My thoughts and notes on What is repentance unto salvation?

Someone once wrote me, questioning my way of presenting the gospel to the lost, specifically taking issue with the fact that I am careful to make no demands of the lost person for change of behavior in order to be saved by faith in Christ. I believe we are eternally saved apart from works by grace alone, received by faith alone in Christ alone–nothing more, nothing less, and nothing else.

In the last line of his letter, he wrote something I told him I very much agreed with. He said, “the new birth leads a believer to want to turn from sin.” Note how what he was saying relates to how to preach the gospel to unbelievers:

We agreed that the desire to turn from sin (and the ability to do so) are rooted in the new birth. No turning from sin can be done by someone who hasn’t been born again, who hasn’t been made spiritually alive, who is dead in his trespasses and sins, who is at enmity with God, who is not in the kingdom of God, who is under the power of the evil one, walking in darkness. (All of these terms in the Bible describe our state before we knew Christ, and at no time in the Bible is anyone in that state commanded to turn from sin and promised justification in return.) Repentance is necessary for salvation, but the good news is, a change of behavior isn’t involved in repentance. If it were, all of us would still be sinners, falling short of the glory of God. But we have been justified (declared righteous because the righteousness of Christ was credited to our account) by faith alone. We repented by changing our minds and believing that message of the gospel “that Christ died for our sins…. and He rose from the dead.” The gospel is defined in passages like 1 Corinthians 15, Romans 1-4, and the entire gospel of John, and the word repent does not even appear in those passages, because repenting unto salvation means believing the gospel. The gospel of John, which is the only book of the Bible written specifically for the lost to read and have eternal life (it says so in its clear purpose statement in chapter 20 verses 30-31), tells people to “believe” 96 times, to “receive” once, and never even uses the word repent or repentance in any context. So if repentance were a word that meant something other than a change of mind to believe, would God have left it out completely from this book that promises it has everything someone needs to believe and receive eternal life? Would it quote Jesus in chapters 3, 4, 5, 6, 11, and 12 specifically saying that everyone who believes receives eternal life, even though He each time passed on the opportunity to use the word “repent” as He preached these things? This is true even of chapter 4, when He was speaking to the woman at the well, who was sinful. All He told her was that if she knew Who He was and asked Him, He would give her living water. No other conditions were laid down for her. She believed and was saved.

For my personal testimony, when I realized I was a sinner who was on the way to hell, but that Jesus had died on the cross for my sins after living a perfect life in my place, and had risen from the grave with the promise to save me if only I believed, that’s what I did. I believed, and was saved. I did not turn from my sins. I did not commit to turn from my sins. I did not say, “Jesus, now you are Lord of my life.” I just believed Him and His promise, and He kept it and I was saved. I went on to live a life of (so far) serving Him, but my salvation didn’t come from that–just from what He did, when all I did was believe. And my failures and shortcomings along the way have been plentiful, even uncountable. And that’s how everyone is saved, who is saved. I am aware, as the Bible teaches that not everyone who is saved begins living for Christ in a visible manner. And as a preacher who has seen people believe and not grow like I want them to, I sympathize with what Ray Comfort felt as he tells it in his autobiography, when he used to preach that same message I preach, and many would profess belief but not show change. So he changed his message to the lost, placing upon them a demand not only to believe, but to turn from sins if they want to be saved from God’s wrath.

I, too, know how much that hurts to have converts not grow like they should. So did the apostle Paul. Read 1 Corinthians and see his anguish and tears over his converts doing terrible things like fight over who’s the best pastor, get drunk in communion while selfishly letting the poor Christians go hungry, sue each other over petty offenses in front of the world, and celebrate the sinfulness of a church member who was involved in incest and adultery. Yet even so, he never questioned those people’s relationship with the Lord. He called them brothers (even the incest one who needed church discipline to learn a lesson), and said they had been saved by believing the gospel. Paul knew how frustrating that is.

