REPENTANCE, FAITH AND SALVATION

Is repentance necessary for salvation?

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Within the last 20 years or so there has been a covert invasion in Christianity in America without hardly a whimper of protest. This invasion can best be described as "Christian" psychology, which is nothing more than watered-down humanism. While there are millions of people searching for answers to their complicated problems created by their increasingly complex lives, psychology comes along and attempts to answer and solve man's sin problems and its consequences through the building up and restoration of man's self-esteem and self-image.

We are told today to get in touch with our inner self and ask the question: This matrimony between psychology and Christianity has created an unholy alliance which is producing some strange children that are permitting, promoting, and preaching deceiving, dangerous, and damnable false doctrines. This diabolical psychobabble of self-love is sweeping through churches today among self-seeking men in a self-centered society whose greatest problem is a desire to worship at the altar of self.

The apostle Paul warned us that one of the characteristics of the last days would be that "men shall be lovers of their own selves" 2 Tim. Churches and preachers alike are abandoning their God-called purpose of holding up the mirror of God's Word and graphically revealing to man what he really looks like in the sight of a holy God. The missing message in modern-day preaching is the Biblical doctrine of repentance, where a sinner is convinced and convicted of his exceeding sinfulness and lost condition.

When the very Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, appeared upon the scene in His public ministry, He came preaching the narrow and exclusive doctrines of repentance and faith. If Jesus felt compelled to preach such a message before a lost and dying world, so should we. The words "repent," "repentance," and "repented" are mentioned over times in the Bible. There has been a lot of misunderstanding and confusion over what the word repentance means.

When the word "repent" is used in the Word of God in the context of Biblical salvation, it is referring to a truly God-given, Spirit-led change of heart and mind toward God about sin. The greatest need for any sinner is have his sins blotted out, but a man will never have the pardon of sin while he is in love with his sin.

There must be a hatred of sin, a loathing of it, a turning from it. Repentance is a revolution in dealing with our attitude and view towards sin and righteousness. Repentance is not something one does with his hands, but it is an inward attitude of the soul. Sin must become, in the eyes of the sinner, exceedingly sinful. Everyone knows they are not perfect, but for most sinners that is consolation, not condemnation.

But the Bible declares all sinners are already condemned:. He that believeth on him is not condemned: The problem is "all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God" Rom. Regeneration is subjective; Justification is objective. The former has to do with man's state; the latter, with his standing. One thing at least is clear from these verses, and that is, that to justify does not mean to make one righteous.

Neither the Hebrew nor Greek words will bear such meaning. To justify means to set forth as righteous; to declare righteous in a legal sense; to put a person in a right relation. It does not deal, at least not directly, with character or conduct; it is a question of relationship. Of course both character and conduct will be conditioned and controlled by this relationship. No real righteousness on the part of the person justified is to be asserted, but that person is declared to be righteous and is treated as such. Strictly speaking then, Justification is the judicial act of God whereby those who put faith in Christ are declared righteous in His eyes, and free from guilt and punishment.

It is difficult for us to understand God's feeling towards sin. To us forgiveness seems easy, largely because we are indifferent towards sin. But to a holy God it is different. Even men sometimes find it hard to forgive when wronged.

Nevertheless God gladly forgives. What a wondrous forgiveness! Forgiveness may be considered as the cessation of the moral anger and resentment of God against sin; or as a release from the guilt of sin which oppresses the conscience; or, again, as a remission of the punishment of sin, which is eternal death. In Justification, then, all our sins are forgiven, and the guilt and punishment thereof removed Acts God sees the believer as without sin and guilt in Christ Num. The forgiven sinner is not like the discharged prisoner who has served out his term and is discharged from further punishment, but with no rights of citizenship.

No, justification means much more than acquittal. The repentant sinner receives back in his pardon, the full rights of citizenship. The Society of Friends called themselves Friends, not because they were friends one to another but because, being justified, they counted themselves friends of God as was Abraham 2 Chron.

There is also the imputation of the righteousness of Jesus Christ to the sinner. His righteousness is "unto all and upon all them that believe" Rom. For illustration, see Philemon At the bar of God no man can be counted righteous in His sight because of his obedience to law. The burden of the Epistle to the Romans is to set forth this great truth.

As a means of establishing right relations with God the law is totally insufficient.

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There is no salvation by character. What men need is salvation from character. The reason why the law cannot justify is here stated: Indeed, it was never intended to remove it, but to intensify it. The law simply defines sin, and makes it sinful, yea, exceedingly sinful, but it does not emancipate from it. The law demands perfect and continual obedience: The only thing the law can do is to stop the mouth of every man, and declare him guilty before God Rom.

It is a question of Moses or Christ, works or faith, law or promise, doing or believing, wages or a free gift. From the contents of the epistle up to this point it must be clearly evident that if men, sinful and sinning, are to be justified at all, it must be "by his free grace. It is impossible to get rid of this double idea from this passage.

