“Repentance and Salvation” by Romans
Youtube Audio: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUnDKD1NMH4
A few days ago I watched a movie based on Charles Dickens' novel, “A Christmas Carol.” It was a very entertaining musical version of the book starring Albert Finney in the title role, “Scrooge.” At the end of the book, and if you are familiar with the story, Charles Dickens writes of Scrooge's dramatic change after Jacob Marley and the three ghosts visited him, with these words:
“Scrooge was better than his word. He did it all, and infinitely more; and to Tiny Tim, who did not die, he was a second father. He became as good a friend, as good a master, and as good a man, as the good old city knew, or any other good old city, town, or borough, in the good old world...
and it was always said of him, that he knew how to keep Christmas well, if any man alive possessed the knowledge. May that be truly said of us, and all of us! And so, as Tiny Tim observed, God bless Us, Every One!"
At the end of the movie that I just watched, Scrooge says something that is not in the book. He says, “I repent.” I have the Kindle version of the book. I looked for the words, “I repent,” “salvation,” “redemption.” They appear nowhere. In the beginning of the book, Scrooge's nephew Fred does say, “Merry Christmas, uncle. God save you!” To which Scrooge replies, “Bah! Humbug!” I looked for the word, “Christmas;” it appears 89 times, but the name, “Jesus Christ” does not occur even once.
In the book and the in movies, the character of Ebenezer Scrooge did an about-face from a miserly, greedy and self-centered character to a generous and warm-hearted individual. He is called a “good man,” and he certainly did many good things and helped a lot of people. This book is certainly a popular Christmas favorite, and it is a story of repentance. Many see it also as a story of Salvation, but I ask you, is it a story of Salvation?
If what I just asked surprises or offends you, allow me to explain. It was true that Scrooge's original hateful and greedy personality underwent a reversal, a dramatic and a good change. I will even go so far to say that even though Scrooge did not say the words, “I repent,” as Charles Dickens presented him in the pages of his book, Scrooge DID repent.
Keep in mind, however, that repentance merely means doing the opposite, doing an about-face. But the act of repentance does not always mean going from a negative to a positive. It just means, “an about face.” There are several places in the Book of Genesis and Exodus where God, Himself, repented:
First at the time before the Flood, when the earth was filled with violence, and “And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually,” we read, “And the LORD said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them” (Genesis 6:5-7).
Next, when Israel, after being delivered from Egyptian bondage, sinned by making and worshiping the golden calf, God was going to destroy them, and raise up a new nation through Moses, who appeals to God on Israel's behalf, saying, “Wherefore should the Egyptians speak, and say, For mischief did he bring them out, to slay them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth? Turn from thy fierce wrath, and repent of this evil against thy people... And the LORD repented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people” (Exodus 32:12-14).”
Scrooge repented. He did an about face from being a selfish miser to being generous and friendly. But is that all we need to do to be saved? All of us have sinned. All of us have broken the Laws the God. Scripture plainly and repeatedly tells us in a variety of ways, but all with the same conclusion, “The wages of sin is death...” (Romans 6:23a). Can that death penalty be removed if we were to {theoretically} stop sinning, and become better people, and by doing good deeds, and being friendly and generous?
If that is all that is necessary, Jesus would not have needed to come to this earth at all. And He certainly would not have needed to be subjected to what is arguably the most heinous form of execution ever devised by man. Salvation is possible only because Jesus came to this earth to live a sinless life, and to die a merciless death in the place of all who accept His sacrifice. Jesus' life, death and resurrection are completely missed in Charles Dickens' “A Christmas Carol.”
Yes, the celebration of Christmas is repeatedly referred to and, as I said before, is mentioned 89 times throughout the book.
In spite of what we regard as Scrooge's repentance in renouncing his former miserly ways, he does not ask God for forgiveness, and nowhere does he confess any belief in or acceptance of the Sacrifice of the Son of God for sin.
