The repentance that is needed for salvation is not a repentance of works. That is, it's not a change from bad/evil behavior to good behavior. Repentance that saves is a change from unbelief to belief. It's a change from self-righteousness (thinking your good behavior justifies you before God - faith in your good behavior) to putting your faith in God who gives you His righteousness as a gift, having nothing to do with your behavior.
If the repentance that is needed for salvation is about you changing your behavior, then it's not God who has saved you. You have saved yourself! So go ahead then. Just try presenting all your awesome behavior changes to God. He sent Jesus to shed His blood and died as the one perfect sacrifice for all sins... but you go ahead and stand in front of Him and show Him how good you've been!
Or... get that idiotic thinking out of your head, and truly repent. Stop thinking your behavior has anything to do with salvation, and believe the gospel instead.
I love your podcast but this one is a little off.
ReplyDeleteRepentance is seeing your sins like God sees them, and having the desire to change.
Joh 3:19 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.
Joh 3:20 For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.
Joh 3:21 But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.
Do you love your sins? Do you love darkness?
The Holy Spirit is the One that changes you, by making you a new creature. If you try to clean yourself to make yourself acceptable to God, that is called works.
Hi Liliesgrandpa, thanks for your comment here. I'm glad you enjoy the podcast. The biblical word that is translated as "repent" in English versions of the Bible is "metanoéō" (Strong's 3340) and it literally means "to think differently or afterwards; that is, reconsider" or "to change one's mind." It has nothing to do with behavior, but rather with the way we think.
DeleteNo doubt about it, behavior change is a great thing! But this post is specifically about how "the repentance that is needed for salvation is not a repentance of works." That is, repentance is not about behavior. Here is more on this - another blog post of mine, in which I go a little more in depth than on this post.
Repentance Doesn't Mean Changing Your Behavior
We have also talked about this many times on the podcast, and here is a little series we did near the end of last year.
Delete731. Repent! (What It Does and Doesn’t Mean)
732. Repenting from What God Doesn’t Remember?
733. Repentance Is Not Based Upon Behavioral Changes