 3. Salvation based on works, is the thinking that a person can earn their way into heaven based on enough good works that outweigh their evil ones. "For it is by grace you have been saved through faith, so that no man can boast. This faith is not even from you it is a gift from God" (Ephesians 2:8). Salvation comes solely by God's grace but during the conversion, a sinner is drawn to repentance. Once God reveals a person's wickedness and helplessness that person's soul is anguished, sorrowed, full of guilt, ashamed, and strives to do whatever is necessary to please God (2 Corinthians 7:10). This is TRUE repentance. Being repentant FROM the person's previous evil nature and desiring to live their life solely for God's glory. This is the Repentance of Salvation.

After a believer is saved by the grace of God, they are not perfect. Human's are still born into a sin-NATURE which explains why we desire to delight in evil. Sin is pleasing to us, if someone boldly states they are without sin, they call God a liar (1 John 1:10). Even though children of God continue to sin, they are also called to be like-Christ (perfect) and be "holy like God is holy" (1 Peter 1:16). Since God calls believers to strive to be perfect, when servants of Christ do sin they are called to repent FROM the sins they commit. The Bible tells us the saints will be restored and that confessing their sins will result in joy, peace, and comfort (Jeremiah 15:19/ Psalms 32). Continuing to repent of sins will produce fruit (Luke 3:8) and will result in a saint growing in maturity and their faith in Christ (Hebrews 6:1). Also, repenting continually shows the weak state that believers are in and the constant need of God's grace thus resulting in humility. This is the Repentance of Confession.

As believers, we are called to "spread the gospel and make disciples in every nation" (Matthew 28:19). This is the Great Commission Jesus gave to His disciples and to His fellow flock before He ascended to Heaven to sit at the right hand of the Father (Mark 16:19). Since saints are called to evangelize to everyone, there must be a specific way to do it. That way is revealing to people their sinful nature and need to repent FROM their sins to God. Jesus said "Repent for the kingdom of God is at hand" (Matthew 4:17). Also servants of Christ are to preach repentance to sinners, not to people who are already saved. Now this might seem very obvious but Jesus made it clear who He was evangelizing too, "It is not the healthy who need a docor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance" (Luke 5:31-32). When believers evangelize the gospel, they should never be ashamed and continue to remember the grace the Father showed to them when He saved them from eternal wrath. (Romans 1:16). This is the Repentance of Evangelism.

To conclude, this paper is to reveal the truth of repentance and to shine light and expose the false teaching that most church's teach in the modern age. This is my first paper on a Biblical topic and I am still a young believer but by God's grace I can say that I am a child of Him. I pray this paper impacts you somehow whether by conviction or understand more of our loving Savior. God bless!