The Gospel & Salvation: True Repentance Part 1

Repentance

Selected Scriptures

 As we begin this morning I want to briefly review where we have been and preview where we are going. This is a good time to do this because we are at something of a turning point in the series.

We are in a series of messages on the gospel and the work of salvation. I have explained why this series is important. The enemy of God is the enemy of those created in the image of God. Satan is the enemy of our souls. Satan is a deceiver and he wants to lead as many people as possible down a deceptive path. Satan labels his path with a sign which reads “This Way to Heaven.” But because he is a deceiver, his path leads to hell. My responsibility as a pastor and a teacher of God’s word is to expose his deception and to help you see if you have believed any of those deceptions. 

We must understand the gospel and what God has done to rescue us from judgment. Because we have come from a variety of backgrounds, and some of those backgrounds may have involved teaching not according to the truth of the Bible, I owe it to you to teach this truth. I do this because I love you. I do it because I will be held accountable to God. I do it because I must be a faithful steward of the truth.

We began our series in Genesis 3 because that is where the problem of sin began. The gospel is good news of salvation from sin. We started by examining the problem of sin so that we would understand just what it is that we need to be saved from. We saw where the problem of sin began and how it manifested itself. The first couple did not love God with all their heart, mind and soul. This is why they entertained the questions about God’s character and His word. They chose to trust Satan rather than God and they fell into sin. This brought about an avalanche of consequences, all of which we have studied, and all of which we understand because we experience them all. All of this drives us to the point of desperation in our quest for a solution.

We sought to understand the problem of sin because the good news of the gospel is only good news to those who understand the truth about the bad news. The bad news is that we are all sinners. We have all been buried by the avalanche of the consequences of sin. We are all separated from God because of sin. We deserve God’s just wrath as punishment for our sin. Genesis 3 describes the origins of sin and the consequences, but the rest of Scripture affirms the reality that we are all sinners by nature and by choice. We are hopeless and helpless to do anything about the problem of sin on our own. We desperately need a solution. We need to be rescued from the wrath of holy God.

Genesis 3 also reveals the solution to the problem of sin. Man’s attempt at a solution did not work. We saw the fig leaf solution of the first couple in the Garden after they sinned. The fig leaf solution didn’t work because when God showed up they still knew they needed to run and hide. Man-made solutions cannot make us acceptable in the presence of a holy God. All man-made solutions fit into the religious category of religions of self-achievement. They all teach that man can do enough himself to solve the sin problem and earn a right standing before God. This is Satan’s most believed lie.

The only true religion is the religion of divine accomplishment. The only solution which is able to redeem the sinner is the solution provided by God Himself. This is the solution He promised in Genesis 3:15. God would send the solution through the seed of the woman. This is the solution He provided for the first couple. This is the solution He pictured in the death of the first innocent substitutes, the animals He killed to make the clothing for Adam and Eve. The innocent substitutes pictured in the Old Testament are all pictures of the Perfect Innocent Substitute of God’s only begotten Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus was the Perfect Solution. He was provided as that innocent substitute when He was crucified. We saw the Cross from God’s perspective from Isaiah 53. This is how God’s solution to our sin problem was applied. He was crushed for our iniquities. God’s solution was proven to be effective through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. This is what we saw last week on Resurrection Day.

We have done what we have done up to this point because as sinners we need to understand that we are sinners, and that we are in trouble, big trouble, eternal trouble, if there is no solution to our sin problem. Having established that reality we now know that there is a solution which has been provided by God. He has given us Jesus as our Savior and Lord. There is no other name given among men whereby we must be saved. We are saved by Jesus Christ and no other. Jesus is not just one of many possible ways to obtain salvation. He is the only way. No one comes to the Father except through Him.

That was the brief review. Now that we understand the problem, and that God has provided a solution to the problem, how does a person come to participate in the solution? How does a person come to partake in the work of salvation? What is required? How can a man be saved from the certain wrath of God which is the justly deserved penalty for the sin of the sinner? There is not a more important question for man to answer.

What is a person’s biblical response to the solution which has been presented? How should the one who preaches the gospel, the good news of the solution, direct desperate people when they realize their sin and see the solution and ask the question, “What must I do to be saved?”

