God's Plan with MenMartin, T. T. (Thomas Theodore)
Religion
God's Plan with Men
Martin, T. T. (Thomas Theodore)
Salvation
Notice the case of the jailor, Acts 16:22-34. When the jailor fell
down before Paul and Silas and brought them out and said, "Sirs, what
must I do to be saved?" (Verse 30), they did not say, "Repent"; they
said, "Believe on the Lord Jesus and thou shalt be saved."--Verse 31.
But God's word teaches plainly that we must repent in order to believe
(Matt. 21:32; Luke 13:3). Then repentance must have already taken
place,--he must have already repented,--or they would have taught him
"repentance toward God" as well as "faith toward our Lord Jesus
Christ."--Acts 20:21. Go back and notice the jailor's case: the night
before, he had taken Paul and Silas with their backs bloody from the
beating they had received, and had not washed their stripes (Verse
33), had given them no supper (Verse 34), and had thrust them into the
inner prison and made their feet fast in the stocks. He was utterly
hardened. The praying and singing hymns to God by Paul and Silas, the
sudden earthquake, Paul's crying out against his committing suicide,
had convicted him of sin, such a conviction as had produced sorrow,
for he came trembling and fell down before them; and the sorrow had
led to an entire change of mind and purpose, and he said, "Sirs, what
must I do to be saved?"--"what," anything God would have me do I am
ready to do,--he had turned from his sins and had turned to God. Hence
they did not say "Repent," for he had repented; but they said,
"Believe on the Lord Jesus and thou shalt be saved."--Acts 16:31.
Having seen what the Saviour meant by repentance, let us go to the
meaning of the word translated "repent." "This word," says J. P.
Boyce, the great theologian, in his systematic theology, "means to
reconsider, perceive afterwards and to change one's view, mind or
purpose, or even judgment, implying disapproval and abandonment of
past opinions and purposes, and the adoption of others which are
different." B. H. Carroll, President Southwestern Baptist Theological
Seminary: "We may therefore give as the one invariable definition of
New Testament repentance that it is a change of mind." B. H. Carroll,
again, "Repentance is a change of mind toward God concerning a course
of sin leading rapidly down to death and eternal ruin." Once more from
B. H. Carroll: "If in one moment the soul is contrite enough to turn
in abhorrence of sin against God from all self-help to our Lord Jesus
Christ by faith, it is sufficient." John A. Broadus, the great
American scholar and teacher: "To repent, then, as a religious term of
the New Testament, is to change the mind, thought or purpose as
regards sin and the service of God--a change naturally accompanied by
deep sorrow for past sins, and naturally leading to a change of
outward life."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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