Welcome to this very important video where Jon and I will talk about repentance.
We want to do this one more time. We did a video about repentance short time ago,
some days ago, and the response was very, very positive, but also very, very shocking,
because there was also some negative response where we just need to shake our
heads and think: What is happening today?! How people have misunderstood
what repentance truly is. So, we were supposed to talk about grace
and what grace is, but we will leave that for the next time.
We want to talk about repentance. What is repentance in that way that
how do repentance and works go together and we will answer some questions
like: What does it mean that God repented?
The response we got on the last teaching, what do you think about that?
I have to say I was shocked and I did not know that people have
such big issue, when it comes to repentance.
We've just explained what we read in the Bible.
Most of the response was good, but there were some people who were very hostile
against repentance from sins, where they were saying things like:
No, no, no, no, you are speaking works. It's works, works, works
and we are saved by grace. Another people say: No, no, no, you are preaching
the wrong gospel. We are under the gospel of Paul, the gospel of grace.
Some people comment like: No, repentance has nothing to do with sin because
God repented and God did not need to repent from sin.
And we were shocked, so we want to do a video here where we go even deeper
in repentance and answer some of those questions, some of those comments
that are out there. Some of the comments, one of the comments we got, can you read that?
Yeah, one of the comments we got, responding on our video, he said here:
Repentance in original Bible language is 'metanoia', changing of your mind.
- And we agree with that. - It is true. - That is what we've talked about.
In other words, change your mind towards Jesus, not repenting from sinning,
because if you repent from sinning, you will keep sinning.
Yeah, why does he say something like that? Because in his mindset, if you do works,
works is also a kind of sin. And if you repent from sin, you are sinning
by doing works. It just doesn't make sense, and you who wrote this comment
and some of the other comments we are going to go through,
I really hope you see this video, because some of you, to say very loving -
you are deceived. You are really deceived and you have the wrong understanding
of what the gospel is. One of the comments we will spend some time on is,
one guy wrote here: Repentance simply means - change your mind.
And we are agreeing in that part. We talked about that last time.
But then he continues. NOT, with capital letters, NOT to turn from sin.
- Uh-huh. - Uh-huh.
And then, if you are reading The King James Bible, you will see that the most repented
person in Scriptures is God. And then he quotes different scriptures
from the Bible where God repented, or changed His mind.
And I want to say to you who wrote this comment: you are also deceived.
Of course we need to believe in Christ, but we also need to turn away from sin.
And yes, the word "repentance" means: change your mind.
And it doesn't have in every context to have to do with sin.
In God's case it doesn't have to do with sin. But God changed His mind.
When He, for example, in the beginning, Genesis 6, I think, before the flood,
He saw people's evil deeds and He changed His mind that He have created them.
And then He sent the flood. So, there God changed His mind.
He repented, but not from sin, because God cannot repent from sin.
You always have to see it in context.
If my daughter Simone come to me and say: "Daddy, I want an ice cream,
I want an ice cream, I want an ice cream!" I said: "No, no, no, no. You got an ice cream
yesterday, you're not going to get an ice cream today." What happens then?
Then she helps clean up in the kitchen and she is so nice, so I say:
"Simone, you can get your ice cream." What did I do there? I repented. Metanoia.
I changed my mind. So, in that context it has nothing to do with sin,
but in most contexts in the Bible it has to do with sin.
When Jesus said: When your hand brings you to fall - cut it off, throw it away.
When your eyes - plug them off. He talked with a woman caught
in adultery: Go and sin no more. So, of course, it has to do with sin.
And this is the thing. I want to come with two examples here,
how important it is to always have context, context, context.
Many people, sadly enough today, live a Christianity built od verses alone,
verses taken out of context. For example, Ephesians 2:8.
That is what always comes. Because that is also the next thing this person writes here.
He writes here: "In fact, Jesus said: 'Repent and believe the gospel.' It would make
no sense that that means to turn away from sin." Uh-huh.
"As that would require keeping the law and we know that that is works."
It doesn't make sense what he's saying. "Clearly the Bible says that we are justified
before God by faith and not by works..." So, he now says that repentance is works,
and therefore... repentance from sins is works.
And then he quotes the famous verse, always comes:
"By grace you are saved through faith - and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God
- not by works, less any man would boast." (Ephesians, 2:8-9)
But you have to understand when the Bible here said: "By grace you are saved
through faith - and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God -
not by works", it's not our deeds who save us, we all agree with this.
And we are going to talk about grace next time.
But what he is talking about here is works by the law. We need to repent.
Repent, turn away from sin is part of being saved.
It's our response to the gospel. We believe and we get baptized.
We repent and we get baptized. We need to respond to the gospel,
to the gospel Jesus have given to us. And we are going to talk about grace next time.
