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About Jesus Steve Sweetman Repentance
- Our First Response To The Cross In Acts chapter two we
have the birth of the church. With
the outpouring and receiving of the Spirit of God into the lives of the
believers, the church was birthed. On
that day Peter gave a stirring message to the people who saw this event
unfold. When these people “were
cut to the heart”, they asked Peter , “What must we do,” Peter
replied. “Repent and be
baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins
may be forgiven, And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit”.
(Acts 2:37-38) First of all you should
notice that these people who saw the
Holy Spirit come and reside in the believers must have been influenced
by that same Holy Spirit. The
Scripture says that they “were cut to the heart”.
The Holy Spirit touched these people’s hearts to cause them to
want to be saved. The Greek
word “katanusso” is the word translated here as “cut”.
“Katanusso” means to stun, or to violently strike”.
The Holy Spirit did not simply speak to these people’s hearts,
He struck, or stunned their hearts.
As a result, they really wanted what Peter and the others had.
The first thing that
Peter tells them to do is to repent. A simple definition of the word
repent is to change your mind. Peter
was telling these people that first of all they needed to change their
minds on the direction they were living.
They needed to make a 180 degree turn in their thinking and in
their actions. They had to
accept the fact of their depravity and turn towards Jesus.
True repentance must
precede true faith. If you
have not repented, then you cannot really have faith or trust in Jesus.
Think of it this way. The
repenting part of your life is when you make the 180 degree turn in the
direction that your life has been going.
After that, the first step you take in that new direction is
faith, or trust. So before
you take the first step in the new direction, you must turn yourself
around and align yourself up
in that new direction. That
is why I say repentance precedes faith.
In Luke 3:7 and 8 John
the Baptist says an interesting thing about repentance.
Concerning the crowds that were coming out to be baptized he
said, “who warned you to flee from the coming wrath.
Produce fruit in keeping with repentance”.
What John is saying here is that if you say you are repenting,
let me see it in your actions. Repenting
is something that is more than words.
If someone says that they have repented, then their actions will
show it, and if their actions don’t show it, then they have not
repented. The word “repent” is
found 46 times in the King James Bible, while the word “repentance”
is found 26 times. Then
beyond that, the concept of repenting is seen in countless other
passages. You can see how
important repenting is. Looking back at Acts 2 we
should note once again that the Holy Spirit had a real part to play in
the people’s choice to repent. Their
hearts were stunned to the core by the Spirit of God.
I do not believe that one can truly repent on his own without the
aid of the Holy Spirit. We
are so depraved that God’s Spirit needs to be at work in our lives in
order to make this change. It
is a thing of co-operation. That
is, we are the ones to make the choice to repent after the Holy Spirit
stuns out hearts. He even
helps us in the repenting process, yet it is still our decision.
Once the Holy Spirit stuns our hearts, we can say “yes to
Him”, or we can say “no to Him”.
Even though we cannot repent without the help of the Spirit, we
are still free agents. We
still have the choice to refuse, and many do. Read Acts 8.
There you will see the story of Philip who preached the gospel to
the people of Now Philip came to the
city and preached the gospel which included miraculous signs as proof of
the reality of what he was saying. Simon,
a man of power, who liked power and wanted more, followed Philip around.
(Acts 8:13) Many people in Now these new believers
had not yet received the Holy Spirit for some reason and it took Peter
and John’s arrival for that to happen.
When Peter and John laid hands on these people they received the
Holy Spirit. Simon saw this
and being a man who liked the miraculous was amazed.
He was so taken by this sight that he offered Peter money in
order that he could give people the Holy Spirit when he laid his hands
on them as well. (Acts 8:19) Look at what Peter said
in response to Simon’s request. “May
your money perish with you, because you thought that you could buy the
gift of God with money! You
have no part or share in this ministry, because your heart is not right
before God. Repent of this
wickedness and pray to the Lord. Perhaps
He will forgive you for having such a thought in your heart. For I see
that you are full of bitterness and captive to sin.". (Acts
8:20-23) This is quite a response.
First of all, Simon believed Philip’s message of the gospel
along with the rest of the people. Secondly,
he was even water baptized. Yet
it is apparent that he did not truly repent.
That is why Peter told him to repent.
Peter told him to repent and then perhaps the Lord would forgive
him. The word “perhaps”
shows you how Peter felt about Simon.