By way of a preview of where we are going in the series we will be spending some time answering this question. After we have answered this question, the next thing we will study will be the various aspects of the work of salvation. Finally, at some point down the road, we will be looking at the evidences that we have been truly saved. So, in very general terms, we have seen the problem and the solution. We are now learning how the solution is applied to us individually. Then we will learn about all that the solution provides. Finally, we want to make sure the solution has been applied, so we will look at the evidence which prove we are truly saved. I hope that makes sense logically.

So then, what must I do to be saved? This was the question asked of Peter on the day of Pentecost. Peter had clearly demonstrated that Jesus was the Christ, the Messiah of Israel, their long-awaited Redeemer. He pointed to their sin as having crucified their Messiah. He showed them that judgment was imminent. They were convicted and convinced that they would be on the wrong side on the day of judgment. Having confronted their sin and showing them how desperately they needed a solution, Acts 2:37-41 gives us the response. The first thing Peter said is “Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”

There are some who teach that both repentance and baptism are necessary for salvation. There are several reasons why this is not a proper way to understand this verse. Rather than spending time on that issue now I would refer you to the messages I very recently taught in our Adult Bible Study class. Those messages are on the church’s website and easy to find and easy to listen to. By the time we are finished with the next several weeks of messages on how man responds to the gospel and is saved, you will clearly understand why baptism isn’t a prerequisite to salvation.

Repentance is necessary. The message of repentance has been the consistent call of the preachers of good news since the times of the Old Testament. Turn to Isaiah 1. Verses 10-15 describe the pathetic spiritual condition of the people and God’s indignation. Then verses 16-17 call for repentance. Finally, verses 18-20 describe what will happen if they do repent, and what will happen if they do not. There has never been a time in which there was a way to have a right relationship to God and be living in rebellion to His will.

Ezekiel 33:18-19 says, “When the righteous turns from his righteousness and commits iniquity, then he shall die in it. But when the wicked turns from his wickedness and practices justice and righteousness, he will live by them.” 2 Chronicles 7:13-14 tell us, “If I (God) shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or if I command the locust to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among My people (all acts of judgment for sin), and My people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin an will heal their land.” If the people repent, they will find God’s blessings.

Isaiah 55:6-7 says, “Seek the Lord while He may be found; call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return to the Lord, and He will have compassion on him, and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon.”

The last of the Old Testament prophets was John the Baptist. God had been silent for 400 years. John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” The man of God chosen to announce the coming of the Messiah delivered the message of God. He called men to repent. He called even the religious leaders to bring forth fruit in keeping with repentance. In other words, make sure your actions reflect a change of your attitude toward your sins. 

Matthew 4:17 describes the occasion when Jesus began His earthly ministry. Matthew writes, “From that time Jesus began to preach and say, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.’” Mark 1:14-15 tells of the beginning of the ministry of Jesus and He came to Galilee preaching the gospel of God and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.” The gospel Jesus preached was a message of good news that included repentance.

In Mark 6, Jesus sent the Twelve out to minister in the region. Verse 12 tells us, “They went out and preached that men should repent.” In Luke 13 Jesus warned the large crowds who had gathered to hear Him teach. Twice He said, “unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.” (v. 3,5) In Luke 16, in the story of the rich man and Lazarus, the rich man begged Abraham to send Lazarus to his house to warn his brothers of their need to avoid the place of torment. He said to Abraham, “if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.” The rich man knew had figured out why he was in the place of torment and experiencing the judgment of God. He had never repented.

There are no words more authoritative on the subject of how a person should respond to the gospel than the words of Jesus in Mark 1. Repent and believe in the gospel. Repent and believe. These are the only responses to the good news that will result in the salvation of the sinner. Jesus never instructed anyone to pray a prayer and ask Him to come into their heart. He never cited a “sinner’s prayer” with a promise of salvation to those who would recite those words. He simply and clearly commanded sinners to turn from their sin, or repent, and believe the gospel.

We need to be abundantly clear on something. The message of the gospel has not changed. The gospel preached by Jesus was the same gospel preached by Peter and the rest of the original apostles. It was the same gospel preached by the Apostle Paul. Paul did not preach a different gospel message. Paul did not preach a message that eliminated the need for repentance. Turn to Acts 17. Beginning in verse 22 Paul is preaching in Athens. In the middle of verse 30 Paul proclaims, “God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent, because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead.”

