Why do you claim to be a Christian? What do you base your salvation on?
▪️Is it because there was a time you repeated the Believer’s Prayer, asking Jesus into your heart?
▪️ Is it because you have been baptized?
▪️ Is it because you believe in the life and death of Jesus taught in the Bible?
▪️ Is it because you attend church?
▪️ Is it because you live a comparatively good life as a “good person,” avoiding some of the more obvious sins?
These are not signs of a true salvation.
You could be a sincere person kept in religious darkness. You could be bound in iniquity and dead works because you do not know this vital central message of the Bible: Repentance.
Salvation involves more than just believing in the divinity of Jesus Christ (because even demons believe and shudder.)
Salvation requires repentance and the remission of sins.
It was taught through the entire Bible – both the Old and New Testament.
Repentance was preached by John, Jesus, the disciples, the apostles, and Paul. It is something the Bible says should be preached in Jesus’ name to all nations.
▪️ What is repentance?
In Hebrew, to repent is to turn back from evil and turn towards God.
In Greek, to repent is to change one’s mind.
It is to wholeheartedly change for the better with a disgusted loathing for your past sins.
You turn from sin with contrition – this involves showing sorrow and remorse for sin and turning from that sin towards God.
With this godly sorrow, you are then in the proper place to receive divine forgiveness.
Both John and Jesus preached repentance for the remission of sins.
▪️ What is the remission of sins?
It is the release from the bondage, imprisonment, and penalty of sins. It is letting them go as if they had never been committed.
Repentance and the remission of sins is needed to return to God and be restored through salvation.
▪️Though you call Him the Most High, does your life exalt Him?
Could it be that you are poisoned and bound, and that your heart is not right in the sight of God? Do you need to repent of your wickedness and pray for the thought of your heart to be forgiven?
You’ve heard of God with your ears, but have you seen Him with your eyes? If so, you would abhor what you now excuse and turn to God in repentance.
The kingdom of heaven is at hand and there’s a day of judgement appointed. It is a command of God that we all repent and believe the gospel or else we will perish.
Everyone will be judged according to his ways. We all need to repent and turn from our transgressions and rebellion so that iniquity will not be our ruin.
Your idols will cause you to be alienated from God. God will turn His face against the person who sets up idols in his heart and puts before him what causes him to stumble into iniquity.
You have to turn your face away from your idols, abominations, evil ways, and evil doings, and turn towards God with a godly sorrow in order to dwell in all the Lord has for you.
You need to come to yourself, see where you have sinned and committed wickedness, and return to God with all your heart, begging for favor. Then God will hear your prayer and maintain your cause.
Signs of true repentance are evident. We are called to bear fruits worthy of repentance and do works befitting repentance.
Repentance is to be brought back to the love and obedience of God and to be turned to worship of the true God. It is to love wisdom and righteousness, so that our sins may be blotted out and times of refreshing may come from the presence of God.
It is the goodness of God that leads you to repentance.
There is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.
It is a repentance unto life, and God wills it for all.