Acts 5:31 “Him God has exalted to His right hand to be Prince and Saviour, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins.”
Scripture in fact teaches us that salvation and repentance are synonymous terms, i.e. they are actually one and the same thing. We see that truth confirmed to us in the above quoted passage of scripture when Peter bore witness of our Lord Jesus to the High Priest and the leaders of Israel. For in this passage in testifying about salvation through Christ, Peter did not tell them that God had given salvation to Israel, but rather that God had given “repentance” to Israel, thus he equated repentance with salvation. I want you to also notice in this passage that it is God who gives us repentance as well as forgiveness of our sins.
Acts 11:18 “When they heard these things they became silent; and they glorified God, saying, "Then God has also granted to the Gentiles repentance to life.”
The truth of repentance and salvation being synonymous terms is confirmed to us again in the above quoted passage of scripture, when Peter recounted to the church in Jerusalem the conversion of the gentiles to faith in Jesus Christ for the first time. For we see in this passage that the Jews did not respond by saying that God had granted salvation to the gentiles, but rather that God had granted “repentance to life” to the gentiles, thus equating repentance with salvation. Again in this passage I want you to notice that it is God who grants us repentance.
2 Peter 3:9 “The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.”
In Peter’s letter to the church as quoted in the above passage of scripture, when he tells us that the Lord does not want any to perish, he does not say that the Lord wants all to come to salvation, but rather he says that the Lord wants all to come to repentance. Peter clearly shows us in this passage that repentance and salvation are synonymous terms in scripture. And so we see that everyone who accepts Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour, by default have repented and are instantly saved, for as far as heaven is concerned salvation and repentance are one and the same thing. For anyone to teach that one cannot be saved unless they have first made a conscious decision to repent of their sins is error. Those who teach such error believe that because most Christians have not first taken the step of repentance, they are deceived into thinking that they are saved when they are in actual fact not saved. Mature believers are not affected by such foolishness but baby Christians can be. Most, when they are born again, have no idea what is happening to them at the time they give their lives to Christ. All they know is that they have a strong conviction telling them that they need to respond to the gospel that they are hearing, and so they give their lives to Christ. That is why the Lord Jesus put the foundational doctrine of repentance from dead works in the church. He did that so that He could teach His church exactly what happened to them when they were born again. Jesus put this doctrine in the church so that He could teach them just what salvation was all about, including the aspect of repentance. We don’t learn about repentance before we are saved, we learn about repentance after we are saved. Those who teach the error that people are not saved because they have not taken the step to repent of their sin before accepting Christ, do so because they look at sin in the church. They say that the reason why there is sin in the church is because people have not truly been saved. But that is not the case at all. The reason that there is sin in the church is because the doctrine of repentance from dead works has not been taught in the church. When that doctrine is taught correctly then believers begin to understand who they are in Christ and what He has done for them, and consequently they begin to walk a life free from sin.
Hebrews 9:13-14 “For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, (14) how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?”
In the series thus far we have looked at the first part of this doctrine, which is repentance. This now brings us to the second part of the doctrine, which is dead works, for the doctrine teaches us to repent from dead works. So just what are dead works, for it is these that I, as a believer, must completely turn away from. In the passage of scripture quoted above the Holy Spirit gives us some indication as to what dead works are, when He tells us that our conscience is cleansed from dead works by the blood of Christ.
Revelation 1:5 “and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler over the kings of the earth. To Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood.”
In the passage of scripture quoted above we are told that the blood of Christ cleanses us from our sins. And so we can clearly see that when the previous passage of scripture refers to dead works that it is in fact referring to sin, for it is both dead works and sin that are cleansed by the blood of Christ.
Galatians 5:19-21 “Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, (20) idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, (21) envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.”
Dead works in scripture are also referred to as the works of the flesh. In his letter to the churches in Galatia quoted above, the apostle Paul gives us some insight as to just what the works of the flesh are. Obviously Paul could not list all the works of the flesh, as that list is very extensive indeed. Nevertheless he has listed enough for us to get a clear understanding of just what dead works are. From this list we can see that dead works or the works of the flesh are everything that scripture also calls sin. Therefore we see that sins are the dead works that believers are to repent from. And so in this series we will learn how believers are fully able to turn away from sin, which is really what the doctrine of repentance from dead works is all about.
Michael E.B. Maher
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