Yet he didn’t change the gospel message to accommodate the situation. If I, because of fear of that pain, preach to the lost person, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and turn from your sins, and you will be saved,” then I will have confused the gospel message, and closed the door to salvation for those people. Because they cannot turn from their sins. And because it would be me, not God, telling them to.  (God tells them He wants reconciliation, “that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.” 2 Cor. 5:19)
They need the true, unadulterated message that Christ has done all of the work, and that the only thing He accepts in exchange for justification is belief in Him alone.  If I fail in giving them the true, pure, unedited and un-added-to-it gospel, instead telling them, turn from sin and trust Jesus, they might still believe and be saved, but they will be saved in spite of what I told them.  If I just give them the real biblical gospel of grace alone received through faith alone, they can be saved because of what I told them.  That’s much better.

Paul’s concern was intensified much more when he wrote the Galatians, in his only epistle with no kind words of greeting. They weren’t incestuous or drunkards or immature lawsuit filers. His only problem is that when other teachers came through with a message that to be saved, they needed to not only believe, but to turn from their sins with a circumcision commitment to obey God’s law, the Galatians were believing those teachers. Paul said that was departing from the truth to another gospel which really wasn’t another one. He said that no matter who gives them that message, a friend, an apostle, Paul himself, or an angel from heaven, then that speaker was disqualified. And Paul proved that was true by showing how he even had to publicly rebuke the apostle Peter just for allowing the implication that the gentile believers might not actually be saved until they committed to follow God’s law.

You might now be thinking, “but don’t we have to repent to be saved, and doesn’t repent mean turn from sins?” Well, the simple answer is, no, it doesn’t mean that in the context of being justified before God. Repent means change your mind/thinking. You could repent about anything by changing your mind about it. No change of behavior is part of repenting to believe the gospel, although behavior change might follow a change of mind about something. As it relates to salvation, then, repenting means changing your mind about the rightness of yourself and your need for Christ, and believing instead the truth. That’s why the Bible says, for example, “Repent and believe the gospel.” (In good translations of the Bible, the preacher-favorite phrases “repent of sins” or “turn from sins and believe the gospel” don’t ever appear. It is only interpreters that change the word repent to “turn from sins,” or add in the words “of sins” after the word repent. No Bible passage in the original text ever says that.) They didn’t already believe in Jesus, and they needed to change their minds. But behavior and doing wasn’t part of it. In fact even when the Philippian jailer only wanted to know what to DO for salvation, God’s answer through Paul wasn’t to do something, but “believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved.” Jesus had already been asked the same question by those wanting to do works of God, and He told them, “This is the work of God: that you believe on the One He has sent.”
So to define “repent” as “turn from sins” instead of “change your mind by believing” may be a very common and popular mistake, but it is a mistake nonetheless–completely wrong and unbiblical. Those who wrongly believe repent means turn or change need to humbly repent and believe the truth about that.

(If you’d like to study this more in depth, an excellent book is available for that by Mike Cocoris. It’s called “Repentance, the most misunderstood word in the Bible” and it is a study of every use of the word in the entire scriptures to examine deeply its meaning. You can find that book here: https://www.amazon.com/Repentance-Most-Misunderstood-Word-Bible-ebook/dp/B00I10FDOE/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1545569048&sr=1-1&keywords=repentance+cocoris )
The next question this might raise for you could be, “Then where do good works come in?” To the question of salvation and eternal life, they don’t. Christ’s work for our salvation was finished on the cross. Not just mostly done, not just partly accomplished, but fully finished. But do our works matter as Christians? Yes, they matter infinitely, because in this life we will experience the blessings of God if we live for Him and the chastening, punishing hand of God if we turn from His way and live in sin. And even more than that reason, our works as Christians matter in eternity because all who go to heaven will be judged on what they as Christians did in the body, “whether it is good or bad,” 2 Corinthians 5 tells us, in a passage about the judgment seat of Christ. You’ll find in that passage and in 1 Cor. 3 about the same issue, that everyone at that judgment is saved, but some there will lose rewards they would have had in heaven because they lived a life of no worth to the kingdom of God. (There is another judgment, we’re told about in Revelation, called the Great White Throne judgment, and you’ll note that everyone at that judgment is not saved, but condemned forever, because their names are not in the book of life, which is the book of those who have believed on Christ to be saved.) Our judgment as Christians at the judgment seat of Christ will determine for all those going to heaven whether, and how much, we will be rewarded for all eternity. So it will matter a great deal hundreds of years from now how you live your life today as a Christian. And part of being rewarded then, will be getting the gospel message right when you proclaim it now, so that your hearers can be saved and you can be rewarded.
More on the meaning of repentance (and evidence that scholarly sources agree on it, while disagreeing with the common perception that it involves change of attitude or behavior) can be found here: Link:
http://getgodsgift.org/index.php?p=1_21_Wrong-Repentance