But if you read in context, Paul in Ephesians 2:8-9 DID NOT talk about works here
in context as works are repentance. He is talking about works in context of works
by the law, the law Moses came with. You are not saved by faith + keeping the law
of Moses. It's faith in Jesus Christ. And that faith leads to repentance.
That faith leads to good works God has beforehand prepared for us to walk in.
And if you take context here, Ephesians 2:8-9, the same... a few verses before he said here:
That you who were dead in your trespasses and sins in which you once walked...
when you walked as sons of disobedience, but now we have put on...
given up the old life, and so on. He continues in verse 17, chapter 4:
Now we no longer walk like the Gentiles. Now we have a new heart.
Then in verse 20: What we have learned in Christ and that is to put off the old life.
He is talking about putting off the falsehood, he is talking about no longer steal,
he is talking about living a righteous life, he is talking about: don't grieve the Holy Spirit.
He is talking about holiness, he is talking about love, he is talking about works,
works, works, works, works, according to that guy.
But he is not talking about works by the law, by keeping the law.
He is talking about works in the sense of obedience, in sense of repentance,
in sense of turning away. One more thing and you can add here.
Galatians is the same. People have quoted Galatians. I've often heard, when I say
to people: You have to repent from your sins, you have to live a holy life,
this is what God have commanded to us. Then people have quoted Galatians
in that context and say: Yeah, but Galatians, Paul is saying in Galatians 3:
"You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you?" And then he said: "Did you received the Spirit
by the works" - Here is added: "by the works of the law". That is good.
"Or by hearing with faith." But again, when Paul wrote this to Galatians
and warned them about the works, he was talking about the works of the law,
he was talking about keeping the law to get saved, he was talking circumcision.
He did never talk about repentance and turning away from sin.
He did never talk about the baptism. Why? Because - read context,
read context, read the whole letters, not only verse there.
To the same people where he is warning them against the law,
keeping the law, going under the law, like works by the law,
in the same letter he says here: That in Jesus Christ you are all
the sons of God through faith. Uh-huh.
And when did that happen that they became the sons of God through faith?
Next verse, 3:27: "For as many as you who were baptized to Christ
have put on Christ." So, Paul is there talking about somebody who have
repented, who have come to faith, who have put on Christ
when they got baptized to Christ. He reminds them: When you got baptized
to Christ you put on Christ. And then he warns them against works,
but not works like repentance, not works like baptism.
Of course Paul is not talking about baptism, it doesn't make sense.
Repentance is so clear if you just read it in context.
The same letter, he talks in verse... chapter 5. And remember,
there was no chapters and verses when he wrote the letter.
He said, verse 21: "I warned you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things
do not inherit the Kingdom of God." And what were such things he was talking about?
That was: sexual immorality, impurity, idolatry, sorcery, jealousy, anger, strive
and lot of other things, works by the flesh. Paul said: If you do those things
you are not going to inherit the Kingdom of God.
So, when people quote Ephesians 2:8 or Galatians and use Scripture against
holiness, against repentance, against works, by obedience, they are quoting Scripture
the same way Satan quoted the Scripture when he tempted Jesus.
Totally out of context. Now you have to say something.
First of all, I just want to start to mention about works and obedience.
When we talk about, for example, obedience, we do not talk about
works of the law. We talked about obedience to Jesus' words. But I have to say,
I'm sorry to say this, but many of those comments, writing against us,
where they interpret as repentance or baptism, or holiness as works
and not obedience, and the problem is that they push everything obedience away.
But in this we did not talked about works of the law. We talk about obedience
of faith. What is faith? That is really important to know. What is faith?
Faith in not only just hearing the Word but hearing the Word and doers of the Word.
Like, for example, try to imagine James 2:6 says this:
"Faith without works is dead." Now, it sounds like that James is almost
contradicting what Paul is saying, but they do not contradict, as Torben said:
Look in the context. When Paul is talking about works, for example in Galatians,
Paul was talking about the works of the law of Moses. But when James talked about
works, in James' letter, he talked about works of faith. - Obedience.
Produce obedience. That is what is about. That do not contradict to each other.
So, say like that: works... we are not talking about faith + keeping the law,
but faith without obedience, or works - is dead.
Yeah. I just want to read a few scriptures. Try to imagine, in Matthew 3:8
John the Baptist says to people: "Therefore, produce fruits that proves
your repentance." In another words - show it by your actions
that you are truly repenting. That is what he is actually saying.
Another scripture, Acts 26:19-20. Paul, now this is Paul who says this to
King Agrippa: "I was not disobedient to the vision from heaven.
First to those in Damascus, then to those in Jerusalem and in all Judea,
and then to the Gentiles, I preached that they should repent and turn to God
and demonstrate their repentance by their deeds."
Or, you can say: works again. - Works, actions, obedience.
So, the only way you can prove you have repented is by your deeds.
The only way you can prove that you have faith is by your obedience.
