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Repentance
"Repent
of Sin." This often-quoted phrase "repent of sin" does not even occur in
the Bible. Most people are quite shocked to find that it does not appear in
the Scripture. Nowhere does the Scripture use the phrase, "repent of sin"
to be saved. Scripture does say in Acts 20:21, "repentance toward God"
(change of mind), and "faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ."
Repentance is the translation of the Greek word "metanoia". The
literal meaning of "metanoia" is "a change of mind". "Meta" means "change." "Noia" means "mind". So, therefore, "metanoia" means a "change
of mind". Before learning about metanoia, I am sure that you are already
familiar with a Greek word with the prefix "meta". That word is
"metamorphosis". "Meta" means "change", and "morphosis" means "form or
structure". This word metamorphosis is used to describe the change a
caterpillar goes through to become a beautiful butterfly. I am sure that
you have studied about this change of form. Repentance, therefore,
(metanoia) is a change of mind.
This misuse of the word repentance has caused untold confusion among
believers and unbelievers alike. Satan, the author of confusion (I
Corinthians 14:33), has delighted in this misuse of the word
repentance. One of the counterfeits Satan is using today is the misuse of
the word repentance. To insist upon a repentance that in any sense includes
a demand for a change of conduct either toward God or man is to add an
element of works or human effort to faith.
Let's define. Penance is payment for sin. Penitence is sorrow for
sin. Works and something of self is turning from sin. But repentance
(metanoia) means a change of mind. Repentance in salvation means a change
of mind from any idea of religion that man might have and accepting God's
way of salvation. Man's great need is to understand God's way of salvation
and accept His sacrifice. "For God so loved the world, that He gave His
only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but
have everlasting life (John 3:16)."
Why do we have the problem? The problem has come about because
"metanoia" should never have been translated into the English word
"repent". "Repent" (English word) does not mean the same thing as
"metanoia" (Greek word). Perhaps what the translators should have done was
a "transliteration" of the Greek word. For example: the translators of the
King James Bible took the Greek word "baptizo", dropped the "o", and
replaced it with an "e". They brought the new word "baptize" into the
English language. This is called transliteration. They should have done
this with "metanoia", and the problem would have been eliminated. Can you
imagine preachers saying 'METANOIA' to their congregations? At least the
correct meaning would be known.
Understanding the doctrine may relieve some of the confusion you or
your friends may have had concerning repentance. Here is a way to get a
handle on it. Remember this, "A person may 'repent' without 'believing',
but a person cannot 'believe' without 'repenting'." A person may "repent"
(change their mind) without "believing" (trusting Christ), but a person
cannot "believe" (trust in Christ) without repenting (having changed their
mind).
Repentance is necessary for salvation, but keep in mind that it means
"a change of mind". Dr. C.I. Scofield, in the Scofield Reference Bible
(copyrighted in 1909), has the following footnote, "Repentance is the
translation of a Greek word (metanoia-metanoeo) meaning "to have another
mind", "to change the mind", and is used in the New Testament to indicate a
change of mind in respect of sin, of God and of self. This change of mind
may, especially in the case of Christians who have fallen into sin, be
preceded by sorrow (II Corinthians 7:8-11), but sorrow for sin, though it
may "work" repentance, is not repentance. The son in Matthew 21:28,29
illustrate true repentance. Saving faith includes and implies that change
of mind, which is called repentance."
Dr. Scofield clearly points out that "saving faith" includes and
implies that change of mind which is called repentance.
One misunderstanding is to say that the word repentance must be used in
order to be teaching repentance. If that were true, we would have thrown
out the gospel of John from the New Testament. Think of this in light of
why John's gospel was written, "But these are written that ye might believe
that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have
life through his name (John 20:31)." Repentance, you see, is taught in John
3:16. A person cannot believe (trust) in Christ as taught in John 3:16
without repenting (changing his mind) in the process.