Some closing related thoughts: Spurgeon in his highly recommendable book “All of Grace” tells the story of a young pastor going to visit a very poor widow to give her a gift of money. He knocked at her door and there was no answer. Seeing her in church the next Sunday, the pastor told her he had come to give her the gift, but she wasn’t home. Realizing when he had come, she answered, “No. Actually I was there. But I thought you were the landlord coming to collect rent, and I had no money, so I hid.” When we preach “Turn from your sins and be saved,” honest hearts who would be saved if they heard the true gospel say to themselves, “I cannot turn from my sins. I am bogged down in sins. I even love some of my sins. God is apparently requiring of me a debt I cannot pay.” And so they turn off the preacher’s voice and continue in sin and shame, hiding from a God who wants to be found and to save them. Spurgeon rightly then tells the listener that yes, you have sinned, and God has come not to make you pay for it, but to announce to you His free gift that your debt has already been paid.

As I have preached the gospel in various parts of America and Romania, as well as Colombia, Brazil, and Nicaragua, I have always found the people of various cultures and religious backgrounds would be very receptive to a message of “turn from your sins and do good, and you will be good before God.” They would be receptive of that, because they already believe it before the lovely feet of the preacher of good news start coming over the mountains toward them. That message is the belief of every false way on the broad road that leads to destruction. It’s what the mormons teach. It’s what Jehovah’s witnesses teach. It’s what scientology teaches. It’s what secular psychology says. It’s what the Roman Catholics teach. It’s what the eastern orthodox here in Romania teach. It’s what the current Christless Judaism teaches. It’s also what buddhists, hindus, and muslims ultimately believe, even though they don’t worship the God of the Bible. And that teaching is accepted everywhere you might go, because it is the message that our hearts want to believe–our wicked deceitful hearts want to hear “This is how you can act to be perfect as you are. In your own strength, in your own effort, you can perfect yourself.” If that message of “have faith AND do good works and you’ll be saved” were true, missionaries would be unnecessary, because we’d have to leave this earth to find any culture or tongue that doesn’t already endorse that message.

But God preaches a very different message–one that offends and turns off most hearts in every country and culture, including America–a message that you cannot save yourselves and that there is no salvation for you to be found in any but Christ, the only way, the only truth, the only life.

APPENDIX

 

As an appendix, here are some scriptures I compiled that show us salvation by grace (gift), and I like to remind myself that when I encounter scriptures that are possibly unclear, but that could be interpreted to include works with faith as part of the requirement of salvation, then I should seek to interpret those passages in light of these clearer definitions of saving faith:

“Abram believed the LORD, and He credited it to him as righteousness.” (Gen. 15:6)

“For by grace you are saved through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God’s gift — not from works, so that no one can boast.” (Eph. 2:8-9)

“But to the one who does not work, but believes on Him who declares righteous the ungodly, his faith is credited for righteousness. Likewise, David also speaks of the blessing of the man to whom God credits righteousness apart from works: How happy those whose lawless acts are forgiven and whose sins are covered! How happy the man whom the Lord will never charge with sin!” (Rom. 4:5-8)

“But now, apart from the law, God’s righteousness has been revealed—attested by the Law and the Prophets —that is, God’s righteousness through faith in Jesus Christ, to all who believe, since there is no distinction. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. They are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. God presented Him as a propitiation through faith in His blood, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His restraint God passed over the sins previously committed. He presented Him to demonstrate His righteousness at the present time, so that He would be righteous and declare righteous the one who has faith in Jesus. Where then is boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By one of works? No, on the contrary, by a law of faith. For we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from works of law.” (Rom. 3:21-28)

“But when the goodness and love for man appeared from God our Savior, He saved us — not by works of righteousness that we had done, but according to His mercy, through the washing of regeneration and renewal by the Holy Spirit. This [Spirit] He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that having been justified by His grace, we may become heirs with the hope of eternal life.” (Titus 3:4-7)