He was far from impressed. Now
Peter knew that true repentance does produce forgiveness, but he
questioned the fact that Simon would ever truly repent.
Note that Peter told
Simon that “his heart was not right with God’.
Our mouths can say one thing, while our hearts can say another,
as was the case with Simon. God
can see our hearts. He can
see if we have truly repented or not.
If our repentance is only in word, then God knows and He will
judge us accordingly. If
your repentance is merely in word only, then your way of living will
most likely prove that to be so.
It is clear from this
passage that repentance is necessary for salvation.
It is also clear that someone can give mental ascent to the
gospel, and even get water baptized without really repenting and being
made right before God. Simon
was a clear example of this. Just
because Simon said he believed and was water baptized did not make him a
true Christian. He needed to
repent. This is true with
everyone else in history. There
is no salvation without repenting. There
is no forgiveness of sins without repenting.
You can not receive the Holy Spirit without repenting.
You will not find yourself in Heaven when you die without
repenting. Many books over the years
have been written about repentance.
It is not my thinking to print a major report on the subject,
only to point out its importance, and by now you should understand that
it is indeed very important if you want to be a true Christian.
Faith,
Our Second Response To The Cross First of all, when it
comes to faith, we need to understand what the word means.
The simplest meaning for faith is “to trust”.
Faith is one very misused word, both in religious and
non-religious circles these days. I
think that there are certain religious words that just aren’t
understood in today’s world. Faith,
I think, is one of those misunderstood words.
So if you trust something or someone, then you have faith in that
thing or that person. The
world understands the word trust better than the word faith.
So we can use the word trust instead of the word faith if we wish
to help people understand what the Bible says.
As always, when I am
looking for the definition of a word found in the Bible, I look first to
see what the original Greek or Hebrew word means, remembering that the
Old Testament was written in Hebrew and the New Testament was written in
Greek. In this case the
Greek New Testament word that is translated as faith is the word
"pistis". Vine, in his Expository Dictionary of New Testament
Words says that "pistis" means “a strong conviction based on
persuasion from hearing”. In
the New Testament "pistis" is always used in relation to
Jesus, God, or things spiritual. Holman’s Bible
Dictionary defines faith as a "trusting commitment to a person, and
especially to God". From our Greek definition
of "pistis" and Holman’s definition of the word
"faith" we conclude that faith is a "loving and trusting
commitment to a person". In this case the person is Jesus.
Our faith is based on "hearing something about Jesus and
being persuaded that He is trustworthy". As a result of hearing and
being persuaded, we put our faith or trust in Him. In
actuality, we hand our lives over to the Lord Jesus for Him to take care
of. We as Christians have
heard the gospel of a faithful God. We have been persuaded that this is
the truth. We thus put our faith in Him. By this we mean that we have
"committed ourselves to Him in a trustworthy
relationship". The above definition
is what faith really means. We have watered down the word faith
over the years. We should also note that the word believe in the New
Testament is also from the word "pistis". When you see Jesus
telling us to believe in Him, He is actually telling us to have faith in
Him, which means to have a "trusting and committed
relationship" with him. He is not telling us to mentally accept His
existence for what He has to say. True
faith “is not” mental ascent to the facts. Someone might say, “I
trust that chair will hold me up when I sit in it”.
But if that person does not ever sit in the chair because in his
heart he is afraid that he will fall to the ground, then his words do
not match his actions. As a
result, you can conclude that he really does not have the faith or trust
in that chair that he says he has. Faith
does produce actions, and without the actions true faith does not exist.
It is very interesting to
note the evolution of the word believe. Read what Holman’s Bible
Dictionary says about the words faith and believe.
"Our English word faith comes from the Latin “fides”, as
developed through the Old French words “fei” and “feid”.
In Middle English (1150-1475) faith replaced a word that
eventually evolved into belief. Faith came to mean loyalty to a person
to whom one is bound by promise or duty.
Faith was fidelity. Belief came to be distinguished from faith as
an intellectual process having to do with the acceptance of a
proposition. The verb form of faith dropped out of English usage toward
the end of the sixteenth century."
We thus see a new
definition of the word believe, that came about around 1150 and 1475 AD.
Prior to then faith and believe both meant a trusting relationship to a
person. During that time
period the word believe came to mean a mental acceptance of an idea.
That is where we get the phrase "belief system". A belief
system is a systematic and organized way of thinking.
