Christians often speak of living a life of repentance. After
my study of Romans and understanding that we are dead and freed from sin, I
decided I was going to look up all of the verses having to do with repentance
and see if there were any that said we needed to live a life of repentance. {I
will only study those verses in the New Testament.}
I tell you, Nay: but, except
ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish {Luke 13:3} Yes, in order to be saved,
we must repent of our evil deeds and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. After
doing this, we are saved for eternal life.
Then Peter said unto them,
Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the
remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost {Acts 2:38}.
This is the same thing as the previous verse. Repentance is a one time act of
confession and believing that Christ has paid for ALL of our sins. Once we believe, we are filled with the Holy Spirit.
Repent ye therefore, and be
converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing
shall come from the presence of the Lord; {Acts 3:19} One time act again. When
we repent and believe, our sins are blotted out, meaning they are remembered no
more!
Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance? {Romans 2:4} God's goodness leads us to the repentance of our sins and we then begin a life as a saint; cleansed in the precious blood of the Lamb. This is a one time act and it is finished. We are made righteous and have been given the salvation of our souls.
Now I rejoice, not because you were grieved, but because
your grief led to repentance. For you were grieved as God willed, so that you
didn't experience any loss from us. For godly sorrow worketh repentance to
salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death {2
Corinthians 7:9, 10} Here is how Matthew Henry's commentary explains these
verses, "Sorrow according to the will of God, tending to the glory of God,
and wrought by the Spirit of God, renders the heart humble, contrite,
submissive, disposed to mortify every sin, and to walk in newness of life. And
this repentance is connected with saving faith in Christ, and an interest in
his atonement. There is a great difference between this sorrow of a godly sort,
and the sorrow of the world. The happy fruits of true repentance are mentioned.
Where the heart is changed, the life and actions will be changed." Again,
this repentance is a one time action that leads to the salvation of our souls and changed behavior for true repentance changes us.
The Lord is not slack
concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to
us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to
repentance {2 Peter 3:9}. God wants all to come to repentance and not perish; a
one time event that saves our souls.
If we confess our sins, he is
faithful and just to forgive us [our] sins, and to cleanse us from all
unrighteousness {1 John 1:9}. A one time event that Jesus' death on the cross
does for us after we repent; He makes us righteous by cleansing us from all
unrighteousness. The next time we sin doesn't make us unrighteous again. No,
once we repent of our sins, we are made righteous. It is a one time finished
work in us. It is a miracle.
Therefore, there is nothing
in the Bible that says we are to live a life of repentance. No, once we repent
of our sins and become righteous, God asks that we be thankful and grateful for
all He has done for us. If we sin against someone, we quickly apologize to them and ask for forgiveness {Matthew 5:23}. If we have a sin in our life, we confess it to others and pray we'll be healed from it {James 5:16}.
Yes, we are sorry when we sin but then we remember that He cleansed us from all unrighteousness, we are dead and freed from sin and we thank Him once again for the marvelous work He performed in us on the day that we repented and believed in His finished work for us! This is what we should be focused upon instead of living a life of repentance. Faith is believing what you can't see nor understand; how sinners like us are called righteous, called saints and given eternal life.
Yes, we are sorry when we sin but then we remember that He cleansed us from all unrighteousness, we are dead and freed from sin and we thank Him once again for the marvelous work He performed in us on the day that we repented and believed in His finished work for us! This is what we should be focused upon instead of living a life of repentance. Faith is believing what you can't see nor understand; how sinners like us are called righteous, called saints and given eternal life.
Logging you in...
Tawnya Howell · 476 weeks ago
Caitlin · 476 weeks ago
Sue Bee · 476 weeks ago
Alisha Jackson · 476 weeks ago
Anon M · 476 weeks ago
THANKYOU for explaining this. I completely agree. I don't ask God to forgive me when I slip up. Why ask forgiveness when you have already been forgiven thru the shed blood of Christ? You are effectively asking forgiveness for something that's the Lord has already erased. Too many times I have heard Christians say they had to repent and ask the Lords forgiveness when they slipped up. Ugh! Instead, I thank God for being merciful and paying the price for me, and still loving me even when I slip up. To continually ask forgiveness from the Lord devalues the purpose of the cross. To do so one must assume that God hasn't given your forgiveness for that sin yet and you have to ask for it. That's works. It's sad that Christians don't get it.