“In the same way, then, there is also at the present time a remnant chosen by grace. Now if by grace, then it is not by works; otherwise grace ceases to be grace.” (Rom. 11:5-6)

“‘Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. On him God the Father has placed his seal of approval.’
Then they asked him, ‘What must we do to do the works God requires?’
Jesus answered, ‘The work of God is this: to believe in the one He has sent.’” (John 6:27-29)

“I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life.” (John 5:24)

“yet we know that no one is justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ. And we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no human being will be justified. But if, while seeking to be justified by Christ, we ourselves are also found to be sinners, is Christ then a promoter of sin? Absolutely not! If I rebuild those things that I tore down, I show myself to be a lawbreaker. For through the law I have died to the law, that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ; and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. I do not set aside the grace of God; for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died for nothing.” (Gal. 2:16-21)

“More than that, I also consider everything to be a loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. Because of Him I have suffered the loss of all things and consider them filth, so that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own from the law, but one that is through faith in Christ—the righteousness from God based on faith.” (Phil. 3:8-9)

“For God loved so loved the world that He gave His One and Only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world that He might judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. Anyone who believes in Him is not judged, but anyone who does not believe is already judged, because he has not believed in the name of the One and Only Son of God…. The one who believes in the Son has eternal life, but the one who refuses to believe in the Son will not see life; instead, the wrath of God remains on him.” (John 3:16-18, 36)

“And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. The one who has the Son has life. The one who doesn’t have the Son of God does not have life. I have written these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.” (1 John 5;11-13)

For those still with me, here’s one more link worth looking at:

https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.evidenceunseen.com%2Ftheology%2Fsalvation%2Flordship-theology%2F%3Ffbclid%3DIwAR3pqncinQpvAcD8eYnpWsyP_96ijpUTT5MV9Wy90s4r_wTa246G1sC0lic&h=AT32B-ePCEkwUlcJ-oC05XyMOKWAjI0pqERt2JVsSsMebOdiLgMxa9gJfocn1TXbiF4tM0eiiZL90CZHk0Ds6DTK_vSI9xSlW9CejnjjfP07Dz0T5Swua_QLOIV3BovwFfDgT7kRju8j0o_kbVw

Advertisements

Which one did Jesus really say?

One of the quotes below is something Jesus said. The other isn’t.

“On that day many will say to Me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and cast out demons in Your name, and do many mighty works in Your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’” That one’s real.

“On that day many will say to Me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not believe in You and trust that Your sacrifice on the cross for us finished the work of redemption for all who believe?’ and then I will declare to them, ‘Sorry, you weren’t paying attention; you had to also do good works to be saved.  The faith that saves is never alone.  You should have listened to the galatianists who told you so.’” Jesus never said that one, which came from the apocryphal book of Second Opinions.

Yes, the first is the true one. The second is the false one. That’s the opposite of what you would think if you have been hearing the gospel preached as, “Turn from your sins and be forgiven and saved. Your behavior, if it sufficiently changes, will be how you know you’re saved. Until then, you are only ‘making a profession of faith.’ Look not to Jesus, but to yourself and your fruit for assurance that you really believed.”

He’s Father, too.

As I listen to people pray, one thing I’ve noticed is the prevalence of those who almost exclusively address God as “Lord,” and only rarely, if ever, call Him “Father,” when they pray. If that’s your habit, may I humbly suggest that you might be missing a major part of the essence of what it is to pray? Not that you’re wrong to call Him “Lord,” because obviously He is that. But if your whole prayer life is within the boundaries of going to the One who is Lord for direction and commands, it’s not that you’re understanding is wrong, but it is quite incomplete.

Spend some time meditating on the fact that the eternal Creator, to Whom you pray, has saved you by the sacrifice of His Son; and that He is so pleased by that sacrifice that He is absolutely delighted to welcome you into His presence, approaching Him primarily as Father.

