Untitled Sermon (2)

Saving Faith and Repentance

Introduction

Hi everyone and welcome to our 6th lesson of our current series, Systematic Theology II where we are looking at various topics of the Westminster Confession of Faith. This week’s topic is Saving Faith and Repentance.

Before we start, it would be best to do a little review. Over the last five weeks we have looked at several topics.

I have broken these topics into two categories:

The Condition of Man (pre-fall, post-fall, regenerated and glorified)

• Free Will 9/6/20

Acts/Works of Redemption (Applied)

• Effectual Calling 9/13/20

• Justification 9/20/20

• Adoption 9/27/20

• Sanctification 10/4/20

Now I want to show another chart that Theologians call the Ordo Salutis which simply means ‘the order of salvation”.

When we think of the application of redemption we must not think of it as one simple and indivisible act. It comprises a series of acts and processes.[1]- John Murray (Redemption Accomplished and Applied) There is an order to it.

Election (God’s choice of people to be saved)The gospel call (proclaiming the message of the gospel)Regeneration (being born again)Conversion (faith and repentance)Justification (right legal standing)Adoption (membership in God’s family)Sanctification (right conduct of life)Perseverance (remaining a Christian) Death (going to be with the Lord) Glorification (receiving a resurrection body)

Now is a copy of the slide in relation to Westminster Confession of Faith.

The question becomes why does saving faith and repentance come after justification, adoption and sanctification in WCF, when it follows Faith and Repentance come before theses.

When the divines wrote the confession of faith they followed a general order but not a specific order of salvation. The confession was written in 1646. The development of more precise order of salvation came after that.

If we look specifically at WCF 8.1 it reads:

WCF 8.1 It pleased God, in His eternal purpose, to choose and ordain the Lord Jesus, His only begotten Son, to be the Mediator between God and man; the Prophet, Priest, and King; the Head and Saviour of His Church; the Heir of all things; and Judge of the world; unto whom He did from all eternity give a people, to be His seed, and to be by Him in time redeemed, called, justified, sanctified, and glorified.

We can see a general order with the expectation that saving faith and repentance fall into calling or more specifically “effectual calling”.

Now four weeks ago, when we looked at the doctrine of effectual calling. We defined We may define effective calling as follows: Effective calling is an act of God the Father, speaking through the human proclamation of the gospel, in which he summons people to himself in such a way that they respond in saving faith.[2]

Because man is born spiritually dead because of sin, we are unable to come to God on our own. That is why God must summon people in such a way they can respond in saving faith.

This process of effectual calling starts where God elects/Predestines/choose who will respond in faith, based on no foreseen merit of those he chooses to save.

Even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love (Eph. 1:4 ESV)

It is also, not what is the foreknowledge view of predestination where God sees who is going to respond in faith and chooses people. So the first is election.

The other work God must perform to enable us to respond to the gospel is to regenerate us.

Regeneration is a secret act of God in which he imparts new spiritual life to us. This is sometimes called “being born again” (using language from John 3:3–8) More, specifically in verse 3, it says Jesus answered him, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God."

We play no active role at all. It is instead totally a work of God. This sovereign work of regeneration is predicted in the book of Ezekiel. “And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.” (Ezek. 36:26, ESV)

Unless God works in peoples’ hearts to make the proclamation of the gospel effective, there will be no genuine saving response.

So what is the exactly is in the Gospel proclamation. What is exactly is the message of the Gospel that respond to in Saving Faith and Repentance?

Anyone who comes to Christ for salvation must have at least a basic understanding of who Christ is and how he meets our needs for salvation. Therefore, an explanation of the facts concerning salvation must include at least the following:

1. All people have sinned.

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, (Rom 3:23, ESV)

2. The penalty for our sin is death.

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Rom. 6:23 ESV)

3. Jesus Christ died to pay the penalty for our sins (Rom. 5:8).

But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. (Rom. 5:8 NASB)

But understanding those facts and even agreeing that they are true is not enough for a person to be saved. There must also be an invitation for a personal response on the part of the individual who will repent of his or her sins and trust personally in Christ.

