Amish Voice, January 2017

The Amish Voice 4

every minute of every day of every year

of His life on earth—he whole purpose of

the Lord Jesus Christ coming to earth in a

body of flesh—was so for that one

moment in time He could bear the

enormous debt of sin you owed. He paid

it all; therefore, there is nothing left for

you to pay. You are made free, forgiven,

justified, righteous, and fully accepted by

God on the basis of that glorious and

bloody sacrifice. Trust it now, and you

are born again. Believe that it is true, and

you have escaped judgment.

Are you still not convinced? Well, the

Bible is not finished with you yet.

Romans 5:6

For when we were yet

without strength, in due time Christ

died for the ungodly.

For scarcely for a righteous man will

one die: yet peradventure for a good

man some would even dare to die.

But God commendeth his love toward

us, in that, while we were yet sinners,

Christ died for us.

Much more then, being now justified

by his blood, we shall be saved from

wrath through him.

For if, when we were enemies, we

were reconciled to God by the death

of his Son, much more, being

reconciled, we shall be saved by his

life.

Think about it. When you were yet

without strength, Christ died for the

ungodly. Are you not ungodly? Is it not

for you, then, that Christ died? And when

did He die? Did He wait until you had

shown evidence that you would love Him

for it? No! He died while you were still

without the strength to do anything to

help yourself. He made the first move,

because you did not have the strength to

make it yourself. He opened the door

because you could not; all that is left for

you to do is to walk through. He paid the

price, and all you can do is to take it as

your own. Will you? You would be a fool

to stay wallowing in your doom as a

condemned sinner when all you have to

do is reach out and grab hold of the hand

that will save you.

Repentance

Jesus said in Luke 13:3,

“ . . . except ye

repent, ye shall all likewise perish.”

For years, I wondered what repentance

was. I wanted to repent, because I knew

that I would not be saved unless I did; but

for a long time, the issue of repentance is

what kept me from coming to Christ. I

had made it into a condition I had to meet

before Christ would save me. It was

another obstacle that stood between me

and God, and I was confused on how to

overcome it.

I thought repentance meant being sorry

for my sins, so I turned my focus on

trying to see how sinful I was so that I

could be sorry; but when I tried to repent,

I was scared at my lack of remorse for

my sins, and I didn’t dare hope that God

would accept my repentance as genuine.

The Bible makes it very clear that only

those who repent will be saved. It is the

dividing line between being a saint and a

sinner. It is the difference between

heaven and hell. Biblical repentance is

not something that you keeping trying to

accomplish, but never know if you truly

did. If you have repented, you know it for

a fact; it is not something you keep trying

to reach but never arrive at. There is a

way you can know that you have truly

repented.

Acts 20:20

“I kept back nothing that

was profitable unto you, but have

shewed you, and have taught you

publickly, and from house to house,

Testifying both to the Jews, and also

to the Greeks, repentance toward

God, and faith toward our Lord

Jesus Christ.

Notice that repentance and faith are

linked together. They are not a series of

steps that must be followed in the right

order; repentance and faith happen at the

same time. Biblical repentance is a

change in your mind and heart, and not

just in your feelings or actions. It is to

change your opinion about something.

Repentance that leads to salvation

requires a change of your mind and

opinion concerning the Lord Jesus Christ.

Paul gives an example in his letter to the

Philippians:

Philippians 3:3

For we are the

circumcision, which worship God in

the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus,

and have no confidence in the flesh.

Though I might also have confidence

in the flesh. If any other man thinketh

that he hath whereof he might trust in

the flesh, I more:

Circumcised the eighth day, of the

stock of Israel, of the tribe of

Benjamin, an Hebrew of the

Hebrews; as touching the law, a

Pharisee;

Concerning zeal, persecuting the

church; touching the righteousness

which is in the law, blameless.

But what things were gain to me,

those I counted loss for Christ.

Yea doubtless, and I count all things

but loss for the excellency of the

knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord:

for whom I have suffered the loss of

all things, and do count them but

dung, that I may win Christ,

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:

The word

repentance

is not mentioned in

this passage, but that is exactly what Paul

is describing. He listed all the good

things that he had done. He was an

Israelite, a Hebrew of the Hebrews, and a

Pharisee. According to the law, he was

blameless; that is, no one could prove

him guilty of breaking the law. But there

came a time when he heard about the

Lord Jesus and that Christ offered him a

righteousness that was better than his

own. At that point, Paul had to make a