My daughter can ask me for anything. God is more capable of providing than I am, not less. He is greater in wisdom than I am, not less. He is more loving than I am, not less. And yet, my daughter knows in the core of her being that she can come to me for provision, for help, for guidance, for comfort, for protection, and boldly ask me for anything her heart desires. She knows that she owes me nothing in return for what she requests, either in advance of my granting it or after the fact.

She asks; she receives; she says, “thank you.” And my heart never regrets having met her need, never hopes it will be a while before she returns with another request, and never judges her unworthy of my love or help, even if she has done wrong. Because as her parent, I am not primarily her boss—my main identity in relationship to her is as her father.

And as good as I am to her, it doesn’t compare to how your Father in heaven is to you. So how much more can you approach your Father in heaven that way. Understanding that He hears your cries for help with the heart of a deeply-loving Father who delights in hearing and answering your prayers. And when you gather together with your brothers and sisters to pray, He is there, rejoicing to take you all together into His lap, to listen, to help, to speak, and to meet every need. Picture that at your next prayer meeting, and see if it doesn’t add new life to your faith and willingness to ask Him to do great things in your life and church. Yes, He is Lord. But remember when Christ taught us to pray, He said to see Him as Father.

Video: Preborn life- aborted baby alive & active

A baby aborted in the first trimester survived for a time, and shows you in this video how human and how alive she or he was before the killing took place.  This is the crime scene video everyone needs to witness.  Click below to watch and share.

https://videopress.com/v/OEuObtqG

Here are some alternate links to the same video if the one above doesn’t work in your player:

https://t.co/uOhqOybapq

https://t.co/pram2uGyyO

https://t.co/tXsAba6Hw9

Encounters with police different for blacks and whites

When I was sixteen years old, I had three newspaper routes as my part-time job. One evening just after dark, I was out doing the collections from people, when I knocked on the door of an elderly lady who was my customer and who knew me. When I knocked, through the window I saw her go down on her hands and knees and crawl out of sight. Wondering what was going on, I continued to knock. Cell phones were a future commodity, so I couldn’t call for help for a woman who appeared to need it, but I thought there was a problem and I tried to get into her home. After a few minutes of this, the police came. When they saw me, they approached, pointing only a flashlight at me. They asked me what I was doing, and I told them. Without hesitation, they believed me. She came to the door then, realizing who I was and paid for the newspaper (although she canceled her subscription the next day with an angry complaint call to my boss.) It turned out she had been the one who called the police about the strange man trying to get into her home. In her confusion, she was afraid and called them for help. All they knew when they approached me was that an elderly homeowner had called to report an attempted break in and she was scared. But when the police arrived, I was allowed to share my story, which was accepted, and they left without even asking for ID or putting my name on the record in any police report.

But I can’t help asking myself, “What if absolutely everything about the situation I found myself in that evening had been the same, except the color of my skin?” Would I have been given the chance to explain? Would I have been believed? Would I have been arrested for frightening the woman in her home even though that hadn’t been my intent? Or would I have found myself facing the barrel of a gun, thrown down on the ground with my face in the gravel, and handcuffed without even getting the opportunity to explain myself? Even if that didn’t happen, would I have escaped the unfortunate incident with no police record at all as I did, if I had been black?

As white people, we trust the police. If something goes wrong, our first instinct is to call them, not to avoid them. We need to understand that even in today’s America, our black brothers and sisters aren’t afforded that same opportunity to trust. They have reasonable fear that they will be mistreated, disrespected, or even victimized. We don’t hear weekly about some innocent person who looks just like we do getting killed by police who were either making a horrible mistake or who were displaying a level of wickedness unworthy of the badge.

It’s time for us to be honest about this, and admit that skin color is probably the only reason the police were approaching the man in Oklahoma this week with their guns drawn in the first place. His car had broken down. He had neither committed nor been suspected or accused of any crime. And yet when they approached him, one of the white cops said he looked like a bad dude. Crutcher approached them with his hands in the air. (As a white person, would you even think to do that in the same situation?) They proceeded to point their guns at him, make demands, turn him around, and tase him to the ground (a painful assault that shouldn’t ever be allowed on a non-violent combatant). Then one of them starting shooting him. And another got on the radio crying out, “Shots fired! Shots fired!” Wording it that way made it sound like someone other than the police were doing the shooting, but that wasn’t the case.

