Billy Graham on 'Repentance'

From Billy Graham ("Peace with God"):

“If repentance could be described in one word, I would use the word renounce.  ‘Renounce what?’ you ask.  The answer can also be given in one word – ‘sin.’…

“Not only are we told that we must renounce the principle of sin but we are also to renounce sins – plural.  We are to renounce the world, the flesh and the Devil.  There can be no bargaining, compromise or hesitation.  Christ demands absolute renunciation…..

“…repentance and faith go hand in hand.  You cannot have genuine repentance without saving faith and you cannot have saving faith without repentance….

“…[To repent] means a great deal more than just regretting and feeling sorry about sin.  The Biblical word repent means ‘to change, to turn.’  It is a word of power and action.  It is a word that signifies a complete revolution in the individual.

“When the Bible calls upon us to repent of sin, it means that we should turn away from sin, that we should do an about-face and walk in the opposite direction from sin and all that it implies….

“….True repentance means ‘to change, to turn away from, to go in a new direction.’  To be sorry is not enough in repentance….

“….repentance cannot take place unless first there is a movement of the Holy Spirit in the heart and mind….”

“….There must be a determination to forsake sin – to change one’s attitudes toward self, toward sin, and God; to change one’s feelings; to change one’s will, disposition and purpose.

“Only the Spirit of God can give you the determination necessary for true repentance….

“There is not one verse of Scripture that indicates you can be a Christian and live any kind of a life you want to.  When Christ enters into the human heart, He demands that He be Lord and Master.  He demands complete surrender….

“…He must have first place in everything you do or think or say, for when you truly repent you turn toward God in everything.

“We have the warning of Christ that He will not receive us into His kingdom until we are ready to give up all, until we are ready to turn from all sin in our lives.  Don’t try to do it part way.  Don’t say, ‘I’ll give up some of my sins and hang on to some others.  I’ll live part of my life for Jesus and part for my own desires.’”

“God demands a total change, a total surrender.”

(“Peace with God, pp. 100-107)

"The Joy of Not Sinning"

A helpful, realistic post about sanctification from Tim Challies.

Evangelical Repentance

“Evangelical repentance is turning from sin, now recognized as ruinous, to a new life of following Christ in righteousness, now embraced as the only hope of life.”

-- David Wells, "Turning to God"

What is "repentance"?

Repentance is “…radical conversion, a transformation of nature, a definitive turning from evil, a resolute turning to God in total obedience (Mk.1:15; Mt.4:17; 18:3)….  This conversion is once for all.  There can be no going back, only advance in responsible movement along the way now taken.  It affects the whole man, first and basically the center of personal life, then logically his conduct at all times and in all situation, his thoughts, words and acts (Mt. 12:33ff. par; 23:26; Mk.7:15 par.).

“The whole proclamation of Jesus…is a proclamation of unconditional turning to God, of unconditional turning from all that is against God, not merely that which is downright evil, but that which in a given case makes total turning to God impossible….

“It is addressed to all without distinction and presented with unmitigated severity in order to indicate the only way of salvation there is.

“Repentance calls  for total surrender, total commitment to the will of God….  It embraces the whole walk of the new man who is claimed by the divine lordship.  It carries with it the founding of a new personal relation of man to God….  It awakens joyous obedience for a life according to God’s will.”

-- "Theological Dictionary of the New Testament" (Kittel) on 'metanioa' (repentance)

Reaping the whirlwind...

Years ago, Christian thinker Francis Schaeffer recognized what would almost inevitably happen, given the shift from a Judeo-Christian world-view in relation to the law:

"First, the whole concept of law has changed. When a Christian consensus existed, it gave a base for law. Instead of this, we now live under arbitrary, or sociological, law. Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes took a big step in the change toward sociological law. Holmes said, 'Truth is the majority vote of that nation that could lick all others.' In other words, law is only what most of the people think at that moment of history, and there is no higher law. It follows, of course, that the law can be changed at any moment to reflect what the majority currently thinks.

"More accurately, the law becomes what a few people in some branch of the government think will promote the present sociological and economic good. In reality the will and moral judgments of the majority are now influenced by or even overruled by the opinions of a small group of men and women. This means that vast changes can be made in the whole concept of what should and what should not be done. Values can be altered overnight and at almost unbelievable speed."

