Gary Ray Branscome
“Repentance and remission of sins should be
preached
in his name among all nations, beginning at
There has been no time in
the history of our nation when it needed repentance more than it does
now. The
evidence of people turning away from the faith, rejecting the gospel,
or
assuming that their own goodness will get them into heaven is all
around us. At
the same time, churches that should be taking the lead in calling the
nation to
repentance are failing to do so. Many are even actively denying basic
Bible
truths in the name of being relevant or bringing people together. Open
sin, and
wicked perversion that openly flaunts God’s law is tolerated. In the
meantime millions
of souls are going to hell because they never heard, understood, saw
their need
for, or believed, God’s promise of forgiveness in Christ.
That being said,
let me make it clear that true repentance does not
consist of outward piety, a few new-years type resolutions, or giving
up bad
habits. On the contrary, true repentance requires that total and
complete
surrender that leads one to humbly fall to his knees before God,
admitting that
he is a sinner unworthy of anything other than death and hell, while
looking to
Christ for forgiveness (Psalm 51:17, Romans 7:18).
Sadly, many who think they
are preaching repentance are more interested in getting Christians to
dress in
a certain way and keep a list of dos and don’ts than in calling
unbelievers to
faith in Christ. In fact, they often just assume that everyone in their
audience has faith in Christ, and put the emphasis on outward piety as
if that
were the main goal of their preaching. However, their emphasis on
outward piety
is only a symptom of the real problem. The real problem is that they
have a
faulty understanding of the gospel. They may believe that Christ saves
us, but
they have never trusted in Him for holiness. If they had, they would
know that
when we trust in Christ, not only to save us but also to make us holy,
the Holy
Spirit comes into our heart bringing a change that those who trust in
works can
never experience (Hebrews 10:10, 14, Romans 10:3-4, Galatians 5:16-17).
For preaching to be
effective the preacher must not only believe that we are saved through
faith in
Christ, he must also realize that faith in Christ not only gets us off
the
hook, so to speak, but cleanses us of all sin, making us pure perfect
and holy
in the sight of God (Hebrews 10:14, 1John 1:7). Furthermore, his aim
must not be
to get people to pray a prayer, make a decision, or perform certain
works, but
to bring them to faith in Christ. If they are trusting in Christ for
righteousness, the works will follow as a fruit of their faith, but if
faith is
lacking nothing they do will be acceptable to God (Galatians 3:6,
Hebrews
11:6). What I have been saying is known as the proper relationship of
law to
gospel, and Paul explains it in the third chapter of Romans.
In Romans 3:20-23 we read
“Therefore no flesh will be justified in His sight by the deeds of the
law:
because the knowledge of sin comes by the law. But now the
righteousness of God
apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the law and the
prophets;
Even the righteousness of God which comes through faith in Jesus Christ
to all
and upon all who believe.”
From those words we learn
that the law cannot make anyone righteous (just) in the sight of God,
and was
never intended to make anyone righteous. On the contrary, it was given
to show
us our sin and need of forgiveness. Paul then tells us that God has now
revealed a way for us to become righteous apart from the law, namely
through
receiving the righteousness that is imputed to all who believe through
faith in
Christ. Therefore, it should be obvious that if works cannot make us
righteous
they cannot cause God to be pleased with us, and they cannot improve on
the
righteousness that is already ours through faith in Christ. After all,
if even
our righteous deeds are as filthy rags, then works cannot make our best
behavior
acceptable to God, much less our entire lives (Isaiah 64:6).
For that reason, when a
person comes to faith in Christ, what they need far more than a set of
rules,
is to learn how to see their own sin, learn what it means to
rationalize sin
and why that is incompatible with faith, and what it means to have a
tender
conscience and humble and repentant heart before God. These are key
concepts
necessary for Christian growth, yet you hardly ever hear them
mentioned.
