| The Bible calls on all of us to repent of our sin and receive Jesus Christ as our personal Lord and Savior. To repent means to change one's mind about something. In the matter of salvation, it means to turn from (stop following)whatever way one had been counting on to pay for their sins and be acceptable to God, and turn to (place their faith in for their sin payment) the finished work of Christ Jesus on the cross and His resurrection. In Ephesians 2:8-10, verses 8-9 tell us, "For by grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast." Let's consider what these verses teach us. The verses after each thought expand on what we are learning: 1) "grace" - God giving us something we do not deserve, in this case, salvation, an eternal relationship with Him. John 3:16 2) "Ye" - you personally. Romans 3:10,23 3) "saved" - means you have a need of being saved from something and can be saved from it, in this case, the wages of you sin - eternal separation from God. In this earthly life, it means not having a relationship with God, and after death, going to an eternal place of torment called hell. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, became flesh to die on the cross so this wage would be paid for all men. Romans 3:22 4) "thru faith" - how it is we are saved from paying these wages ourselves in an eternal hell. We are to believe God when He says Jesus Christ paid for our sins and rose from the dead to show the power of sin had been defeated. Believing this, we put our trust in the finished work of Christ, and it alone, to save us. Although Christ died for all men, not all men will place faith in what He did to save them, so they will not be saved. John3:18 5) "Not of yourselves...not of works..." - it is only the finished work of Christ that saves us. Our tainted work as sinners is not sufficient to satisfy a Holy God. Galatians 3:24 6) "lest any man should boast" - no one in heaven will say they got there by any merit of their own. Only God will get the glory for solving man's sin problem. Galatians 3:22 7) "it is the gift of God" - a gift is freely given by someone at no charge to the receiver. In this case, God offers salvation freely to all men, but requires that each person personally receive (acknowledge their need for it and accept it) it in order for that person to be saved. No receiving - no salvation. Romans 6:23 8) verse 10 which deals with works shows that these works are to follow our salvation since this what Christ has purposed for us as Christians. In other words, I can do no works in order to be saved; however, because I am saved, I should do good works. Good works are the works that God has for Christians to do. To apply this to repenting in the matter of salvation, I surrender the idea that there are works I can do which would merit the salvation of my soul. |