~ Francis Schaeffer, "Whatever Happened to the Human Race?"

The Soul's Index

"Like an index tells what is in a book, so what a man meditates upon [or, daydreams about] tells us what is in his soul." --Thomas Watson

"When Sin Is Grievous and Grace Is Stunning"

Real wisdom from John Newton (who wrote "Amazing Grace") via Tim Keller...

"The prayer of our High Priest"

"It doesn’t matter how complicated, how desperate, perhaps even hopeless your life has become. No matter how overwhelmed you may feel by your problems, if your trust is in Jesus Christ, you can be sure that he is praying for you now and through that prayer he will provide for you the resources to bring you relief or enable you to carry on.

"The most important thing that you and I need to learn about prayer is this: first of all and ultimately, prayer is not something we do but what Jesus does for us."

— Richard B. Gaffin
"Christ, Our High Priest in Heaven"

Like it or not, when it comes to religion sometimes you really have to make a choice...

When it comes to authentic Christianity, many seem to have forgotten that choosing ‘A’ necessarily means rejecting ‘B’ (that is, the opposite of ‘A’).  We live in a time when it seems to be imagined the better way is always to find a way to blend the two.  But again, logic (particularly the ‘law of non-contradiction’) and countless passages in Scripture insist that in many, many cases such a blending is impossible.  Sometimes such blending and mixing together corrupts and pollutes and adulterates (adding a third person to the marriage union doesn’t strengthen the bond, it spoils it), and sometimes such an attempted blending of ‘A’ and ‘B’ nullifies and destroys ‘A’ altogether.

Let me give one very clear example from Paul in Romans 11:6, “And if by grace, then it cannot be based on works; if it were, grace would no longer be grace.”  Paul is talking here about how God chooses and saves a ‘remnant.’  But the main point to see for what I’m saying now is that Paul insists that if you try to blend grace and works, you do not merely weaken or pollute grace, you nullify it altogether – grace (undeserved favor) is no longer grace at all.

And the Bible is full of many such ‘either-or’ matters, matters of fundamental importance:
Josh 24:14-15 – the choice between the Lord (Yawheh) and the ‘gods [idols] your forefathers worshiped’.  It is abundantly clear that this could never be a matter of ‘both…and’  (compare the First Commandment – Exod. 20:3)

Yahweh or Baal – 1 Kings 18:16ff.   The Israelites were specifically rebuked for endlessly wavering between two opinions, and refusing to make the choice  (v. 21)

1 Thess. 1:9f. – For the Thessalonians, turning to the living and true God necessarily meant turning from their idols.

Titus 2:11ff.  – Paul wants Titus to be very clear in his teaching that when God’s saving grace is truly received, it “teaches us to say ‘No’ to ungodliness and worldly passions….”   Grace is, in this sense inherently negative (which is very much out of character with much of so-called Christianity today).  Saving grace teaches us not only to receive, but also to  renounce.

1 Jn. 2:15b   “If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in him.” -- love of the Father or love of the world

Matt. 6:24 – “You cannot serve two masters….God and mammon (money).”

Gal. 1:6-7a – Paul emphatically insists that one must make a choice between beliving the true Gospel or a different ‘gospel’ (“which,” he insists “is really no gospel at all”) [compare Gal. 5:4; 1 John 4:1ff.; Titus 1:9]

Gal. 5:16ff. – In Galatians 5 Paul traces out the irreconcilable war between  “flesh” and “Spirit”

2 Cor. 6:14-17 Paul again presents a compelling list of things that must not be yoked together or mixed; things we ought not even attempt to harmonize, but rather keep separate (and keep ourselves separate from).

And this either-or (saying ‘yes’ to ‘A’ means saying ‘no’ to ‘B’) principle necessarily permeates our religious thought and life.

