REPENTANCE FROM DEAD WORKS Michael Venya A. Text(s): B. Introduction: C. Definitions: Hebrews 6:1-2; Matthew 4:17; Luke 13:3, 5 In Hebrews 6:1-2, Repentance from dead works is listed first among the principles of the doctrine of Christ, and is also listed first in elements of the foundation of the Christian life. Principles is defined as commencement or chief (in various applications of order, time, place, rank). Doctrine means (#3056: a topic [subject of discourse]). From these definitions we see that God has deemed repentance from dead works important enough to place it as first and chief, in order, time, place, and rank, among the many topics and subjects of discourse about which the Lord Jesus Christ preached and taught, during His earthly ministry. Matthew 4:17 shows that Repentance from dead works was the first sermon that Christ preached. In Luke 13:3, 5, Christ reveals Repentance from dead works as the only action that can enable human beings to escape spending eternity in the lake of fire for their sins. We will now discuss this all-important doctrine in detail. 1. Dead is the Greek word nekros, #3498 in Strong s Concordance. It means (a corpse), dead. 2. Works is the Greek word ergon, #2041 in Strong s Concordance. It means to work ; toil (as an effort or occupation) ; by implication an act. 3. Repent is the Greek word metaneo, #3340 in Strong s Concordance. It means the following: a. (Ecclesiastes 12:13, Revelation 4:11) Reconsider your life: God s Word states that your whole duty on earth is to fear God and keep His Commandments and that you were created to give God pleasure. By choosing to sin, you have not feared God, kept His Commandments, nor given Him pleasure. Because of your selfish choice to sin, you have not fulfilled your earthly duty; you have wasted your entire life. You need to seriously reconsider your life. b. Think differently or afterwards about your sin, your selfish life, yourself, and God: You must hate sin, your selfish life, and yourself for how you have sinned against God. Then you must start to love
God, for Who He is and all that He has done for you in spite of your sin, by starting to obey Him. c. Feel moral compunction or godly sorrow for your sin: You must feel worse than you have ever felt in your life for how you have returned the kindness that God has shown you throughout your life with hatred, by breaking His Laws. d. Change your mind and course in life: Realize that you are on the highway to hell, deserve to be cast into the lake of fire for your sin against God, and are obligated to change. You change your mind and course by the following: 1. (Romans 12:1-2) Getting new information: God s Word states that your life is transformed by the renewing, or, renovating, of your mind. You must purge yourself of all ungodly information and influence (Non-Biblical T.V, music, literature, friends, etc ) and daily take in only God s Word, the Bible, by reading it, memorizing it, speaking it to yourself and others, studying it, and obeying it. 2. (Psalm 5:4-5, Revelation 4:11, Job 42:6) Being displeased with your life: You must realize that your entire existence has been nothing less than an unbroken tirade of selfish sinful satanic rebellion against God and Christ. God is displeased with your life. You should be, too. 3. (Romans 6:23, Acts 26:20, 20:21, 1 Corinthians 15:1-8, 1 Timothy 2:5, John 14:6, 2 Corinthians 5:17-21) Changing your actions: Realizing that you will be cast deservedly into the lake of fire for your sin, you must also realize that only the One that you have rebelled against, the Lord Jesus Christ, the only One Who never sinned and offered Himself as an acceptable Sacrifice to God for your sins by dying on the cross and being raised from the dead, can save you from your sin. To be saved from sin by the sinless Christ, however, you must turn from all sin, self, and satan, live a life which shows that you have turned from sin, then believe in and follow Christ as your only Master by living according to His Word, the Bible, forever. *Conclusion: Based on the definitions above, repentance from dead works literally means to reconsider, think differently about, feel deep sorrow concerning, then change your mind and actions and stop doing all deeds that a person that is a spiritual corpse, or, spiritually dead to eternal life in the Lord Jesus Christ through their sins, would do, by daily living in complete obedience to the Bible, being displeased with your former life, and changing all of your actions to reflect Christ.
