What is it to be a Christian? Is it that we’ve had a one-time experience of salvation? Or is it that we experience growth in Christ daily, some evidence of change? I know the argument is endless, but I wanted to share this quote from Clyde Crandford’s book Because We Love Him.

Repentance that is not ongoing is not genuine; faith that does not involve surrender is not adequate; a life in which holiness does not develop is not Christian.

You may or may not agree, but I think if nothing else, this statement should serve as a wake-up call for believers. We argue about this issue because we haven’t lived consistently. A life in which we are ever being changed into Christ’s image should be the norm, not the rare exception. How are you changing today?Technorati Tags: discipleship, salvation, repentance, holiness, clyde cranford, growth

I am currently reading Andy Stanley’s book Visioneering and have just completed the chapter about having moral authority in leadership. Stanley gives a couple of examples of how moral authority works in our lives. One example was Mother Teresa’s harsh words about abortion during a National Day of Prayer breakfast in Washington. Though the Clinton’s and Gore’s gave little response, the room erupted into a standing ovation after she spoke. Why would such a small woman have such a huge impact? Moral authority.

Stanley points out the difference between receiving forgiveness and having one’s moral authority restored. We are obligated, as believers, to forgive, but not to trust. Forgiveness is a biblical obligation placed on everyone who has been forgiven, but trust must be earned over a great deal of time and an establishment of an example of integrity.

I’ve personally gone through an experience in which someone close to me had a moral failure. Long ago I came to a place of forgiveness (that is, I released them from any debt toward me), but I cannot trust them because there continues to be a pattern of moral compromise. Often people demand our trust by demanding what they believe to be forgiveness, not realizing that forgiveness can be instant, but trust must be established over time.

One of the greatest examples of the establishment of moral authority in the Bible comes from the life of Zacchaeus. He was saved and forgiven by Jesus but his moral authority with the people around him was nil, due to the fact that he had cheated them out of their financial security for his own benefit. Assume that, having trusted in Christ, he gathered all those whom he had wronged together with a passionate apology. Would they forgive him? Perhaps. Would they trust him? Absolutely not.

So Zacchaeus sets the example we must follow when we’ve failed - he shows the real fruits of repentance. He not only apologizes, he declares, “Lord, I give half of my goods to the poor; and if I have taken anything from anyone by false accusation, I restore fourfold.” (Luke 19:8) If you received a check from Zacchaeus for four times the amount he had taken from you, you might be inclined to give him another chance.

The subject of moral authority is dear to my heart. It is one of those frightful doctrines. I can honestly say I’d rather lose everything I have down to the shirt off my back than to sacrifice my moral authority. I want to look my wife, my kids, and my friends in the eye with the ability to say, “All is well with my soul.”

“Turn… And I will give you pastors according to mine heart, which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding…” -Jeremiah 3:14-15

The period of the prophets was marked with the terrible tragedy of a declining spiritual leadership. It was an age of false prophecies and empty messages. It was a duplication of the age of which the Apostle Paul speaks when he proclaims, “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.”

Our supercenter generation today is begging for an entertaining, ear-tickling message as well. We don’t want to hear about sin, about repentance, and about hell. We’d rather hear about how to change diapers and how to get rich from the pulpits of America than to hear about our need to turn back to God in humble repentance. Jeremiah issued an amazing prophecy here. Turn… and then God will give you truthtellers, pastors according to his heart.

I love growing churches. I believe God can use megachurches and there are some great ones in existance today, teaching the truth and making disciples. At the same time, the current wave of huge churches which teach only half of the Bible’s truths is an indicator of our times. We are stuck on having relevant teaching at the expense of truthtelling. May God give us hearts of repentance, that we would turn and seek His truth!