• And so a person must choose between atheism or theism.
• Those who choose theism face the choice between monotheism or polytheism.
• Those who choose monotheism must choose between Judaism, Islam and Christianity (because, to cite just one crucial difference, Christianity insists that God is Three-in-One – a Trinity – and Judaism and Islam emphatically reject this).
• Those who choose Christianity face the choice of whether to be Greek Orthodox,  Roman Catholic or Protestant (because, again, there are fundamental and contradictory differences – for example, Protestants insist that justification is by grace alone through faith alone, and the official teaching or Roman Catholicism says that this Protestant belief is a heresy that causes damnation).
• Those who choose to be Protestant face the choice of whether to be essentially Lutheran, Reformed or Baptist -- because, to cite just one example, these three groups believe fundamentally different things about ‘baptism’ and they cannot all be right at the same time.   (At this level, however, all three groups can be genuinely saved because they agree, at the core, on the Biblical Gospel.)

I know that looking at things this way will be very uncomfortable and unwelcome to some.  But the issue is whether or not this way of conceiving things is true (including true to Scripture).  Until these post-modern times, people acknowledged that these distinctions were real and inescapable, even if they were hard to  accept.

But today, even many professing evangelicals are profoundly confused, and the confusion is spiritually dangerous.  (Ephesians 4:14; Gal. 1:8-9; 2 Tim. 2:16-17; 2 Pet. 3:16)

One final thought from Charles Spurgeon,  “Discernment is not a matter of simply telling the difference between what is right and wrong; rather, it is the difference between right and almost right.”  And that takes things to a higher level still.  (Phil. 1:9-10f.; 1 Thess. 5:1-2; 1 John 4:1ff.)

"Disciples Are Apprentices"

"Ancient discipleship was essentially a form of apprenticeship. As apprentices, disciples follow an expert and absorb their master’s mindsets and practices until they become capable on their own. Jesus’ disciples do not graduate from apprenticeship to perfection this side of death, and Jesus never leaves the disciples without his presence. But Jesus works to make his apprentices like their master, not least so that they will be capable of making other apprentices.

"Apprenticeship is increasingly a lost art in the contemporary world, and a number of obstacles suggest that this metaphor requires more attention than it normally receives. When we follow a coach or the CEO of our company, that doesn’t mean we are authorized to do things they do. As a result, it is not readily apparent to modern disciples that when Jesus calls people to follow him, he means they are to imitate his self-sacrifice and dependence on God. It is not clear that our vocations are similar to his vocations or that following Jesus means doing Jesus-like things.

"The notion of a 'personal relationship with Jesus' is sometimes presented as a self-styled relationship capable of being tailored to our tendencies and desires rather than being understood in terms of lordship and apprenticeship (which are, of course, personal and relational). We shall have more to say later about apprenticeship in the Gospels, but for now it is enough to note that apprenticing with Jesus requires putting ourselves second, which means putting ourselves on a cross (Mk 10). Apprenticing with Jesus requires the surrender of prized traits of the Western world: independence, comfort, originality and efficiency. Apprenticeship also sometimes involves trading breathless activity and accomplishment for the seemingly unproductive task of sitting quietly at Jesus’ feet (Lk 10:38-42)."

-- Jason B. Hood, "Imitating God in Christ: Recapturing a Biblical Pattern" (Kindle Locations 898-912). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition.

Obedience

"The One who was completely obedient must now be completely obeyed." -- P. Bonnard (commentary on Phil. 2:8-11)

There is hope in the Gospel for any person...

"There is hope in the Gospel for any man, so long as he lives. There is infinite willingness in Christ to pardon sin. There is infinite power in the Holy Spirit to change hearts. There are many diseases of the body which are incurable. The cleverest doctors cannot heal them. But, thank God! there are no incurable diseases of soul. All manner and quantity of sins can be washed away by Christ! The hardest and most wicked of hearts can be changed."

