Obedience and Repentance

A Faith that leads to obedience is in direct opposition to what most preachers instruct on Sunday. Preachers tell unbelievers to “have Faith in Jesus” for salvation, but always leave out the part about repentance of sin. One of the first things Jesus preached was for people to repent (Mark 1:15, Luke 13:1-5); he also told his disciples to preach the same (Mark 6:12). But why don’t preachers include repentance as a part of the “invitation to Christ”?

What unbelievers hear on Sunday is usually a message that sounds like this:

“Jesus died for your sins and washed them all away and if you put your Faith in him you will be saved”.

This misleads people to believe that they are saved based on their belief in Jesus: their acknowledgment of the facts of Jesus and that this acknowledgment is what having Faith is. Another thing to look at is: they tell people to “make Jesus Lord” without even explaining what this declaration really means. So “making Jesus Lord” often implies: choosing Jesus as the God you side with as opposed to Buddha or Allah.

So, from the pulpits it is implied:

“having a mental acknowledgment and declaring Jesus as your number-one God is what Faith is.”

But nowhere do they mention repentance. I have yet to even hear repentance preached in some “New Members” classes. This makes it look like God sent his only begotten Son to die for our sins, just so we can continue in sin, but be free from the penalty. Does that even make sense? But that is what they are implying. It makes obedience look optional. And in some groups, like the Liberal Church, obedience does seem to be optional. If the Lord’s commandments are optional, then is he really a Lord? Or to put it a different way: are these really commandments, or are they suggestions? We all know Moses didn’t come down from Mount Sinai with the Ten Suggestions.

What about the third man at the cross?

Some argue that the other man at the cross with Christ didn’t do anything but believe in Jesus and therefore was saved; likewise unbelievers today are saved by belief alone (Luke 23:39-43). But the man did far more than believe in Jesus, he:

Recognized Jesus as God.
Rebuked the other robber to show Jesus respect.
Acknowledged that he himself was wrong and deserved his punishment.
Repented of his sins.
Obeyed the gospel by believing that Jesus would save his soul.

This guy did all he could, he was dying; he wasn’t expected to get off the cross and begin giving to the poor; and we cannot say just because this guy believed and repented without any further obedient acts, that this is all that is required of us today. His particular circumstances limited his ability to do anything more. The main point in that scripture is: Faith leads to acknowledgment of sin and repentance, and no matter if you’re about to die, you can still have Faith in Jesus and be saved.

The misunderstanding of Faith breeds fake Christians.

Because these unbelievers are convinced they have eternal life because of simple acknowledgment, without knowing the true requirements of God, have they really been born again? In actuality, are they really “coming to Jesus” at all? Perhaps they are coming to the religion of Jesus, a “false Jesus”; a Jesus that doesn’t require obedience or repentance; just head-knowledge. The unbeliever may stop cussing or change their outward behavior but neither their hearts, nor their minds, really repent. They live a double life: one person in church and another outside. They become people who speak “Christianese”, but are, in fact, still of the world; they never were converted. I know a lot of fake Christians.

Repent means:

to think differently or afterward, that is, reconsider, morally to feel compunction, which is, a sting of conscience or a pang of doubt aroused by wrongdoing or the prospect of wrongdoing (Strong’s Greek Dictionary – G3340).

Perhaps unbelievers should be told to repent from the things they know to be wrong and turn to Jesus. There’s no excuse, we all have a conscience; we know when we’ve done wrong. I’ve heard it said that repentance is: to turn my back completely on sin and face Jesus. The sin that we used to know should be behind us. As some of these sins return we must continue to repent.

Because obedience and repentance isn’t a one-time-thing, I believe Faith in Jesus is not either, rather, a continual process. Some say, “It’s impossible to obey Jesus all the time, or to keep his commandments…” But Jesus wouldn’t tell us to do anything that isn’t possible for us. Doesn’t the Bible say that we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us? (Philippians 4:13); we’ll talk about this next.

Faith Works →