Belief without repentance or repentance without belief. 2 step process that takes both
You can't simply repent and not believe the Good news. Many people confess their sins before man and/or God, from once to seven times a week. That's what I've heard called, and agree with, a Christian Atheist, stating you believe in God but living your life otherwise. Am I saying I'm perfect? No, everyone falls short (Romans 3:23) and has to repent at times. What I'm saying is how many people live their lives in sin, fully AWARE of the sin they're in, just to go before God or man on Sunday to ask for forgiveness. A friend of mine said " there's a difference between walking in sin and falling in sin." The bible tells us to hold our brother accountable, our brother, not an unbeliever. I urge you brothers and sisters, if this is you, REPENT!
Repent means to make an inward decision(choice) that in turn shows an outward change. Many people make the inward decision but never follow through with it, making a decision isn't going to cut it. I make a decision all the time to do the dishes, but they're not going to get done until I act on it.
Everyone believes in something, think about it. Everyone has faith, may not be in God but you have it. Faith is to believe in the unknown. You have faith that when you're stopped at a red light, the car coming up behind you is going to stop. Do you know for absolute certainty? Nope, but you have faith it will. It really comes down to what you believe in and place your faith in. Not every belief gains access to heaven, the Bible tells us that the only way to get to our Father in Heaven is through Jesus Christ (John 14:6). It's up to you to believe that, nobody can make that decision for you. It's an important one for sure, one between life and death.
There was a man in the Bible named Simon (Acts 8:9), who was a sorcerer. That was until He heard the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ and believed. Simon forgot something though, he forgot to repent of his past. Because you see, when you believe in the Lord Jesus and what He came to earth to do, you become born again (John 3:3) starting a new life, not in your old ways but in His ways. So Simon tried to bring his past into his new life because that's all he ever knew. It's as if buying a brand new water bottle and putting stagnant water into it.
You don't want old water, you want fresh water. It's important to repent because once we believe, we're not the same person we once were, so we need to ask forgiveness of who we once were and turn away from it. Will we fall from time to time? Positively, because we're not perfect, but it's important that we ask forgiveness and MOVE ON! Not wallow in our sadness, because if we ask for forgiveness then what? 1 John 1:9 says "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us and purify us from ALL unrighteousness."
Repentance is a choice towards everlasting life, because otherwise your just the walking dead, not knowing what's around the corner. Do I know the future? Absolutely not, but I do know where I'm going when I'm done on this earth, you can too.
Created 9 months ago