Guest · 476 weeks ago
Michelle · 476 weeks ago
Ken · 476 weeks ago
The issue is further confused because, as Caitlin points out, it is an issue of terminology, as the church has adopted a sense that we are “to walk humbly without God,” but have carried it further to mean a focus on our sins, instead of a focus on our New Life in Christ and all sins forgiven… forever. We are to walk humbly with God and be moment by moment appreciative of what He has done for us.
What Lori is pointing out is that the New Covenant view of repentance is a onetime 180 degree turn from sin to salvation and a new life. Because many Christians do not know who they are in Christ and that they can say “no” to sin and walk in righteousness, they remain as baby believers. Hebrews 6:1 says it clearly to us:
“Therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God.”
May we walk humbly with our Lord, but let us not be fearful as the children on Israel and see the giants of sin that may surround our lives making us unwilling go in and conquer what is rightfully ours by inheritance, the promised land of our New Life in Christ. Far too many Believers stay in the desert of their lives because they do not truly have faith that God has not only redeemed them for eternity, but has made them His child and co-heirs with Christ. That faith requires a humble acknowledgement of what God has done, but demands that we step into God’s promises where repentance is no longer necessary, and instead comes a Spirit filled life that Christ Himself lives in and through for His glory. No longer babies tossed to and from but growing up into Christ and all that He promised we would be and we would do.
No further repentance is necessary as we are the righteousness of God is our promise A done deal by God through Christ Jesus at the cross: “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” (2 Cor. 5:21). If we are to live a life of repentance this must mean walking by faith into God's promises, not a focus on our sins and failures. Gd knows will get what we focus upon. Where is your focus?
Talita · 476 weeks ago
This is a very difficult post you were willing to post. It is all true what you thought. Since my focus went from be careful not to sin to I am free from sin my Christian life experienced the victory and freedom from sin. Sin has no power over us anymore. If I do sin, yes I do confess but I also know it is not a struggle because I got the gift of salvation from Jesus. I repented when I was 16 years old, was born again. Jesus saved me. Before I have learned about this vital truth I felt guilty for not always feeling that I have to repent. When I listened to the Romans teaching of Michael Pearl I realized why. But only then I understood what salvation in Jesus ment. I am free from the power of sin, not the temptation, so would I fall into temptation I need to ask for forgiveness. We can live in victory, we are saved by the same power of Jesus' resurrection. What I mighty God is He, what a lovely gift we have, we ate saved if we except the gift. Not trying earning it through repentance.
Thank you for this post. My we grow in His power and glory from strength to strength and from power to power. Not as the world is understanding this, but to only Glorify God's name.
God bless you.
gigiqc 25p · 476 weeks ago
I agree that we don't need to confess sins for forgiveness. For myself, I just find myself agreeing with God when He puts his finger on an area of sin in my life. And, now, instead of wallowing in guilt and shame, I can thank Him and praise Him because I know that when He does that, He's going to bring me into more freedom in that area in my life. And, His grace is sufficient for me in those weaknesses. The realization of those truths make me a much more cooperative child as He is working in me to will and do of His good pleasure. As opposed to feeling guilty, ashamed or fearful of His response or how He thought/felt of me. How can you run to a Father when you feel those things? But, it's much easier to run to the Father and trust Him when you know that your sin has been fully dealt with and hurled to the depths of the sea. Love the book of Hebrews, so much of it speaks to what we're talking about here.
Hebrews 10:14-18: "For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are sanctified. And the Holy Spirit also testifies to us, for after saying, '“This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord: I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds,' he also adds, 'I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more.' Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin."
gigiqc 25p · 476 weeks ago
Tawnya Howell · 476 weeks ago
Tawnya Howell · 476 weeks ago
Michelle · 476 weeks ago
Anon · 476 weeks ago
Bernie · 424 weeks ago
His reference is from Matt 4:17 which is a key pivot point in Matthew's gospel to be seen again in Matt 16:21 "from that time.." The whole ministry of Jesus to this point can be summed up with a campaing of preaching repentence. It is never a solitary point with Jesus. One never just needed Jesus and now has moved on. We need Jesus still.
Jodee Meyer · 406 weeks ago