"Reader, I say again, while there is life—there is hope. The oldest, the vilest, the worst of sinners may be saved. Only let him come to Christ, confess his sin, and cry to Him for pardon—only let him cast his soul on Christ, and he shall be cured. The Holy Spirit shall be sent down on his heart, according to Christ’s promise, and he shall be changed by His Almighty power, into a new creature. "


— J.C. Ryle
"The New Birth"

"A little clearing in the jungle"

“Thus in the turmoil of life without, and black despair within, it is always possible to turn aside and wait on God.  Just as at the center of a hurricane there is stillness, and above the clouds a clear sky, so it is possible to make a little clearing in the jungle of our human will for a rendezvous with God. . . . Once, in Times Square, I was glancing disconsolately but also avidly at the rows and rows of paperbacks, each with some lewd or sadistic picture for its cover, and noticed that by some strange accident my book on Mother Teresa, Something Beautiful For God, had got on to these sad shelves.  Wondering how it could have happened, Herbert’s beautiful lines came into my mind:

And here in dust and dirt, O here
The lilies of His love appear.”

-- Malcolm Muggeridge, Confessions of a Twentieth-Century Pilgrim (San Francisco, 1988), pages 22-23.

HT:  Ray Ortlund, Jr.

Heaven Help Us.....

How did this happen?

How we ever got from the presentation of the Good News in, say, the Gospel of Matthew to our current ‘my-predicament-centered, give-mental-assent-to-the-atonement-plan’ way of thinking about what it means to become a Christian is a long, sad story, but it’s a serious and crucially significant difference.

In Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus is presented as the messianic King, the Lord who saves, and it is obvious that the right and required response to Him and His message is one of repentance/faith -- unconditional though imperfect confidence/trust/allegiance – consider the case of the rich young ruler (Matt. 19:16ff). In this scenario, a right response to the Message of Jesus means a person begins to be a believing follower of Jesus as Teacher/Master/Savior, recognizing and rightly responding to his authority in every area of life, and seeing all of life, from now on, in terms of serving him and his purposes.

What a contrast to so much ‘evangelism’ today which is almost entirely focused on taking care of my problem of being headed to Hell, so as to get me the assurance that I’ll go to Heaven instead, by ‘praying a prayer.’ No wonder so many professing Christians, populating evangelical churches today, are stalled out and stagnant, constantly wanting their ‘christianity’ on their own terms in every sphere, manifested in carelessness in regard to a grace-based pursuit of holiness (Titus 2:11-15), cluelessness when it comes to contemporary forms of worldliness, self-centeredness that is uninterested in deferring to others in matters like music preferences, indifference to baptism and membership, volatility when it comes to serving (“volunteering”), vulnerability to every kind of mis-belief and faddish trend, disinterest in authentic evangelism and mission, etc.

At the same time, individual ‘believers’ continue to live profoundly self-centered (in-the-‘flesh’) lives and wonder why their ‘christianity’ is powerless, life-less, joy-less and uninteresting. All this leave us discontent, bitter and feeling perpetually entitled to better from God, the church, family, friends, etc. Such is life in Laodicea (Rev. 3:14-20).

Jesus’ actual message was, and is, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven [the return of the reign of God] is near.” (Matt. 4:17) May God have mercy on us and bring us back to the Biblical Good News, and to an authentic understanding of what a genuinely saving response to that Good News really means – a faith that works, and a repentance that actually turns from idols and self-centered sinning to the glad and willing service of the living and true God (1 Thess. 1:3, 9-10), obeying everything that Jesus, our new Master, commands (Matt. 28:18-20).

This is not some extreme or exotic form of Christianity. This IS (authentic, Biblical, Spirit-empowered) Christianity.

"The eminency of the Father's love"

"So much as we see of the love of God, so much shall we delight in him, and no more.

"Every other discovery of God, without this, will but make the soul fly from him; but if the heart be once much taken up with this the eminency of the Father’s love, it cannot choose but be overpowered, conquered, and endeared unto him. This, if anything, will work upon us to make our abode with him. If the love of a father will not make a child delight in him, what will?

"Put, then, this to the venture: exercise your thoughts upon this very thing, the eternal, free, and fruitful love of the Father, and see if your hearts be not wrought upon to delight in him. I dare boldly say: believers will find it as thriving a course as ever they pitched on in their lives. Sit down a little at the fountain, and you will quickly have a further discovery of the sweetness of the streams. You who have run from him, will not be able, after a while, to keep at a distance for a moment."

--John Owen, Communion with the Triune God (ed. K. Kapic and J. Taylor; Crossway, 2007), 128