This new definition for
the word believe is a departure from the New Testament way of thinking,
as I have said earlier. This departure has remained with us to this very
day and has effected us in a negative way.
We now tell people that they need to believe in Jesus in order to
be saved, but what definition are we using for the word believe when we
say this? Also, when we tell
people to believe, what is their definition for the word believe? They
are most likely using the new definition. They are most likely thinking
that all they need to do is to give mental ascent to what we are telling
them. They are most likely thinking, “O yea, I can accept that”.
If this is indeed the case then what they are saying are not
words of faith. We need to
understand what we are saying and what people are hearing us say.
We need to make sure they understand what real faith is, what
true believing is all about. When Jesus used the word
believe, He meant that we need to give ourselves to Him in a loving and
trusting way.
Once doing this, we will be saved. Our Christian faith is
more than a belief system that people need to accept. Our faith is a
committed relationship with the Lord Jesus. Mental ascent to the gospel
is only a step towards salvation. It is not salvation.
It is only a step towards true faith.
Look at what Jesus says
in Luke 22:31. Jesus told
Peter and the other disciples that Satan wanted to sift them as wheat.
He went on to tell Peter that He would pray for his faith.
Jesus knew of Peter’s frailties. He knew that Peter would deny
Him and sin, but what was most important to Jesus was Peter’s faith,
his trusting relationship with Him. Jesus wanted that relationship to
remain intact even though Peter would deny Him in front of others.
This is also true with
us. Jesus is interested in our faith, our relationship with Him. He
knows that the better relationship we have with Him, the less likely we
will sin. Once
again the emphasis is on relationship, on our faith, on our trust in
Him, not merely a belief system. Now I certainly do not
want to minimize our belief system. It is very important to know what we
believe and why, in order to pass it along to others. (1 Peter 3:15 )
Without a relationship with Jesus our belief system cannot help us. It
is like the Old Testament Law, something that is external and not in our
hearts. If we only have a belief system, we are no different than any
other world religion. It is more than clear
that we need to believe in Jesus. John
3:16 is the most famous
verse that tells us this. “For
God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whosoever
believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life”.
This is only one of many verses telling us to believe. Once understanding that
faith is putting your trust in Jesus, based on a trusting relationship
we are building with Him, we need to make sure we really do trust Him
alone. Our tendency as
humans is to trust something else along with Jesus.
The people in Paul’s day had this problem.
The Jewish people wanted to trust in Jesus as well as the Law of
Moses. Some went as far as
to replace Jesus with the Law of Moses.
In Galatians 5:4 and 5 Paul says that these people who have
replaced Jesus with the Law have “alienated themselves from Christ and
have fallen from grace”. They have actually lost their salvation
because they are not trusting in Jesus anymore. There were people in
Paul’s day trying to mix the Law and Jesus together.
They were trying to trust in both.
We do the same today. We
have many man made church rules we suggest we should obey to maintain
our salvation. We often say
that in order to be a real Christian, you need to do certain things, or
not do certain other things. When
I was young, in order to be a real Christian, I could not go to a movie
theatre, or play cards. These
were rules that were added to trusting Jesus alone.
That meant if I played cards I would loose my salvation and end
up in the Paul is extremely clear
on this point. He says in Romans 3:21 and
22 that there is “a righteousness from God apart from law …
this righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ”.
This is only one of many verses that says such a thing.
Being made righteous, or getting saved, whatever way you want to
say it, comes by faith or trusting in Jesus alone.
Once again, it is not my
intent to go into great detail about the word faith, I simply want to
point out that faith does not mean mental ascent to Jesus and what He
has done. It is giving
yourself to Him in a trusting relationship.
It is really trusting Him from the bottom of your heart.
And your trust in Him should not be mixed with anything else.
No rule should be added to this trust.
No good thing that you can do should be added either.
Our salvation is based on Jesus and what He has done for us and
absolutely nothing else. This is what I have come
to believe and say concerning trusting Jesus.
When we first come to Him we must trust Him with our whole life,
including our salvation. Too
often we come to Jesus and trust Him for our salvation, and then try our
best to trust Him for everything else.
I have come to believe that I need to trust Him for all things,
and part of all things is my salvation.
I know this takes time for us to do, but this should be our
mentality. Receiving The Holy Spirit
John the Baptist baptized
with water but he told people that Jesus would “baptize with the Holy
Spirit”. (John 1:33) Jesus,
in John 7:38 and 39 said, “whoever believes in me … streams of
living water will flow from
within him By this He meant
the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were later to receive.”
