To Turn Them From Darkness To Light

Acts 26:15-18, “And I said, Who art thou, Lord? And he said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest. But rise, and stand upon thy feet: for I have appeared unto thee for this purpose, to make thee a minister and a witness both of these things which thou hast seen, and of those things in the which I will appear unto thee; Delivering thee from the people, and from the Gentiles, unto whom now I send thee, To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me.”

Dear reader, what you just read are words spoken by the Lord Jesus Christ. Saul (later renamed Paul) was traveling the road to Damascus, when suddenly a light brighter than the sun shown around him. Paul heard a voice saying, “I am Jesus whom thou persecutest.” The Savior Himself tells Saul that He is going to send him as a minister (servant) and a witness to the Gentiles (non Jews). Jesus told Saul that He is sending him to OPEN THEIR EYES with the Gospel (Romans 1:16). And to TURN THEM FROM DARKNESS TO LIGHT. There is repentance. 

The word “repent” in the Bible regarding salvation is always either the noun form metanoia (which means “a change of mind”), or the verb form metanoeo (which means “to think differently”). Repentance never means to turn away away from sinful behavior to be saved, which would be self-righteous works. God produces repentance in a person's soul. 2nd Timothy 2:25, “In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth; And that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will.”

Many well-meaning preachers misunderstand repentance. They require that a person “turn away from sin with all your heart” to be saved. But you cannot show me that terminology or teaching anywhere in the Holy Bible. I think we need to be very careful, as were the King James Bible translators to not ADD to the Scripture. The 54 translators of the beloved King James Bible, used italics to show which words were not in the original text. They added these words for clarity. For example: We read in Psalms 14:1a, “The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God...” The words “there is” were added for clarity. If the King James translators hadn't added those two words, the original Hebrew text would read: “The fool hath said in his heart no God.” The translators didn't make any assumptions, they were honest in their work to let us know what they did.

Likewise, I think preachers today ought to err on the side of caution when interpreting and preaching the Word of God. Today's Bible translators, Bible professors and preachers oftentimes assume that repentance means “to turn away from your sins” for salvation. But the Bible does not support that teaching. As I showed you earlier from Acts 26:18, “To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me.” Those are Jesus' very own words!!! Here we see that men are TURNED (repentance) from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God. The Lord didn't mention anything about turning away from one's sins.

Here is a related passage of Scripture about John the Baptist from Luke 1:76-79, “And thou, child, shalt be called the prophet of the Highest: for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways; To give knowledge of salvation unto his people by the remission of their sins, Through the tender mercy of our God; whereby the dayspring from on high hath visited us, To give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.” There is nothing mentioned about turning people away from their sinful ways; but rather, to give them the knowledge of salvation by the remission of their sins. 

Christ came to save men from their sins (Luke 19:10), not require them to first reform if they want to be saved. No man can reform to please God, because all of our righteousness is as “filthy rags” to God (Isaiah 64:6). John 3:17, “For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.” The true Gospel always points you to Christ; a false gospel always points to you. Christ came to save men from the condemnation of their sins, not to demand that they first be willing to reform as a prerequisite to salvation.

Concerning Christ we read in John 1:4-5, “In him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.” As we just read, the darkened lost world cannot comprehend the light. That is why God has given to every believer the ministry of soulwinning. 2nd Timothy 2:25, “In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth; And that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will.” In soulwinning, we are attempting to rescue lost sinners, trying to turn them from darkness unto the light of the truth of the Gospel.

I do not find any place in the Word of God where we are taught to forsake our sinful ways to receive God's free gift of eternal life. God causes the light of the Gospel to shine in the darkness of the world. Repentance is a grace given by God, which is simply a person changing their mind, acknowledging THE TRUTH that they are a guilty sinner, so that they BELIEVE the Gospel to be saved. I agree with Pastor Harry Ironside:

“Which comes first, repentance or faith? In Scripture we read, 'Repent ye, and believe the gospel.' Yet we find true believers exhorted to 'repent, and do the first works.' So intimately are the two related that you cannot have one without the other. The man who believes God repents; the repentant soul puts his trust in the Lord when the Gospel is revealed to him. Theologians may wrangle over this, but the fact is, no man repents until the Holy Spirit produces repentance in his soul through the truth. No man believes the Gospel and rests in it for his own salvation until he has judged himself as a needy sinner before God. And this is repentance.” (Except Ye Repent, p. 16)

Repentance is not turning away from your sins to be saved. Repentance is turning from the darkness of unbelief to the light of the truth of the Gospel. You must admit that you are a sinner to be saved. But that is all that God requires or allows. It is the Holy Spirit Who begins to work in the life of every believer to turn us away from sin, and not our own repentance. This is not to say that every believer will turn away from their sins. Clearly, many believers don't. But it does mean that God will chastise and scourge His children when we sin (Hebrews 12:6-8). If you can sin without any conviction from the Holy Spirit, then you need to get saved. It was that very truth that compelled me to get saved as a 13 year old boy in 1980.

What saith the Scripture? 2nd Corinthians 4:3-4, “But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.” The power of Satan keeps men in darkness, blinding them from the light of the Gospel. No man is saved by turning away from his sinning to Christ; but rather, he is saved by believing on Christ as a sinner, and then the indwelling Spirit of Christ will convict him about the sins in his life, desiring for us to depart from iniquity to please God.