“Unless you repent you will all likewise perish” (Luke 13:5 NKJV) In a recent post I attempted to explain saving faith. I unashamedly preach that salvation is by grace through faith. I suppose I would fall into the category of ones who preach” faith only” for salvation. I will gladly confess to that, but only if I am able to define the faith. Repentance is linked to faith almost like conjoined twins; one’s life depends on the other. Faith without repentance in the Bible is never implied or taught. The consistent message of the Bible is that sinners must repent. This truth is especially true of the New Testament. John the Baptist preached “Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand” His baptism was one of repentance. That is those who were baptized by him identified with his message of changing one’s mind about his sins and were saying to onlookers, “I have turned away from my sin to God”. Jesus then came with the same message, “Repent, for the kingdom of
God is at hand”. The disciples went about demanding repentance. Peter’s invitation after his great sermon when he and the others were empowered by the Holy Spirit at Pentecost was “Repent and be baptized.” God commands “All men everywhere to repent” (Acts 17:30 NKJV) While the Bible is replete with passages demanding repentance, repentance never stands alone. No sinner can by himself repent in a way that is acceptable to God. Just as faith is given by God to the sinner who hears the word of God (Romans 10) so repentance is also given by God to the hopeless sinner. When the believers learned that the Gentiles had been saved by faith (Acts 11:17) they exclaimed in the following verse “Then God has also granted to the Gentiles repentance unto life”. So they understood that those who are saved by faith by necessity must also repent. Then in II Timothy 2 Paul said these words, “And a servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient, 25 in humility correcting those who are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth, 26 and that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his will” Notice carefully what he says. First he hopes God “will grant them repentance”; Secondly “that they may know the truth”; then thirdly “that they may come to their senses”. A man is given by God the ability to know the truth and then to come to his senses. There is no repentance without knowledge of the truth about God and the sinful condition. A sinner hears the good news and God the Holy Spirit “pricks” his heart as in Acts 2. Then that man is able to repent. It is impossible to repent without saving faith and it is impossible to have saving faith without repentance. When one turns to God he must at the same time turn away from sin. The heart turns from its own sinful way toward God and throws itself upon Christ’s mercy and grace. 

Repentance without faith will only produce self righteousness. And, faith without repentance will only produce a hypocrite. Neither is fit for heaven and is surely bound for hell. Repentance is not being sorry for our sinful condition. Godly sorrow can lead one to repent but sorrow is not repentance. Trying to make amends for wrongs done is also not repentance. Restitution is Biblical and ought to be carried out but that alone is not repentance. Reforming one’s life is also not repentance. I remind you that the Pharisees lived righteous lives, as well as anyone of their day. But Jesus said that unless your righteousness exceeds that of the Pharisees you will perish. 

In I Thessalonians chapter one Paul greeted the believers and praised them for their faith and their faithfulness to get the gospel out to others and in verse 9 he says about them “You turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God”. They turned from idols to God. That is faith and that is repentance.  Those who put their trust in Christ alone for salvation and forgiveness of sins will at the same time “come to their senses” and change their minds about their way of living. How could a person possibly turn toward God and not turn away from sin? 

Our message of the saving sacrifice of Jesus will likely fall on deaf ears until the hearer knows there is something to be saved from. Unless a person knows he is lost what would be his motive for coming to God for mercy. We must always allow God the Holy Spirit to do His blessed work in the lives of those we hope to win. He alone can do the work in the heart of wicked sinners that must be done before they come to their senses and put their trust in Jesus. 

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Next post:  Hear, believe, repent, confess, and be baptized; 5 steps or conditions to be saved. Isn’t it interesting that not one preacher in the Bible taught any group of people, at any one time, that they must do these 5 things to be saved? If it is the Bible plan of salvation why did they not preach it?

I just learned that bro’ Max Lucado has some health issues severe enough that he must step down as senior minister at Oak Hills Church. He will still be able to do some teaching and writing but can no longer handle all the duties he has up to now.

He, his family, and the Oak Hills congregation need our prayers.

The following letter is from Max to the church:

Dear Oak Hills Family,

I pray this letter finds you in the midst of the greatest day and sweetest season of your life! Our God is indeed faithful.I’d like to update you on some recent health developments and a resulting decision from the Oak Hills elders. While my spiritual heart is in a wonderful state, my physical heart has developed some irregularities. We have high hopes for complete healing; yet, I need to make some lifestyle adjustments. I have already begun reducing my leadership responsibilities. I still plan to bring the weekend messages, but will opt out of some of the weekly meetings.My health concerns have also prompted a decision to inaugurate a succession plan. Though I have always known that, at some point my responsibilities would change, I had envisioned this happening years from now. However, these health concerns have moved up the timetable. I wholeheartedly (excuse the pun) feel it is time to identify and invite the next Senior Minister. Oak Hills needs a healthy, full-time servant in this position. Upon his selection, I will turn my attention to doing more what I love to do the most: writing and preaching. I have no intention of leaving this great church, but simply altering my role in it. Yes, this is a major step, but one that will benefit the health of us all. Would you pray for God’s guidance in this process? I know you will. Of course, we will keep you apprised of any developments. Thank you for being a lighthouse to
San Antonio. May God bless you richly.

