Psalms 130:3, “If thou, LORD, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand?”
In nearly every church that we attend today, we hear the Devil's poisonous lie that in order to get to Heaven, you must repent “of your sins,” which is nowhere taught in the inspired King James Bible.
In nearly every church today, and the apostate Bible colleges that mistrain today's theologically perverse pastors, you will hear the Devil's lie that to be saved you must turn away from your sins to be saved.
Yet, there is no such teaching found in the inspired King James Bible. I intentionally mention the King James Bible, because many of the Devil's modern Bible versions corrupt the Scripture, adding words that God did not add (Proverbs 30:5-6). Please don't use any Bible other than the inspired King James Bible. It will require that you study to understand it, but you will be getting THE TRUTH.
The obvious truth is that NO ONE has ever turned away from a lifestyle of sinning. Even the best of Christians still sin many times a day. In fact, we sin every second of the day. We are in a continual state of being a sinner! You are woefully in error if you think that you appear righteous in God's eyes when you are not engaged in doing something sinful. We were born in sin! Psalms 51:5, “Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.”
NO ONE has ever turned from their sins. James 2:10, “For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.” It is a Satanic idea that anyone could ever please God by forsaking a sinful lifestyle as a requirement to receive His free gift of eternal life. The only requirement of God for a human being to be saved is to realize that you are a guilty sinner in need of a Savior. Thus realizing your need you put your trust in Jesus Christ to be born-again. Philippians 3:9, “And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith:”
To the carnal man who is not a child of God, it seems reasonable that to get to Heaven you must first give up your desire to wilfully commit sin, and forsake a life of sinning. That does seem reasonable from a human point of view. What saith the Scripture? Proverbs 3:5, “Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.” These foolish neo-evangelical pastors today in the shameful Bob Jones University camp, Southern Baptist Convention, Faith Bible College And Theological Seminary and umpteen more corrupt organizations, are leaning upon their own understanding, not trusting the Lord.
The FACT of the matter is that nowhere does the Bible teach you must try to stop sinning to be saved. The very idea is offensive to the precious blood that Jesus shed on the cross to pay for our sins! JESUS PAID IT ALL!!! Listen dear friend, God's gift of salvation is NOT a reward or exchange of some sort, where you are required to give something in return to Christ for His payment for your sins. Jesus shed His blood and died on the cross to purchase our redemption, because you and I were guilty sinners under the curse of the Old Testament law. Galatians 3:10, “For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them.”
We were all cursed from birth because of our sinful nature. When you get saved, by faith alone in Jesus Christ, then you are no longer under the curse of the law, you are now and forever under God's saving grace. Romans 5:20, “Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound:” A believer cannot fall from grace. As God's children, we can only fall IN GRACE, but never FROM GRACE! Only the unsaved person has fallen from God's saving grace (Galatians 5:4), which is what has happened to Marty Herron, Steve Pettit and Gary Walton—they have all fallen from God's grace, unable to go to Heaven as long as they think that a person must keep the law (i.e., turn from your sins) to be saved.
Christ made full payment for our sins on the cross, so that we wouldn't have to pay for our sins in Hell. The very idea that we must commit to stop sinning, or even be willing to try to stop sinning, to get to Heaven is works for salvation. Many preachers have a problem understanding this. They cannot grasp how someone can get saved and still desire to keep sinning, but that is exactly what we all do. There is no sinless Christian! Only Jesus is without sin.
THE TRUTH is that when a lost sinner comes to Christ by faith alone to be saved, God seals and indwells that new child of His with the blessed Holy Spirit. Only then does God's Holy Spirit (John 16:13) begin to sanctify a believer with the Word of God (John 17:17), but it takes time, a lifetime in fact. This is growing in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ (2nd Peter 3:18). But this does not guarantee that a child of God will depart from a lifestyle of sinning. There are many variables; such as, one's upbringing, type of spouse, good or bad friends, personal moral character, criminal history, et cetera. Some people change right away and it is obvious to everyone that something is different, but for many others there is no visible change. They do have the Holy Spirit, they are saved, but they are mild mannered and quiet.
So please don't make the same damnable error friend, of sinfully thinking that a person must turn from sinful behavior to get to Heaven, because that feat is IMPOSSIBLE. Salvation is solely of the Lord (Jonah 2:9).
Salvation is not a reward for the righteous; it is a gift for the guilty!
Salvation is not doing your best, it is having Christ's best put to your account through receiving Him by faith.
Turning away from sinful ways would be a work. Faith puts all of the merit where it belongs, on the object of our faith, Jesus and His work.
If to “repent” means to forsake our sinful ways TO BE SAVED, but Jesus already paid for our sins by dying on the cross, then what are we repenting from?
The true Gospel always points you to CHRIST; a false gospel always points to YOU.
We must stay true to the simplicity of the gospel!! Repentance regarding salvation is a change of mind from unbelief to belief!!! We must earnestly contend for the faith (Jude 1:3).
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