His Spiritual salvation is a non-issue in this novel. Worse, it paints the picture that because he stopped being bad, and started being good, he was able to escape the doomed fate presented to him by the Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come. That is not what the Bible teaches. That is not what Christianity is all about.
The fact of the matter is that, even if we could stop sinning entirely, and begin keeping the Laws of God perfectly, both of which are impossible, that would not address the sins we committed before we repented, and began to be good. But... the Righteous Justice of God to punishing sin is not met or satisfied by any good works we might perform.
The Apostle Paul wrote, “Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified” (Galatians 2:16).
For those who try to earn salvation by good deeds and/or the works of the Law after repentance and being forgiven still fail because we will, in spite of our best efforts, continue to sin. As long as we are in this flesh, we will never be sinless. We should and can sin less, but we will never be sinless.
Paul writes of trying to earn salvation by the works of the Law with these words: “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” (Galatians 3:10).
If we are going to appeal to doing good and keeping the Law to be saved, we cannot obey every Law perfectly, and so we are condemned not if, but when, we sin in any one point. Add to that what we read in the Epistle of James: “For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all” (James 2:10).
Paul's Epistle to the Galatians focused on their having been what Paul called “bewitched” into thinking that they could be saved by the works of the Law, as opposed to Grace. To counter that false notion he wrote, and in no uncertain terms, “I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain” (Galatians 2:21).
Christ, and our belief in and appeal to His Sacrifice being applied to our sin debt is the focus, the one and only focus of our Salvation by and through Whom we can receive Grace. That is why the Father sent the Son into the world. Jesus, Himself, declared, “And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day” (John 6:40).
You may think it foolish and unnecessary for me to be going on about the failures of Charles Dickens' “A Christmas Carol,” and Ebenezer Scrooge's being held up as an example worthy of emulation by his turning from his selfish and miserly ways to becoming ~ Yes! I'll say it ~ a cheerful giver, and how “he knew how to keep Christmas well, if any man alive possessed the knowledge.”
During the Christmas Season, atheists can be found being generous, decorating their houses and trees, eating plum pudding, drinking egg nog, giving donations to children singing Christmas Carols, and attending and even hosting Christmas Parties. But none of these activities are identifying marks of being a Christian, nor do they provide Salvation if you do them.
The Apostle Peter tells us of Jesus Christ, “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). Jesus Christ is only is briefly referred to once in “A Christmas Carol,” by Tiny Tim, as the One “who made lame beggars walk, and blind men see,” but He is nowhere else named.
Above and beyond the observing of Christmas Day, keeping the works of the Law would seem to be the best way, even the logical way, to obtain Salvation. But we are repeatedly taught in the pages of the Word of God that this does not save us. Jesus told Nicodemus, “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him” (John 3:36).
If there were any way that mankind could have been saved merely by our doing an about-face from selfishness or a sinful life, or any other way, then Jesus need never have gone to the cross. And isn't “any other way” exactly what Jesus asked His Father to provide on the night before He crucifixion? As Jesus was sweating drops of blood, we read, “And he went a little further, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt” (Matthew 26:39).
In praying such a prayer, Jesus was not abandoning the idea of Salvation for mankind. He was appealing to His Father in the hopes that it could still be accomplished in some other way that did not include His having to endure the shame and merciless brutality of the cross. But we read of the conclusion Jesus drew as He prayed: “He went away again the second time, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if this cup may not pass away from me, except I drink it, thy will be done” (Matthew 26:42).
“Thy will be done...” Do those words sound familiar? Jesus included them in the pattern prayer He gave His disciples to pray in Luke 11:2, that we have come to call The Lord's Prayer. And since we are instructed in that prayer to pray that the Father “Give us this day our daily bread,” I am not going out too far on a limb to say that we should be praying this prayer on a daily basis. And along with all of the other petitions, we should also be praying, “Thy Will Be Done,” in the same spirit of obedience and submission that Jesus did.
It is God's Will that we be generous to those in need. Such generosity was actually a command in the Old Testament. There we read, “If among you, one of your brothers should become poor, in any of your towns within your land that the LORD your God is giving you, you shall not harden your heart or shut your hand against your poor brother, but you shall open your hand to him and lend him sufficient for his need, whatever it may be” (Deuteronomy 15:7-8).