In Acts 20 Paul was meeting with the elders from Ephesus. He recounted the message he had faithfully delivered to them. Verse 21 tells us that Paul was “solemnly testifying to both Jews and Greeks of repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.” In Acts 26 Paul is making his defense before King Agrippa. Paul tells the king about his conversion experience and the calling of God on his life. In verse 19-20 he said, “So, King Agrippa, I did not prove disobedient to the heavenly vision, but kept declaring both to those of Damascus first, and also at Jerusalem and then throughout the region of Judea, and even to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, performing deeds appropriate to repentance.” Clearly, biblical preaching of the gospel includes the call to the sinner to repent. 

If the proper response to the gospel is to repent, then it is important to understand what it means to repent. What is involved in repentance? How does a person repent? The Bible has a lot to say about this important issue. 

On the most basic level, I have often tried to explain repentance as a U-turn. We are headed in one direction, we have one attitude toward our sin, then we have a change of heart and we turn and go the other direction. That is not a bad explanation but it is a little too simplistic. 

Biblical repentance involves the repudiation, or the rejection, or the turning of our backs on the old life of sin and a turning to God for salvation. This was the experience of the Thessalonians. 1 Thess. 1:9 describes the reputation of these faithful Christians. They had “turned to God from idols to serve a living and true God.” Note three elements in this description. They turned to God. They turned from idols. They devoted themselves to serving God. They weren’t just sorry, or remorseful about being idolaters. They didn’t just think it might be a good idea to include God into their consideration of the matters of life. They didn’t just come to “believe” in God. They didn’t walk an aisle or sign a pledge card, or pray a prayer. They turned from their habitual sin, and they turned to God, and they committed their lives to walk in faithful obedience to His will. This is an example of repentance.

Another wonderful example is the Apostle Paul himself. So dramatic was the transformation of his life when he repented that he had to have a new name. Saul of Tarsus was ignorant of the truth and entrenched in unbelief. He believed the Bible. He was very religious. He was zealous for his faith. But he saw Jesus as nothing more than an imposter and a blasphemer and he was convinced that all who followed Jesus were deserving of imprisonment and death. That all changed on the road to Damascus. The glorified Christ confronted him. At that moment Paul’s entire view of reality was destroyed. He quickly learned that he had been wrong about everything. He immediately understood that Jesus Christ was God’s Son, the promised Messiah of Israel, and the Savior of the world.

Before this radical turn around, Saul believed himself to be righteous because of his fastidious devotion to the law of God. He now understood that there was nothing good in himself. It was all refuse. He learned that salvation was a gift of God received by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. The disciples whom he previously persecuted were the one’s who now became the objects of his love. His life was radically transformed. He repented. Much like the Thessalonians, Paul turned to God from idols (his religion and his self-righteousness) to serve a living and true God. We must admit that there was no doubt about the salvation of the Apostle Paul. He was a radically transformed man.

Repentance involves several things, but it is, among other things, a transformation of the mind. Repentance involves a new way of thinking. It involves the acceptance of an understanding of things not realized before. In fact, the word translated “repent” is most frequently translated from a verb that means “to perceive or understand.” It is the verb “noeo.” With this verb is a preposition that denotes change. Repentance involves a change in perception, or a change in understanding.

How does this change in understanding come about? I am convinced that it happens as the Holy Spirit does what Jesus told His disciples the Holy Spirit would do. The Holy Spirit is the Agent of regeneration, or new birth, as we saw last week. With this new birth comes a new understanding of the truth. The Holy Spirit has been sent to guide us into all the truth. In John 15:26 Jesus says, “When the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, that is the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify about Me.” The Holy Spirit testifies of the truth concerning Jesus Christ.

John 16:8, speaking of the ministry of the Holy Spirit, Jesus says, “And He, when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment; concerning sin, because they do not believe in Me; and concerning righteousness because I go to the Father and you no longer see Me; and concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged.”

A sinner will not turn from sin, or his idols, to the living and true God to serve Him without the work of God’s Spirit to enlighten the mind with a new perception or understanding. Let me show you this from God’s word. Turn to Ephesians 4:17-24. This passage explains the necessity of repentance and that repentance must involve the coming to a new understanding.

