“Now after John was put in prison, Jesus came to Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel.” Mark 1:14–15
In my life time, I have changed my mind many times about many things (I changed my mind about how to begin this post at least 10 times). Changing ones mind about anything requires an investment of thought and time far greater than what is necessary to change an opinion; especially when the issue at hand and the conclusion you come to about it may radically change the course of your life. The word often present in the New Testament when a person is presented with the facts concerning Jesus Christ is Metanoia (gk) which is defined as “a call to think differently; to reconsider” which will, I believe result in a change in the way one lives. I submit that apart from a change of mind about Jesus Christ no one can be saved.
Among Christians, men like Lee Strobel and C. S. Lewis (1) stand out to me as men who after great thought changed their minds about things that until that moment were nonsensical to them as former atheists. This is not to say that the conclusions of their research led to their petition for salvation rather, it lead to them receiving the salvation which had already been offered to them by God through Jesus Christ. They changed their minds about Jesus and ultimately, all who will ever have the eternal life which they received through faith in Jesus Christ will have to do the same.
Some will say that, regarding eternal life, one need not come to repentance but only believe the gospel of Jesus Christ but this statement does NOT seem to agree with Jesus’ words in (Mark 1:15), there the Lord said “repent and believe the gospel.” I think that His words point to things which happen together, namely that faith and metanoia or a changed mind go hand in hand and can not happen apart from each other. In other words, repentance IS essential for salvation. In fact, God’ s drawing (John 6:44) us to Himself along with the Holy Spirits convicting us of sin (John 16:5-11) and our response to those interactions, first in our heads and then in our hearts are all required if anyone would be redeemed or born again.
To my point, I’d like to identify at least six notions which I believe a person will have to reconsider in the process of their becoming a Christian.
• The notion that death is the end. The Apostle Paul wrote in (Romans 6:23) “The wages of sin is death.” We’ll talk about sin in a few moments but what about death? None of us have ever known life apart from the fact that everyone dies. In fact the writer of Hebrews declares that ” it is appointed to men once to die and then the judgment.” Only Adam and Eve knew of life apart from death, not simply because they were the first of us and the was no one before them to die but because death in the sense that Paul and the writer of Hebrews (arguably Barnabas) spoke of it was a consequence of their sin. As a result of their sin, death became a reality in two areas of human existence: First, it was a physical death. We all die because of Adam’s sin but it is also the death of relationship with God; in that sense death is an eternal lifetime seperated from God in hell. This is the point that we need to get: Death is a portal or doorway into either eternal life with God or eternal separation from God. We will ALL live forever in one of these two states.
• The notion that living is all about you. We all have one life on this planet right? But to what end? What is the purpose of life? To be happy? To find fulfillment? Solomon wrote in Ecclesiastes that man fills his life with endless futility if in fact we live simply to these ends. But His final words bring even the fatalistic views of Ecclesiastes to a powerful conclusion; He wrote
“Fear God and keep His commandments,
For this is man’s all. For God will bring every work into judgment, including every secret thing,whether good or evil.” (Ecclesiastes 12:13–14)
Looking to the New Testament, we discover that life is about coming to know the Savior and then declaring him to the world around us. Jesus said, “For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? (Matthew 16:24–26) You might say that we have been given life to come to a decision about Jesus but in (1Cor. 5:9-10) Paul gives indication that the reason we have breath is to declare Jesus to the world and in the larger Westminster Chatechism we read, “The chief end of man is to glorify God.” Life is about more than “eating drinking and being merry for tomorrow we die” its about a choice that involves faith in the Son of God.
• The notion that the Bible and specifically the Gospel of Christ is fable, myth or a product of man’s imagination. Let’s be honest, no sensible person would change their lives over fiction or fantasy. With regard to the Bible, if it is simply fable why should we accept its teachings and live by them? To address ALL the ways that the Bible proves itself to be the word of God and worthy of both our attention and acceptance would take a lot of writing; instead let me position the entire argument on one point: the ends to which the original writers went to get the message out.
First consider that the gospel is the good news concerning the kingdom of God and the way which Jesus made to enter into it. The message hinges on three things: the everlasting Son of God came into the world in bodily form (John 1:14-18), suffered and ultimately died on a Roman cross (Luke 18:33, John 19:17-18) and then three days later rose again from the dead (1Cor. 15:3-8). The why that Jesus Christ endured what He did is also important – namely He died to save His people (by extention us as well) from their (our) sin. But what of those closest to Him who declared these things first and issued what we hold today as the word of God? Those men all risked and ultimately gave their lives to declare this message. Flesh it out. Would you die for a lie? All who declared the message that Jesus died and rose again as Messiah died for doing it and many still do today and their message still rings out 2000 years after it was first uttered. It is my belief that no one will believe in Jesus Christ apart from coming to accept the Bible as truth rather than fiction.