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The sacrifices of the Old Testament were more than a meaningless butchery -- "Without shedding of blood is no remission" of sin Heb. The great sacrifice of the New Testament, the death of Jesus Christ, was something more than the death of a martyr -- men are "justified by his blood" Rom. When Paul in Romans 4: Thus it come to pass that "all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses" Acts The best of men need to be saved by faith in Jesus Christ, and the worst need only that.

As there is no difference in the need, neither is there in the method of its application. On this common ground all saved sinners meet, and will stand forever. The first step, then, in justification is to despair of works; the second, to believe on him that justifieth the ungodly. We are not to slight good works, for they have their place, but they follow, not precede justification. The workingman is not the justified man, but the justified man is the workingman.

Works are not meritorious, but they meet with their reward in the life of the justified.

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The tree shows its life by its fruits, but it was alive before the fruit or even the leaves appeared. See under Faith, II. Summing up we may say that men are justified judicially by God. Regeneration begins the new life in the soul; justification deals with the new attitude of God towards that soul, or perhaps better, of that soul towards God; adoption admits man into the family of God with filial joy. Regeneration has to do with our change in nature; justification, with our change in standing; sanctification, with our change in character; adoption, with our change in position.

In regeneration the believer becomes a child of God John 1: Adoption means the placing of a son. It is a legal metaphor as regeneration is a physical one. It is a Roman word, for adoption was hardly, if at all, known among the Jews.

It means the taking by one man of the son of another to be his son, so that that son has the same position and all the advantages of a son by birth. The word is Pauline, not Johannine. The word is never once used of Christ. It is used of the believer when the question of rights, privileges, and heirship are involved. It is peculiarly a Pauline word Gal. John uses the word "children," not "sons," because he is always speaking of sonship from the standpoint of nature, growth, and likeness cf.

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We need to distinguish between the foreordaining to adoption, and the actual act of adoption which took place when we believed in Christ. Just as the incarnation was foreordained, and yet took place in time; and just as the Lamb was slain from before the foundation of the word, and yet actually only on Calvary. Why then mention this eternal aspect of adoption? To exclude works and to show that our salvation had its origin solely in the grace of God Rom. Just as if we should adopt a child it would be a wholly gracious act on our part.

Sonship is now the present possession of the believer. Strange as it may be, inconceivable as it may seem, it is nevertheless true. The world may not think so v. But some day we shall throw off this disguise 2 Cor. It doth not appear, it hath not yet appeared what we shall be; the revelation of the sons of God is reserved for a future day. See also I John 3: The blessings of adoption are too numerous to mention save in the briefest way. Some of them are as follows: Objects of God's peculiar love John We have the family name 1 John 3: We receive fatherly chastisement Heb.

Those who are adopted into God's family are: Led by the Spirit Rom. Have a childlike confidence in God Gal. Have liberty of access Eph. Have love for the brethren 1 John 2: Are obedient 1 John 5: If Regeneration has to do with our nature, Justification with our standing, and Adoption with our position, then Sanctification has to do with our character and conduct.

In Justification we are declared righteous in order that, in Sanctification, we may become righteous. Justification is what God does for us, while Sanctification is what God does in us. Justification puts us into a right relationship with God, while Sanctification exhibits the fruit of that relationship -- a life separated from a sinful world and dedicated unto God.

Two thoughts are prominent in this definition: And the priests went into the inner part of the house of the Lord, to cleanse it, and brought out all the uncleanness. Then they went in to Hezekiah the king, and said, We have cleansed all the house of the Lord. It is evident from these scriptures that sanctification has to do with the turning away from all that is sinful and that is defiling to both soul and body. In this sense whatever is set apart from a profane to a sacred use, whatever is devoted exclusively to the service of God, is sanctified. So it follows that a man may "sanctify his house to be holy unto the Lord," or he may "sanctify unto the Lord some part of a field of his possession" Lev.

So also the first-born of all the children were sanctified unto the Lord Num. Even the Son of God Himself, in so far as He was set apart by the Father and sent into the world to do God's will, was sanctified John Whenever a thing or person is separated from the common relations of life in order to be devoted to the sacred, such is said to be sanctified. Whenever the sacred writers desire to show that the Lord is absolutely removed from all that is sinful and unholy, and that He is absolutely holy in Himself they speak of Him as being sanctified: Sanctification may be viewed as past, present, and future; or instantaneous, progressive, and complete.

For by one offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. The very moment a man believes in Christ he is sanctified, that is, in this first sense: For this reason all through the New Testament believers are called saints 1 Cor.

If a man is not a saint he is not a Christian; if he is a Christian he is a saint. In some quarters people are canonized after they are dead; the New Testament canonizes believers while they are alive. Note how that in 1 Cor. By a simple act of faith in Christ the believer is at once put into a state of sanctification. Every Christian is a sanctified man. The same act that ushers him into the state of justification admits him at once into the state of sanctification, in which he is to grow until he reaches the fulness of the measure of the stature of Christ.

