Repentance and Remission
The Care, Custody and Control of the Word of God
This, then, is how you ought to regard us: as servants of Christ and as those entrusted with the mysteries God has revealed...What you heard from me, keep as the pattern of sound teaching, with faith and love in Christ Jesus. Guard the good deposit that was entrusted to you-it with the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in us. (1 Corinthians 4:1;2 Timothy 1:13,14, NIV)
Our church has been blessed by Generation Word ministry with a wonderful Bible study, given to our church by the ministry. This study helps one develop a laser like focus on the importance of God's Word and the study thereof. This last week's lesson is one that should serve notice and should be preached in each and every church: The Church Is Entrusted With The Word Of God. I have understood that pastors are to be faithful to God's Word in preaching and teaching the Scriptures, and that it is encumbent upon the average man, woman or child in the pew to study and absorb it's teachings, but we must understand that we are responsible in a higher degree than most people understand.
By understanding just what Paul is telling us in the above passages, we should take more seriously the charge to which we are given. "To be 'entrusted' means to be placed in charge of the household and its operations. The concept here is not focused on the state of being in charge, or even on being the boss, but on the great responsibility and importance of performing diligent management activities to prove accountability" (Galyn Weimers).
Deposit "refers to something that belongs to a person who is giving it to another person, whom they trust, for safe keeping. It is a legal term used of someone trusting someone else to take care of their money, a family member, a harvest of grain, or a secret" (Weimers). In short, God deposits His Word with us and within us; we are entrusted with that precious deposit and that deposit is given to all Christians. In other words,, God places His Word in your care; as is said in the insurance industry it is in your care, custody and control. We are responsible as it is in our care, and we are to care for it; we have custody of it, and are to protect it; and it is in our control, and we are to keep it but also share it with others.
Each Christian--not just the preacher, teacher, Sunday School superintendent--has the calling of maintaining the care, custody and control of the Word of God. And our first calling in this care, custody and control is to adequately convey the Gospel message to those that do not know Jesus personally. Jesus charged each person to convey this gospel message:
Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." Amen. Matthew 28:19-20 (NKJV)
However, although many well meaning Christians understand we are called to the duty of witnessing to the lost, many give out a false Gospel.
Another Gospel Which Is Not Another
I marvel that you are turning away so soon from Him who called you in the grace of Christ, to a different gospel, which is not another; but there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ.
But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed.
As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received, let him be accursed.
For do I now persuade men, or God? Or do I seek to please men? For if I still pleased men, I would not be a bondservant of Christ. Galatians 1:6-10 (NKJV)
In this Scripture, Paul was dealing with an issue that had arisen in Galatia; one that was seriously damaging the faith of the Galatians and was actually keeping people from being truly saved. This issue was mixing works with grace; in other words, instead of depending upon Jesus' sacrificial death and subsequent resurrection they said a person had to keep the law. This law, specifically, was circumcision.
Look at Paul's reaction: I marvel. MacArthur notes that the word for marvel, thaumazo, is "a strong word, meaning to be astounded". The NASB better translates thaumazo as amazed, the ESV as astonished. Amazed. Astonished. Paul had taught these people the true Gospel message but the Judaizers--proclaiming Christ but still holding to the Law--had swayed them away from the truth of the unmerited, unearnable favor in salvation in Jesus.
Let's examine two other key words in verses 7, 8 and 9. The first word, found in verse 7, is metastrepho, defined by Vine's as "to transform into something of an opposite character". In other words, it was like the difference between day and night, bitter and sweet, valuable and worthless. The NKJV and KJV translates as pervert, and the NASB translates as distort, the HCSB want to change, and the NLT deliberately twist. These Judaizers were warping the true Gospel into a different message entirely.
Paul was not just amazed or astonished but he was outraged, which is just when the Gospel of grace--the direct message of God through Jesus Christ--is trampled upon, twisted, distorted or perverted. The second key word is translated as accursed in the NKJV, KJV, NASB and ESV and as a curse be on him! in the HCSB. This is another strong word, one that those from a Roman Catholic background might be more familiar with: anathema defined as "given up or devoted to destruction for God's sake (Sept.: Num. 21:1-3; Deut. 13:16-18); therefore, given up to the curse and destruction, accursed (1 Cor. 12:3; 16:22; Gal. 1:8, 9). In Rom. 9:3, estrangement from Christ and His salvation. The word does not denote punishment intended as discipline but being given over or devoted to divine condemnation" (Spiros Zodhiates). Better stated, let them be sent to Hell. Strongly stated? Yes. Too strongly stated? Absolutely not. In fact, the Galatians made a huge error: pleasing men, not God.
God's Character and Characteristics In A Nutshell
He is the Rock, His work is perfect; For all His ways are justice, A God of truth and without injustice; Righteous and upright is He. Deuteronomy 32:4 (NKJV)
I have found that most people have a flawed understanding of God. While even the most holy Christian still has a flawed view of God as we view him from our viewpoint and not a heavenly one, people often refer to God as "the man upstairs", "the big man" or something of the sort; he is viewed as a old man sitting on a throne with a long beard who is sad because we have been bad. However, God is radically different than is imagined in the minds of men.
