Tag: repentance

It’s said there are only two guarantees in life: death and taxes. While some have managed to skirt the latter, no one in history has completely cheated death. We all may try, and even achieve some temporary success with the current medical advances and scientific research. Or we may try to distract ourselves from the truth at hand with our work, families, hobbies, or worse things like drugs or alcohol. In the end, all is vanity. All our efforts to avoid death are in vain, they don’t accomplish the task and eventually we pass on anyway.

Many have promised a route to eternal life, and every world religion presents its own way to achieve this salvation. However, every one of these solutions end the same way: death. Even the founders of these major belief systems found their way to the grave that we will all one day face.

This is the rule: we are all born, we live, and then we die. However, there is one exception: Jesus was born, he lived, and then he died, then he rose to life again promising to do the same miracle for all who have faith in him.

This is the Gospel.

The word “Gospel” is Greek, and means “good news.” Many people claim to share the Gospel, but actually end up turning it into bad news by adding extra stuff and overcomplicating it, you’ll read more on that later.

I’m glad you asked! We must believe that his work on the cross, his undeserved suffering and death, paid for the death that we deserve for our sinfulness. We must believe that our debt is fully paid by his act alone and that there is nothing we could do to replace, or add to, his sacrifice.

This sacrifice is truly the most wonderful gift that could be given, and God offers it to every person in the world!

“For God so loved the world what he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believes in him should not parish, but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16)

But why must we believe? Why doesn’t he just save us? To answer these questions, I will another post, but for the sake of our conversation here, suffice it to say that it’s simply the way God wanted to do things.

“For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell, and having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself” (Colossians 1: 19-20)

For a little more depth into the gospel, let’s read Romans 3: 19-28.

Here, Paul says that the deeds of the law, which Jesus sums up as loving God and loving your neighbor in Matthew 22:39-40, can not justify anyone because the law was given with the purpose of showing us that we are already sinful. Instead, in verse 21, Paul points out that God’s righteousness is made available outside of the law and is offered “unto all” and applied “upon all who believe” in verse 22.

By believing in the work of Jesus on the cross, and trusting that his death paid for our wrong doings, we are accepting a free gift from God to forgive our sins, and we are justified in his sight. To be justified means not only to be right, but, more specifically, to be seen as right by an observer. This is an act of grace on Gods part, which bestows the righteousness of Jesus upon us and pays off the debt we owed because of our sins.

“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Romans 6:23)

Here is the simple Gospel of Jesus Christ: We can all have our debt, the death we deserved for our sinfulness, completely forgiven simply by accepting the free gift of Christs payment upon the cross. This is purely an act of grace; there are no works we could ever do to earn this gift; there are no works we have to do to keep it; there is nothing we could do to lose it.

The true Gospel of Jesus Christ really is this simple, but there are some which would object to this simple good news.

There is a teaching that has found its way into the common presentation of the Gospel. Instead of presenting salvation as a free gift from God that was given simply out of his mercy and grace, they assert that this gift of eternal life is given only on the condition that you repent of your sins and choose to follow Jesus instead.

This objection to the simple Gospel can take on several forms: Some teach that in order to become saved you must first repent of your sinful ways and clean up your life; others teach that if you sin after your initial salvation, then you lose your eternal life and must go through the entire process of repenting and believing again to regain it.

Every form of this objection shares two fundamental flaws.

The first flaw is that they ignore the dual nature of human beings as both flesh and spirit, and that the paths of these two aspects of our being are very different. While this doctrine contends that the actions of the one impact the path and destiny of them both, the Bible clearly lays out a distinction and separation between the two.

In Romans, chapters 7 and 8, Paul demonstrates that the flesh and the spirit do separate things and receive different treatment with respect to their present state.

Notice the verb tenses in each one of those verses. You’ll see that everything is in present tense, with only two exceptions.

All of the above are in the present tense. Both of the exceptions listed below are in the future tense.

1. (Chapter 7:24) Paul looks to the future for a savior from his body’s death.
2. (Chapter 8:11) The Spirit that raised Christ from the dead, shall also do the same for our dead bodies if it dwells in us.

These scriptures make the distinction between the body and the spirit apparent and clearly show that the Bible teaches, at the very least, that there is a duality to the nature of the human being.

Let’s look at chapter 8, verses 10 and 11, again:

Romans 8:10 “And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin…”

It is clear that even if you have Christ in you, your body is still dead because of sin, and will continue to sin because of that.

Romans 8:11 “If the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he – shall also quicken your mortal bodies by the Spirit that dwells in you.”

In the future, Jesus will raise up our dead bodies and, as is written in 1 Corinthians 15:52-53:

52. “In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump, for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible and we shall be changed.
53. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.”

If we are saved, we already have life in our spirit, and one day we will also have life in our dead bodies.

The second fundamental flaw that these objections to the simple Gospel share is that they turn the free gift of salvation into something that must be earned.

Every other major world religion teaches some form of what is called a “works based” salvation. They teach that your good deeds must ultimately outweigh the bad, or that you have to do or achieve something in order to gain eternal life. Christianity is different, the Bible teaches that there are no works you can do to save yourself.

When it comes to the impact of works vs faith on a persons salvation, the Bible is abundantly clear that our own works can not save us and that it’s purely a gift that God grants to those that have faith in the work of Jesus on the cross.

“For by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is a gift from God, not of works lest anyone should boast.” (Ephesians 2:8)

To say that one must have faith and works together in any combination completely undermines the fact that eternal life is given to us by an act of grace from God.

“And if by grace, then it is no longer by works, otherwise grace is no longer grace. But if it be by works, then is it no longer by grace, otherwise work is no longer work.” (Romans 11:6)

If we had to work for eternal life in any way then it could not be said that salvation is by grace. Romans 4:4-8 puts it this way:

We that believe and trust in the work of Christ on the cross to forgive our sins are truly blessed to have received this gift from God. Not only do we receive salvation and eternal life by grace alone through faith alone, but verse 8 above says that God will no longer impute our sins to us. That means that the sins we commit, after we believe and trust in his work and are saved, are not counted against us (Romans 4:8) and we are considered righteous and justified in his sight.

I want you to imagine receiving an unexpected gift from someone. Picture it: you’re going along, minding your own business, when suddenly someone stops you and holds out a small package wrapped in colorful paper with a bow on top. With the gift extended out to you, they say, “Here! This is for you, please take it.”

Once you receive the gift, the contents of it are yours, and since it is a genuine gift, given to you out of pure generosity, your ownership of it is not contingent upon any future deeds.

The Bible says that God offers the whole world a gift. He sees our sinfulness, and that the results of it is, ultimately, death. To save us from death, Jesus died on the cross and took the debt upon himself. This divine debt forgiveness is given freely to everyone that believes.

“The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Romans 6:23)

What must you do to be saved?

“Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved.” (Acts 16:31)