"There is a vast difference between coming to Jesus for salvation and coming after Jesus for service. Coming to Christ makes one a believer, while coming after Christ makes one a disciple. All believers are not disciples. To become a believer one accepts the invitation of the Gospel, to be a disciple one obeys the challenge to a life of dedicated service and separation. Salvation comes through the sacrifice of Christ; discipleship comes only by sacrifice of self and surrender to His call for devoted service. Salvation is free, but discipleship involves paying the price of a separated walk. Salvation can't be lost because it depends upon God's faithfulness, but discipleship can be lost because it depends upon our faithfulness." —Pastor M.R. DeHaan, “Hebrews”; Zondervan Publishing House; 1959 (p. 117)
LAW and CHRIST. God's LAW shows humanity how sinful we all are, revealing our desperate need for a Savior; and then the Word of God points us to CHRIST to be saved by grace through faith without works. ...
Romans 4:4-7, “Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works, Saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered.”
Biblically, you DON'T need to “repent of your sins” to turn away from your sinful ways. Repentance is a change of mind. The Greek word which God chose to use for “repent” in the New Testament is either the noun form, metanoia, which means: “a change of mind”; or else the verb form, metanoeo, which means: “to think differently.” Since this specific word does not tell us what to think differently about, we need supplemental information from the Bible.
Since we know that salvation is always without works (as I have already shown you from the Scriptures), we know first of all that repentance to be saved cannot mean to forsake a lifestyle of sinning, nor to reform, nor to be willing to change, nor anything that would require a sacrifice on the part of the recipient. Eternal life is a gift from God. Romans 6:23, “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” For something to truly be “a gift,” it cannot have any stipulations or obligations to receive it. Salvation is received, not achieved. Salvation is a take proposition, not a give proposition. You simply take it by putting your faith in Jesus Christ as your personal Savior, BELIEVING that He did it all for you through Calvary's cross.
So what must a person change their mind about to get to Heaven. The answer is obvious. The answer is that you must change your mind about whatever has been hindering you from coming to Christ to be saved. There is only one sin that can keep a man out of Heaven, and that is the sin of UNBELIEF (Hebrews 4:1-2). So the only sin you must change your mind about to be saved is your unbelief. If you have JUST ENOUGH faith to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, that is all the childlike faith required to get to Heaven. All God asks is that you trust in His only begotten Son, Jesus, because of what Christ did to pay for your sins on the cross. The LAW shows humanity our need, and then CHRIST provides that need.
The only function of the LAW (about 720 Old Testament laws which are summarized in the Ten Commandments) in getting saved, is to show that you are a guilty sinner justly condemned under God's LAW and deserving of death, and that is why you need a Redeemer. The LAW is as a measuring stick that shows us our need for CHRIST.
That is why when Jesus met the self-righteous rich young ruler who boasted that he had kept God's law since his youth (Mark 10:17-22), Jesus used the law as a measuring stick to show him that he had actually failed to keep it perfectly. Mark 10:21-22, “Then Jesus beholding him loved him, and said unto him, One thing thou lackest: go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, take up the cross, and follow me. And he was sad at that saying, and went away grieved: for he had great possessions.” Jesus used the LAW as it was intended to be used, to show men their wickedness and need for redemption. The rich young ruler was covetous, and in fact HADN'T perfectly kept the LAW as He boasted to Christ.
Ray Comfort Gets Repentance Very Wrong!
Evangelist Ray Comfort is half right. Ray uses the LAW to show people how sinful they are, but then he goes horribly astray by requiring them to keep the LAW for the rest of their life to get to Heaven. That is a counterfeit plan of salvation. Literally, as you can see for yourself in the preceding link, Ray Comfort requires lost sinners (as he is himself), to “live a lifestyle” of turning away from your sinning for the rest of your life to get to Heaven.
Based on everything that I have taught you in this important blog, do you see dear reader what mistake Ray is making? He is combining LAW and CHRIST, or LAW and GRACE. Mr. Comfort is confused, caught between grace and works, which cannot produce the new birth by the Holy Spirit. Kindly said, Ray is not a born-again Christian, and neither is anyone who foolishly follows his damnable heresy!
