Transcript

ANNOUNCER: Do we have to repent to be saved? Do we have to repent to stay saved? Does Jesus Christ have to be Perfect Lord before we can ever say that we’re saved? Lots of things that are taught today might put us in the freakout mode. So let’s talk about these things today, friend. Thank you for joining us. This is Grace in Focus. We are a ministry of the Grace Evangelical Society. Our website is faithalone.org. We’d like you to go there and subscribe to our free magazine. Yes, it is free. If you live outside of the 48 contiguous United States, you do have to pay postage, but otherwise it’s free and it’s a great magazine. Full-size, full-color great articles. We want you to have it. So find it on our website and subscribe today. And that website is faithalone.org. 

Now with our question and answer discussion of the day, here are Bob Wilkin and Sam Marr. 

SAM: All right, we’ve got a question from L.W. and this is on repentance, assurance, all the classic stuff. What he says is that he was taught to repent of your sins in order to be saved. He was Lordship salvation, but he’s been listening to Free Grace preaching and reading his Bible verses that talk about being saved completely through faith. But what seems to be bothering him is he keeps coming back to thinking that he needs to cut out these habitual sins in his life. How he phrases it is if I had really believed, I would have cut these habitual sins out of my life. So he says that now he doesn’t have that assurance and he’s in fear and he’s asking for advice on what he can do to get out of this freakout mode, is what he says. 

BOB: So it’s a freakout mode. 

SAM: A freakout mode. So he’s having a rough time. 

BOB: I shouldn’t make fun of the freakout mode, but actually I think that’s a good way to put it, because if you’re a person who was in Lordship salvation, then you get involved in Free Grace and you understand that it’s by faith apart from works that I know I have everlasting life, and I know I can never lose it, and then you somehow get sucked back into Lordship salvation thinking, and it’s now making you doubt your salvation. That is a freakout mode, right? 

SAM: Yeah. 

BOB: And it’s not a good thing. So the question he has for us, L.W. has for us is basically, how can I get out of this freakout mode? 

SAM: Yeah, his question is how to get out of the freakout mode. And I would say there’s probably two things we want to talk about here. One is how to know, so we can talk about assurance and clarify what repentance is and what it’s for. And I think the second part of it is, once you’re a believer, once you have that assurance, now how should you handle the habitual sins in your life? 

BOB: Yeah, now he does talk about a couple or three habitual sins that bother him and he looks at himself and he says, wait a minute, according to Lordship teaching, if I was really born again, I wouldn’t have these problems. And even though he may not be back in Lordship salvation, for some reason, it’s easy for people to slip back into that kind of thinking. If I’m really a Christian, why am I not having victory in my life? The way I like to look at it, once I start looking at behavior, I’ve now contradicted what the Lord Jesus taught, that it’s whoever believes in Him. 

I got an email about 10 years ago. And the guy said, when I evangelized, I love to say that John 3:16, the Lord Jesus said, whoever believes in him, not whoever behaves in him. And I’ve used it ever since. I love that. Isn’t that what Paul says in Ephesians 2:8-9? It’s about believing in Him. It’s about faith in Him. It’s not about our works. 

SAM: Right. If we all have different stories of how we achieved our salvation, then that sounds a lot like boasting to me, and the second half of 2:89 kind of eliminates that. 

BOB: “Lest anyone should boast.” Yeah, right. Exactly. So you said we got two things. One is what is repentance and what is it for? And what was the second part? How do we have assurance? 

SAM: Yeah, how can he regain his assurance? 

BOB: Okay. So let’s talk first of all about repentance and what it’s for? I wrote my doctoral dissertation on this in 1983, four, five. It was kind of published. It really isn’t published, but it’s available at Dallas Seminary, in 1985. And in 1997, I repented of my view on repentance. In other words, I changed my mind about my view on repentance. And the reason I did is some interaction with Zane Hodges, who had been my advisor, my number one advisor, my first reader on my dissertation. And he had challenged me because I thought there were 11 verses in the New Testament that said we needed to repent in order to have everlasting life. So I, in my dissertation, said repentance is changing your mind. And in those 11 passages, it was changing your mind about Christ. In other words, it was a synonym for believing. 

What I came to see is that repentance is always turning from sins or it’s always changing your mind about your sinful behaviors. And I came to see that none of those 11 verses are saying you’ve got to repent to be born again. And so in ’97, I wrote an article on why I changed my mind about repentance or why you need to change your mind about repentance. And you can find that at faithalone.org. 

So repentance, I’m convinced in both the Old and New Testament, is deciding to and turning from sins so that if you simply decide to turn for your sins, but that you don’t actually turn from them, you’ve not actually repented. Remember, the Ninevites repented at the preaching of Jonah, Matthew 12:41. Well, if you read Jonah chapter 3, it said when God saw their works, that they turned from their wicked ways. Well, that’s their repentance. They turned from their wicked ways. So repentance is turning from our wicked ways. 

