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Biblical Examples of Repentance in Conversion
The first aspect of a genuine conversion experience is to
comprehend who we are before God and what we have done that deserves
God’s condemnation of our souls. There are three parables in
Luke chapter fifteen detailing the importance of repentance to God. The
parables are taught as a response to the questioning of the “Pharisees
and scribes” (Luke 15:2) of why Christ “receiveth sinners.” We need
only read Matthew chapter twenty-three to find out Christ’s evaluation
of the scribes and Pharisees as self-righteous hypocrites. Therefore,
it is easy to see that the purpose of these three parables in Luke
chapter fifteen is to deal with the inability of the self-righteous
moralist to see himself as a sinner before God and to see himself just
as condemned as the worst of sinners.
“11And he said, A certain man had two
sons: 12 And the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the
portion of goods that falleth to me. And he divided unto them his
living. 13 And not many days after the younger son gathered all
together, and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his
substance with riotous living. 14 And when he had spent all, there arose
a mighty famine in that land; and he began to be in want. 15 And he
went and joined himself to a citizen of that country; and he sent him
into his fields to feed swine. 16 And he would fain have filled his
belly with the husks that the swine did eat: and no man gave unto him.
17 And when he came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my
father’s have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! 18 I
will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have
sinned against heaven, and before thee, 19 And am no more worthy to be
called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants. 20 And he arose,
and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father
saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed
him. 21 And the son said unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven,
and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son” (Luke
15:11-20).
The prodigal son’s change of mind resulted in a change of action that corresponded with his new evaluation of himself.
He no longer came to the father based upon what he deserved. In
repentance, he came to the father solely on the basis of grace and
making an appeal to his grace. The father responds in grace. The
picture before us is one of genuine salvation.
We are told in Luke 15:17 that the prodigal son “came to himself.”
This is critically essential in a genuine conversion experience. Often
people rescue those in the midst of the consequences of their sins
before those people come to see their sins as the cause of their life
disasters. Cognizance of sin is the recognition that sin has temporal
and eternal consequences connected to these actions. Such cognizance of
our sins brings the sinner to make a biblical evaluation of his
character that has brought him to the situation in which he now exists.
It is not enough to want to merely escape the situation caused by his
depravity. Genuine repentance wants to escape the depravity that caused
the situation. If we miss this point, we fail to understand genuine
repentance. Such a person will soon be back drinking from that same old
corrupting fountain.
This is why it is so difficult for the self-righteous
religionists to come to repentance. The self-righteous religionist
views himself as a morally good person. Jesus dealt with this
failure in the mindset of the Jews often. In Matthew chapter nineteen,
Jesus has a conversation with a very rich “young man.” The “young man”
comes to Jesus and acknowledges Jesus as a “master,” or a teaching
rabbi, that has understanding of the will of God. His question is found
in Matthew 19:16, “what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal
life?” At first, Jesus bypasses his question and addresses the root of
his problem. The “young man” addressed Jesus as “Good {agathos}
Master.” Herein lies the first necessity in genuine repentance. Jesus
responds to the young man’s statement with a remarkable truth that
confronted the very heart and soul of the misconceptions of thinking in
the self-righteous religionists to coming to repentance. Jesus says,
“Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God”
(Matthew 19:17). Only God is morally good all the time and all the time
is the singular qualification for being self-righteous. Only God is
self-righteous. Everyone else is a sinner because no one else but God
is good all the time.
Jesus then exemplifies what
moral goodness does in Matthew 19:21; “If thou wilt be perfect {teleios;
morally complete}, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor,
and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me.”
This exemplifies God’s moral perfection in God’s grace. The “poor”
were viewed by the self-righteous Jews as being sinners living in the
consequences of their sin. In other words, the Pharisees believed
people were poor because they lived in sin, broke the Law, and were
under God’s chastisement. This was due to a misunderstanding of the
“blessing and a curse” promise of God to the nation of Israel in the
Mosaic Covenant. The Jews applied the “blessing and a curse” promise of
God to individuals.
