The Solution to Apostasy in the Church

The believer living in apostasy must repent in order to escape this terrible state.

What is repentance for the child of God?

In relation to the Christian, repentance involves confession of sin to be restored to fellowship with God (1 John 1:9).

This fellowship is maintained by obedience to the Word of God (1 John 2:3-6).

Therefore, in contrast to the unbeliever, repentance involves two steps for the believer.

First, they must confess their sins to be restored to fellowship.

The second involves maintaining that fellowship which demands that the believer obey the voice of the Spirit who communicates the Father’s will to the believer.

Of course, the Spirit inspired the Scriptures and speaks to the believer through the communication of the Scriptures by their pastor or some other believer in fellowship with God.

The Spirit can also speak to the believer during a prayerful study of the Word of God.

The Greek word in the New Testament for “repentance” is the noun metanoia, which means “a change of mind” and its cognate verb is metanoeo, which means “to change your mind, to change your attitude toward something.”

Metanoia is found 24 times in the Greek New Testament and metanoeo is found 35 times. Metanoeo is a compound verb, which means that it is composed of two words.

The first is meta meaning “change,” and the second is noeo, “mind,” therefore, the correct meaning of repentance is “to change one’s mind,” or “to change your attitude toward something.”

Both words have absolutely nothing to do with feeling sorry for your sins.

They have nothing to do with your emotions.

There is another word in the Greek New Testament which has an emotional connotation and that is the verb metamelomai which means “to feel sorry, to regret, to feel sorrow.”

This word is found 6 times in the Greek New Testament.

The distinction between the two verbs metanoeo and metamelomai is obvious in the Greek New Testament.

Metamelomai expresses a merely emotional change while metanoeo expresses a change of choice and signifies nothing but regret resulting in feeling sorry while metanoeo deals with a change of mental attitude.

Metanoeo concerns your volition and not your emotions.

It is a change of mind that leads to a different course of action, but that course of action must be determined by the context.

As we noted, repentance for the child of God involves the confession of sin to the Father in order to be restored to fellowship with their heavenly Father and obedience to God’s Word in order to maintain that fellowship.

1 John 1:9 If any of us does, at any time confess our sins, He is, as an eternal spiritual truth characterized as being faithful as well as just to forgive these sins for the benefit of each one of us, in other words, to purify each one of us from each and every unrighteous thought, word or action. (My translation)

1 John 1:9 contains a fifth class conditional statement which communicates a spiritual principle pertaining to experiencing fellowship with the Father which is in addition to the fifth class conditional statements presented in 1 John 1:6-8.

The recipients of this epistle were located in the Roman province of Asia.

The occasion of the epistle itself and the context of the entire book clearly indicates that they were already believers in Jesus Christ who were experiencing fellowship with God and each other.

However, they were now being exposed to Docetic and Cerinthian Gnostic teaching that denied the human nature of the Lord Jesus Christ.

John emphatically refutes this teaching in the prologue of the epistle.

If they believed this false teaching, it would prevent them from continuing to have fellowship with God since fellowship with God is based upon the Person, Work and Life of the Lord Jesus Christ.

This false teaching the apostle John was seeking to protect the recipients of this epistle from, were propagating an “incipient” form of Gnosticism since it was not a full blown threat to orthodox Christianity in the mid to late part of the first century as it did become in the middle of the second century.

John’s teaching in the prologue and throughout the book concerning the person of Christ is designed to protect his readers from these heretical teachings and to ensure that their fellowship with God and other believers might continue or be maintained.

That John’s readers were already experiencing fellowship with the Father and the Son and that this letter is a protection from the false teaching concerning the person of Jesus Christ is indicated in 1 John 2:13-15, 21, 26-29, 3:7-9, 4:1-3, 5:9-11, 13.

Therefore, John’s teaching in 1 John 1:6-2:2 is designed to protect the Christian community from these false teachers.

1 John 1:6-2:2 are also connected to 1 John 1:5 which asserts that God is, as an eternal spiritual truth existing in the state of being light.

Then, John states in emphatic terms that there is absolutely no darkness in His nature, none whatsoever.

1 John 1:6-2:2 presents the implications of these assertions in verse 5.

These verses are an inference from verse 5 and communicate spiritual principles with regards to fellowship with God.

Specifically, they present spiritual principles which the recipients of this epistle can employ for themselves in order to determine if they are in fact experiencing fellowship with God or not.

These principles are designed to protect the recipients of this epistle from the false teaching which was being propagated where they lived.

This fifth class conditional in 1 John 1:9 asserts that if any believer does, at any time confess their sins, He (God the Father) is, as an eternal spiritual truth characterized as being faithful as well as just to forgive these sins for the benefit of the believer.

He then describes this forgiveness as purifying the believer from each and every unrighteous thought, word or action.

Thus, 1 John 1:9 stands in contrast to 1 John 1:8 in that confessing one’s sins to the Father is the complete opposite of a believer entering into the claim that they have never experienced the guilt of sin.

It is the very opposite of deceiving oneself into thinking that you have not committed a sin.

It is extremely important for the believer to understand that this verb homologeō in 1 John 1:9 has no emotional connotation attached to it and was used in classical Greek for confessing one’s guilt in court.

The Bible does not teach that the believer is to feel sorry for their sins but rather they are to confess their sins to the Father.

God is not concerned with the believer emoting, but rather God is interested in what His Son did at that cross of Calvary 2000 years ago when every sin in human history, past, present and future was imputed to His Son and was judged by His justice.

This is why the Scriptures state in Hebrews 8:11 that God remembers the believer’s sins no more.

His Son paid the penalty for those sins, which was His death.

However, we must keep in mind that as the believer grows up spiritually committing sin will become more and more repulsive.

Eventually, God wants the believer to adopt His view of sin and not take joy in committing sin.

In 1 John 1:9, the apostle John asserts that the Father is characterized as being faithful and just.

By “faithful,” he means that the Father firmly adheres to His promises to forgive sin when the believer confesses any sin to Him.

The Father is pistos, “faithful” to forgive the believer their sins when they confess these sins to Him because the Father always fulfills His promise and His agreement in the New Covenant with Israel to forgive sins based upon the merits of the death of His Jesus Christ on the cross.

Those Jews who have expressed faith alone in Christ alone enter into that New Covenant promise and agreement that provides the forgiveness of sins (cf. Jer. 31:34).

Those Gentiles who have trusted in Jesus Christ as Savior are engrafted into regenerate Jews according to Romans 11:17.

Consequently, these regenerate Gentiles benefit from the New Covenant promise stipulating the forgiveness of sins to those who trust in the Messiah.

The believer’s confession of sins to the Father points the Father’s attention to His New covenant agreement and promise to forgive sin.

The believer’s confession of their personal sins to the Father obligates the Father to execute His promise of the forgiveness of sins because the believer has met the requirements of this agreement at the moment of justification when they expressed faith alone in Christ alone.