Like Abraham, when he was willing to offer his son Isaac, God there said:
Now I know that you fear me. He did not know it before, but He saw his
response, He saw his faith. And that is the thing.
I talked about the faith in some of the videos short time ago
and I encourage you to go in and see what faith is.
It's two videos I did about faith. Because we have a Greek understanding,
a mindset where we think you can believe one thing and then you can do something else.
That is a Greek mindset. That is not Biblical. Faith is obedience. Faith is action.
Faith is works, if you can say like that. But we don't get...
When we talk about grace, we will make very, very clear that...
Yes, we need to obey, but we don't say: Hey, it's my obedience that saves me.
No, it was Jesus Christ and His grace, it's by grace through faith.
Can you come with an example about faith and...
Yeah, like try to imagine, like when we talked about faith and we talked about
as faith and repentance go hand by hand, how does that look?
Try to imagine, let�s say now if you are me, me and Torben, we go out take a walk,
and as we take a walk we should cross over the road. And when we cross
the road, I take the first step and when I take the first step, Torben starts
suddenly to see: a truck is coming. And Torben starts to shout at me:
Jon, watch out! A truck is coming! Now what do I do?
Like, do I stand in the middle of the road and start to argue with myself:
What does Torben mean by: 'Truck is coming.' No.
I take that action, or by trusting in his word, what he's saying,
to step away from the road. Now, when I have stepped away from the road,
would I say: Look, I am saved by works, I am saved by works...
- Or saved by myself. - Saved by myself because I took an action...
- No, it was me. It was because of me. - I got saved because I trusted in his word
by taking that action. The only way, if we really have faith in a person,
it always automatically produces action.
So, when Jesus says: 'repent, turn away from your sins', when Jesus says:
'get baptized' - we do it. And because of our action
we get saved. We experience salvation. But we will never boast and say:
Oh, oh, it was because of me I got saved. No, no, no, no, it was only because of Him.
And that is what we are going to talk about more in the next teaching
where we are going to talk about grace and the misunderstanding about grace.
But let�s keep it up here. Repentance is - change your mind.
That is correct. God changed His mind. He repented. We will often also repent
where it has nothing to do with sin. But God want us also to repent
when it has to do with sin. Like, we need to change our minds when it comes to
adultery, when it comes to sexual immorality, when it comes to speaking bad,
when we come to what we look at, what we do, what we say,
when it comes to love our neighbor, when it comes to how we use our life,
our money, everything. In all aspects of life we need to change our mind
and change our actions. We need to repent. We need to be holy as God is holy.
That has nothing to do with works by the law. That has to do with salvation,
that has to do with repentance, that has to do with faith,
that has to do with obedience, that has to do with all of it.
And the truth is - God sees our works. Revelation, when Jesus talks to seven churches,
He said: I see your works. I see your works. I see your works. I see your works.
And God is going to judge us for our works,
not our hearts, intentions, on our... Oh yeah, he lived in sin his whole life
but inside he was different. No, no, no. God sees our actions. But, it's not works
by the law. It's a change of heart that leads to obedience, that leads to things.
So, it's not a stressful... Oh, now I have to work, work, work. No, it's God's mercy,
grace. We are saved and we have, by God's grace got a new heart
and a new life and we love Jesus and of course we obey Him.
If you love me you'll keep my command. It's what Jesus says.
Say something in the end.
I just want to say like, again, change of mind, metanoia, that's what repentance means
and that is true. But it really goes hand by hand with turning away from sins.
Change of mind starts here, but I just want to say: If it just starts here,
but it doesn't go deep in the heart there, which is producing action,
I'm sorry to say this, but it would not change, it would not save anything.
Like, try to imagine, Jesus said: Many people say: 'Lord, Lord', but your heart is far away
from me. And that's why I've also seen many people, how they live and proclaim
they believe in Jesus here, but their heart is so far away from Him.
It's all about obedience, in a relationship. Jesus also said: If you love me
you will keep my commandments.
We will end up with one verse. Can you read Jude's?
In Jude 1:4, there he says: "I say this because some ungodly people
have wormed their way into your churches, saying that God's marvelous grace
allows us to live immoral lives. The condemnation of such people was recorded long ago,
for they have denied our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ."
This is what is happening in the church today, when we talk about the whole grace teaching
and so on, that there is people in the church and has already happened in that time,
when Jude wrote this, that there are people in churches who are preaching
that God's grace, somehow, allows people to live the immoral life.
And then we read that they have denied our only Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
They have denied Him. But remember - they are still in the church.
They are maybe lifting their hands and praising, and if you ask them -
they don't deny Him by their words, but they deny Him by their actions.
And this is what I have seen to many who... in some of those people
who comment this video we just did and people out there.
They don't deny Jesus Christ by their words, but deny Him
by their actions, by their works.
So, don't be one of those who deny Jesus. Live in holiness, obey Him.
God bless you! Bye-bye!