The requirement for salvation is repentance towards God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ (acts 20:21) nothing more and nothing less. [SIZE=+0]Many people today after hearing how much Jesus loves us and wants to make us happy and how He wants to save our souls so we can go to heaven do turn to that Jesus for all that. Who wouldn’t!? They believe in that Jesus, but they never turn to God and do not get saved. They want a Jesus that hides them from God or protects them from God's wrath while they continue to live as they please or with limited modifications. They want the forgiveness and the blessing of this loving Jesus that they have heard about, but they do not want God who calls us to go and sin no more. They want the blessing without the Blessor. They seek the protection from the wrath of God, but not the person of God with all His holiness and the responsibilities that come with being called His child. They want their credit card paid off, wiped clean so they can again replenish the debt. They are not seeking the God of the bible, but rather some false god that will tolerate their sin, coddle them, and tell them that the things they do are not really totally their fault because they were born sinners as they continue to wallow in their mire expecting unlimited forgiveness not knowing God will not be mocked and we reap what we sow all because they chose a god not in the bible and they chose that god because they really were not coming in repentance. Without true repentance there is nothing left, but to manufacture our own god in our own image. One that fits our understanding, one that bows or at least coddles our desires our choices and then we worship and praise that god and it makes us feel good because we have appeased the god we have made in our own image. Many are choosing the wrong path, the wrong god. They choose the wide path and the crooked road all leading to destruction having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power.[/SIZE]
To be saved the first thing is we have to recognize is that we have willfully chosen to sin against the one true God, an angry God, Who hates all and any sin. We sin because we do not want to have a God over us, but we are ready to turn from that heart/spirit. True biblical repentance is to be surrendering in heart/spirit, surrendering to the God we have mocked and sinned against ready to get right with Him no matter what it may cost us because of our sin. We are coming as beggars throwing ourselves on His mercy seeking forgiveness and acceptance into His rule over us and into His kingdom ready to accept what ever He says we must do to be forgiven. We would walk away from father, mother, friends, wealth or another thing to get right with Him. We are forsaking all, broken in spirit, ready to accept what He says. That is repentance and it is not something done in a moment and then discarded. It is a state we enter into and will be renewed daily once we enter into faith. True biblical repentance is a state we enter in and never leave. It is not 50% 75% or 99%. It is a total 180 degree turn to God accepting all that He is and all He says.
At that point He points us to His Son who has been given all authority in heaven and on earth (Matt 28:18) and tells us to put that repentance, that heart, that spirit, on Him, Jesus, so then faith is born and we are born again unto salvation with the first command to be baptized in the name of the Father, Son and Spirit.
Repentance and faith is nothing more and nothing less. It is twain, but it is one. There is no such thing as almost turning to God and almost putting our faith in Jesus. All this other mumbo jumbo today, ask Jesus into your heart, pray a prayer of faith, just believe and be baptized, ask for forgiveness, confess your sin, or what ever else, will cost the person their soul and they will end up as those in Mat 7:21,22. None of those things matter or sway God if we do not repent.
Repentance and faith, nothing less and nothing more. It is not turning more to Jesus then to God or trusting Jesus more then God. It is a surrender to God through, in, by, faithing Jesus because of repentance.
The evidence that this new birth has taken place because of true repentance/faith is seen in how we live. We become commandment keepers and never again turn to the practice of sinning (1John 2:3 and 3:8,9). So few today are doing what it takes to be saved because so few are hearing what it takes and thus the saying;
Mat, 22:14 For many are called, but few are chosen." Don't be of those who say Lord, Lord, only to hear I never knew you.
Only when come to true biblical repentance/faith, only then do we really know the blessing of true praise to the Father, the Son, and the Spirit and find the peace our hearts and soul have been lacking. Anything else is a placebo, a fake and ends in destruction. The spirit and the bride say, come.