If you are white, ask yourself, “In my encounters with the police, how many times have they even moved their hands toward their holster, much less taken the deadly weapon out and pointed it at my face?” Even if you were innocent, take a moment to imagine how fearfully you would react to that happening, and you might understand why some of the black men it has happened to react with raised voices and panicked expressions. It is only logical to react like that as an innocent person whose life is being threatened.

The police aren’t five year olds play acting what they’ve seen on cartoons. They are well-trained adults, very keenly aware of the deadliness of a gun. They know very well that it shouldn’t even be in their hands if they aren’t facing a situation that warrants using it. They know it isn’t a toy, but a deadly weapon designed to take someone’s life. And they must use that force only when justified. Stealing cigarettes or selling bootleg cds doesn’t justify it. And certainly approaching an unarmed man whom they knew in advance was just having car trouble doesn’t justify it. Good cops know this. And it is time for us all to stand strongly against those bad ones who don’t. It is also time for us to show the same sympathy and compassion for the families of the victims that we would show if they were white. We haven’t shown that. That’s why the “Black Lives Matter” movement started. Because we in white culture didn’t get that. It’s time we do. And we owe our black brothers and sisters an apology for having taken so long. It shouldn’t have taken viral videos to awaken us to a plight they were already facing before it was exposed online.

The two metaphors that change everything

In John 10:9-11, Jesus said, “I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find safe pasture…. I came that they may have life and have it more abundantly. I am the good Shepherd. The good Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.”

In the first of two metaphors Jesus gave us about Himself in John 10, He said that He is the door. That’s the door of the fold for His sheep. The sheep metaphorically represent people. The fold represents the Kingdom of God. There is one door—thus only one way into that fold. The door is Jesus. He is the only way in. Try to get in by climbing over the wall, cutting another door through it, or digging a hole under it, and you will fail. Jesus is the door, the only way of entry into heaven.

In the second metaphor, while we remain sheep, Jesus describes Himself as the good Shepherd—the One who gives His life for the sheep.

This is further explained in another passage comparing us to sheep. It says, “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him (Christ) the iniquity (guilt) of us all.” (Isaiah 53:6) That’s God’s indictment of humanity. First, it shows us that God sees all of us together as a sinful group of misguided sheep that left the right path. God created us, and has every right to our perfect obedience and following. But the entire mass of humanity failed together, in Adam our first father, when Adam sinned.

As you’ll read in Genesis 2 and 3, God had given Adam only one rule. Adam had been given a vast garden to delight his every desire, and told that he could have anything he wanted there, so long as he didn’t eat the fruit from the one and only forbidden tree. By eating from that tree of the knowledge of good and evil, Adam would be disobeying, and declaring his desire to be independent of God’s counsel and walk his own way. When that happens, God told Adam, you will surely die. As our head representative, Adam made an executive decision to disobey on our behalf as well as his own. He ate from the tree, announcing that he and his descendants would be “as God” in deciding right from wrong for ourselves. He regretted the decision as soon as it had been made. Sin, suffering, death, and destruction immediately entered the world. A world God had created without such things and warned Adam that to avoid them he must obey the single rule. But mankind in Adam told God, “One rule is one too many. We will disobey.”

“Wait a minute,” you say. “What do you mean, ‘we‘? Why should we be held guilty because of something Adam did?”

Well, the Bible teaches us that Adam was our head, and all humanity was acting in him in that rebellion against God. And before you say, “but that’s not fair to me; I didn’t get the choice,” you need to know that God says that’s not true. Look again at the verse from Isaiah: “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way,” it says. You see, it wasn’t just humanity as a whole being found guilty. It was each one of us individually. When you and I came along multiple generations later, each one of us individually said, “I second Adam’s motion. I also want to do things my way and decide between good and evil. If I want to lie, I will lie. If I want to steal, I will steal. If I want to hurt someone else for my own gain, I will do it. If I want to curse, I will curse. If sexual sin or other kinds of immorality feel good, I want to experience them.” When the serpent offered you the opportunity to know by experience not just good, but evil, you, like Adam, said “yes.” So you aren’t being condemned for something Adam did and you didn’t. You’re under God’s sentence of wrath because as Adam did—as all humanity did like sheep going astray—so also you did, turning like everyone else, to your own way. Sin didn’t just infect humanity as a whole; it infected you, personally. You are a sinner. You have lived in rebellion against the One who made you and has an uncontested right to your perfect obedience. And if you were to remain in that state until you die, it would result in eternal punishment in hell.

