Rev 2:5 Therefore remember from where you have fallen, and repent, and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and will remove your lampstand out of its place unless you repent.

I assume from your article you would have no problem with a prayer like this, “Father I repent of my hardness of heart and lack of love for others, help me to understand you better and teach your ways that I may experience You fuller everyday”.

In a sense, isn’t this repenting of a sin, “a hard heart”? How knit picky do we want to get?

You said – Repent also means something entirely different under the new covenant. “Re” means ”again”, or to go back to. “Pent” means the top (like a penthouse). Thus combined this means “go back to the top”. This means when we make a mistake, all we simply have to do is change our thoughts, and go back to God’s thoughts towards us. And what are God’s thoughts? Unconditional love and acceptance because Jesus paid the full price on our behalf. (Your english definition is completely opposed to the Greek definition)

The Greek word for repent “metanoeo?” under the new covenant is the same word Jesus used under the the Old.

Thayer Definition:
1) to change one’s mind, i.e. to repent
2) to change one’s mind for better, heartily to amend with abhorrence of one’s past sins

The meaning hasn’t changed. If it has show me where?

Jesus clearly reveals the sins of believers in the churches in Asia in the Book of Revelation and calls for repentance. He didn’t specifically say, “You must repent of your sins” but He did name the sins and told them to repent.

If God is so pleased with us all the time why did he tell the saints of Laodicia he would vomit them out of his mouth?

Why does He tell us not to grieve the Holy Spirit? How can the Spirit be grieved and pleased with us at the same time?

Read the following and see how God attaches Israel to the Church by way of warning:
1Co 10:5 But with many of them God was not well pleased, for they were scattered in the wilderness.
1Co 10:6 And these things were our examples, that we should not be lusters after evil, as they also lusted.
1Co 10:7 Nor should we be idolaters, even as some of them, as it is written: “The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play.”
1Co 10:8 Nor let us commit fornication, as some of them fornicated, and twenty-three thousand fell in one day.
1Co 10:9 Nor let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted Him and were destroyed by serpents.
1Co 10:10 Nor murmur as some of them also murmured and were destroyed by the destroyer.
1Co 10:11 And all these things happened to them as examples; and it is written for our warning on whom the ends of the world have come.
1Co 10:12 So let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.

I think I understand your rational but have some dificulty with your conclusion. I speak as one who only stands in grace.

Reading the passage again and again, it appears as though you might be right. This epistle was written to Jewish converts – Jews who put their faith in Christ. They still clung to their law based practices mostly though.

There is not one passage in the entire New Testament where a believer is addressed as a “sinner” – all our sins were taken away in Christ.

I do believe that James was making this specific statement to sinners. Think about it: When we draw near to God (put our faith in Christ), He draws near to us (the Holy Spirit takes up residence on the inside) and never forsakes us after that point.

In Grace
Andre

Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.(J) Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and(K) purify your hearts,(L) you double-minded. 9(M) Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10(N) Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.
James 4:8-10

Is James talking to the unsaved here? Or to believers? As I am reading it, the context seems to be to believers…however, he may have inserted these few lines for the unsaved?

About the unforgivable sin, you can read our previous message on this topic here:

http://www.newcovenantgrace.com/unforgivable-sin/

In Grace
Andre van der Merwe

Because all our sins (past present & future) were forgiven at the cross, and God swore never to be angry with us of ever rebuke us again (Isa 54:9-10), we do not have to try and live holy in order to try to please Him – He is already pleased with us through the perfect sacrifice of His Son Jesus.

Now because we have a new born again nature on the inside of us, it will actually be stupid if we still live according to the old sinful nature, because that is not who we are anymore, and those things cannot satisfy us any longer.

When it comes to relating to God, we have to make a shift from a “HAVE TO” mentality to a “WANT TO” mentality. And this only comes by understanding what really happened at the cross, and knowing how God really feels about us.

As Christians there is nothing more we can do to add to the perfect sacrifice of Jesus on our behalf, He already did it all. But this does not mean we should become passive and lazy. We need to renew our minds to become transformed and begin to do the works of Jesus – I would recommend you read this message (http://www.newcovenantgrace.com/renewing-your-mind/) to understand why we need to renew our minds.

So 2 things to remember:

1) God is already pleased with us, and we can do nothing that will make Him more pleased with us.
2) The world is a broken place and we are the hands and feet of God in this world. This is why we can not be passive.

So in the end it is all about your MOTIVE – why are you doing the things you do?

In Grace
Andre van der Merwe

2. About what you have post, God is already pleased with us now as Christians what we can do… nothing more… just stay on our foot…

please i need ur comment tnx …

GOD Bless…

Gerald

wow the way u explain is really great so comforting but i have few questions to you buddy:

1 what is “the unforgivable sin”? is anybody that have done this wil not be saved anymore even calling Jesus…

2 about what you have post what are already plaesed GOD what we can do as Christians…

Thanks for your message. The Bible tells BELIEVERS to repent of dead works. Now under the new covenant, the definition of sin is completely different than under the old covenant. Under the old covenant sin was when someone broke the laws of Moses. But since these laws have been nullified at the cross, there is now no more laws to break. The only sin that a new covenant believer can commit is to do something without faith, which includes dead works. Dead works = doing something out of guilt, self-righteousness, legalism, etc.

Unbelief was the only sin Jesus could NOT die for (please read the message of “The unforgivable sin” on our website -look on the page “Browse by Topic”).

So I guess to probably phrase it better, we could say nowhere in the New Covenant does it tell BELIEVERS to repent of their trespasses or faults, because the term “sin” could be misunderstood. But if you ask about 99.9% of Christians today what their opinion of “Sin” is, they would say in a heartbeat that it is breaking the laws of Moses. But Rom 4:15 says: “for where there is no law there is no transgression.”

Rob Rufus (City Church International in Hong Kong) has a Brilliant sermon on this topic. The date of the sermon was 22 Feb 2009 and it was the second sermon in their series on Faith (What is sin under the New Covenant?). I nearly fell on my back when I heard this, and yet it was so simple and clear!!! Here is the link (the date of the sermon was 22 Feb 2009): http://www.citychurchinternational.net/2009.html

God bless you.
Andre

Thanks for your posts, yay the grace of God in it’s fullness!

I have a question I’m hoping you can give your perspective on: When you say that “Nowhere in the new covenant does it tell BELIEVERS to repent of their sins.”, what do you make of the following passages? The first one is Peter telling Simon the sorcerer to repent – and in the preceding verses we are told that he was a baptised believer. The others are Jesus telling his bride, the church to repent.

“Repent of this wickedness and pray to the Lord.” – Acts 8:22

- Revelation 2:5, 2:16, 3:3, 3:19

Please let me know what you think.

Thanks, and bless you
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