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Crucial to a Gospel Presentation: Explain Belief (part seven)
part one part two part three part four part five part six
When I preach the gospel to someone, I explain (1) that he is sinner; he’s not a good person, (2) that he deserves a penalty for sin: death (physical, spiritual, and eternal death), (3) that Jesus died for him, and then (4) that he must believe in Jesus Christ. Where I left off on number four, part of what it means to believe in Jesus Christ is to repent. How do I explain that?
Jesus, Not Me
You cannot believe in Jesus Christ and in yourself both. Sin is against the glory of God (Romans 3:23), so against God Himself, like David confessed in Psalm 51:4, “Against thee, thee only, have I sinned.” Sin is my will, not His will be done. The root of sin is self over God and wanting what you want instead of what God wants. This relates to the first and the tenth commandments of the ten commandments.
Breaking the first commandment puts another god before God and violating the tenth means coveting. Paul in Colossians 3:5 says covetousness is idolatry. Disobeying the tenth commandment is also disobeying the first.
Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” He is the way. To take His way, you’ve got to leave your own. This is to deny self and follow Him, which is repentance. Repentance, life faith, is not a work. Acts 11:18 says, “Then hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life.” God grants repentance, just like He grants faith (2 Peter 1:1, Philip 1:29). “No man can say that Jesus is Lord, but by the Holy Ghost” (1 Cor 12:3).
No Longer in Rebellion Against Him
No one believes in Jesus Christ and remains in rebellion against Him. He turns from his way to God’s way, from self to God, and from his sin to Jesus Christ. The Apostle Paul writes in 1 Thessalonians 1:9, to turn to God from idols to serve the living and true God. Rather than worshiping the creature, his self, He worships the Creator (Rom 1:25). The Father is seeking such to worship Him (John 4:23).
In Luke 13:3, 5, both verses, Jesus commands, “Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.” In John 3:16, Jesus says, if you believe in Jesus Christ, you won’t perish, and in Luke 13:3, 5, he says, if you won’t repent, you will perish.” Faith and repentance are two sides to the same coin. To turn to Jesus Christ, which you do when you believe in Him, you must turn from something — your will, you way, and your sin. Paul represents the two in Acts 20:21 in his preaching:
Testifying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.
Repent and Believe
A couple of other places put the two together:
Mark 1:15: “And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel.”
Matthew 21:32: “For John came unto you in the way of righteousness, and ye believed him not: but the publicans and the harlots believed him: and ye, when ye had seen it, repented not afterward, that ye might believe him.”
Repentance is that moment when someone relinquishes control of his life. This is seen in the sequence that Jesus preaches at the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5. Someone recognizes his own spiritual poverty, he mourns over his sin, and then he is meek, that is, he gives God the charge of his life. The word translated “meek” was used of the horse that was broken. He now becomes useable. This is your life, God, take and use it. This is believing in Jesus Christ.
More Than Intellect, Also the Will
Faith that saves is more than just intellectual assent to facts. It involves the will. God knows when you have relinquished your self, your way, your life to Him. Many will say, Lord, Lord, Jesus says at the end of the Sermon on the Mount. He will say, Depart from me, I never knew you. It is he who does the will of the Father who is in heaven. Someone who keeps going the same direction has kept his life for himself and will lose life as a result.
More to Come
“I’m sorry” vs. “I repent”
We often hear someone say, “I’m sorry,” after doing something wrong, or something that the person does not think is wrong but the person he is speaking to thinks is wrong.” When one man says “I’m sorry” to another, the response can cover the range from “I’m sorry that I sinned against God and against you, because this is a godly sorrow, it will lead me to repent,” to “I’m sorry that you feel the way you do right now,” to “I’m sorry I got caught sinning,” to “I’m sorry that you are bothering me with your ridiculous complaint, and I wish you would go away and leave me alone–I didn’t do anything wrong.”
“I’m sorry.”
That range can be seen in the texts that contain the word “sorry” in Scripture.
For example, Saul wants people to feel sorry for him when he is plotting evil, pursuing innocent David, and killing other righteous people right and left:
1Sam. 22:8 That all of you have conspired against me, and there is none that sheweth me that my son hath made a league with the son of Jesse, and there is none of you that is sorry for me, or sheweth unto me that my son hath stirred up my servant against me, to lie in wait, as at this day?
King Herod was sorry when he was asked to behead John the Baptist:
Matt. 14:9 And the king was sorry: nevertheless for the oath’s sake, and them which sat with him at meat, he commanded it to be given her.
In fact, Herod was not just a little bit sorry. He was really sorry:
Mark 6:26 And the king was exceeding sorry; yet for his oath’s sake, and for their sakes which sat with him, he would not reject her.
Herod was “sorry.” Really sorry. He could have said to John, “I’m sorry about this,” and then gone ahead and ordered the guard to chop off the Baptist’s head. He was “sorry,” but he certainly did not “repent.” Being even “exceeding sorry” is not the same thing as being repentant. Being “sorry” is simply saying that you have “sorrow” over something–whether that thing is your sin, or whether you are sorry that you didn’t get away with your sin, or whether you are sorry you can’t sin even more, is not expressed.
“I repent.”
Scripture does not say that if one sins against a Christian brother, he is supposed to say, “I’m sorry.” It does not say that when a child sins against another child, the sinning child should be made to say “I’m sorry.” Scripture says that when one sins against another, the sinning party is to say, “I repent.”
Luke 17:4 And if he trespass against thee seven times in a day, and seven times in a day turn again to thee, saying, I repent; thou shalt forgive him.
This is not the place to do a comprehensive study of the Biblical doctrine of repentance, but the evidence provided here and in many other places indicates that genuine repentance always results in a change. If I sin against you and say, “I repent,” I am telling you that what I did was sinful, and by God’s grace I will not do it any more. I have sinned against heaven and in your sight.
If I say “I’m sorry,” I may mean the same thing as “I repent.” On occasion being “sorry” is associated with repentance:
Psa. 38:18 For I will declare mine iniquity; I will be sorry for my sin.
2Cor. 7:9 Now I rejoice, not that ye were made sorry, but that ye sorrowed to repentance: for ye were made sorry after a godly manner, that ye might receive damage by us in nothing.
The sorrow of the Corinthians did lead to their repentance–that was good. But note that Paul specifically states that he was not glad that they had been made “sorry.” He was only glad that they had repented as a result of that sorrow. So even here, where sorrow and repentance are associated, they are still distinct.
Have I ever said “I’m sorry” when I meant “I repent”? Yes, I certainly have. Do I condemn parents who tell their children, when the children sin against another, “Say you are sorry!” No, I do not condemn such parents. If someone sins against me and then says, “I’m sorry,” must I think the best (1 Corinthians 13) and assume he means “I repent,” and therefore forgive him, as commanded in Luke 17:4? Yes, I certainly must forgive him, even though he did not say what Christ told him to say: “I repent.”
However, maybe we all ought to reevaluate our use of language in the light of Scripture, and start saying “I repent” instead of “I’m sorry” when we sin against another person (and also use this language when we confess our sins to the Lord). Saying “I’m sorry” is easier than saying “I repent.” There is a lot more wiggle room in “I’m sorry.” Maybe we should start telling our children to say “I repent” instead of “I’m sorry.” This is the pattern in Scripture, and it is always good to stick as closely to Scripture as possible.
–TDR
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