That’s unspeakably bad news. To learn that the judge has already found you guilty before this life even ends and you see Him in court. What can be done about it? What can you do to make it up to God? What can you say or do that will get your sins forgiven so that when you stand before Him it won’t be a day of terror like none other?

Nothing.

That’s even worse than the first bad news. There is truly nothing you can do to solve your problem. No good works, no promises or commitments, no sacrifices or gifts, no amount of religious efforts, and no rituals or traditions you can observe have any chance to save you. You are “without hope and without God in the world.” (Ephesians 2:12) You can’t turn from your sins, give your life to God, make a commitment to Him, or decide to do better. It’s already too late for you to change your behavior or attitude and make things right with God. Even if you really want to change, it’s already too late. You’ve already sinned, and already stand under condemnation as a child of Adam.

But there is hope. Because God has some very good news for you, too: “For God so loved the whole world that He gave His only Son, so that whoever believes on Him will not perish but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16) Jesus, the eternal Son of God Who always was, and Who created us, at one point in time became a man, without ceasing to be God. As a man, He lived a perfect life in your place. He obeyed all of God’s law and fulfilled all of God’s righteousness in your place, on your behalf. He earned what you couldn’t earn: eternal life. And He earned it for you. The last part of the Isaiah verse above explains how: “and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity (guilt) of us all.”

After a sinless life, Jesus died on the cross in your place and mine. God the Father took your guilt and mine and placed it on His Son. So that just as He lived a perfect life in your place, He died as a perfect sacrifice in your place. He “lay down His life for the sheep.” He absorbed all of the righteous punishment of God for your sins in your place. So all of your sin and guilt have already been punished. And they were punished completely. God proved this by raising His Son from the dead on the third day. If He had been anything less than completely satisfied with Christ’s sacrifice to pay the penalty for the sins of the whole world, then Jesus would still be dead. He rose from the dead because the work of pleasing God on our behalf had been completely accomplished. This finished work of Christ on your behalf earned eternal life for you. And Christ is still alive today, ready to save forever everyone who “believes on Him,” as John 3:16 promises. “I have come that they might have life,” Jesus said in John 10. And you can receive that eternal life from Him right now. It is a gift. You could never earn it, but you will never be asked to. What He wants is for you to receive it as a gift. And you receive the gift by simply believing His promise. “To as many as received Him, who believed on His Name, He gave the right to become children of God,” is the assurance of that we find in John 1.

The instant you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ for His promise of eternal life, He forgives your sins, makes you a child of God, guarantees heaven as your destiny, and places His Holy Spirit within you as a permanent resident Who unconditionally promises, “I will never leave you, nor forsake you.” (Hebrews 13:5) That moment you are born again of the spirit, born from above, and become a citizen of heaven. You are saved immediately, completely, absolutely, totally, and permanently, always and forever. No matter what you do or don’t do, from this moment on, you are His, and He is yours. You have life. Because Christ died for you personally and rose again. And now, with the apostle Paul, you can exclaim, “I live by faith in the Son of God, Who loved me, and gave Himself for me.” (Galatians 2:20b)

That news isn’t just good. It’s wonderful. It’s cause for ecstasy.

You are no longer a lost sheep. You have found the way home. You entered the fold by faith, through its only door, the Lord Jesus Christ, and you have been saved. Now, for however long you remain in this world, you “will go in and out and find safe pasture.” You’ll spend some of your time in the fold, in the presence of God and His people in the church, enjoying life with them and celebrating Jesus. And some of your time, you will go out into the world at large, enjoying His protection and provision as your Shepherd, while you walk in the world among those who are still lost sheep. If you listen to His voice and follow Him, He will enable you to be a witness to other lost sheep, and some will find their way to the Door because of your directions. Whatever happens now, you are secure in your eternal life and eternal relationship with a wonderful Savior. Yes, that is good news indeed!

Whose body? Whose choice?