Justification, Sanctification, Repentance?

[peterparker]

So I recently found out about the doctrine of Justification and Sanctification, which might help me finally be at peace. It seems that all along I had been putting sanctification before justification (as a prerequisite), which was essentially destroying me. But I'm still not comfortable. There seems to be some things which I'm not sure where to place. Repentence, being one of them, where is repentence placed?

Since I have read much scripture which says justification is free, and you simply accept Jesus as your lord and savior to be saved I would assume repentence is part of the sanctification process, not necessary for salvation, but something God will bring you to in the walk.

But I have also heard that if "you come to God humbly and in repentance he will forgive you". To me this says that repentence is the "currency" to buy justification (salvation), and so justification is not as free as I thought the Bible indicated. This would be very hard on me as I didn't turn to God out of guilt for my sins (in repentence), but rather out of the realization that the things of this Earth are meaningless without an afterlife.

But maybe both are right. Maybe they are talking about two types of repentance. Maybe the first repentance is itself accepting Jesus, and being willing to let God bring you to the other type of repentance (actual repentance for specific sins).

Can anyone please enlighten me?

I'd appreciate any help on this.

 

[ckotane]

"To me this says that repentence is the "currency" to buy justification (salvation), and so justification is not as free as I thought the Bible indicated."

I have been struggling with the same feeling. I'm not big enough in my walk yet to give amazing/life-changing advice. However, I hope that letting you know that there are others who ask the same questions will ease your mind. I don't think repentence can be used as currency to buy your salvation. Rather, repentence is something you do when you see that you have rebelled against the perfect God who has given you a gift of eternal salvation. Perhaps it would be better to view repentence as a way to glorify God, which then God reflects back on to you through the fruits of the spirit.

 

[Jayangel81]

You cant "buy" your justification. it definitly wasnt free. God crushed His only Son. nor can God just give it to us freely. To give us justification freely is an abomination to God (proverbs 17:15)

The only way you can recieve justification is by Grace through Jesus Christ. He drank the cup of wrath for you.

True repentence is something that is given to us from God. Its easy to say "God I repent for my sins" But can you truly repent for your sins through turning away from it? No, not by yourself only by the help of the Holy Spirit. Sanctification is a process in life that we endure. We are in a constant sanctification thoughout. You cant recieve sanctification if you practice sins day in and day out. Point of sanctification is to be Holy like God is Holy. Again that is the Work of God and not ourselves.

Your right It is written that God is faithful and Just (because of Jesus) that is we confess our sins that He will cleanse us of our unrighteousness.

We dont let God bring us to repentance it is the other way around. In our flesh we dont want to stop sinning. We dont want to repent. It is God who calls us to repentence. We dont even seek God period to be honest

People come to God for different reasons, as you grow in your walk, ask God to change why you want to be saved. You felt you wanted to be saved because you thought it was pointless to live without an afterlife. But in truth God calls us for Him. everything was created by Him for Him. that is such an important factor. We are to fellowship with Him and we glorify Him.

Personally I came to God in fear of Hell..It was something not easy to get over. God changed me. If He was in Hell Ill just dive right in with Him so to speak heh..

 

[drich0150]

I left this response for Ckotane, but it applies here to your question too..



You know, I was going to start out by giving the standard, Repent of your sin's speech. But I decided to look up "Repent, Repentance, repented" in my lexicon, concordance, and other resources.. In 26 different verses containing that the word "repent" or a variations of that word comes up in the new and old Testament, I can't find one instance of a call to repentance after salvation has been established..

To some of you I'm sure this is common knowledge, but to me this is a first. I seriously looked at complete chapters where some of the more unfamiliar verses of repentance is mentioned, and the closest thing I can find is what Jesus said in Luke 17:3

Give attention to yourselves: if your brother does wrong, say a sharp word to him; and if he has sorrow for his sin, let him have forgiveness. 4And if he does you wrong seven times in a day, and seven times comes to you and says, I have regret for what I have done; let him have forgiveness.

Which is a command for forgiveness from one to another, not one of repentance before the lord.

In verses like Matt 3:8, and Acts 26:20 We are commanded to produce fruit of repentence... Meaning the turning away from sinful things etc etc...