This command is repeated in the New Testament by several people and in several ways. The bottom line of the Parable of the Good Samaritan was to “go and do likewise” as the Samaritan had done (Luke 10:37). We are called to be generous to those in need. The Apostle Paul was also involved in collecting aid from the Gentile Churches of Macedonia and Achaia to be given to the poor saints in Jerusalem when there was a famine going on there (Romans 15:26).
We read from the Apostle Paul the following admonition: “But this I say, He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully. Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver” (2 Corinthians 9:6-7).
So we can clearly establish that generosity is a godly principle in both the Old and New Covenants, and in the Old and New Testaments. And Scrooge, in Dickens' “A Christmas Carol,” had certainly repented, or turned his back on his former life of selfishness and greed, and became a cheerful giver. And that was a good thing. So what is my point?
My point is that this story is routinely told or read or watched in a movie version every year, and held up as a good example of someone being converted from a self-absorbed, selfish life, to becoming a good citizen and neighbor, and as something to be admired and emulated. But what I am asking is, “Can we earn Salvation merely by doing good?” “and IF that is true, then a.) what is Grace? and b.) When and how do we receive it?”
What I am asking most importantly is, “IF all that we need to do is to go from bad to good, then why in the world did the Father send His Son to be repeatedly found innocent in trial rigged against Him, and then still condemned to die, to be beaten, scourged and nailed to a Cross, IF all we had to do was to go from bad to good?” Being saved by being good is not Grace; it is not what Christianity teaches.
I cannot help but contrast Scrooge's motivation for being a better person with Jesus' words to those who would be His disciples: “If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed;” (John 8:31) and “... whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple" (Luke 14:27).
We need to also consider why Scrooge decided to be generous, and toward what end. When the Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come showed him a grave with his name on the tombstone, Scrooge appealed to the ghost for mercy, saying, “I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year...
I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future. The Spirits of all Three shall strive within me. I will not shut out the lessons that they teach. Oh, tell me I may sponge away the writing on this stone!” Consider, now, the Apostle Paul's take on his own death: “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Philippians 1:21).
I would like to leave the fictional story of Ebenezer Scrooge, now, and turn, instead, to a true story. It is my story. And it is your story. It is the story of who and what we were, and the changes that were initiated and brought about by the Three Who intervened in our lives: the Father, Son and Holy Spirit Who initiate our repentance and Salvation, and then continue to intervene in our lives with an on-going series of revelations, reproofs and Spiritual Gifts that will continue to benefit us into and throughout Eternity.
Paul wrote to the Ephesians about their and our coming to Christ with these words: “And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:
Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)
And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves:
it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. (Ephesians 2:1-10).
Of this Matthew Henry wrote, “The miserable condition of the Ephesians by nature is here in part described. Observe, 1. Unregenerate souls are dead in trespasses and sins. All those who are in their sins, are dead in sins; yea, in trespasses and sins, which may signify all sorts of sins, habitual and actual, sins of heart and of life. Sin is the death of the soul. Wherever that prevails there is a privation of all spiritual life.
Sinners are dead in state, being destitute of the principles, and powers of spiritual life; and cut off from God, the fountain of life: and they are dead in law, as a condemned malefactor is said to be a dead man. 2. A state of sin is a state of conformity to this world, Ephesians_2:2.
In the first verse he speaks of their internal state, in this of their outward conversation: Wherein, in which trespasses and sins, in time past you walked, you lived and behaved yourselves in such a manner as the men of the world are used to do. 3. We are by nature bond-slaves to sin and Satan.
But wicked men are slaves to Satan, for they walk according to him; they conform their lives and actions to the will and pleasure of this great usurper. The course and tenour of their lives are according to his suggestions, and in compliance with his temptations;
they are subject to him, and are led captive by him at his will, whereupon he is called the god of this world, and the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience. The children of disobedience are such as choose to disobey God, and to serve the devil; in these he works very powerfully and effectually.