Justification differs from Sanctification thus: We are being transformed from one degree of character, or glory, to another. It is because sanctification is progressive, a growth, that we are exhorted to "increase and abound" 1 Thess. The fact that there is always danger of contracting defilement by contact with a sinful world, and that there is, in the life of the true Christian, an ever increasing sense of duty and an ever-deepening consciousness of sin, necessitates a continual growth and development in the graces and virtues of the believer's life.

There is such a thing as "perfecting holiness" 2 Cor. God's gift to the church of pastors and teachers is for the purpose of the perfecting of the saints in the likeness of Christ until , at last, they attain unto the fulness of the divine standard, even Jesus Christ Eph. Holiness is not a mushroom growth; it is not the thing of an hour; it grows as the coral reef grows: Some day the believer is to be complete in all departments of Christian character -- no Christian grace missing.

Complete in the "spirit" which links him with heaven; in the "body" which links him with earth; in the "soul" as being that on which heaven and earth play. Maturity in each separate element of Christian character: This blessing of entire and complete sanctification is to take place when Christ comes: How explicitly Paul puts the matter in Phil.

Brethren, I count not myself yet to have laid hold: How are men sanctified? What means are used, and what agencies employed to make men holy and conform them into the likeness of Christ?

What is repentance and is it necessary for salvation?

The agencies and means are both divine and human: Faithful is he that calleth you, who will also do it. Just as in Hebrews Of course there is a sense in which the believer is responsible for his progress in the Christian life Phil. We cannot purify ourselves, but we can yield to God and then the purity will come. The "God of peace," He who reconciles us -- is the One who sanctifies us. It is as if the apostle said: This same truth, namely, the sanctification of the church as based on the sacrificial death of Christ, is set forth in Eph.

Because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth. It is the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus who gives us freedom from the law of sin and death Rom. He is called the Holy Spirit, not only because He is absolutely holy Himself, but also because he produces that quality of soul-character in the believer.

The Spirit is the executive of the God-head for this very purpose. It is the Spirit's work to war against the lusts of the flesh and enable us to bring forth fruit unto holiness Gal. How wonderfully this truth is set forth in the contrast between the seventh and eighth chapters of Romans. Note the unsuccessful struggle of the former, and the victory of the latter. Note also that there is no mention of the Holy Spirit in the seventh, while He is mentioned about sixteen times in the eighth chapter.

Herein lies the secret of failure and victory, sin and holiness. Only as the believer, daily, yea, even momentarily, takes by faith the holiness of Jesus, His faith, His patience, His love, His grace, to be his own for the need of that very moment, can Christ, who by His death was made unto him sanctification in the instantaneous sense, become unto him sanctification in the progressive sense -- producing in the believer His own life moment by moment. Herein lies the secret of a holy life -- the momentarily appropriation of Jesus Christ in all the riches of His grace for every need as it arises.

The degree of our sanctification is the proportion of our appropriation of Christ. How does the Word of God sanctify? By revealing sin; by awakening conscience; by revealing the character of Christ; by showing the example of Christ; by offering the influences and powers of the Holy Spirit, and by setting forth spiritual motives and ideals. There is no power like that of the Word of God for detaching a man from the world, the flesh and the devil.

One cannot become a saint in his sleep. Holiness must be the object of his pursuit. The lazy man will not be the holy man. True faith no longer views God as unreal, unimportant, unknowable, or made-up, but as the triune and self-existent creator of all things that He has revealed Himself to be in Scripture. Our view of our self, mankind, and reality changes from uncreated and independent of God to created, dependent, and sustained by God. We trust Christ as the redeemer of condemned sinners before a holy God.

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Moreover, our change in worldview involves a new view of knowledge, truth, and authority. The unbelieving worldview sees knowledge as attainable without God and truth as determined by our own interpretation of reality, while the believing worldview accepts our dependence on God as the source of all knowledge and truth. In trusting Christ, our supreme authority shifts from personal opinion to God and Scripture as the ultimate explanation of Himself, His world, sin, judgment, Christ, the Gospel, etc. We embrace a real and sufficient Savior as revealed to us in the Bible, not a fantasy or abstract idea of our own making.

Indeed, saving faith comes to Christ in obedience to the exhortations of Scripture, our new rule of life and godliness. And while our practice remains imperfect this side of glory, we repent of the idea that we determine right and wrong and can do what we please. Repentance turns from self to God as our supreme moral authority. Thus, the simple saving faith that unites us to Christ cannot exist without repentance. The heart at war with God will not love and trust Christ until the enmity dissipates and Christ is embraced for the glorious Lord and Savior He is.

At the same time, our knowledge remains imperfect and our best works tainted with sin. By the promised gift of the Holy Spirit, our new nature will display itself in new affections, a new direction, new priorities, and good works, even if they are not immediately and always visible to others at every moment.

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