Ray Comfort, Kirk Cameron, Ken Ham, John MacArthur, Steve Pettit, Marty Herron, Pacific Garden Mission (UNSHACKLED radio) Jon Piper, and thousands more false prophets today—all confused LAW with GRACE. They are preaching another (false) gospel of partial faith in Christ plus works. They all require you to “turn away from your sinful ways” to be saved, which they errantly and foolishly think is what it means to “repent” in the Holy Bible.
If Ray Comfort is correct, then salvation requires WORKS. Of course, we know from God's inspired Word that salvation is solely by God's wondrous grace, without works. I like the acronym for G.R.A.C.E. (God's Riches At Christ's Expense). Grace is God giving us what we don't deserve. Mercy is God NOT giving us what we do deserve. Thank God for His precious grace and mercy!
Repentance Toward God To Acknowledge THE TRUTH
In Acts 20:21b we read about “repentance toward God.” In 2nd Timothy 2:25b we read about “repentance to the acknowledging of the truth;” These are precious passages which plainly show that repentance is a change of mind toward God regarding THE TRUTH, and not turning away from your lifelong sinful bad habits. So where do incompetent pastors get the erroneous idea that repentance means to forsake your sinning? Well, I humbly believe it comes from our sinful nature as humans. It makes sense and appeals to the flesh (carnality) that a person must turn away from their sins to get to Heaven, since it is our sins that got us into trouble in the first place. But that is not God's plan of salvation for mankind.
God knows that even our best efforts as humans (our righteousness), is filth to God (Isaiah 64:6). Even on my best days as a human being, there is nothing in my flesh that pleases God. No matter how much good that I may do—the people I pray for, the homeless people that I help, and the admirable good deeds that I do in secret—none of those things can make up for the horrible sins in my past (and in your past too dear friend). We are all dirty, filthy, rotten, guilty sinners in the sight of our holy God. The LAW shows us that. We've all broken the Ten Commandments, again and again, whether in body, mind or spirit. We're all hell-deserving sinners!
Ray Comfort is WRONG to require lost sinners to live a lifestyle of keeping the LAW to be saved. That is not why God gave the LAW to humanity. Romans 3:20b plainly teaches that the LAW was given by God for, “THE KNOWLEDGE OF SIN.” God gave the world a conscience through Old Testament Israel, who are God's people. Only saved Jews are God's children, but all Jews are God's people, saved and unsaved alike.
Christ came into the world through the Jews, born of a lowly saintly woman named Mary. God Himself was Jesus' biological Father. Jesus had no earthly father! Jesus was born of a virgin (Isaiah 7:14; Matthew 1:23). God never had sexual relations with Mary, as perverted Mormons claim He did. SHAME on the Mormons! The blessed Holy Spirit overshadowed Mary by a miracle, and Jesus was conceived. The Holy Bible came to mankind through the Jews. That is one reason why so many Gentiles hate the Jews, because God gave the LAW through Israel, and the LAW makes men feel guilty as sinners, which is what God intended.
Sadly, most men hate Jesus because through the LAW He testifies against the world, that their works are evil. John 7:7, “The world cannot hate you; but me it hateth, because I testify of it, that the works thereof are evil.” Jesus testifies against the world through the LAW.
I hope some of this information has been interesting and edifying to your dear reader. If you don't remember anything else, please remember LAW and CHRIST. That is one reason why I reject dispensational teaching, because it divides God's Word into 7 or 8 divisions. God has already made TWO great divisions to His inspired Word of LAW and CHRIST (or, GRACE). By having two major divisions, the Bible emphasizes the Gospel of the Kingdom (soulwinning); but by having seven or eight divisions to the Scripture (as invented by religious Zionists, primarily Cyrus I. Scofield in the latter 19th century), it emphasis the Kingdom of Israel instead (political Zionism). Dispensational teaching is dangerous in my humble opinion. It is more than a mere overlay to the Scriptures, it changes the mindset of the impressionable Bible student.
John 3:20-21, “For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.” I love how God so accurately authored the Bible. Notice carefully the first phrase of John 3:21a, “But he that doeth truth cometh to the light...” I love that! The Bible doesn't say, “But he that turns away from his sinful ways cometh to the light.” No, it says: HE THAT DOETH TRUTH!!!
Thus, Bible repentance for salvation is strictly a matter of changing your mind to acknowledge THE TRUTH that you are a guilty sinner in the sight of a holy God. That is the purpose of the LAW according to Romans 3:19-20, “Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.” In other words, you simply need to realize that you are a guilty sinner to BELIEVE THE GOSPEL to be saved.