"Often the idea of believing is expressed by the word, repent (Acts
2:38; 3:19; 5:31; 8:22; 11:18; 17:30; 20:21; 26:20)...The word means to
change one's mind, and by its usage in the Book of Acts it means to change
one's mind about Jesus of Nazareth being the Messiah. This involves no
longer thinking of Him as merely the carpenter's son of Nazareth, an
imposter, but now receiving Him as both Lord (Jehovah) and Messiah. Thus,
repentance as preached by the apostles was not a prerequisite to nor a
consequence of salvation but was actually the act of faith in Jesus which
brought salvation to the one who repented" (Ryrie, Charles. Biblical
Theology of New Testament. (p. 116,117).
"Repentance, as it relates to Christ, means to change our minds about
Him, who He is and what He's done to provide forgiveness, and deliverance
from our sins. When we place faith in Jesus as having taken our place
personally on the cross and borne the penalty due our sins, then we're
automatically repenting, because we couldn't accept Him in this way without
having to change or minds in some way concerning Him." (From the Liberation
of the Planet Earth, by Hal Lindsey. (p. 133).
Salvation is by faith and not by works according to the Scriptures
(Ephesians 2:8-9; Romans 4:5). Let's not become tools of the devil to add
works to salvation in a subtle way by misuse of repentance. Let's give out
a clear message! (I Corinthians 14:8).
* Written by Dr. Hank Lindstrom
The moment you put your trust in Jesus Christ, God who can read your
mind knows, saves YOU and gives you the Gift of God, eternal Life.
You do not need anyone to pray over you, or pray for you, because
this is between you and God in heaven. Because of your new trust in the shed
blood of Jesus Christ you are now a child of God. Before you trusted in
Jesus, God was your creator but now and forevermore he will be your father.
You are saved in a moment of time, because you are trusting in the
true Savior now, not working your way to heaven day by day which is not even
possible.
Once saved you can never be lost, for any reason. This is because you were
born spiritually the moment you put your trust in Him. Just like your
physical birth which brought you into this human world, your spiritual birth
gave you a new spiritual life that is permanent. You were born-again, made
righteous and holy in Gods eyes. In fact you have the righteousness of God
himself, your are sinless and perfect in God's eyes now and that's why you
can enter into a perfect heaven.
My favorite saying is:
God will not save anyone who is
trying to be saved, He will only save those who are trusting to be saved.
You MUST put ALL your trust in Jesus to be
saved, trust in the blood that He shed on the cross, trust that He is God in
the flesh, trust that He made the complete payment for your sins, not just
part; He paid for ALL of your sins (past, present, and future)! Trust that
He rose again from the dead after 3 days and 3 nights, and in return for
this trust, He gives YOU Eternal Life. All false Christians put part of
their trust in Jesus and part of their trust the Church and part of their
trust in themselves. If you put 99.99% trust in Jesus and 00.01% in
something else, you will go to hell. It must be 100% trust in Jesus and what
He did and 0% in you or your church! This
information in critical... (grace always cancels works!) You are going to
hell if it's by your works or you are going to heaven by Gods grace. It's as
simple as that.
So I guess the question comes down to who
are you trusting. Are you trusting yourself to get to heaven by being a good
person and giving lots of money to your church or are you trusting Jesus,
the lamb of God, that was slain for the sins of the world to get you to
heaven? You receive the Gift of God (Eternal Life) as soon as you stop
trusting in yourself, your church, your synagogue, your mosque, your money,
or any other works and put your trust in Him and Him ALONE, Jesus Christ,
Yeshua, The King of Kings, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace, the
Alpha and Omega, the Mighty God.
False religions are everywhere and
they will find you, the one true God and His plan of salvation must be
found.
If all this makes sense to you and
you would like to trust Jesus as your personal Savior right now then
tell the Mighty God in Heaven of your decision to trust Jesus Christ as your
only hope of heaven. Tell Him that you are no longer putting your trust in
your actions, or your church, or your church membership, or in your money,
or in your Rabbi, or in your synagogue or your Mosque but that you are
putting all of your trust in Him and the shed blood of the cross to pay your
sin debt. Thank Him for doing it for you! Thank Him for giving you the Gift
of Eternal Life that He paid for with His life. There is no greater deed
than that of laying down your life for another.