“26 Behold, I set before you {plural,
refers to all of the nation of Israel} this day a blessing and a curse;
27 A blessing, if ye obey the commandments of the LORD your God, which I
command you this day: 28 And a curse {removal or withdrawal of
blessings}, if ye will not obey the commandments of the LORD your God,
but turn aside out of the way which I command you this day, to go after
other gods, which ye have not known. 29 And it shall come to pass, when
the LORD thy God hath brought thee in unto the land whither thou goest
to possess it, that thou shalt put the blessing upon mount Gerizim, and
the curse upon mount Ebal. 30 Are they not on the other side Jordan, by
the way where the sun goeth down, in the land of the Canaanites, which
dwell in the champaign {the sterile vally of Jordan} over against
Gilgal, beside the plains of Moreh? 31 For ye shall pass over Jordan to
go in to possess the land which the LORD your God giveth you, and ye
shall possess it, and dwell therein. 32 And ye shall observe to do all
the statutes and judgments which I set before you this day” (Deuteronomy
11:26-32).
Therefore, when Jesus told the young man to sacrifice all of his
earthly treasures to acquire the heavenly treasure of eternal life, the
young man started to choke to death on his self-righteousness.
Christ Jesus was telling him that a change of mind about his wealth
would result in using that wealth to exemplify God’s loving grace to the
undeserving sinner. This required more than just a change of thinking,
but rather a change of mind that was accompanied by actually giving his
wealth to benefit the poor. Of course, doing so would bring him into
poverty and total dependence upon God for his own sustenance. This
would require that he see himself in the degradation of his own
spiritual poverty before God even in his temporal wealth. This is why
Jesus said to the disciples in the next few verses of Matthew 19:23 and
24, “Verily I say unto you, That a rich man shall hardly {duskolos; with
great or extreme difficulty} enter into the kingdom of heaven. And
again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a
needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God {get
saved}.”
Jesus was exemplifying how this false notion of
self-righteousness, and the false interpretation of wealth as a blessing
upon self-righteousness, would keep the Moralist from seeing his true
sinfulness before God and repent of the sin of self-righteousness. The
first point of genuine repentance is to understand “there is none good
but one, that is, God” (Matthew 19:17).
Certainly we can see this repentance
in the life of the Apostle Paul. Paul reflects a completely different
opinion of himself after he is “born again.” Paul calls himself the
chief “sinner” in I Timothy 1:15. Paul stated his previous perverted
opinion of himself and his false understanding of the Law in Philippians
3:4-6.
“4 Though I might also have confidence
in the flesh. If any other man thinketh that he hath whereof he might
trust in the flesh, I more: 5 Circumcised the eighth day, of the stock
of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew of the Hebrews; as
touching the law, a Pharisee; 6 Concerning zeal, persecuting the church;
touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless” (Philippians
3:4-6).
Paul’s statement in Philippians 3:4-8
reflects the dark blindness of self-righteousness of just how far short
even these (man-kind righteousness) come from the glory of God (Romans
3:23; God-kind righteousness). After salvation, Paul makes a statement
regarding all truly repentant believers in their evaluation of
themselves before God; “For we are the {true spiritual} circumcision,
which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have
no confidence in the flesh” (Philippians 3:3).
Self-righteousness is incapable of sanctifying anyone before
God. Self-righteousness will bring nothing but God’s loathing
condemnation. Paul understood this because this was the
substance of his very first conversation with the resurrected and
glorified Lord Jesus on the Damascus road when he got saved. Paul
rehearsed his conversion as he spoke to King Agrippa in Acts chapter
twenty-six. After which Paul was committed to the same message and the
same repentance that brought about his own conversion.
“12 Whereupon as I went to Damascus
with authority and commission from the chief priests, 13 At midday, O
king, I saw in the way a light from heaven, above the brightness of the
sun, shining round about me and them which journeyed with me. 14 And
when we were all fallen to the earth, I heard a voice speaking unto me,
and saying in the Hebrew tongue, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? it
is hard for thee to kick against the pricks. 15 And I said, Who art
thou, Lord? And he said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest. 16 But rise,
and stand upon thy feet: for I have appeared unto thee for this purpose,
to make thee a minister and a witness both of these things which thou
hast seen, and of those things in the which I will appear unto thee; 17
Delivering thee from the people, and from the Gentiles, unto whom now I
send thee, 18 To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to
light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may {condition
upon their turning; not just a change of mind} receive forgiveness of
sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is
in me. 19 Whereupon, O king Agrippa, I was not disobedient unto the
heavenly vision: 20 But shewed first unto them of Damascus, and at
Jerusalem, and throughout all the coasts of Judaea, and then to the
Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, and do works meet for
{comparable to; or living which aligns with their} repentance (Acts
26:12-20).