“Come, and let us return to the Lord; for He has torn, but He will heal us; He has stricken, but He will bind us up. After two days He will revive us; On the third day He will raise us up, That we may live in His sight.” -Hosea 6:1-2 (NKJV)

Sometimes reading the Old Testament prophets is like reading the history of America: a once great people, having enjoyed the blessing of God, now taking their Creator for granted and living in idolatry and religious pretense, judged, punished, and then prayerfully restored. The problem with Israel in Hosea’s time was not so much that they no longer worshipped for they did offer praise to God. Hosea announced, “My people are bent on backsliding from me. Though they call on the Most High, none at all exalt Him.” (11:7)

As much as I believe in actively working as the salt and light of the world, we sometimes miss the point. Fighting for the display of the Ten Commandments will not bring revival to America. It would provide a bandaid but it would fall short of the ultimate healing so desperately needed. What does America need? The kind of revival that came during the Great Awakening, experienced and led by men such as Jonathan Edwards. A revival of humility, repentance, and confession before God. A revival of earnest and heartfelt faith and of a true commitment to following the Lord with endurance. Just read a sample of the kind of message America needs by clicking here.

The Lord brought revival to Israel because He loved them. He brought revival to America in at least two great, sweeping movements of the Holy Spirit and other smaller movements as well. Now Lord, do it again! Bring us revival that grows from repentance. Help America be the land You can bless again!

I often struggle to find the balance between certain aspects of my theology. One such area of difficulty is in the balance between teaching repentance and faith for salvation. There are many today who presume that repentance is not necessary for salvation. For me, this is not an option for repentance is too engrained into the message of the Bible. Others would say that mentioning faith without preaching repentance produces false converts.

As I was studying for my midweek message from the prophecy of Joel, I was consulting the Baptist Study Edition study Bible. In the notes, edited by W. A. Criswell, appears this explanation of the balance between repentance and faith:

The only condition throughout Joel’s prophecies is true repentance to the Lord, which involves turning from sin on the one hand and trusting by faith (with all one’s heart) on the other. The Old Testament emphasizes repentance (turning) and the New Testament emphasizes faith (trusting). They are two sides of the same coin. Repentance and faith are not synonymous but they are inseparable. One cannot be turning without trusting, nor trusting without turning. That is why repentance resulted in turning to the Lord with all one’s heart. True repentance is not just superficial emotionalism.

This short annotation gave me a wealth of confidence about presenting the plan of salvation. If a person truly trusts Christ, they repent. If they truly repent, they trust Christ. I fear that by emphasizing the word “repentance” too much, we may convey to people that the plan of salvation is to drop all of our bad habits. The New Testament message continually repeats itself… “Believe (or call) on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved!”

“They will suffer punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and the glory of his might.”-2 Thessalonians 1:9

God is just, therefore He will punish those who reject Him, His Son, and His message. Paul said in Romans 1 that even those whose only witness of God’s existence is in creation “did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking and their foolish hearts were darkened.” So a failure to experience, enjoy, and magnify the glory of God on earth will end with not only eternal destruction but with an even worse fate: separation from His glory forever.

You see, there is a real hell, an eternal lake of fire, that awaits all those who reject God’s witness to them. But the greatest punishment is not physical, emotional, or intellectual. It is spiritual. The worst punishment will be that not only did they pass up every chance to glorify Him as God, but after the judgment, they will never again have the chance. There is a finality about death and about the second coming of Jesus. That finality is tragically wrapped around an eternal inability to share in the glory of God.

Do you know the one way to avoid eternal separation from the presence of the Lord? It is to begin a personal relationship with Him and enjoy His presence in life today through His Son Jesus Christ, who died on the cross and rose again from the grave to reconcile us to God. Anyone who comes to Jesus in this life, in genuine repentance and faith, will be saved and will enjoy God’s presence and glory now, tomorrow, and forever!

“Remember therefore form where you have fallen; repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place - unless you repent.” -Revelation 2:5 (NKJV)

John, writing on Jesus’ behalf to the church at Ephesus, gives them a simple, three-step approach to recovering their first love. It’s a plan that applies to us anytime we turn our gaze from Jesus to something less, base, and worldly. When our heart’s affection turns from our loving Master to the gods of this world, we must follow His action plan to recover.

Remember the grace whereby you were saved to begin with. You were given a new position in Christ and you received an eternal sonship in the family of God. You were washed clean and completely forgiven of sin. Remember that. Repent of sin. Confess it with contrition of heart. Remember that the greatest sacrifice for God is “a broken and contrite heart” (Psalm 51:17). Repentance entails a confessing, but also a turning and forsaking of sin. It means to begin to agree with God about the heinous nature of sin. Then return to your first works. Get back to the growth you experienced and the passion for Christ you had when you were originally saved.

