Acts 2:37 – 38 AMP “Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart [with remorse and anxiety], and they said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, ‘brothers, what are we to do?’ And Peter said to them, ‘repent [change your old way of thinking, turn from your sinful ways, accept and follow Jesus as the Messiah] and be baptized, each one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ because of the forgiveness of yours sins; and you will receive the Holy Spirit.”
2 Peter 3:9 AMP “The Lord does not delay [as though He were unable to act] and is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is [extraordinarily] patient towards you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.”
Luke 14:26 – 27 AMP “If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life [in the sense of indifference to or relative disregard for them in comparison with his attitude toward God] – he cannot be My disciple. Whoever does not carry his own cross [expressing a willingness to endure whatever may come] and follow after Me [believing in Me, conforming to My example in living and, if need be, suffering, or perhaps dying because of faith in Me] cannot be My disciple.”
Repent and believe. This is a message that I seldom here taught anymore. What I usually here is just “believe”. There is also lots of teaching to “come to Jesus just as you are”. While it is true that you are not to fix yourself up before coming to Jesus. That teaching is usually presented as there is no need for repentance. There are plenty more passages that we could look up that teach the same thing as the three I quoted. Jesus gave many lessons and parables about it being very hard to be one of His people. He told everyone that few people become His genuine people and that it would mean enduring many hardships.
What does it mean to repent? We have a pretty good description in the amplified part of the Acts passage from the Amplified Bible. I like to put it very simply as a turning from yourself as Lord, or the boss of your own life. The believing is to then turn TO Jesus Christ as your Lord, or the boss of your life. Every single person is born as having themselves as their own Lord. Hence everybody needs to come to repentance. Sins themselves all derive from man having themselves as Lord and not being united to God’s Spirit. Sin is a cause that results in sins (transgressions).
The Recovery Version Bible has a great footnote for John 3:16. It first off points out that the proper word to translate after “believe” is “into”. The footnote then explains that the Bible is talking about a subjective believing and not merely an objective believing. In other words you must have a believing that is out of an experiential union with God. It can’t be a believing that merely gives accent to facts about Jesus Christ. It doesn’t matter if you even have all of the facts correct about Jesus Christ. The Bible talks about a “believing” that springs about as a result of being joined to the Lord in Spirit. A believing that can only come about after Biblical repentance.
The Bible tells us that nobody can serve two masters. Mathew 6:24 AMP “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon [money, possessions, fame, status, or whatever is valued more than the Lord].” To serve mammon is to simply serve self. Today we see all sorts of people trying to serve both. Plenty of “Church” leaders are doing so. Plenty of people are willing to “follow” God as long as they get to still follow traditions of men, don’t have to obey God, get to have an easier job in “ministry”, get to gain fame, get to gain wealth, and get to gain influence.
Today we see many people who call themselves “Christians” who look no different to those around them. They still watch the same wicked TV and movies, listen to sinful music, send their kids to public schools, rarely read the Bible, drive wickedly, give approval to wicked lifestyles, and do all sorts of things that Christians should not do. I know multiple pastors who can’t even give me a testimony for: 1 when they were born-again, 2 how they’ve experienced the Life of Jesus Christ, or 3 how they are living a changed life. Jesus says that one MUST be born-again. John 3:3 AMP “Jesus answered him, ‘I assure you and most solemnly say to you, unless a person is born again [reborn from above-spiritually transformed, renewed, sanctified], he cannot [ever] see and experience the kingdom of God.” A Christian is united to God in Spirit and thus partakes of His Life. Romans 8:9b AMP “But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him [and is not a child of God].” A Christian will live a changed life. 2 Corinthians 5:17 “Therefore if anyone is in Christ [that is grafted in, joined to Him by faith in Him as Savior], he is a new creature [reborn and renewed by the Holy Spirit]. When people can’t give a testimony to these three simple questions the reason why is obvious. It is because they aren’t a genuine born again Christian. They merely believe of Jesus Christ. Their faith is merely an objective thing.
Many people today are looking to be saved from the penalty of sin without being saved from sin itself. Many are going through life with a believing that is merely mental accent to facts. A believing that is void of the necessary prerequisite repentance. They do not have a believing that means they were joined to the Lord in Spirit. They are not partaking of His Life and being remade as a new person. Many people are looking to Jesus as a genie or self-help guru.
I have a great illustration that shows the differences of these two types of “believing” in my book. It can be found on pages 178 and 179.
It seems to me that the main culprit for this problem is ignorance. I doubt that it is often due to intentional rebellion. It is also a case of being surrounded by many people in the same boat of deception. If you have no testimony for 1 being born-again, 2 experiencing the Life of Jesus, or 3 having a changed life; and are surrounded by other people who are in the same boat, then you will easily be able to think that all is well. It is sort of a safety in numbers thing. A person has to somehow be pricked that something is wrong to come out of this delusion.
I was in this very common boat of merely believing of Jesus Christ. It took gratitude to seek after God harder, and a willingness to admit that something wasn’t right, to come to know the Lord Jesus Christ for real.
The cure for it all is a genuine revelation of Jesus Christ inside a person. It comes from knowing Jesus in a real experiential way. The operating of His Life within a person is what brings healing to sinful lifestyles. It’s not up to you or I to memorize all the proper do’s and do not’s and try harder. That makes people cold and self focused. Experiencing the Life of Jesus Christ within is the cure. That is the Grace of God. Nobody deserves it. God makes this available to all who would turn to Him in repentance. It’s not available to those who will ‘just accept’ it. It’s for those who because they believe the proper facts about Jesus they thus turn to Him in repentance. The good news is it’s the Life of Jesus flowing within a person that brings about righteous living and an ability to overcome sins!
If you are a Christian, you know probably many false converts that are under the delusion of this false gospel. Please do whatever you can to wake them up and guide them to genuine salvation found in knowing Jesus Christ for real. Hopefully this blog post will be of help to you in doing this! If you can’t give a good testimony because you have been tricked by a cross-less gospel that is void of repentance. My hope and prayer are that you will seek after the Lord Jesus Christ until you find Him for real!