As the good Spirit works that which is good in obedient souls, so this evil spirit works that which is evil in wicked men; and he now works, not only heretofore, but even since the world has been blessed with the light of the glorious gospel.
The apostle adds, Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past, which words refer to the Jews, whom he signifies here to have been in the like sad and miserable condition by nature, and to have been as vile and wicked as the unregenerate Gentiles themselves, and whose natural state he further describes in the next words. 4. We are by nature drudges to the flesh, and to our corrupt affections, Ephesians 2:3.
By fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, men contract that filthiness of flesh and spirit from which the apostle exhorts Christians to cleanse themselves, 2 Corinthians_7:1. The fulfilling of the desires of the flesh and of the mind includes all the sin and wickedness that are acted in and by both the inferior and the higher or nobler powers of the soul. We lived in the actual commission of all those sins to which corrupt nature inclined us.
The carnal mind makes a man a perfect slave to his vicious appetite. - The fulfilling of the wills of the flesh, so the words may be rendered, denoting the efficacy of these lusts, and what power they have over those who yield themselves up unto them.
5. We are by nature the children of wrath, even as others. The Jews were so, as well as the Gentiles; and one man is as much so as another by nature, not only by custom and imitation, but from the time when we began to exist, and by reason of our natural inclinations and appetites. All men, being naturally children of disobedience, are also by nature children of wrath: God is angry with the wicked every day.
Our state and course are such as deserve wrath, and would end in eternal wrath, if divine grace did not interpose. What reason have sinners then to be looking out for that grace that will make them, of children of wrath, children of God and heirs of glory! Thus far the apostle has described the misery of a natural state in these verses, which we shall find him pursuing again in some following ones.
{The} apostle begins his account of the glorious change that was wrought in them by converting grace, where observe, I. By whom, and in what manner, it was brought about and effected. 1. Negatively: Not of yourselves, Ephesians 2:8. Our faith, our conversion, and our eternal salvation, are not the mere product of any natural abilities, nor of any merit of our own: Not of works, lest any man should boast, Ephesians_2:9.
These things are not brought to pass by any thing done by us, and therefore all boasting is excluded; he who glories must not glory in himself, but in the Lord. There is no room for any man's boasting of his own abilities and power; or as though he had done any thing that might deserve such immense favours from God. 2. Positively: But God, who is rich in mercy, etc., Ephesians_2:4.
God himself is the author of this great and happy change, and his great love is the spring and fontal cause of it; hence he resolved to show mercy. Love is his inclination to do us good considered simply as creatures; mercy respects us as apostate and as miserable creatures.
Observe, God's eternal love or good-will towards his creatures is the fountain whence all his mercies vouch-safed to us proceed; and that love of God is great love, and that mercy of his is rich mercy, inexpressibly great and inexhaustibly rich. And then by grace you are saved (Ephesians 2:5), and by grace are you saved through faith - it is the gift of God, Ephesians 2:8.
Note, Every converted sinner is a saved sinner. Such are delivered from sin and wrath; they are brought into a state of salvation, and have a right given them by grace to eternal happiness. The grace that saves them is the free undeserved goodness and favour of God; and he saves them, not by the works of the law, but through faith in Christ Jesus, by means of which they come to partake of the great blessings of the gospel;
and both that faith and that salvation on which it has so great an influence are the gift of God. The great objects of faith are made known by divine revelation, and made credible by the testimony and evidence which God hath given us; and that we believe to salvation and obtain salvation through faith is entirely owing to divine assistance and grace; God has ordered all so that the whole shall appear to be of grace.
Observe, II. Wherein this change consists, in several particulars, answering to the misery of our natural state, some of which are enumerated in this section, and others are mentioned below. 1. We who were dead are quickened (Ephesians 2:5), we are saved from the death of sin and have a principle of spiritual life implanted in us. Grace in the soul is a new life in the soul. As death locks up the senses, seals up all the powers and faculties, so does a state of sin, as to any thing that is good.
