Do you see the problem with this? Thousands of people who really love God have been pulling their hair out for years because they have been riding a roller coaster of grace mixed with works. New wine inside of old wineskins. Grace mixed with law. If there's poop in my salad I'm sorry but I'll pass. This is not the Gospel (good news). This is really bad news actually.
Salvation (being made whole) is God's grace plus nothing (Eph. 2:9).
Grace is a free gift. Zero payment is required. The notion of you doing
anything for it is completely obsolete (Heb. 8:13). The notion of you
striving for God's approval has passed away. As Jesus died on the cross,
He exclaimed "It is finished!" We shout the same thing, and in
thankfulness fall to our knees as we realize the immense debt which was
wiped away from us. As we lift our heads and wipe away the tears of joy,
our eyes slowly come to focus in on the King who saved us - this King
who saw EVERYTHING in us and yet washed it away like it was nothing. As
far as the east is from the west. How can this be? What kind of love
does this? Welcome to repentance.
To repent means to change our minds. All those street-corner preachers have given the word 'repent' a lot of negative baggage throughout the years, but all it means is "to turn" or "to change your mind" - that's all. It's the natural response to God's kindness.
I think as the church we often focus in on telling people they need to "repent" but that's like telling people to be thankful for something they don't know they have received. What we need to do is tell people about God's love and kindness - about all that He has done for them - and the repentance will take care of itself. It's the Holy Spirit's job to convict, not ours. He is much better at it anyway.
"All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." - 2 Cor. 5:18-21
To repent means to change our minds. All those street-corner preachers have given the word 'repent' a lot of negative baggage throughout the years, but all it means is "to turn" or "to change your mind" - that's all. It's the natural response to God's kindness.
I think as the church we often focus in on telling people they need to "repent" but that's like telling people to be thankful for something they don't know they have received. What we need to do is tell people about God's love and kindness - about all that He has done for them - and the repentance will take care of itself. It's the Holy Spirit's job to convict, not ours. He is much better at it anyway.
"All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." - 2 Cor. 5:18-21
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