The New Testament talks about people coming to salvation it speaks in terms of a personal response to an invitation from Christ himself.

Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." (Matt. 11:28 ESV)

When we share Christ with someone, it is important to make clear that these are not just words spoken a long time ago by a religious leader in the past. Every non-Christian hearing these words should be encouraged to think of them as words that Jesus Christ is even now at this very moment speaking to him or to her individually. Jesus Christ is a Savior who is now alive in heaven, and each non-Christian should think of Jesus as speaking directly to him or her, saying, “Come to me … and I will give you rest” (Matt. 11:28). This is a genuine personal invitation that seeks a personal response from each one who hears it.

With an invitation there needs to be a response. Usually when we receive an invitation from somebody for an event, it is polite to respond to the RSVP. In the past, I have received an invitation that says RSVP “regrets only”. That is certainly not how we want to respond to the Gospel message. No, the way we want to respond is through saving faith and repentance which together is called conversion.

In other words, we may define conversion as follows: Conversion is our willing response to the gospel call, in which we sincerely repent of sins and place our trust in Christ for salvation.

The word conversion itself means “turning—here it represents a spiritual turn, a turning from sin to Christ. The turning from sin is called repentance and the turning to Christ is called faith. We can look at each of these elements of conversion, and in one sense it does not matter which one we discuss first, for neither one can occur without the other, and they must occur together when true conversion takes place.[3]

For the conversion to take place, after hearing the proclamation of the gospel, which is I am sinner, and the wages of sin is death, and that Christ died for me in my place so I can have eternal life I have to do more than just acknowledge the facts. I must decide to depend on Jesus to save me.

In doing this I move from being an interested observer of the facts of salvation and the teachings of the Bible to being someone who enters a new relationship with Jesus Christ as a living person. We may therefore define saving faith in the following way: Saving faith is trust in Jesus Christ as a living person for forgiveness of sins and for eternal life with God.

WSC 86 What is faith in Jesus Christ? A. Faith in Jesus Christ is a saving grace, whereby we receive and rest upon him alone for salvation, as he is offered to us in the gospel.

WCF 14.2 By this faith, a Christian believeth to be true whatsoever is revealed in the Word, for the authority of God Himself speaking therein; and acts differently upon that which each particular passage thereof contains; yielding obedience to the commands, trembling at the threatening’s, and embracing the promises of God for this life and that which is to come. But the principal acts of saving faith are accepting, receiving, and resting upon Christ alone for justification, sanctification, and eternal life, by virtue of the covenant of grace.

If we come to Christ and trust him to save us from our sin, we cannot any longer cling to sin but must willingly renounce it in genuine repentance.

Repentance is a heartfelt sorrow for sin, a renouncing of it, and a sincere commitment to forsake it and walk in obedience to Christ.

WCF 15.1 Repentance unto life is an evangelical grace, the doctrine whereof is to be preached by every minister of the Gospel, as well as that of faith in Christ.

The point in this paragraph, is the minister who is preaching for people to come to faith, also needs to preach repentance.

This following section in para 15:2 explains what repentance looks like:

WCF 15.2 By it, a sinner, out of the sight and sense, not only of the danger, but also of the filthiness and odiousness of his sins, as contrary to the holy nature, and righteous law of God; and upon the apprehension of His mercy in Christ to such as are penitent, so grieves for and hates his sins, as to turn from them all unto God, purposing and endeavoring to walk with Him in all the ways of His commandments.

This definition indicates that repentance is something that can occur at a specific point in time and is not equivalent to a demonstration of change in a person’s pattern of life. This point bears repeating. Repentance, like faith, is an intellectual understanding (that sin is wrong), an emotional approval of the teachings of Scripture regarding sin (a sorrow for sin and a hatred of it), and a personal decision to turn from it (a renouncing of sin and a decision of the will to forsake it and lead a life of obedience to Christ instead). We cannot say that someone has to actually live that changed life over a period of time before repentance can be genuine, or else repentance would be turned into a kind of obedience that we could do to merit salvation for ourselves. Of course, genuine repentance will result in a changed life. In fact, a truly repentant person will begin at once to live a changed life, and we can call that changed life the fruit of repentance. But we should never attempt to require that there be a period of time in which a person actually lives a changed life before we give assurance of forgiveness. Repentance is something that occurs in the heart and involves the whole person in a decision to turn from sin.