The Ephesian church had preserved right belief but had, at some point, forgotten their passion for the Savior. Anytime we will argue over doctrine but we won’t give up a sin or worldly practice, we’ve replaced our first love. Let’s remember, repent, and return to a life lived with real and lasting passion for Jesus.

“But where sin did abound, grace did much more abound.” -Romans 5:20b

Sin is always extreme. When a person comes to a place of repentance and faith in Christ, their perspective of sin changes. They begin to see that Adam and Eve were not merely guilty of tasting some forbidden fruit, they were actually guilty of rejecting all of God’s good provision in paradise in exchange for the possibility of being sufficient without their Creator. If you’re a believer in Christ, sin is extreme. It is rebellion and the punishment of eternity in hell makes sense in light of God’s holiness.

But where sin is extreme, grace is far more extreme. Grace is radical. Grace goes beyond merely forgiving sin, it restores us, renews us, regenerates us. Grace is God’s means of giving gifts beyond measure. What the heniousness of sin destroys, the miraculous nature of grace restores manifold.

How do you see your sin? Is sin a harmless prank against God? Or is it an offense to the nature and law of the Almighty Creator? We ought to view sin with extreme hatred, but we ought to view grace with extreme pleasure. In fact, we should be so turned away by the nature of sin that we run with haste to feast ourselves on the goodness of God’s grace. Where sin did abound, grace did much more abound!

“Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil.” -Isaiah 1:16

Some people have the mistaken assumption that the God of the Old Testament is a harsh God and the God of the New Testament is a soft God. The reality is that God’s character has never changed at all. He said through the prophet Isaiah, “cease to do evil…” He said through His Son, “go and sin no more…” He is loving, but harsh toward our sin. He forgives, but He has high expectations as well.

Repentance is sometimes misunderstood as being the same as confession, but repentance means to change the way we think. It involves confession, which means to agree with God about our sin. So if we confess our sins, thereby changing the way we think about our sin, then the follow-through will be a ceasing, a forsaking. God is patient and knows that we often make the same mistakes repeatedly. That does not, however, lessen His expectations for us, nor does it weaken His potential to work in us.

If you feel like your sins are impossible to overcome, remember this truth: God would never command you to do something you are not capable of doing in His power, such as ceasing from sin. Instead, He wants you to learn to rely on him for “it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.” (Philippians 2:13) The desire to cease from sin comes from Him, as does the ability. Before you can cease from sin, you must surrender to Him.

”Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled; Lest there be any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright. For ye know that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected: for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears.” –Hebrews 12:15-17

One of the hardest truths of Christianity to grasp is the teaching that there is a point of rejecting the will of God beyond which a man may never find repentance. Sin hardens the heart toward the things of God. When we are young, our hearts are tender, which explains in part why so many believers today came to Christ as children. As people progress through life without responding to God, His voice grows steadily silent to their souls. Eventually, through the deceitfulness of sin, their hearts are seared over and they will never repent.

The illustration of this is Esau, who made two decisions to reject God’s will for his life that he could never take back. Though he wept bitterly over his loss, he alone was to blame for losing his blessing and his birthright. God gives to us every moment of our lives in which to turn to Him in repentance and respond to Him by faith. But each time we say “no” to God, we inch our way closer to the point after which we will never say “yes.”

God’s door is always open and anyone who ever repents of sin and trusts Christ as Savior will be received by the Lord. But beware of the point at which the Spirit of God moves on to other hearts and the soul is so embittered that it will never again respond favorably to the gospel.

This truth is essential for Christians as well as unbelievers. Paul’s greatest fear was that he might preach to others but himself be a “castaway” or be put on the shelf by God. God is loving, gracious, and forgiving, but a vessel which may no longer be used effectively for His glory is cast to the side. We’ve all seen the wasted ruins of a man of God turned aside to immorality and given to indulgence of the flesh. Let us beware, lest the same end should come to us.

Keep your heart tender and soft to the will of God. Remain yielded. Seek His righteousness and holiness, and keep the communication lines open with the Holy Spirit within. Finally, allow repentance to be a daily, even moment-by-moment exercise of the soul before God.