The Burning Bush - Far Eastern Bible College

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The Burning Bush 16/1 (January 2010)Repentance unto life is an evangelical grace (Zec 12:10; Act 11:18), thedoctrine whereof is to be preached by every minister of the Gospel, as wellas that of faith in Christ (Mark 1:15; Luke 24:47; Acts 20:21).By it, a sinner, out of the sight and sense not only of the danger, but also ofthe filthiness and odiousness of his sins, as contrary to the holy nature andrighteous law of God; and upon the apprehension of His mercy in Christ tosuch as are penitent, so grieves for, and hates his sins, as to turn from themall unto God (Pss 51:4, 119:128; Isa 30:22; Jer 31:18, 31:19; Ezek 18:30,18:31, 36:31; Joel 2:12, 2:13; Amos 5:15; 2 Cor 7:11), purposing andendeavouring to walk with Him in all the ways of His commandments (2Kgs 23:25; Pss 119:6, 119:59, 106; Luke 1:6).Although repentance be not to be rested in, as any satisfaction for sin, orany cause of the pardon thereof (Ezek 16:61-63, 36:31, 36:32), which is theact of God’s free grace in Christ (Hos 14:2, 14:4; Rom 3:24; Eph 1:7); yet itis of such necessity to all sinners, that none may expect pardon without it(Luke 13:3, 13:5; Acts 17:30, 17:31). 10Likewise, it is clearly stated in the Constitution of the Bible-PresbyterianChurch:4.2.5:We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ died a propitiatory andexpiatory death as a representative and substitutionary sacrifice, and that allwho repent of their sins and believe in Him are justified before God on theground of His shed blood;4.2.8: We believe that salvation is by grace through faith, not by works, andthat all who repent and receive the Lord Jesus Christ as their personalSaviour are born again by the Holy Spirit and thereby become the childrenof God; 11Concerning the biblical teaching of faith and repentance, Thomas Watsonin 1668 wrote:The two great graces essential to a saint in this life are faith and repentance.These are the two wings by which he flies to heaven. Faith and repentancepreserve the spiritual life as heat and radical moisture do the natural. 12More recently, Richard Roberts wrote,Repentance and faith are different sides of the same turning. In repentancewe turn from sin and self; in faith we turn to Jesus Christ ourRighteousness. Neither repentance nor faith are meritorious: repentance isthe fulfilment of negative duty, faith is the fulfilment of positive duty; themerit is in Jesus Christ and His death, burial and resurrection. 1312
REPENTANCE IN SALVATIONIt is clear that the Church in times past did teach that repentance andfaith must be evident in a man’s salvation, that repentance and faith gohand in hand.Repentance in the Preaching of the GospelWhat is the place of repentance in the proclamation of the gospel? Afew things will be noted about repentance from a brief study of itsoccurrences in the gospel preaching of John the Baptist, the Lord JesusChrist, and the Apostles.Preaching of John the BaptistA survey of the Gospels and the book of Acts will show that the ideaof repentance is one that is central to the preaching of the gospel. WhenJohn the Baptist began his ministry, his clarion call to all was, “Repentye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matt 3:2, Mark 1:4). It is clearthat the call is for repentance from sin, for he rebuked the Pharisees andSadducees and called them a “generation of vipers”, and because of theirsins, they were in danger of the “wrath to come” (Matt 3:7). Thereforewhat he exhorted them to do was to show forth true repentance bybringing forth “fruits meet for repentance” (Matt 3:8), for those who didnot show forth such fruits would be cut down and cast into the fire. Onlyafter this message did he in verse 11 bring forth the message of JesusChrist, of the one who “is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthyto bear: he shall baptise you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire” (Matt3:11).Preaching of ChristWhen Christ began His public ministry of preaching, the first wordthat He preached was also clearly the message of repentance. In Matthew4:17, after He had been baptised, and suffered the temptations of thedevil in the wilderness, He “began to preach, and to say, Repent: for thekingdom of heaven is at hand.” Again it is clear that the emphasis ofChrist was for all men to come to repentance, for “except ye repent, yeshall all likewise perish” (Luke 13:3). This was the same message that Hedesired His disciples to preach, for in Mark 6:12, it is seen of thedisciples, that “they went out, and preached that men should repent.” Notonly was it the first, but repentance was also what Christ called for afterHis resurrection in His closing address to His disciples before leaving theearth: “And said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ13
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The Burning Bush - Far Eastern Bible College

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