Jesus told these people in John 7 that the day would come when
they would receive the Holy Spirit of God, if they truly believed in
Him. If they truly gave
themselves to Him in a trusting relationship, they would receive the
Holy Spirit. "On one occasion
(after His resurrection) … He (Jesus) gave this command: Do not leave
Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised … for John
baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the
Holy Spirit” (Acts 1:4 and 5) In
John 7 Jesus foretold about the day His disciples would receive the Holy
Spirit. In Acts 1 that day was at hand.
It was only a few days away.
His disciples would receive the “gift God promised”, which is
the Holy Spirit. The
receiving of this gift would come in the form of a baptism.
In the same way when one gets soaking wet with water when water
baptized, so these people would get soaking wet with the Holy Spirit
when they received Him. The
gift of God is the Holy Spirit Himself.
The gift of God is not the way
in which we receive the Spirit. The
gift of God is not an experience. Yet
when we receive the gift of the Spirit, we will have some kind of an
experience. Acts chapter two tells
the story of the birth of the church, when the disciples of Jesus, 120
in all, would receive God’s Spirit. It was a very dramatic sight.
Tongues of fire could be seen over each disciple and each of them
spoke in tongues, in another language that they had not learned.
Their lips spoke this new language because of the Spirit who
enabled them to speak. As a
result those around them in the streets could hear the disciples
speaking about the wonders of God in their own language.
In a very dramatic way, Jesus’ words of John 7 came true.
The Holy Spirit of God was now available to those who really
trusted in Him. These same people who saw
this event unfold were stunned in their hearts.
They asked Peter, “what shall we do?
Peter replied. Repent
and be baptized … and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit”.
(Acts 2:37 and 38) Peter
follows up Jesus’ words about the Holy Spirit and the dramatic
happening that just took place by telling the observers that they could
receive the gift of the Spirit after repenting and being baptized.
The simple truth is this.
When one truly repents and trusts in Jesus, he or she will
receive the Holy Spirit. This is what happened in Acts 2.
It also happened in Acts 8 , 10 and 19.
The same has happened to me and to many others today and
throughout history. The same
will happen to anyone who truly repents and believes in Jesus.
But if you are like Simon the sorcerer that we have already
mentioned in Acts 8, who did not really repent, you will not receive the
Holy Spirit. Paul gets into this
discussion in his writings as well.
He goes as far as to say that if you do not have the Spirit of
God, you do not belong to Him. (Romans 8:9)
You see repenting and believing is not the end of the matter.
We repent and believe for a particular reason.
The reason why we repent and believe is so we can receive the
Holy Spirit. It is almost
like a mathematical formula. That
is, repent plus believe equals receive.
That is receive the Holy Spirit. The receiving of the
Spirit is the guarantee that we really belong to God. (Ephesians 1:13)
Without this seal of God’s Spirit as Paul puts it, we do not
belong to Him. The word seal
in this reference means the same as a lawyer’s seal when he stamps a
document saying that it is a legal document.
Jesus, by giving us His Spirit has stamped us, so that all will
know that we belong to Him. We
are legally His because of God’s Spirit within us. We cannot begin to live
the life Jesus wants us to live without the Spirit living in us.
Once we receive the Spirit we must live by Him.
Paul got quite upset with the Galatian believers because they
began their new life as Christians in the Spirit but continued living in
their own human effort. (Galatians 2:1-5)
We receive the Spirit so we can be reconciled to God and have the
power to be what we were meant to be.
Receiving the Spirit is not the end of the matter.
It is the beginning of a new life.
That is why Jesus calls it “being born again of the Spirit”
in John 3:3. It is indeed a
new birth. As our physical
birth was dramatic, so our new spiritual birth is just as dramatic and
life changing. Receiving the Holy Spirit is simply a natural result of real repenting and believing. It is most important to understand and keep this as a part of the fundamental truths of the gospel . If you leave out receiving the Holy Spirit, then you do not have the real gospel as described in Biblical terms. You are leaving out the reason why we repent and believe.
Receiving the Holy Spirit is the crux of the New Testament. That is to say, in the Old Testament, you had an external Law to live by. In New Testament times, you have the Holy Spirit within us to help us live as we should.
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