D. The who, what, when, where, why, how of repentance from dead works : 1. Who must repent? Acts 17:29-30; Luke 13:3, 5; 2 Peter 3:9: God commands all people everywhere to repent. Christ says that all must repent or else perish in the lake of fire. God s Will is for none to perish, but for all people to come to repentance. 2. What is repentance? 2 Corinthians 7:8-10; Hebrews 6;1-2; Acts 26:20, Matthew 3:8; Luke 24:47; 2 Timothy 2:25; Acts 20:21: Repentance is reconsidering and thinking differently about your entire life and all of your selfish and sinful actions, experiencing deep sorrow for your sins against God, choosing to turn away from and stop committing all of your previous dead and sinful deeds, turn to God, produce thoughts, desires, actions that are suitable to God, ask God to forgive and cleanse you from your sins, acknowledge and believe that the Lord Jesus Christ is the only Way, the only Truth, the only Eternal Life, the only Way to God, verbally commit your life to loving and obeying the Lord Jesus Christ forever, and place your faith in only Him to save you from your sins and be your Lord. 3. When are people to repent? Acts 17:30: God commands everyone everywhere to repent right now 4. Where are people to repent? Acts 17:30: God commands everyone everywhere to repent, immediately, right where they are 5. Why are people to repent? Ecclesiastes 12:13; Acts 17:30; Revelation 4:11; 2 Peter 3:9; Acts 17:31: People are to repent because: a. Every person s duty on earth is to fear God and keep His Commandments b. God commands every person to repent c. Every person s purpose on earth is to give God pleasure d. God s Will is for every person to repent and not perish e. God has appointed a day when the Lord Jesus Christ will judge the world in righteousness 6. How are people to repent? Acts 20:21; Romans 6:11; Jude 24; 1 Peter 1:5: People are to repent by : a. Stopping and turning from all sin b. Placing their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ
c. Concluding themselves to be crucified and resurrected with Christ and therefore dead to sin and alive to living a life of complete loving obedience to God d. Living a life of loving obedience to Christ, being persuaded that He is able, by the power of God, to keep them from falling into sin, if they keep placing their faith and obedience in Him E. To repent does not mean the following: 1. To attend and be a member in good standing in a group called a church 2. To be baptized 3. To ask God to forgive your sins and then commit the sins again 4. To just feel sorry for your sins 5. To hold a position called apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor and teacher 6. To confess Christ as your personal Lord and Savior or ask Jesus to come into your heart and continue to sin *Conclusion: Literally, to repent means to completely stop all sinful and self-centered living and begin complete obedience to God through the Lord Jesus Christ, according to the Word of God, the Bible. Repentance is realizing that you deserve to burn in the lake of fire for your sins against God, choosing to stop sin forever, and choosing to love Christ supremely by obeying Him completely forever. F. Scriptures illustrating repentance: 1. Understand God, abhor yourself, repent in dust and ashes (Job 42:1-6) 2. Repent, turn yourself from your idols, turn away your faces from all of your abominations (Ezekiel 14:6) 3. Repent and turn yourself from all of your transgressions so that iniquity will not be your ruin (Ezekiel 18:30) 4. Repent, for the kingdom of Heaven is at hand (Matthew 3:2, 4:17) 5. Repent and believe the Gospel (Mark 1:15) 6. Repent or be judged and cast into Hell (Mark 6;11-12, 11:21-24) 7. Repent or perish (Luke 13:1-5)
8. Repent, be persuaded and change, by hearing the Law and the prophets, or you won t repent, and avoid the torments of Hell, by hearing the Gospel of Christ (Luke 16:27-31) 9. Repent and be converted that your sins may be blotted out (Acts 3:19) 10. Be pricked in your heart by God s Word, cry out what must you do to be saved from sin, then repent, be baptized in the Name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and receive the Gift of the Holy Ghost (Acts 2:37-39) 11. Repent or stop wickedness, pray for God to forgive you (Acts 8:32) 12. God no longer accepts ignorance, but now commands all people everywhere to repent (Acts 17:29-30) 13. Repent toward God, put faith towards the Lord Jesus Christ (Acts 20:21) 14. Repent, turn to God, do works meet for repentance (Acts 26:20) 