Misunderstanding about repentance/works - Context context context

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.

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!