A lot of confused, poorly taught people believe sincerely that unless they “ Stop Sinning” , they can’t be Saved. This is what they take the word “ Repentance” to mean ......one has to Repent Of all of their Sins in order to be declared “ Fit For Heaven”
The True Repentance That Saves is the “ TURNING to God , with Faith in Jesus Christ.” Acts 20:22...... “ I told Jews and Gentiles to TURN ( Repent) to God and have Faith in our Lord Jesus) It is literally a “ change of mind” ( from the Greek Metanoia) .....you Change you Mind From thinking that you are “ good enough” to go to Heaven and thinking you can make it on your own somehow , to finally discovering that you CANT be good enough and you need HELP! BIG TIME ! You need a Savior! Then and ONLY then will you have the required Contrite Heart that God is looking for .....the Contrite Heart that cries out..... “ Lord have Mercy on me , a Sinner.....” Onecwill never cry out for the Savior until you see the NEED for that Savior.....
So now let me make my point: If one thinks that Repentance means “ Conquering or Stopping Sin”to Merit Heaven.....let’s go through that process .... I am qualified to teach it .....I tried it .....( spoiler alert— it did not work )
OK ....Lets pretend that I just got told by my Dr that I got one month to live ....it’s time to get serious with God ....I gotta quit all of my Sinning .....I have now officially declared “ I Repent! I will sin no more! Starting NOW! So......I start reading the Bible to find out all of the rules that I must keep and I give it my best shot ......I can sin no more between now and a month from now when I kick the bucket.I check out those Ten Commandments and for weeks I go without Murdering or Committing Adultery .....I grit my teeth , summon up all of my will-Power andxfind myself doing a pretty good job!
But then I made a big accidental mistake.....I got to The New Testament and stumbled across the Sermon on the Mount. Uh-oh. There I discovered refraining from murder and refraining from Adultery was not going to “ cut the mustard” . To continue my life of Repentance which meant to me in my mind I still had to “ not sin anymore” —— it finally hit me ! I could refrain from Adultery sure enough , but Jesus said that to just have a lustful thought was equal to committing Adultery. Well , a man’s gotta do what he has to do—— no more Lustful Thoughts for me !
Well, that worked for about 15 minutes.....in fact the more that I tried NOT to harbor bad thoughts, the more bad thoughts I entertained ......it finally hit me ......despite my good intentions , my attempts to “ quit Sinning” was a Sham. I could not do it ! The harder I “tried” to quit the harder it “ became” to quit . I was reminded of Paul’s struggle in Romans 7......I sincerely “ wanted” to be “ good” , but it just wasn’t in me..... “ Sin” always found a way to overcome the Best of my intentions....I had to “ come to an end of myself” ..... I could not stop Sinning .....what I “ could” do was to swallow my Pride, admit I was a hopeless, helpless Sinner who HAD to have a Savior or I was headed for Hell like a speeding Bullet! Now I understood how that Sinful Publican ( Tax Collector) felt....I had at last been humbled — All that was left for me to do was TURN TO GOD ( the REAL Repentance that God means for Salvation) and cry out , “ Lord Jesus, have Mercy on me, a Sinner.” Just like the Publican , I was Saved at that moment.....I went home JUSTIFIED —- just like he did.......simply because I “ Repented” ....I Repented God's Way....I finally Turned to Him ......God fulfilled His Promise —- “ Turn to me and I will Turn to You.”
So here is where the mistaken idea of “stopping Sinning” to Merit Heaven ( the erroneous view of repentance) can inadvertently lead to one’ s Salvation...If trying to conquer Sin leads you to see that you cant do it and the Holy Spirit That gave you the Self-Insight to see even “That” —— if that Spirit draws you with the CONVICTIOn Of SIN and the Awareness that you NEED a Savior you got Tricked .....the Route that you originally thought would Save you ( mastering Sin) turned out to be Lie.....but it lead you to your Salvation in spite of yourself and your self-Righteousness...... I you went on to put your Faith in Jesus to do FOR you what you discovered you could NOT do by yourself....you, my friend got “ Born Again” ....you got Saved.....Congrats!
