I wrote this some time ago to another guy who substituted a timely repentance for Grace.Repentance is an important part of faith.....it is built- in to the Gospel that SAVES found in 1Cor15:1-4. Adding to that Gospel is VERY dangerous.Simply Believe.
I believe you have “ a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge” There are seven different types of repentance in the Bible.Turning to God ( true salvation repentance ) with “ faith towards Christ” is the repentance that God demands.Repenting from sins for salvation will not be found in the KJV.If, by repentance we mean we are sorry for our sins that is good— that will occur naturally once we are indwelled by the Holy Spirit. Being sorry for sins does not save as Judas has discovered. If by repentance we mean we are going to stop sinning— that is impossible. We all sin every hour of every day. We all have secret thoughts that would shame Hell, and our sins of omission are beyond counting, unless you are inviting strangers into your home every day for food and shelter..You claim you believe in grace, but you either do not understand it or do not trust it.What you really trust is luck. You have to rely on the hope that if you sin, you can hurry up and confess and repent before you die suddenly of a heart attack or something, for you have stated if we have sins on our record that have not been covered by repentance you are going to Hell.I trust in grace to cover my sins from the moment I believed until the moment I die.Saved by His grace, not by a repentance that tries to be a substitute for grace.As for my opinion on your salvation, it is worthless. Only God knows your heart.All I know is that Paul said we will be judged by what we do with the Gospel given to him by Christ.Adding to that Gospel or preaching a Gospel that adds to it will bring damnation.Repentance is never mentioned in Pauls Gospel.It seems to me to be a very dangerous addition.You decide.
12 Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. 13 Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
Who wrote this? Not some later person, but rather Paul.
It's not a substitution of repentance for Grace unless a person actually does think they are accomplishing their own salvation, replacing Grace with their own work. (*--see note at bottom) It's by Grace that we are forgiven for only confessing/repenting! Consider that! This is such an amazing Love!
Yes, as you said, repenting is part of coming to Christ -- without repenting, one hasn't come to Christ yet. The Gospels and Book of Acts.
But also after straying/stumbling in a significant way, one repents to return to Him, to come back. The Gospels and the Epistles. No, we cannot remember every small sin, and we do not need to. But, the more
significant departures, bigger sins, the ones that make us feel guilty -- that guilt is the Spirit tugging on us to turn and repent -- because we walked away from Him. Left Him. Departed.
Basically when you feel (or know) you did something wrong it's because it's more significant -- then confess to God, and you will be restored. It's just like the Prodigal Son, but hopefully we don't wait so long (but if we do, it's not too late if you are still breathing.)
In a nutshell:
5 This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.
6 If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth.
7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.
8 If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.
9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.
10 If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word is not in us.
It's the amazing Grace, that He forgives those who humbly confess/repent.
See, significant sins are truly us separating, leaving. Putting distance between us and God. That's why Peter felt regret. Regret that was not ignored, but instead Peter repented. (
Peter's Sin, and Peter's Repentance)
This is nothing less than whether we are choosing to be with Christ, or stay/look away from Him at the thing that we left Him for instead. We can look back to Him in an instant. On the door of death, His will look to Him. I'm not trying to elaborate a theology. I think something like OSAS is too....simple. I can believe God will do what it takes for you and me to be able to turn from our sins. Someone may have to hit bottom really hard!
Yet, at the same time, we can resist, and suffer, and possibly even get prideful and continue to resist and resist until we are truly departed, so I suppose I think OSAS is not really set in stone for every individual necessarily, but rather it's the...likelihood for anyone that came to Him, in that once truly a person has come to Christ, the pull of the spirit on them to repent when they have left Him (walked sufficiently far off in sin, truly strayed) is strong and persistent, and effective for most any of us that have His words in our hearts.
Now, we know He did say explicitly we must listen to His words and put them into practice, or else: Matthew 7:24-27, which I take to mean even faith can fail (we can lose our faith) if we continue to resist and focus on some idol instead of listening to Christ and doing His words.
We can remember the wordings Paul used in Philippians, for instance, about how he himself was not already thinking he'd past-tense obtained the goal. Rather, it was a race to be continued. We are to continue walking. Yes, I'm mixing several parts of what Paul said in several chapters/epistles now. But I want us to remember especially Philippians chapter 3, especially noticing the dramatic verses 12-14. We always have to read through entire full epistles of Paul to get all he says.
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*--I'm assuming a lot of background (we all do in our posts), and I realized above I was assuming everyone already believes in Ephesians 2:8-10 and know it, and not just sort of or maybe, but really. Grace only, not works. Works follow because we believe, from being on the vine, keeping His words in our hearts. There is so much we all assume when we write, but of course we don't have all identical 128/128 assumptions, but only a large overlap, and we can't even guess what isn't the overlap.