In verse 17 Paul says, “So this I say, and affirm together with the Lord…” Who is the authority of the words Paul is writing? It is the Lord. He goes on to write, “that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk…” I think we all understand that “walk” means our daily conduct, or the manner of living. Already we capture the essence of repentance. We were walking according to a manner of life, conducting ourselves in one way, and we are called to no longer walk that way any more. This is a change in direction. This is the u-turn. Repentance involves an about face.

But look now at why the Gentiles, the non-Christians, the wicked ones who do not know God, walk the way they walk. They walk in the futility of their mind. We understand what futility means. So why is their walk a walk in futility? Verse 18 describes them as “being darkened in their understanding.” They don’t know. They have not been enlightened. They walk in darkness. John 1:9 tells us that Jesus was the true Light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man. By coming into the world Jesus exposed the deeds of darkness and because men loved darkness rather than light they would not repent. 

Paul describes this as we read on in Ephesians 4. Verse 18 continues, telling us that these are “excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them…” Ok, can we blame God for not enlightening them? Some might make that argument, but it would not be Paul. He writes further, explaining that they remain ignorant and continue to walk in darkness, “because of the hardness of their heart; and they have become calloused, have given themselves over to sensuality for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness.” The sinner is responsible for rejecting the light and the truth which would give them the new understanding they need to turn from sin to God.

Now Paul goes on to demonstrate how the Ephesians had come to a new understanding that accompanied or even produced a new way of life. In verse 20 Paul continues, “But you did not learn Christ in this way…” Notice that this there was new understanding associated with their change in direction, or their repentance. They “learned” Christ. He goes on in verse 21, “if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught in Him, just as truth is in Jesus.” Clearly, the Ephesians had come to a new understanding. They were taught the truth in Christ. They had a new understanding. They saw sin for what it was. They saw Christ for who He is. Because of this new understanding, this new perception of reality, they changed direction. 

Listen, repentance involves a new understanding of the truth, but it is not just coming to the understanding of a truth. Repentance involves an intellectual transformation but not only an intellectual transformation. I make this point because there are some who say that salvation involves only believing and that the only thing that needs to be believed is the historical truth about Christ. No repentance is associated with salvation. If there is no change in direction there is no repentance.

Paul makes this clear in the rest of this passage we are reading. Look at verse 22 and beyond. “that in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.”

Understand something. Repentance is not something you do one time and you are done with it. You don’t say, “Ok, I turned from sin to Christ and now I don’t need to worry about how I am living.” Because of the new understanding we gain, we turn away from our former manner of life. We lay aside the old self which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit. We are renewed in the spirit of our mind. The longer we are Christians, and the more truth we come to understand, the more we will be engaged in turning from our former way of life and putting on the new self, which is the likeness of God which has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.

This is the first of about six or seven aspects of repentance we need to understand. Obviously we will come back next week to see the rest. I want to close with a few questions for you to prayerfully consider.

Has your life been marked by a change in direction? I’m not talking about a self-determined resolve to straighten out your life by your own effort. I’m talking about coming to understand the truth of who Jesus Christ is and your need to trust Him and turn to Him in obedience to the truth. Have you truly turned from sin to God to serve Him?

Or, would you have to confess that your life is marked more by a darkened understanding, ignorance of the truth, and hardness of heart, even a calloused heart given to the practice of sensuality and every form of impurity? If this is you, you have been given enough truth and light to see your need to repent. You need to repent and believe the gospel. 

If you have repented and believed the gospel, are you continuing to be renewed in the spirit of your mind and continuing to repent by putting off the old self and putting on the new self which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth? Are you continuing to repent? Are you learning new truth that speaks to new areas of your life that still need to be brought into conformity with the truth, and are you responding, or repenting as you should? Listen, if God began the work in you by bringing you to repentance and faith in the gospel and you were truly saved, He does not stop working in you until you are conformed to the image of His beloved Son. That work doesn’t stop until you are in His presence. 

This means that the new understanding you gain from the study of God’s word will continue to transform you. We are transformed, as Paul wrote to the Romans in 12:1-2, by the renewing of our minds, that we may prove what is the good, and acceptable and perfect will of God.

Maybe you have never repented. Maybe you have not taken repentance seriously. Maybe we need to have a conversation about the reality of your salvation. 

Let’s pray.