The True Repentance That Saves is the “ TURNING to God , with Faith in Jesus Christ.” Acts 20:22...... “ I told Jews and Gentiles to TURN ( Repent) to God and have Faith in our Lord Jesus) It is literally a “ change of mind” ( from the Greek Metanoia) .....you Change you Mind From thinking that you are “ good enough” to go to Heaven and thinking you can make it on your own somehow , to finally discovering that you CANT be good enough and you need HELP! BIG TIME ! You need a Savior! Then and ONLY then will you have the required Contrite Heart that God is looking for .....the Contrite Heart that cries out..... “ Lord have Mercy on me , a Sinner.....” Onecwill never cry out for the Savior until you see the NEED for that Savior.....
So now let me make my point: If one thinks that Repentance means “ Conquering or Stopping Sin”to Merit Heaven.....let’s go through that process .... I am qualified to teach it .....I tried it .....( spoiler alert— it did not work )
OK ....Lets pretend that I just got told by my Dr that I got one month to live ....it’s time to get serious with God ....I gotta quit all of my Sinning .....I have now officially declared “ I Repent! I will sin no more! Starting NOW! So......I start reading the Bible to find out all of the rules that I must keep and I give it my best shot ......I can sin no more between now and a month from now when I kick the bucket.I check out those Ten Commandments and for weeks I go without Murdering or Committing Adultery .....I grit my teeth , summon up all of my will-Power andxfind myself doing a pretty good job!
But then I made a big accidental mistake.....I got to The New Testament and stumbled across the Sermon on the Mount. Uh-oh. There I discovered refraining from murder and refraining from Adultery was not going to “ cut the mustard” . To continue my life of Repentance which meant to me in my mind I still had to “ not sin anymore” —— it finally hit me ! I could refrain from Adultery sure enough , but Jesus said that to just have a lustful thought was equal to committing Adultery. Well , a man’s gotta do what he has to do—— no more Lustful Thoughts for me !
Well, that worked for about 15 minutes.....in fact the more that I tried NOT to harbor bad thoughts, the more bad thoughts I entertained ......it finally hit me ......despite my good intentions , my attempts to “ quit Sinning” was a Sham. I could not do it ! The harder I “tried” to quit the harder it “ became” to quit . I was reminded of Paul’s struggle in Romans 7......I sincerely “ wanted” to be “ good” , but it just wasn’t in me..... “ Sin” always found a way to overcome the Best of my intentions....I had to “ come to an end of myself” ..... I could not stop Sinning .....what I “ could” do was to swallow my Pride, admit I was a hopeless, helpless Sinner who HAD to have a Savior or I was headed for Hell like a speeding Bullet! Now I understood how that Sinful Publican ( Tax Collector) felt....I had at last been humbled — All that was left for me to do was TURN TO GOD ( the REAL Repentance that God means for Salvation) and cry out , “ Lord Jesus, have Mercy on me, a Sinner.” Just like the Publican , I was Saved at that moment.....I went home JUSTIFIED —- just like he did.......simply because I “ Repented” ....I Repented God's Way....I finally Turned to Him ......God fulfilled His Promise —- “ Turn to me and I will Turn to You.”
So here is where the mistaken idea of “stopping Sinning” to Merit Heaven ( the erroneous view of repentance) can inadvertently lead to one’ s Salvation...If trying to conquer Sin leads you to see that you cant do it and the Holy Spirit That gave you the Self-Insight to see even “That” —— if that Spirit draws you with the CONVICTIOn Of SIN and the Awareness that you NEED a Savior you got Tricked .....the Route that you originally thought would Save you ( mastering Sin) turned out to be Lie.....but it lead you to your Salvation in spite of yourself and your self-Righteousness...... I you went on to put your Faith in Jesus to do FOR you what you discovered you could NOT do by yourself....you, my friend got “ Born Again” ....you got Saved.....Congrats!