Scripture puts repentance and faith together as different aspects of the one act of coming to Christ for salvation. It is not that a person first turns from sin and next trusts in Christ, or first trusts in Christ and then turns from sin, but rather that both occur at the same time. When we turn to Christ for salvation from our sins, we are simultaneously turning away from the sins that we are asking Christ to save us from. If that were not true our turning to Christ for salvation from sin could hardly be a genuine turning to him or trusting in him. The fact that repentance and faith are simply two different sides of the same coin, or two different aspects of the one event of conversion.

Now, there can be a departure from what we just look at it. And that departure would be this: that someone may have true saving faith without having any repentance for sin. They have received as Christ “as Savior” but not as “Lord”. Now as we have looked at, the Reformed view, which is what the WCF teaches, faith and repentance go together. But in this departure view, (this term departure is the “Skip Tyler” description of what is happening, since this view departs from what Scripture teaches, so this departure view, They would say that saving faith only involves trusting Christ as Savior, and that submitting to him as Lord is an optional later step that is unnecessary for salvation. For many who teach this view, saving faith only requires an intellectual agreement with the facts of the gospel.

As my friend Bob Rumbaugh says “bad theology can kill you (spiritually kill you) and this departure view can do just. Because a faith without repentance, isn’t a saving faith, it is an intellectual faith which can’t save you.

The example I like to use is one where someone goes to an evangelical event, (a concert, preaching, etc.) and the evangelist present a gospel like presentation, but leaves out repentance. The evangelist says something like “you can know this very night that you have eternal life, you can write the date down in your Bible. All you need to do is pray to receive Jesus Christ as your savior. Anytime you start doubt the assurance of your salvation just look at the date.”

This type of presentation immunizes against the gospel. It the gives the person the illusion that they are saved, but they do not live a life of repentance. I have someone like this in my family. He prayed a prayer 40 years and that is his assurance, even though his life has not demonstrated any repentance.

The last issue I want to address is how both faith and repentance continue throughout life.

As we have considered initial faith and repentance as the two aspects of conversion at the beginning of the Christian life, it is important to realize that faith and repentance are not confined to the beginning of the Christian life. They are rather attitudes of heart that continue throughout our lives as Christians. Jesus tells his disciples to pray daily, “and forgive us our sins, as we have forgiven those who sin against us.” (Matt. 6:12NLT), a prayer that, if genuine, will certainly involve daily sorrow for sin and genuine repentance. And the risen Christ says to the church in Laodicea, “Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent.” (Rev. 3:19 ESV; cf. 2 Cor. 7:10).

With regard to faith, Paul tells us, “So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.” (1 Cor. 13:13, ESV). He certainly means that these three abide throughout the course of this life, but he probably also means that they abide for all eternity: if faith is trusting God to provide all our needs, then this attitude will never cease, not even in the age to come. But in any case, the point is clearly made that faith continues throughout this life. Paul also says, “And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” (Gal. 2:20, ESV).

Therefore, although it is true that initial saving faith and initial repentance occur only once in our lives, and when they occur, they constitute true conversion, nonetheless, the heart attitudes of repentance and faith only begin at conversion. These same attitudes should continue throughout the course of our Christian lives. Each day there should be heartfelt repentance for sins that we have committed, and faith in Christ to provide for our needs and to empower us to live the Christian life.[4]

The question we need to ask ourselves after a s, I include me in the “we”, are growing in faith and repentance in our Christian life. If my faith growing

[1] Murray, John. Redemption: Accomplished and Applied. Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge, UK: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1955, p.79.

[2] Grudem, Wayne A. Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine. Leicester, England; Grand Rapids, MI: Inter-Varsity Press; Zondervan Pub. House, 2004, 693

[3] Grudem, 709

[4] Grudem, p 717.