Essential Truths I: Living With God 8 Repentance Read 2 Peter 3:9 Repentance is the first step you take in personally receiving the salvation that comes through Jesus Christ. Repentance is the gateway into all the blessings God has prepared for you. Read Acts 3:19 In Acts 17:30-31, Paul challenged the Athenian leaders regarding their idolatry and said: In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed... Note the all-inclusive nature of this challenge. God now commands all people everywhere to repent. Repentance is for all people everywhere. Repentance causes great joy in heaven (Luke 15:7). But before we can understand true repentance, we need to understand what repentance is not. What Repentance is Not In order to understand what God means by repentance, we need to overturn the preconceived ideas that many people have about repentance. Not just feeling guilty Feeling guilty about our sin comes before repentance, but is not repentance itself. No one repents unless they first feel guilty about their sin, but not all who feel guilty actually repent. The Word God Origins Jesus The Cross The Blood Resurrection Repentance Grace Faith Water Baptism Holy Spirit Temptation Fellowship Generosity Kingdom of God Worship Prayer Eternity Second Coming The Call Page 1
Read Acts 24:25 Not just being sorry for your sin Some people are very sorry because of the consequences of their sin. They are not really sorry for the sin, but for the penalty they receive in being caught. Read 2 Corinthians 7:10 Not turning over a new leaf Many people try in their own strength to become a better person and change their way of life. Any self-effort has a root of self-righteousness in it, which does not acknowledge the need of repentance from sin. Read Isaiah 64:6 Not becoming religious The Pharisees were extremely religious. They fasted and prayed and had many religious ceremonies, yet never repented. Read Matthew 3:7-10 Read Matthew 5:20 Not just knowing the truth Having an intellectual head-knowledge of truth does not guarantee that the truth has become a living reality in one s life. Read James 2:19-20 Read Matthew 3:8 True Repentance Genuine repentance is the result of the work of the Holy Spirit in you heart. Several things mark this kind of repentance. Being sorry to God for your sin Read Psalm 51:1-4 True repentance involves a sorrow not just towards one s self (because of the consequences of sin), or even toward another person, but first and foremost, it is true sorrow toward God. Read Psalm 38:8 Being truthful about your sin Read Psalm 32:5 Acknowledging your guilt before God is an important precursor to repentance. If you cover up your sin you cannot enter into true repentance. Page 2
Read Proverbs 28:13 Being willing to turn from your sin Read 1 Peter 3:10-11 Repentance is marked not just by a recognition of sin but by a revelation of sin as God sees it. Read Proverbs 8:13 Taking responsibility before God Read Luke 19:8-10 Repentance involves not just setting things right with God, but also setting things right with others. If harm has come to another because of your sin, repentance involves, where possible, making restitution. Read Leviticus 6:1-7 Changing Direction To repent means to turn around, to change direction. Repentance means turning from four things: Ü Turning from sin (Galatians 5:19-21; Ephesians 5:5) Ü Turning from the world (1 John 2:15; James 4:4) Ü Turning from yourself (2 Corinthians 5:15; Luke 14:26) Ü Turning from the devil (Acts 26:18) But just turning from these things is not enough. It is what we turn to that makes the difference. Ü Turning to righteousness (Romans 6:13) Ü Turning to God (Acts 20:21; 1 Thessalonians 1:9) First and foremost, repentance involves a changing of your focus from sin, self and the world to God. God is always ready to receive the person who is humble and contrite in spirit (Isaiah 66:2; 57:15; Psalm 51:17). His arms are always wide open. He has taken the first step toward you in the sending of Christ; now you are required to take a first step toward him in repentance. Read James 4:8-10 In 2 Chronicles 7:14, we find one of the most wonderful promises given to the person willing to repent:...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. Read 2 Timothy 2:19 Page 3
Revelation and Repentance Read Acts 2:36-39 When Peter preached the Gospel on the day of Pentecost, the response his hearers made was to repent. Repentance was their response to the work of our God in their lives. But the work of God does not begin with repentance. If repentance came first, then it would be God responding to what we do. But the very nature of the Gospel is that God takes the initiative. Our walk with God is always a response to his grace, not the other way around. For this reason, we see a pattern recurring in Scripture: First comes revelation Notice that Peter did not preach repentance. He preached Jesus (note 2 Corinthians 4:5). The Bible says that his hearers had such a revelation of Jesus (verse 36) that they were cut to the heart and asked:...what must we do? (verse 37). It was only then that Peter told them: Repent! Without a revelation of God, there can be no repentance. Read John 6:44 Then comes repentance Repentance is our response to a revelation from God. Every time we receive a revelation in God s Word, our response should be repentance. As a review of what we looked at in Module 102, read the following examples: Revelation Repentance Romans 6:6-7 Romans 6:11-13 Galatians 6:14 Romans 12:2 Romans 8:5-8 Galatians 5:16 Romans 11:36 1 Corinthians 8:6 Read James 1:21-22 Two Kinds of Sin Read Psalm 19:12-13 The New Living Translation renders this passage in this way: How can I know all the sins lurking in my heart? Cleanse me from these hidden faults. Keep me from deliberate sins! Don t let them control me. Then I will be free of guilt and innocent of great sin. Page 4