God is spirit being, and has always existed. In Psalms we see in three different places that God is "from everlasting to everlasting", which speaks of His eternality. He created everything from nothing, even time and space and all of the laws that govern them. God is not just bigger than we can imagine, but all that we know and see are within God.
But these facts about God are not what gives humans problems. The above scripture shows us that God is unchanging (the Rock), that His work is perfect, thus he is perfect, that He is perfect in His justice, God is completely truthful and is never unjust, is always right and is morally upright. This causes huge problems for us as fallen humans.
God does not change, and He does not change His standards. The argument that "times change" does not affect God or His viewpoint regarding humanity; God is the standard and that standard does not change because He is perfect. Because God is justice itself, He cannot let any sin "slide by", He must deal with each and every one because He is perfect, He is the epitome and definition of truth, and is never unjust and is always right and morally upright.
In short, God's very being is perfect in every way, and we are anything but perfect. And this presents huge problems for mankind.
Cut To The Heart, And I'm To Blame
Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster. Galatians 3:24-25 (KJV)
In recent years, the Gospel message has become perverted in America, and it has become nearly as dangerous if not as dangerous to a person's eternal state as the message of the Judaizers in Galatia. What we have come to, by and large, is a Gospel without cost, a Gospel without examination, a man pleasing, flesh fulfilling Gospel message which is no gospel at all. It is a gospel that pleases man and quite honestly dishonors God and brings His anger to a boil.
The message? "Say this prayer and you will be saved" is the message, and sometimes sin is mentioned, but often sin is either glossed over or made nice and comfy in the mind of the sinner. One well known televangelist never--ever--preaches on sin (he says that's not his job, his is to be uplifting), but then at the end of some of his services he offers "the gospel" and gives the topic of sin lip service. In other words, sin is mentioned only as an add-in and is not the key topic of the discussion. His gospel, as like many others in America, is "a different gospel, which is not another".
Sin is what separates men from God, and that must be the first and central topic of the Gospel message before going forward. People have to know the reason why they are separated from God, why they need to be saved. Jerry Traister, the chairman of CBM Ministries nationally, once told me what an old preacher told him once: "You have to get em lost before you get em saved". They need to be "cut to the heart", just as the men that heard the gospel message from Peter were (Acts 2:37). They must reach a point where they say "Men and brethren, what shall we do?"
What brought these men to this point? They heard the Law, which was their schoolmaster. Their teacher. Their tutor. You see, the Law--The Ten Commandments--is an impossible taskmaster for those that seek to work their way to Heaven. These ten commandments, these ten Laws from God Himself to Israel, if used as a means in and of themselves to secure salvation would require unbending, unyielding obedience to those Laws: For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all. (James 2:10, NKJV).
But what does God require in salvation? Actually, nothing but for people to come to Him in faith and trust in Him. However, what is it that brings people to Him, and what is the end result?
Repentance and Remission
Then He said to them, "Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day, and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And you are witnesses of these things. Luke 24:46-48
What is it that is the missing element to today's popular gospel? Repentance. Repentance, simply put, is this: you see your sin, you hate your sin, you turn from it and turn from God. It is a one time act, where one has a change of direction in life from serving and worshipping self to serving and worshipping God.
Today's American gospel message leaves out repentance. It is a "no guilt" gospel. It requires no change in the hearts and souls of those that commit to it, it fits into the lifestyle of the person and, if they never change and become more like Christ, it's no big deal. However, that is directly against what Jesus taught.
Repentance is a constant theme in Scripture, both in the Old Testament and New Testament, and for quite a few reasons. First, is it sin that caused this problem to begin with; why would God want to just leave us in the same sin mess we were in prior to salvation? That is what caused the problem to begin with.
Second, how can God use someone to do good works if the lifestyle of the Christian is warped by a sinful lifestyle of which was never repented?
Third, Jesus taught repentance and also taught remission (aphesis), and he suffered and died so that people could see their sin and then be freed from it; it is, in a sense, a remission from the sickness of sin. Repentance means to change, to make a U-turn; however, there is the issue of remission.
Zodiates, in AMG's Complete Word Study Dictionaries, states quite eloquently: "Áphesis is part of a larger process which does not involve simply the freedom of the sinner, but the change of the sinner from being a slave of sin to becoming a slave of God. With that freedom from sin, he acquires freedom of action because of his changed nature and spirit. He acquires that ability to follow after God instead of fleeing from God, the desire to flee from sin and pursue it. Forgiveness, therefore, must never be understood as the permission for the sinner to continue in his sinful condition." Did Jesus our Christ save us just to keep us in slavery to sin? No! He came to set us free through repentance and remission.
And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. Colossians 2:13-14 (NKJV)
Before we are saved, we are dead in trespasses and sins. We have no ability to come to Jesus on our own, and He drew us to Himself. He forgave us all trespasses and even nailed the sins that we did to the cross as certainly as He Himself was nailed there. He rescued us from ourselves, He set us free.
