What We Must Turn From
By Pastor Chris McKnight
The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life Survey of 35,000 people recently found that
59% believe in hell, down from 71% from a 2001 Gallup survey, while 74% believe in heaven. Mike Wittmer, a seminary professor of systematic theology at a conservative seminary observes, “That’s the biggest question out there right now: ‘Would God send someone to hell if they were someone as good as me, but didn’t believe what I believe?’
What does hell have to do with repentance? According to God’s spokesman, Jesus Christ, it is the one and only way to avoid that terrible, terrifying place. Today we consider what must we repent or turn from at conversion.
There are two schools of thought out there. School number one says we must only repent of the sin of unbelief when we become Christians. They argue that repentance is nothing more than a change of mind about Christ, a turning from unbelief to belief, with no resulting change in behavior. They say nothing else is necessary for salvation. They use Acts 16:31 as their proof text, as if this is the only verse in Acts related to the required response to gospel preaching.
The implication is that a person practicing homosexuality, fornication, drunkenness, gossip, lying, jealousy, anger, greed, theft or slander may continue to practice his or her sin and think they are saved, because of some shallow, mental assent to some facts about Jesus.
I have three responses. One, Baloney! This is a mixture of unknown parts, cut into a neat little circle, full of fat and no good for you. Two, this is the essence of “cheap grace” or an “easy-believism” gospel where mere head knowledge about Christ replaces a commitment to Christ, evidenced by turning from sin. Three, then why did Jesus say what He said in Mat. 7:20-23?
The second school of thought is that repentance is from sins, evil or wickedness and there are tons of Scripture to support this school.
In Jeremiah 8 God is rebuking idolatrous Israel for their worship of sun, moon and stars, for living in continual apostasy and speaking lies about God and to each other. In v.6 is God’s indictment: “No man repented of his wickedness, saying, “what have I done?”
God’s word of judgment comes to Ezekiel. Israel has set up their idols in their hearts and yet want to consult God too. It was classic syncretism that’s still alive today where unrepentant people merely add Jesus and spiritual activity to the mix of sin and false religion. ‘Thus says the Lord God, “Repent and turn away from your idols, and turn your faces away from all your abominations” (Ezek. 14:6).
Acts 3:26 says “For you first, God raised up His Servant and sent Him to bless you by turning every one of you from your wicked ways” not “from your unbelief”.
In 2 Cor. 12:21 Paul is concerned that he will get to Corinth and have to mourn over some who “have not repented of the impurity, immorality and sensuality which they have practiced.” Just a few verses later, the text reads: “Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you – unless indeed you fail the test?”
During the seven year Tribulation, the Bible says that those not killed by the plagues still did not repent “of the works of their hands (worship of demons and idols) and they did not repent of their murders nor of their sorceries nor of their immorality nor of their thefts” (Rev. 9:20-21). It sounds like to me God commands us to repent of sins, not just unbelief.
I need to make three points of clarification. First, repentance from sins means we turn from all the known sin in our lives at the time of our conversion. I don’t think the Holy Spirit convicts us of every single sin at the time of conversion. That would be overwhelming. But like Simon in Acts 8, I think He convicts us of specific sins to show us we are sinful by nature, we have a wrong relationship with God and to force the issue – are we willing to forsake sins to have Christ? The real tragedy of Simon of Samaria is not his specific sins, but his response when told to repent. “But Simon answered and said, “Pray to the Lord for me yourselves, so that nothing of what you have said may come upon me.” Luke records no response of Peter.
Thomas Watson wrote: “Our turning from sin is from all sin. A true convert seeks the destruction of every lust. He knows how dangerous it is to entertain any one sin. He that hides one rebel in his house is a traitor to the Crown, and he that indulges one sin is a traitorous hypocrite …It is true that we cannot know the exact catalogue of our sins, but the sins which come within our view and to our mind, and which our hearts accuse us of, must be confessed as ever we hope for mercy.”
Two, repentance from all known sin doesn’t mean we don’t still sin. It means we will not walk in, practice, habitually commit, indulge, love or remain enslaved to sins. The habitual pattern of living in sins is broken by repentance. Now we fight, hate, and see ever-increasing obedience amidst occasional stumbles and struggles.
Some sins fall away at conversion quiet easily and completely, while others put up a lifelong fight, but that’s the point – we now fight against the known sin in our lives.
Louis Berkhof in his Systematic Theology, wrote in 1940: “Those who have experienced a true conversion may temporarily fall under the spell of evil and fall into sin; they may at times even wander far from home; but the new life in bound to reassert itself and will eventually cause them to return to God with repentant hearts.”
Three, children too must repent to be saved. If a child can consciously, knowingly sin, then he or she must consciously repent. Even young children of 6, 7 or 8 years old qualify. I asked my converted daughter of 13 one time, “what are sins children need to repent of?” Her immediate answer? “lying, stealing and cheating.”
Then the next day, I opened our local newspaper to see this headline: Lie, Cheat and Steal: High School Students’ Ethics Surveyed. Approximately 30,000 students from 100 randomly selected high schools, public and private, including religious, were surveyed. Here are the not so shocking results:
- 30% have stolen from a store in the last year
- 64% have cheated on a test
- 42% lie to save money
- 83% lied to a parent about something significant
Children and teens are sinners too and need to be challenged to repent and trust Jesus as Savior and Lord.