Grace unlocks and opens all, and enlarges the soul. Observe, A regenerate sinner becomes a living soul: he lives a life of sanctification, being born of God; and he lives in the sense of the law, being delivered from the guilt of sin by pardoning and justifying grace.
And what may we not hope for from such grace and kindness, from riches of grace, to which this change is owing? Through Christ Jesus, by and through whom God conveys all his favour and blessings to us. 2. With respect to the regenerated sinners themselves:
Created unto good works, with a design that we should be fruitful in them. Wherever God by his grace implants good principles, they are intended to be for good works. Which God hath before ordained, that is, decreed and appointed.
Or, the words may be read, To which God hath before prepared us, that is, by blessing us with the knowledge of his will, and with the assistance of his Holy Spirit; and by producing such a change in us. That we should walk in them, or glorify God by an exemplary conversation and by our perseverance in holiness.”
Alexander MacLaren adds, “Here we have the Christian unfolding of the source of salvation. ‘By grace ye have been saved.’ There is another threadbare word. It is employed in the New Testament with a very considerable width of signification, which we do not need to attend to here. But, in regard of the present context, let me just point out that the main idea conveyed by the word is that of favour, or lovingkindness, or goodwill, especially when directed to inferiors, and most eminently when given to those who do not deserve it, but deserve its opposite.
‘Grace’ is love that stoops and that requites, not according to desert, but bestows upon those who deserve nothing of the kind; so when the Apostle declares that the source of salvation is ‘grace.’ he declares two things. One is that the fountain of all our deliverance from sin, and of our healing of our sicknesses, lies in the deep heart of God, from which it wells up undrawn, unmotived, uncaused by anything except His own infinite lovingkindness.
People have often presented the New Testament teaching about salvation as if it implied that God’s love was brought to man because Jesus Christ died, and turned the divine affections. That is not New Testament teaching. Christ’s death is not the cause of God’s love, but God’s love is the cause of Christ’s death. ‘God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son.’
III. That leads me to the last point, namely, the Christian requirement of the condition of salvation. Note the precision of the Apostle’s prepositions: ‘Ye have been saved by grace’; there is the source-’Ye have been saved by grace, through faith’-there is the medium, the instrument, or, if I may so say, the channel; or, to put it into other words, the condition by which the salvation which has its source in the deep heart of God pours its waters into my empty heart.
Oh, dear friends! open your eyes to see your dangers. Let your conscience tell you of your sickness. Do not try to deliver, or to heal yourselves. Self-reliance and self-help are very good things, but they leave their limitations, and they have no place here. ‘Every man his own Redeemer’ will not work. You can no more extricate yourself from the toils of sin than a man can release himself from the folds of a python.
You can no more climb to heaven by your own effort than you can build a railway to the moon. You must... be content to accept as a boon an unmerited place in your Father’s heart, an undeserved seat at His bountiful table, an unearned share in His wealth, from the hands of your Elder Brother, in whom is all His grace, and who gives salvation to every sinner if he will trust Him. ‘By grace have ye been saved through faith.’” Unquote from Alexander MacLaren.
By Grace are we saved by Faith. How and why do we even have faith to be saved? We don't whip up faith on our own. We don't wake up one morning and decide that we are going to have faith in God. We have it, again, because of Jesus. He is “the author and finisher of our faith” (Hebrews 12:2).
Our being granted repentance, being forgiven, and being given Salvation and Eternal Life simply is not based on what we do, or could do, or what we stopped doing. Everything we have, we have because we have received it not by doing good works, not because we deserved it, but as a Gift from the Father, empowered and administered by the Holy Spirit, and it comes to us exclusively by or through the Life, Death and Resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Who ever lives to make Intercession for us.
Thank You, Father, for this undeserved, unmerited, and unspeakable Gifts of Your Son and Forgiveness, and Salvation and Eternal Life.
This concludes this evening's Discussion, “Repentance and Salvation”
This Discussion was presented “live” on December 28th, 2022
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