Keeping the Commandments

Acts 3:19 NKJV

19 Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord,

repent: metanoeo - to reconsider (repent) v. — to have a change of self (heart and mind) that abandons former dispositions and results in a new self, new behavior, and regret over former behavior and dispositions.

The key here is the change of self. It’s not an action. It’s a mindset. It’s a condition you live in.

a lot of people get confused thinking “what if i miss a sin”?

John 14:15 NKJV

15 “If you love Me, keep My commandments.

keep: tereo - to observe (conform) v. — to conform one’s action or practice to.

Romans 7:4–6 NKJV

4 Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another—to Him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God. 5 For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were aroused by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit to death. 6 But now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter.

We believe we’re dead to the law

We believe we’re rased with Christ

We now serve in the newness of the Spirit!

Romans 7:15–16 NKJV

15 For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do. 16 If, then, I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that it is good.

I agree with the law that it is good.

Romans 7:19 NKJV

19 For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice.

The good that *I will* to do!

The evil *I will not to do*

Romans 7:21–23 NKJV

21 I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good. 22 For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. 23 But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.

The phrases of a repentant heart:

Keep Jesus’s commandments

Delight in the law of God.

Agree with the law that it is good.

Will not to do evil, will to do good.

This forms a state of mind. A person in this condition *wants* to please and obey Jesus because they love Him.

But there’s a problem, we don’t always obey Him.

What is the ministry of reconciliation? That Jesus was in the world *not* imputing sin!

A person in this state of mind has their faith and their love in the right place. They believe Jesus is the Christ & they love Him.

Hebrews 10:26–27 NKJV

26 For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, 27 but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries.

this is contrasted with Romans 7 above, which says we do what we *will not to do *!

If your will no longer aligns with Jesus, you can’t claim you are repentant.

This is the perfect elucidation of living outside of grace!