• The notion that Jesus Christ was merely a man. How much theology must one grasp before they can be born again? There is much to know about Jesus but to be saved we need know only a few things: He has the power and authority to save sinners (Luke 5:21-24) and that by faith in Him we find forgivness of sins:
“In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence, having made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself, that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth—in Him.” Ephesians 1:7–10
This is the message they preached in the days of the early church and which we declare today:
“Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household.” Acts 16:31
Paul said in (Romans 10:17) “…faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” This is where the Holy Spirit comes in as well to lead us in all truth. As I write, I’m waiting for a flight. I don’t know the people who built the plane. I don’t understand the science of aerodynamics. I don’t know the pilots. But I see the plane and have a destination in mind so I’m going to board the plane, buckle in and trust. Likewise, we won’t know all that we can know about Jesus when we first believe but we will know that He died for our sins (personally) and that through Him alone eternal life is promised.
• The notion that we are good enough for the kingdom of God/ an acknowledgement of our sinful condition. By now you probably have recognized that the Holy Spirit is the primary vehicle to changing a person’s mind about the things we’ve mentioned (1Cor.2:10-12). Of course people play a part but if God doesn’t draw them via His Holy Spirit, they will NEVER hear us. The convicting of sin likewise is one of those areas where the Holy Spirit must work in the hearts of those who are coming to faith.
What is sin? Sin by its simplest definition is rebellion or disobedience against God. In our natural condition, we recognize right from wrong in two ways: the inner voice of conscience which in turn is influenced by the mores of the world around us. As our world continues to “call evil good and good evil” (Isaiah 5:20) upsetting the moral fabric of the world through media and the indoctrination of the youngest among us, more and more of what God deems rebellion will be entrenched as “the way we do life” making it more challenging for us to reach the world but not more challenging for the Spirit of God.
By the word of God and the leading of His Holy Spirit a person will change his or her mind about themselves as a part of their coming to Jesus. A person who sees themselves as generally good, summarizing their goodness with phrases like: “I’ve never killed anyone” or “I’m a good person, I think” will not see their need for a Savior. Jesus Himself said to some self-righteous men, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.” (Mark 2:17) Our self estimation will change as a part of our conversion experience. Words like the ones we find in (Rev. 21:8): “…all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death,” really get to the point; you might not have stolen, killed or commited adultery but who among us has NEVER lied? Its not up to any man to convince another about sin, God’s Holy Spirit does that but statements like the one above along with this one in (1 John 1:8): If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us;” and (Romans 3:23) “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” make it clear that no one can claim sinlessness but Jesus Christ alone (Heb.4:15).
• The notion that God doesn’t exist. It all sort of begins and ends with this question. If God does not exist then the words of the Bible are not authoritative and the promises contained within the word are moot. Thus this question will be answered before a person can respond to faith in Jesus Christ. So, how do we know that God is alive AND actively involved in the lives of people today? For the academic and skeptic among us, using the Bible to defend the assertion might be questionable and to that end we have other proofs. Take for instance, biology. The complexities of the human body and how it functions in perfect harmony speaks loudly for an intelligent designer. ” The heavens declare,” Paul said, “the glory of God.” In fact Romans 1 and 2 speak to the proof creation itself offers for an intelligent Creator but again, some rebuff any attempt to prove God from the Bible.
It was God who loved us, and God who sent His Son (John 3:16). It was God by whom, for whom and to whom all things were made (Col.1:15). While I would not argue as Pascal did for the “vacuum or void in our hearts which can only be filled by God” I would say that many people seem driven with a desire to interact with or to worship some deity but God is not one of many, He is God alone. He interacts with both the redeemed and those yet to be redeemed through the small voice of His Spirit, through His word and through myriads of other voices and circumstances in our lives. I would say that God reveals Himself to those He is drawing but the bottom line is, in order to make that life altering decision to trust in Jesus Christ a person who has previously denied the existence of God will have changed their mind about God.
This post has been long but certainly NOT exhaustive regarding just how essential repentance is for salvation. I suppose that many apply the concept of repentance to a turning away from all sin and while turning from sin is part of it, that all begins and continues as a part of the process of sanctification.
When I became a Christian, the Holy Spirit had already been convicting me of a particular sin which I did repent of however, sin is so invasive and we are so thoroughly immersed in it, leaving them will take a life time. Nevertheless, repentance in the sense that we will have to change our minds about some key issues as a part of turning to Christ is an essential aspect to the process of believing in Jesus Christ.
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