Repentance – God’s
command to sinful mankind.
Mathew 3:1-3
Defending the Gospel
against “Cheap Grace”
Repentance: The act of definitively turning away
from our sins and seeking after God instead.
Question: Is Repentance optional to become a
Christian?
Answer: No. We must forsake our sins in
order to receive salvation. This command goes against our carnal, sin loving
hearts but is necessary for salvation; otherwise, God would not have made it so
emphatically clear in His word.
Matthew 3:1-3
3 In those days John the Baptist came
preaching in the wilderness of Judea, 2 and saying,
“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!” 3 For
this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah, saying:
“The voice
of one crying in the wilderness:
‘Prepare the way of the Lord;
Make His paths straight.’ ”
‘Prepare the way of the Lord;
Make His paths straight.’ ”
Acts 2:38
38 Then Peter said to them, “Repent, and let every one of you be
baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the [a]remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy
Spirit.
Isaiah 55:6-7
6 Seek the Lord while He may be found,
Call upon Him while He is near.
7 Let the [a]wicked forsake his way,
And the unrighteous man his thoughts;
Let him return to the Lord,
And He will have mercy on him;
And to our God,
For He will abundantly pardon.
Call upon Him while He is near.
7 Let the [a]wicked forsake his way,
And the unrighteous man his thoughts;
Let him return to the Lord,
And He will have mercy on him;
And to our God,
For He will abundantly pardon.
Luke 5:32
32 I have not come to call the
righteous, but sinners, to repentance.”
Luke 13:3
3 I tell you, no; but unless you repent
you will all likewise perish.
Luke 24:46-47
46 Then He said to them, “Thus it is
written, [a]and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and
to rise from the dead the third day, 47 and that
repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations,
beginning at Jerusalem.
Acts 20:20-25
20 how I kept back nothing that was
helpful, but proclaimed it to you, and taught you publicly and from house to
house, 21 testifying to Jews, and also to Greeks,
repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.
Luke 15:7
7 I say to you that likewise there will
be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine [a]just persons who need no repentance.
Don’t believe in “cheap
grace”
A required component of the gospel
message is repentance. Repentance is necessary in order to experience saving faith in Jesus
Christ. It is not enough to simply give intellectual ascent that Jesus Christ
is the savior of the world and ask him to take away our sins if we have no
intention to forsake the sins that so offended Holy God in the first place! Being “saved” apart from repenting of our
sins is no salvation at all.
Think about this analogy:
As part of
your church’s maximum security prison outreach; you visit a shackled, convicted
murderer under high security guard supervision. You are escorted into the
felon’s cell and seated across from Him separated by a plain wooden table.
After warning Him of the eternal judgement to come for his murders; you begin
pleading with the man that he repent of His sin and believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ for the forgiveness of sin.
He responds:
“I really
desire to be saved from the eternal consequences of my heinous actions and
truly believe Jesus Christ died for my sins…That’s why I’ll enjoy strangling
you to death all the more with the knowledge that my sins are forgiven!”
With that
the convicted murderer lunges for your throat with a devilish grin only to be
violently snapped back in place by the iron shackles that restrain Him.
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