This scripture provides us with an understanding of two kinds of sin that can be present in our lives. Deliberate sins Deliberate sins or what the NIV calls willful sins are those sins which a person knowingly commits. Note that the Psalmist doesn t simply ask God to forgive his deliberate sins. He asks God to keep him from deliberate sins. Although forgiveness is available at all times to the sinner, God is far more interested in dealing with the root cause of deliberate sin. Hidden faults This is the second kind of sin sin that a person is unaware of. Note that the Psalmist asks God to cleanse him from hidden faults. Hidden faults are like faultlines in our personality, weak areas which can succumb to pressure. God is in the business of transforming you into the likeness of Christ, and this means he will put his finger on your hidden faults so that his Spirit can deal with them. Once again, the process of transformation is through revelation and repentance. As God reveals himself to you, this will inevitably contrast with the kind of person that you are now, bringing sin into stark relief. Your response to this revelation of the Lord must be repentance. Experiencing the Forgiveness of God Read Psalm 32:1-2 Read Psalm 130:3-4 The vitality of your relationship with the Lord depends upon the effective dealing with sin in your life. The sacrifice for sin the shed blood of Jesus upon the Cross has already been made, but in order to receive the daily forgiveness of God, there needs to be a confession of that sin before him. Read Acts 19:17-20 This confession of sin happens in two important ways: Ü Confessing to God (1 John 1:7-9) Ü Confessing to one another (James 5:15-16) The act of confessing means that you are not trying to cover up your sin and give excuses for your sin. You are openly acknowledging your sin before God and with that acknowledgement comes God s promise that he will forgive. Read Psalm 32:5 Read Romans 4:7-8 It is vitally important, however, never to become sin-focused. We should be Godconscious, not sin-conscious. Becoming sin-conscious does not help you; in fact, it seriously harms you. Page 5
Read Romans 7:8-11 If you are looking for sin in your life, you will find it and far more than you can possibly handle. In fact, looking for sin actually arouses sin (Romans 7:5), because your focus is on yourself and not on God. As Paul describes in 1 Corinthians 15:56:...the power of sin is the law. We must always remember that, according to Romans 7:6, there are two approaches we can take to sin: Ü The old way of the written code a sin-focus Ü The new way of the Spirit a God-focus If you keep your eyes focused upon the Lord, he will reveal sin, for we will see our shortfall against his glory (note again Romans 3:23). But he will reveal sin in a God-centered way, not a self-centered way. Read Isaiah 6:1-8 The revelation of sin is part of a revelation of God, and, as we ve seen in 2 Peter 1:4, the answer to escap[ing] the corruption of sin is in participat[ing] in the divine nature. Two Kinds of Repentance Repentance is a decision that we make, a turning around away from the world, to face God. There are two kinds of repentance that God requires, pictured in Jesus parable of two sons. Read Luke 15:11-32 There are two states of being out of relationship with God, represented by the two sons. Living separate from God The younger son walked away from his father, just as most of mankind has walked away from God. This son finally came to his senses (revelation) and returned to his father (repentance). In a similar way, our initial repentance is a decision to turn around and come back to God. Turned away from God The older son never left his father, yet he was not with his father. The separation he experienced was not physical, but it was just as real. In the same way, many Christians have not left God (in the prodigal sense of the word), but they are facing away from Him. Their eyes are on the world. Repentance, for them, means a turning around to face God. Read Zechariah 1:3 Page 6
Read James 4:8 Repentance means responding to the promptings of the Holy Spirit, as He pinpoints areas in your life He wants to change (Ephesians 4:30). Repentance is the gateway into the fullness of life God has planned for you! (John 10:10). As Isaiah 30:15 states:...in repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength... Unless otherwise indicated, all quotations from the Bible are from the New International Version, copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Bible Publishers. The Online Bible College can be accessed at www.online-bible-college.com Page 7