15. Pastors, remember how you ve fallen by leaving Christ as your first love, repent, do the first works, or Christ will remove what you call your church (Revelation 2:5) 16. Pastor, repent for allowing false doctrine and immorality, which Christ hates, or else Christ will come quickly and fight against the wrong-doers (Revelation 2:16) 17. God gives you, if you choose to sin, a space or opportunity to repent or stop your sin before He judges and punishes you for their sin; this is God s true, scriptural grace (Revelation 2:20-21) 18. Repent of your deeds or you will be cast into great tribulation (Revelation 2:22) 19. Physically alive but spiritually dead so-called Pastor and church, remember how you have received and heard, hold fast and repent, or Christ will come as a Thief and judge you (Revelation 3:3) 20. Financially-wealthy but spiritually-bankrupt so-called Pastor and church, be zealous, repent, let Christ in (Revelation 3:14-20) 21. Repentance must produce fruit or actions which indicate that Scriptural repentance has taken place (Matthew 3:8, Luke 3:8) 22. Baptize unto repentance (Mark 3:11)
23. Christ came to call sinners to repentance not the (self-defending and selfjustifying) righteous (Matthew 9:13, Mark 2:17, Luke 5:32) 24. Heaven rejoices more over one sinner that repents, than 99 supposedly just persons who don t need repentance (Luke 15:7) 25. Repentance and remission of sin should be preached in Christ s Name to all men everywhere (Luke 24:47) 26. God gave Christ to give repentance and forgiveness of sins unto Israel (Acts 5:31) 27. God granted to the gentiles repentance unto life (Acts 11:18) 28. Before Christ s coming, John preached the baptism of repentance unto all people (Acts 13:24) 29. God s Goodness leads people to repentance (Romans 2:4) 30. God s Gifts and Callings are without repentance (Romans 11:29) 31. repentance (2 Corinthians 7:10) 32. Being made sorry after a Godly manner helps people sorrow to repentance (2 Corinthians 7:10) 33. Godly sorrow works repentance to salvation (2 Corinthians 7:10) 34. If God grants those who oppose themselves repentance to the acknowledging of the truth, they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil who has taken them captive at his will (2 Timothy 2:25-26) 35. Repentance from dead works is the first layer of the foundation of the principles of the doctrine of Christ (Hebrews 6:1) 36. It is impossible to renew those who were enlightened to repentance (Hebrews 6:4-6) 37. Profane people, who sell their spiritual relationship with God for material things, have no place of repentance (Hebrews 12:14-17) 38. God is longsuffering in delaying Christ s return, not willing for any to perish, but for all to come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9) 39. When one is in sin, one must only repent to God of one s wickedness, and not speak of any other matter (Jeremiah 8:5-8)
40. After one is turned (by God) one must repent, and then be instructed (Jeremiah 30:19) 41. Christ upbraided cities where mighty works were done, because they did not repent (Matthew 11:20) 42. Woe to those who see mighty works but don t repent (Matthew 11:21) 43. Nineveh repented at the preaching of Jonah (Matthew 12:41, Luke 11:32) 44. Repent, sit in sackcloth, when mighty works are done among you (Luke 10:13) 45. Some who had sinned already refused to repent of their uncleanness, fornication, lasciviousness (2 Corinthians 12:21) 46. Men refused to repent of worshipping devils (idols), though they were afflicted with plagues (Revelation 9:20) 47. Men refused to repent of murders, sorceries, fornication, thefts, though they were afflicted with plagues (Revelation 9:21) 48. Men refused to repent and give God glory, but blasphemed God (Revelation 16:9) 49. Men refused to repent of sinful deeds but blasphemed God because of sininduced plagues, pains and sores (Revelation 16:11) 50. When one sinner repents there is joy in the presence of the angels of God (Luke 15:10) G. *Conclusion: After studying the Greek definition of repent and repentance, studying the who, what when, where, why, and how, concerning repentance from dead works studying what repentance is not, then studying 50 scriptures in which repent and its derivatives are discussed, we see that the word repent is used in Scripture to mean no less than to stop all sin, forever. Christ says that you will perish in the lake of fire for your sin, unless you stop sinning, place your faith in God, through Him, choose to live in Him through loving obedience to His commandments.