But again there isn't a direct command to "Repent or make amends" for every sin you have committed to the lord after salvation. With that said, the scriptures doesn't say you can't repent every time you sin either. But I think if the "Evil one" has us bound up with unnecessary repentance all of the time, we defiantly make less of a impact on those who are in need of us. That is if we are all guilted out on our own hang ups all of the time we can't really have the same boldness as a "Free man" would.

I know I've felt Guilt, and remained silent when one of my own favorite sins is posted in this forum By another's hand, asking for help in an area I struggle with.
Feeling too sinful, and in need of repentance before helping another tackle what has left me defeated.

I think this is where the book of Romans comes in. In Paul's teachings there, we find out we are all sin all the time, and even in our Sunday bests we are still dirty rags when it comes to our efforts in righteousness. Meaning at our best we are still not worthy.
If this is in fact the case, and we are to repent of all of our sins all of the time then we need to repent of the "Good" we do as well as all the evil. Because in God's perfect standard of Love and Righteousness, we again fall short. Meaning there is no way to be righteous before the Lord at any time under our own steam.. It is thru the Holy Spirit that we are able to claim Righteousness, and only thru this gift are we deemed holy.. And because it is a gift and not "earned" Then you can conclude there is nothing you can do to earn it, not even thru constant repentance..
Because (presumably) You already have it.


Repentance scripture references:
Matt 3:2, 3:8, 4:17, 11:21
MK 1:4, 6:12
LK 3:8 5:32 15:7 15:10 17:3
ACTS 2:38, 17:30, 20:21, 26:20
RO 2:4, 7:9
2CO 7:10
2Pe 3:9

OT scripture:
1KG 8:47
JOB 36:10, 42:6
JER 15:19
EZE 18:30-32
ISA 30:15

 

[Johnnz]

Repentance is about a change of mind.It comes from understanding something more from God's perspective and seeing what we are missing out on by accepting less.

The three parables of the lost sheep, the lost pearl and the lost son all tell us of God seeking what was lost. So, repentance is about allowing ourselves to be found by God

Justification and sanctification are both gifts. Paul wrote
1 Cor 1:2 To the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be holy, together with all those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ — their Lord and ours,

and

1 Cor 6:11 But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. NIV

Note how Paul used a past tense. When Jesus died he achieved our total wiping out of all our faults. There is no other basis that we can ever be good enough. No amount of effort, doing good, praying. bible study or whatever will ever earn us brownie points sufficient to deserve or merit God doing anything for us. Instead Jesus and the Father arranged for us how we could have a wonderful relationship as loved members of God's family.

Rather than try and order those three terms try and live out of what you are in Christ. Anything less will end up as law and works, and we all know where that ends up.

John
NZ

 

[Elijah2]

Well if you believe in HIM, then you are justified (Acts 13:39), and you can also be justified by your words (Rom. 3:4).

Now if you are a fleshly sinner then you will not justified (Rom. 3:20).

You are justified by your faith, then you will have peace in our Lord Jesus Christ (Rom. 5:1), and if you have faith in our Lord Jesus Christ then you will be justified, but if you do works and sin in the flesh, then you have no justification (Gal. 5:4).

So when it all comes down to the nitty-gritty, when you sin you confess, when you sin you REPENT. So REPENTANCE is a very important act within the Body Of Christ.

Be blessed in Jesus' Name.

 

[LilLamb219]

Jayangel81 wrote an excellent posting!!!!

Repentance, Justification and Sanctification are all God's work in us!!!

Repentance consists of two parts, contrition and faith. God uses His Law to convict us of our sins to bring us to contrition and He uses His Gospel to bring us faith so that we turn to Him.

 

[Catherineanne]

So I recently found out about the doctrine of Justification and Sanctification, which might help me finally be at peace. It seems that all along I had been putting sanctification before justification (as a prerequisite), which was essentially destroying me. But I'm still not comfortable. There seems to be some things which I'm not sure where to place. Repentence, being one of them, where is repentence placed?

Since I have read much scripture which says justification is free, and you simply accept Jesus as your lord and savior to be saved I would assume repentence is part of the sanctification process, not necessary for salvation, but something God will bring you to in the walk.