And the second part of it is what’s it’s for? Well, it’s for escaping judgment in this life, which is exactly what happened with the Ninevites. Jonah says forty days and then comes destruction. But because they repented, God suspended that judgment. It was actually 150 years later before Nineveh was destroyed because they repented. 

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BOB: The same thing is true if a believer repents, then we can escape ongoing judgment in this life. That’s the same thing for any unbeliever. If they repent, they can escape the consequences of their sinful behaviors. Repentance has never been designed to give anybody eternal life. 

And I would say, look at Ezekiel 18 and Ezekiel 31. He says, “turn and live”. In fact, that’s the title of my book on repentance, Turn and Live. Repentance is a life or death issue. It’s not an eternal life or death issue. It’s a here and now, life or death issue. And what was the second part? 

SAM: How can he regain his assurance after he’s now in this limbo between Free Grace and works salvation? 

BOB: So what would you say, Sam? What’s the answer there? 

SAM: Maybe some similar things to our last session we did, grounding yourself in the promises of God, surrounding yourself with like-minded believers, taking care of your health and body. Maybe it doesn’t apply to this one as much, but reading your Bible, reading it and praying, reading the things that instill that confidence in you. 

And I think even reading verses that you struggle with, if people bring up these verses like James 2 and when they misuse verses like from Galatians and Ephesians, read those things and read them carefully and pray about it and make the decision for yourself. Don’t take another person’s word for it, but follow your discernment through the Holy Spirit. 

And then surrounding yourself with like-minded believers who can either help you understand those things better or maybe kind of rein you back in when you’re going off the deep end on some of these. That’s kind of my answer to most theological issues, I think. 

BOB: I think one thing we could point people to is our website, FaithAlone.org. And so if L.W. is having some questions about particular passages, he can look them up there. The other part of it is his besetting sins. We’re not trying to say, continue to walk in your besetting sins and rejoice that you’re born again. 

But what we would say is this, doubting your salvation exacerbates the problem. In other words, if you’re both doubting your salvation and you’re upset about these besetting sins, that’s worse than knowing for sure I have eternal life. Now I can deal with the besetting sins. 

By the way, I love your point about fellowship. If you can get into a local church, go talk to the pastor, say, look, I’m dealing with this sin and this sin, I want to overcome this. Please help me. 

But it really is important L.W. that you have assurance of your eternal destiny because without that, you’re now doubly fearful because you’re like, if I don’t have victory over these sins, I’m going to Hell. 

SAM: I mean, I wouldn’t have any confidence to overcome any sin in my life. If I wasn’t already sure that Christ had won the battle for me and I’m just trying to be like Him. But if you’re saying Christ is up on this pedestal and I’ve got to crawl my way up to Him by fighting off all this and then you’re never going to make it. How many verses in the Bible tell us that? 

So the only reason logically that you should be confident that you can overcome sin in your life is because of the promises that Christ has given us and the things the other authors like Paul wrote about so frequently. Paul wouldn’t have any confidence in finishing his race strongly if he thought that it was dependent on his good works. 

BOB: And by the way, I’ve just read a book a friend gave me on training time for reigning time. It’s I think from about 1950 or something. The Canadian author says that God’s word transforms our thinking as we are open to it and exposed to it. 

And so what I would suggest is get into a solid Bible teaching church, plus get some solid Bible teaching online. That will change your thinking. Right, Romans 12:2, “Don’t be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” If L.W. gets his mind renewed week in and week out through solid Bible teaching, he’s going to have victory over these besetting sins over time. It’s not necessarily going to be instantaneous, but as God works to renew his mind, his behavior will follow. 

I would strongly encourage a) regain assurance of everlasting life, b) like you said, lock into a solid Bible teaching church. And if you can’t find one within 50 or 100 miles, how about moving? If we move for a school or we move for a job, wouldn’t we move for church? I have a friend in Stillwater, Oklahoma, J.B. Bond. People have moved across the country to go to his church or I have another friend Bob Bryant. He’s out in Marshall, Texas. People move to go to his church. We’ve got a church tracker list on our website. I think a couple hundred churches on it. 

And I would encourage all of you to encourage and help others who are struggling with assurance. And in the meantime, let’s keep grace in focus. 

ANNOUNCER: Be sure to check out our daily blogs at faithalone.org. They are short and full of great teaching just like what you’ve heard today. Find them at faithalone.org/resources/blog. We would love to hear from you. Maybe you’ve got a question, comment, or some feedback. If you do, please don’t hesitate to send us a message. Here’s our email address. It’s radio@faithalone.org. That’s radio at faithalone.org. And when you do, very important, please let us know your radio station call letters and the city of your location. 

On our next episode: Why does God command all man to repent? Please join us, and until then, let’s keep grace in focus.