Follow the 5 steps to salvation

Repent for the forgiveness of your sins

Still with us?

Click here for an Audio Presentation

At this stage you have heard the good news, albeit the highlights and perhaps, you believe; joining many millions of us around the world. You now have some things to do that will change your life forever.

At Pentecost Peter addressed the crowd of well over 3,000 people, mainly Jews but also people from far and wide and gave them the good news that you have just heard. The following was the response:

When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, "Brothers, what shall we do?" Peter replied, "Repent and be baptised, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off, for all whom the Lord our God will call." With many other words he warned them; and he pleaded with them, "Save yourselves from this corrupt generation." Those who accepted his message were baptised, and about three thousand were added to their number that day. [Acts 2 vs 37-41]

So Peter told us to Repent and be Baptised in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of our sins. The subject of Baptism will be discussed in the next step. For now we will concentrate on Repentance.

What is Repentance?

Unfortunately the word repentance is now largely associated with strange bearded and sandaled men with billboards warning that the end is nigh. The word has become a bit of a joke and is rarely used in common speech. However, there is nothing in life more serious than this. So let us get past the jokers and find out what the word really means using words we are more familiar with.

Repentance is saying sorry for the things that you have done wrong and then vowing to turn away from them and set out in a new direction, the complete opposite direction.

My youngest son found out, when he was four years old, that the word sorry could be used as a sort of talisman. If you did wrong then you just said sorry and that seemed to avert impending punishment. This was not true repentance, however, and the power of the talisman very soon faded. The trouble was that there was no meaning behind the word sorry, my son would simply use it to get out of trouble but then carry on as he was before. He had no intention of stopping what he was doing nor finding out what pleased us, so he had to learn the hard way.

As for us with God, learning the hard way is a mighty bit more serious and permanent. Hell is the punishment and it is eternal. Hell is not oblivion; you will know about it and live it. [Mark 9 vs 42-49]

So when you repent you must mean it and take steps in your life to stop doing those things that are dishonouring to God. There is no need to list them because your conscience will tell you when you are doing wrong. Incidentally this is not a one-off step, as you continue in your Christian life there will still be things that you say or do that you will be ashamed of and require repentance, however, you will not desire them as you did before.

How can I know I am a sinner?

So what makes me a sinner then? God's measure for us is perfection anything else is a sin. We sin when we break God's laws. Most of us know these as the Ten Commandments.

To see how you measure up, take this simple test:

Have you ever told a lie, even if it was just once? What would that make you? It would be a liar.
Have you ever stolen anything even if it was just a few sweets when you were a kid? What would that make you? It would be a thief.
Have you ever misused the Lord's name even in frustration? What would that make you? It would make you a blasphemer.
The Bible says even if you have just looked at another person with lustful thoughts you have committed adultery. Have you ever done that? What would that make you? It would be an adulterer.

How are you doing so far? If any of these ring true to you then by your admission it would make you a lying, thieving, blasphemous adulterer. Notice I have only covered 4 of the 10 but the cynic in me tells me that I need not go any further. Have you got the idea yet? Perfection is just impossible to keep up.

Salvation by grace not by works

This repentance stuff and vowing to obey God's commands sounds all too close to salvation by works. Let us remind ourselves what Jesus said:

"I am the way the truth and the life and that no one comes to the Father except by me." [John 14 v 6]

When we repent we do it in Jesus' name who intercedes to God for us. No amount of repentance or good works will do it for us without Jesus. It is by grace that we are saved NOT by works.[Eph 2 vs 8-10]

God looks at our heart not our actions. In other words it is about our attitude to God, how sincere we are. When we repent it is not because it is one of the steps to salvation like a talisman nor even because of thoughts of punishment but because we want to. We don't like it when we upset God, we desire to do what pleases him.

My youngest son now desires to please, which is a joy to behold and consequently there is no need to punish him as often. He still does wrong of course, but his whole attitude is different. If you are a mother or a father and have experienced this joy then you will know something of what it must be like for God when we repent and truly mean it.

For the forgiveness of your sins

Jesus upset the Pharisees and teachers of the law when he claimed to have the authority to forgive sins. God gave him that authority and true repentence leads to the forgiveness of our sins.[Acts 5 vs 29-32] This reference seems to be to Israel but don't worry if you are a Gentile (not a Jew), Jesus and the apostles make it quite plain that the Gentiles are included, grafted onto the olive tree that is Israel. So the promise is first to the Jews and remains with the Jews but the Gentiles are grafted on to that promise. If you are still unsure then read Paul's letter to the Romans.

Forgiveness means that we are free of the burden of the past. We can start anew without having to be guilty for the things we did in the past. As far as God is concerned those things are forgotten.

Some people will say, "yes I think I am a pretty good person" but a quick test through the 10 Commandments soon shatters that illusion while others will say; I am not good enough to be a Christian I have done too many bad things in the past. If only they could realise that they will never be good enough but if they repent, those things they are ashamed of will be forgiven and forgotten.[Luke 7 vs 36-50]

Another way of looking at this is to say that you die to your old self and get born again to a new life in Jesus. This is what Baptism is all about which is what we will look at next in step 4 (Baptism)....