Subject: Are these essentials for Salvation? |
Bible Note: WOS, In the first place, what gives you the notion that I am "playing"? You asked, "Or are you suggesting that there is repentance unto life before regeneration?" Your question is confusing because regeneration is the act of God imparting new life. Therefore, you are asking if "repentance unto life" (i.e. the repentance that leads to new life) is before new life (regeneration). My question is, how can repentance be "unto life" if the life is already imparted before repentance is acted upon? Should it not rather be phrased, "regeneration unto repentance"? In the second place, my point is what repentance is - how it is Biblically defined - which is not different in activity between the believer and the unbeliever. That is, repentance is turning in obedience to God. There need be no denial that sorrow and a change of mind is involved but the change from disobedience to obedience is necessary in order for repentance to be genuine. Example. An unbeliever is in disobedience to God. What God requires of him is that he cease from sinning and turn to Him in faith or, if you'd rather, he turn to God in faith and cease from sinning. A believer may be involved in sin. What does God require of Him. God requires the believer to also to cease from sinning and turn to Him in faith or, if you'd rather, he turn to God in faith and cease from sinning. That the former act of repentance may lead to salvation and the latter to restored fellowship is immaterial with respect to how the word "repentance" is understood. In the third place, I am not discussing how repentance works upon or in the believer or unbeliever, whether or not God plays a part in it, or its relation with, if any, regeneration; I am only stating what it is (as far as I understand it in the Bible). In the fourth place, I do not think "repentance requires faith" for there are those who may be truely repentant for their wrongdoing, nevertheless, do not turn to Christ in faith for their salvation. In extreme cases, you may meet a recovering alcoholic or a drug addict who quit their respective addictive behavior for one reason or another and are leading productive, as far as worldly values are concerned, lives. However, faith (if it is to be genuine and result in God's salvation) necessarily requires repentance. |