Your brother,

Max Lucado 

Grace and Peace,

Royce Ogle 

“Without faith it is impossible to please Him (God)” (Hebrews 11:6a NKJV)

Without question one of the most misunderstood essentials of the historic Christian faith is “faith”. There is a wide chasm between our contemporary understanding of the word and the Biblical meaning of it. What is most commonly passed off as faith by TV preachers, motivational speakers, and sadly, many pastors, is nothing more than “positive thinking”, or as one creative fellow puts it “possibility thinking”. I strongly believe in positive thinking, and especially so for Christians, but it is not faith.

The understanding of many, even church leaders and preachers, is that faith is synomonous with our contemporary understanding of “belief”, or “believing”. They often have the same root meaning in the Bible but in regard to salvation are far different than what is commonly understood in 2007.

There is an element of “belief” in the concept, or truth of Biblical faith. In both belief and faith the mind must acquire some facts. The intellect is engaged when one hears, or reads, or sees a set of facts, and those facts are recorded in the brain. By the use of this human mechanism that we all share I am convinced that George Washington was the first President of the
United States. I “believe” the facts as recorded in history. That sort of “belief” requires no trust; I never have to rely on those facts, nor am I motivated to act in any way because of the fact that I have given mental assent to them. Biblical faith is not only intellectual but also emotional and volitional. Unless we come to the place where our hearts embrace the facts of the gospel and our wills are predisposed to act on what we believe, we do not have faith.

Every sane human can acquire and believe facts. But God gives faith to a selected few (“few there be that find it” are Jesus’ words about the narrow way of salvation in Matthew 7). To those who hear the Word of God, not only with the ear, but with their hearts, faith is given. (Romans 10) One the one hand the brain is the center of activity and on the other the heart (innermost being, or human spirit) is the part of us that embraces the truth of God given by grace. It is this faith, or belief, that Christ could “see”. (Mark 2 & Luke 5) At the moment of saving faith, there is no demonstration needed to convince God that the sinner has placed his faith in the record God has given of His Son. God knows our hearts.

The sight of mere belief is short sighted and fickle at best and depends entirely on what can be observed naturally. Faith sees the unseen, is sure and certain, and is supernatural. Faith gives substance to our hope and makes the unseen things of God hard evidence. Faith allows a born again believer to gladly accept God as the Creator of everything. Those without faith have problems with the concept of a being able to make matter out of nothing by speaking a word. The eyes of faith allowed Abraham to look over the eons of time and see a city not built with human hands and upon that evidence only he left his home land to follow God. (Hebrews 11)

When I have a candidate ready to be baptized and I ask the question “Do you believe Jesus is the Son of God?” have I done due diligence to be reasonably sure that person has faith in God? I don’t believe so. The devils believe the facts of the gospel but they do not believe with “the heart”.

In the coming weeks I will show that out of the spring of faith flows all obedience to God including repentance, confession, baptism and every other act of submission to a Holy God and His Christ.

Grace and Peace,

Royce Ogle

 I have finally returned from several days in paradise. This a view of sunset at a beach on the Navy base where we snorkeled and played in the water with the grand daughters. This is typical of the beauty of the whole island of Guam. Our grand daughters are Kelsey (14), Adysen (6), and Allie (5). We are very proud of these girls who are wonderful, smart, and just good kids. Our trip was a grand success, with every flight on time, accommodations better than we expected, and the time with our family was priceless. Carol and I took well to the surroundings.

The native people of Guam (Chamorn) are wonderful, smiling people who love their little island and the people who have made it their home. Japanese, Chinese, and other Asians are the majority except for the American military of Anderson AFB and Guam Naval Base and other smaller bases. The Japanese folks were also very friendly, always smiling and bowing to those who speak to them. I really enjoyed trying to communicate with some of the Asians and even some of the Chamorans who do not speak English.

We were blessed to have government housing for the first few days at only $20 per day and it was far better than a $60 room in the U.S. Also, my son had arranged a free car for us for the whole time. So we were able to do some exploring on our own and one day drove around the South end of the island and again and again were over whelmed by the beauty of the vista we saw at every bend of the road.

Our last several days were spent at the Guam Hilton Hotel and Spa on the beautiful Tumon Bay and the center of Guam on the Philippine Sea. The beauty was astounding! I would add more pictures but my editing skills are minimal. If you care to see more you can go to http://picasaweb.google.com/RoyceOgle where 160 pictures are posted, perhaps 150 of them are decent pictures. They include some made during our 2 days in Honolulu.

The only negative is that we had to come home. And, I have managed to get very ill. Horrible ear infections, chest congestion, stuffy nose, and a consistent cough have dulled somewhat a wonderful, once in a lifetime vacation.

Nevertheless, I am glad to be back in Monroe, and back to blogging. Depending on my recovery, I plan to begin a series on Repentance and Faith in the next few days. I had some good time with the Lord walking the beach at night and made some notes late one night after one of those walks for my first installment.

Thanks to all of you who wished me well and prayed for us.

Grace and Peace,

Royce Ogle