Will you trust Jesus as your Savior
right now, the one who shed His precious blood on the cross of Calvary to
pay for all your sins?
Sinners Prayer:
Lord, I admit that I'm a sinner & I don't understand a whole lot about the
bible, but I do believe that Jesus Christ died & paid for my sins in full,
by His death & shed blood on the cross. I trust right now the He died for
me, was buried & rose again from the dead and will live forever more. I
trust Jesus Christ right now to save me, to be my savior, to forgive my sins
& to give me the GIFT OF GOD Eternal Life. Amen
By reading this sinners prayer aloud, you
are putting your trust in God and His plan of salvation. You are not saved
by saying this prayer, you are saved the moment your mind made the switch
from trusting in yourself to putting your COMPLETE TRUST IN JESUS
CHRIST. That moment may have been five paragraphs up on this page or that
moment may have been on another one of our pages. You will not feel any
different, but you will be changed and changed for the better forever. Once
you have trusted Jesus as your savior and received his gift of eternal life,
this gift can NEVER be lost. You can NEVER go to hell for ANY reason.
Your past, present and future sins were paid in full the moment you put your
trust in Him. You are blameless and Holy in God's eyes now and FOREVER. If
you have eternal life today what kind of life will you have in five years?
ETERNAL! What kind of life will you have in ten years? ETERNAL!! What kind
of life will you have in 50 years? ETERNAL!!! God does not give probationary
life or temporary life, His gift is ETERNAL LIFE! Thanks be to GOD!
Why be good, now that I am assured of going to heaven? Because God's law of
sowing and reaping still applies to you and me. You will reap what you sow.
You will reap more than you sow and you will reap later than you sow. If you
drink alcohol like a fish, you will reap a diseased liver. If you smoke like
a chimney everyday, you will reap lung cancer. If you rob, murder, and steal
you will reap a life in prison. You will reap what you sow. I guarantee it!
Now that you are saved, when you do good things you WILL be rewarded here on
earth and in Heaven. And when you do bad things you WILL lose rewards that
God had planned on giving you here on earth and in Heaven. But you will NEVER lose
your guarantee of going to heaven. That can never be lost for any reason!!
You have God's word that your salvation can never be lost for any reason.
You did not earn salvation and you do not work to keep salvation! Eternal
Life, salvation, being born again, becoming a child of God, was, is,
and always will be the GIFT OF GOD.
Remember: If your not saved forever... you are not saved!
Why is this true you might ask? Because if a person is not sure that they
are saved TODAY / RIGHT NOW it means that they are still trying to be the
savior! They can't be sure they are going to heaven because they don't know
what sin's they may commit next week, next month or next year. We who have
trusted in Jesus alone, can have comfort knowing that all our sins have been
paid in full on the Cross of Calvary (past, present, and future sins). Jesus
has already died for my sins so I don't need to pay for any sin I have or
will commit in the future because Jesus already paid the price in full with
His blood. So called Christians who say that you can lose your salvation
because of suicide or murder or falling away from the church don't have a
clue what the Bible says and clearly have not trusted Jesus ALONE!
Biblical Salvation is forsaking
any other means of salvation but Christ and casting ourselves fully upon Him
for eternal life.
The Gift of God, Eternal Life can never be lost once possessed for any
reason. John 6:39 " And this is the Father's will which hath sent Me, that
of all which He hath given Me I should LOSE NOTHING, but should raise it up
again at the last day." You have God's promise that once you put your trust
in Jesus you can never be lost for ANY reason whatsoever.
"For the gifts
and calling of God are
without repentance” Romans 11:29 Again, God is telling you that this Gift of
God that you have just received is without repentance. He can never take His
gift back for any reason, no matter how bad you get, or how bad your sins
are it is not possible. God would have to cease to exist for that to happen
because He cannot lie.
Thanks for visiting GetGodsGift.
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