Certainly, the text reveals that genuine repentance is always
expected to reflect a genuine change of life, not just a change of
mind. Genuine repentance involves turning “from darkness to
light and from the power of Satan unto God” (Acts 26:18), not just a
change of mind. Action is involved in genuine repentance. In other
words, a change in direction is the outcome of genuine repentance.
We also know that this repentance text is not referring to
merely turning away from trust in the “works of the Law” (Moralism and
ritualism Sacerdotalism) because the text is referring to the Gentiles
(Acts 26:20). The Gentiles were not trusting in the “works of
the Law” for their standing before God. The Gentiles needed to repent
of idolatry and the licentious, fornicating lifestyles that accompanied
idolatry.
The word fornication often simply
meant the practices of idolatry. The Greek word translated
“fornication” in the New Testament books is the word porneia
(por-ni’-ah). The word often simply means to practice the licentious,
lustful sexual perversions of idolatry. Turning completely away from
this lifestyle and its practices was included in Gentile repentance.
These practices had become common in Israel prior to the Babylonian
captivity. God’s chastisement of the nation of Israel in the Babylonian
captivity was intended to bring them to repentance and return them to
pure worship of Jehovah and obedience to Him. This is the biblical
context of repentance of sin. Repentance is a turning “from darkness to
light, and from the power of Satan unto God” (Acts 26:18). The Greek
word translated “turn” in Acts 26:18 is epistrepho (ep-ee-stref’-o).
This same Greek word is often translated “converted” as it is in Acts
3:19.
In Acts 3:19, the subject of repentance to conversion is about
the Person and redemptive work Jesus Christ in His death, burial, and
resurrection/glorification. This text addresses the Jews and their
rejection of the Person and work of their promised Messiah.
“12 And when Peter saw it {the wonder
at the healing of the man lame from birth}, he answered unto the people,
Ye men of Israel, why marvel ye at this? or why look ye so earnestly on
us, as though by our own power or holiness we had made this man to
walk? 13 The God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob, the God of our
fathers, hath glorified his Son Jesus; whom ye delivered up, and denied
him in the presence of Pilate, when he was determined to let him go. 14
But ye {plural} denied the Holy One and the Just, and desired a murderer
to be granted unto you; 15 And killed the Prince of life, whom God hath
raised from the dead; whereof we are witnesses. 16 And his name through
faith in his name hath made this man strong, whom ye see and know: yea,
the faith which is by him hath given him this perfect soundness in the
presence of you all. 17 And now, brethren, I wot that through ignorance
ye did it, as did also your rulers. 18 But those things, which God
before had shewed by the mouth of all his prophets, that Christ should
suffer, he hath so fulfilled. 19 Repent {metanoeo} ye therefore, and be
converted {epistrepho}, that your sins may be blotted out, when the
times of refreshing {recovery of breath; the implication is spiritually
revived from death} shall come from the presence of the Lord; 20 And he
shall send Jesus Christ {the second coming}, which before was preached
unto you: 21 Whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution
{the spiritual reconstruction of national Israel and the restoration of
dominion to humanity through the last Adam, which is Christ Jesus} of
all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets
since the world began {Genesis 3:15}. 22 For Moses truly said unto the
fathers {Deuteronomy 18:18}, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up
unto you of your brethren, like unto me; him shall ye hear in all things
whatsoever he shall say unto you. 23 And it shall come to pass, that
every soul, which will not hear that prophet, shall be destroyed from
among the people. 24 Yea, and all the prophets from Samuel and those
that follow after, as many as have spoken, have likewise foretold of
these days. 25 Ye are the children of the prophets, and of the covenant
which God made with our fathers, saying unto Abraham, And in thy seed
shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed. 26 Unto you first God,
having raised up his Son Jesus, sent him to bless you, in turning away
{apostrepho; to turn away or turn around} every one of you from his
iniquities” (Acts 3:12-26).
Again, the pattern in Scripture is that biblical repentance
always results in turning away from sin. Biblical repentance is not
merely a change of mind, but also a change of direction. If a person’s
life has no change of direction, repentance is not genuine and
conversion has not taken place.
Anonymous comments will not be allowed. Numerous studies and series are available free of charge for local churches at: http://www.disciplemakerministries.org/ Dr. Lance Ketchum serves the Lord as a Church Planter, Evangelist/Revivalist. He has served the Lord for over 40 years.
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