Repentance is an act!

Mikuláš Török, 2004-02-01

Tit. 2: 11-14 For the Grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. It teaches us to say „No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope-the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good. (NIV)

God’s grace brings salvation to everyone (v. 11). It saves us from the damnation and gives us an assurance about it. But the same power makes us to refuse ungodliness, sin, flesh and worldly passions (v. 12). The same power also makes us to be eager to do what is good, which means to earnestly seek after good deeds. (v. 14)

God gives us revelation about our salvation through the faith. The real salvation brings an absolute assurance, that we already obtained this deliverance. Beside this assurance of salvation there is something else that comes into the life of a believer – a hatred of the sin and a desire to do right things. If a man is sure about his salvation, but doesn’t mind staying in a sin and deeds of the flesh and doesn’t have any desire to „do right” whatsoever, there can be raised a very reasonable doubt about his salvation. Why? Because the more a man is assured by God about his salvation, the more he hates sin and he also turns his back to it. On the other hand he gets more desire and need to live according to God’s word. If not – it is very possible, that something isn’t right with his salvation.

This new and right way of thinking is produced by faith, which is inseparably connected with repentance. If somebody says that he repented, but he keeps acting the old way, we can doubt about his faith. In fact he never really repented. Repentance isn’t only asking God to forgive us or just to change our thinking according to His word. Unavoidable result of the repentance is that we really stop doing wrong sinful things (everything that separates us from the Lord) and we start doing the right ones! If someone doesn’t live that, he didn’t really repent, but only religiously did something that brought this weird schizophrenia into his life – on one hand the inner life with God (quality is questionable though), on the other hand the old ways of his unchanged heart.

God’s grace gives us an absolute assurance about our salvation, produces a visible change of thinking, hatred of a sin and love of good things. (Not according to our ideas of what’s good, but according to God’s.) This change will unavoidably bring a change in our behavior and acting – we will refuse the sinful deeds and will start doing the good ones. Then we can seriously talk about the real repentance.


Home page New Life Church Tenets of our faith Testimonies Goodwill Services schedule Contact us	Repentance is an act! Mikuláš Török, 2004-02-01 Tit. 2: 11-14 For the Grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. It teaches us to say „No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope-the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good. (NIV) God’s grace brings salvation to everyone (v. 11). It saves us from the damnation and gives us an assurance about it. But the same power makes us to refuse ungodliness, sin, flesh and worldly passions (v. 12). The same power also makes us to be eager to do what is good, which means to earnestly seek after good deeds. (v. 14) God gives us revelation about our salvation through the faith. The real salvation brings an absolute assurance, that we already obtained this deliverance. Beside this assurance of salvation there is something else that comes into the life of a believer – a hatred of the sin and a desire to do right things. If a man is sure about his salvation, but doesn’t mind staying in a sin and deeds of the flesh and doesn’t have any desire to „do right” whatsoever, there can be raised a very reasonable doubt about his salvation. Why? Because the more a man is assured by God about his salvation, the more he hates sin and he also turns his back to it. On the other hand he gets more desire and need to live according to God’s word. If not – it is very possible, that something isn’t right with his salvation. This new and right way of thinking is produced by faith, which is inseparably connected with repentance. If somebody says that he repented, but he keeps acting the old way, we can doubt about his faith. In fact he never really repented. Repentance isn’t only asking God to forgive us or just to change our thinking according to His word. Unavoidable result of the repentance is that we really stop doing wrong sinful things (everything that separates us from the Lord) and we start doing the right ones! If someone doesn’t live that, he didn’t really repent, but only religiously did something that brought this weird schizophrenia into his life – on one hand the inner life with God (quality is questionable though), on the other hand the old ways of his unchanged heart. God’s grace gives us an absolute assurance about our salvation, produces a visible change of thinking, hatred of a sin and love of good things. (Not according to our ideas of what’s good, but according to God’s.) This change will unavoidably bring a change in our behavior and acting – we will refuse the sinful deeds and will start doing the good ones. Then we can seriously talk about the real repentance.	Newsletter subscription If you want to receive regular newsletters, please fill your e-mail address into the following field. You can unsubscribe at any time. Your e-mail address:
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