But I have also heard that if "you come to God humbly and in repentance he will forgive you". To me this says that repentence is the "currency" to buy justification (salvation), and so justification is not as free as I thought the Bible indicated. This would be very hard on me as I didn't turn to God out of guilt for my sins (in repentence), but rather out of the realization that the things of this Earth are meaningless without an afterlife.

But maybe both are right. Maybe they are talking about two types of repentance. Maybe the first repentance is itself accepting Jesus, and being willing to let God bring you to the other type of repentance (actual repentance for specific sins).

Can anyone please enlighten me?

I'd appreciate any help on this.

I think the element that I would add to this would be grace. By the grace of God we are called to recognise our need for him, and to repent our past life which has divided us from his love.

We do not ourselves achieve sanctification. What we do is to inherit sanctity from God himself; in ourselves there is nothing of sanctity possible. Similarly with justification. It is not we who are justified, but Christ. We become co-heirs with him, and share his inheritance, and his justification.

As long as we are one with Christ, we remain one with his holiness and his sanctity. And we remain one with Christ through grace. Not because we are afraid of punishment, but because to remain in Christ is the greatest blessing we can ever have.

Imo this is a much simpler way of looking at it, because it leaves the focus always on God in Christ, and away from our own human fallibility.

 

[alatir]

May I say that without the work of God's Spirit repentance and sanctification can't truly be true and without Him your walk doesn't have any power or value. You just somehow need to realize and have a revelation of God's righteousness and how He sees your sin. Then you need a revelation of the grace of God in Jesus Christ and His death for your justification. Regeneration is a supernatural act of God. Then God begins to sanctify you and make you in the likeness of His Son but there is this mystery in salvation that God still demands us to make effort also to renew our minds with His Word. He will pour out His Holy Spirit to help in our sanctification and walk on this Earth. It is a impossible in our own flesh.

 

[Emmy]

Dear peterparker. Jesus gave us 2 Commandments, which contain all 10 Commandments, which God gave us. 1) Love God with all our hearts, with all our souls, and with all our minds. That is straightforward, God deserves our All, He made us in His image, He loves us, and He wants us back with Him. He is our Heavenly Father. 2) Love our neighbour, love all others, love each other, AS we love OURSELVES. That is not easy, and only Jesus can help and guide us, to become All - Loving. Repentance is to exchange our selfish and wilful characters into loving selflessly, and caring for all who need our help. We live in an imperfect world, peterparker, and we surrounded by temptations of all sorts, and to become as God wants usto be, will take years and years. We will have to ask forgiveness daily, and we will be forgiven again, and again. We have been given many years to learn, we have Jesus to help us, and we will find that with the Joy, Love and Peace, which Jesus has promised us, and will give us, our lives will become easier and easier. Not until we sincerely try to live like that, we will never know we will reap, what we sow. People all around us will notice, and they will become more loving too, more friendly and even helpful. Justification, Sanctification, leave that to God, peterparker, we will be given all that by our Lord. I say this humbly and with assurance. Greetings from Emmy, your sister in Christ.

 

[peterparker]

Well if you believe in HIM, then you are justified (Acts 13:39), and you can also be justified by your words (Rom. 3:4).

Now if you are a fleshly sinner then you will not justified (Rom. 3:20).

Ummm.... I'm not exactly sure what you are talking about here. Fleshy sinner? Rom 3:20 says that we can not be justified by works (hence the need to be justified by faith).

You are justified by your faith, then you will have peace in our Lord Jesus Christ (Rom. 5:1), and if you have faith in our Lord Jesus Christ then you will be justified, but if you do works and sin in the flesh, then you have no justification (Gal. 5:4).

Again, I'm not too sure what you are talking about with Gal 5:4. I thought this passage was about people who after accepting Christ would still be circumcised, hence not trust in Christ , and would be judged by works.

So when it all comes down to the nitty-gritty, when you sin you confess, when you sin you REPENT. So REPENTANCE is a very important act within the Body Of Christ.

Be blessed in Jesus' Name.

But, thanks anyway for helping me out, I really appreciate it.

And thanks to everyone else for the good responses too, I appreciate the help.