Some people are so troubled
by guilt that Biblical condemnation of sin causes them to feel so
guilty they
begin to think they are too bad to be saved. Others are so blind to
their sin
that they do not think the condemnations of the law apply to them. This
is a
problem, because Biblical preaching has to meet the needs of both. We
have to
condemn sin in no uncertain terms, but at the same time we must make it
clear
that there is forgiveness in Christ.
If you have trouble seeing
your sin, you need to ask yourself if you have ever told a lie. If you
have,
doesn’t that make you a liar? Have you ever in your life taken
something that
did not belong to you? If so, doesn’t that make you a thief? Have you
ever had
lustful thoughts? If so, according to Scripture
you have
committed adultery in your heart (Matthew
To rationalize sin is to
explain it away, or find some excuse for it so that it does not bother
your
conscience. Most people think nothing of doing that. It is the way of
the
world. However, rationalizing sin was the very thing that blinded the
Pharisees
to their need for forgiveness. God gave the law to show them their sin
and need
for His mercy. But, instead of acknowledging their sin and seeking His
mercy,
they chose to look for excuses, loopholes, and ways around His law thus
making
the law of no effect (Matthew 15:6, Mark
That brings us to our need
to have a humble and repentant heart before God. God wants us to repent
of our
sin instead of trying to excuse it. Our life should be a life of
repentance.
Every day, we should acknowledge our sin and need of God’s mercy, for
we all
fall short. At the same time, those who claim to trust in Christ while
willfully continuing in sin, have a false faith. It is impossible for
someone
who does not want to stop sinning to have faith in Christ, because they
do not
want what he offers. They do not want to be delivered from sin,
they want to be allowed to sin. They do not want Christ to take away
their sin,
they want Him to help them continue in sin, and that is not what He
died for.
That is why the Bible says, “If we say that we have fellowship with
him, and
walk in darkness, we are lying, and are not living the truth” (1John
1:6).
To really see a change in
people’s lives, preaching has to get them to look inward, to look at
their sin
and feel convicted by it. And, then to humble themselves
before God, looking to Christ for forgiveness. To clarify what I mean,
let me
give this example. When I was a teenager I liked to come up behind
people and
stick my fingers in their ribs. At the time, my parents and others
would fuss
at me for doing it, but I never listened. I was having fun. Then one
day, when
I was a few years older, I did it but something was different. I felt
ashamed
of myself for doing it. I felt like I was acting like a child. And, I
never did
it again. Nobody said a word. Nobody rebuked me. But, a change took
place
inside of me. Now the point I am trying to make is that if we want to
call
people to repentance, we need to stop fussing at them, and, instead,
urge them
to look at their sins, think about their sins, feel ashamed of their
sins, and
look to Christ for mercy.
In
order to better understand what I mean consider carefully the following
quote
taken from a sermon by the great Evangelist, Dr. Walter A. Maier. This
radio
sermon aired just two weeks before the bombing of
“Therefore, the message of
the Christian Church today must be that of our text, "Turn again unto
the
Lord"! Humble yourselves! Repent, you destroyers of public morals, who
with lewd entertainment, filthy books and magazines have increased the
love for
sin! Repent, you corrupters of the home who
have made
purity seem old-fashioned and chastity a burden to be scorned! Repent, you rich who have oppressed the poor, and
you poor
who have hated the rich! Repent, you teachers who lead our youth from
Christ! Repent, you adulterous husbands and
unfaithful wives, you
self-seeking parents and you self-directed children! Repent, you
perjurers,
blasphemers, abusers of God's holy name? Repent, you public officials
who have
misused your high office! Repent, you merchants of horrifying death,
who
delight in war for selfish gain's patriotism! Repent,
you scoffers, skeptics, unbelievers, enemies of God, defaming the Lord
who made
Before all else, however you
and I need repentance for ourselves. The sins in our own lives that we
may seek
to deny, cover up, excuse, laugh away; the transgression which,
unforgiven,
will separate us eternally from Christ and His redeemed -- the
depravity of our
human nature, our impure desires, hot-tempered words, sinful actions --
Oh,
confess them all today! -- these should
bring us down
on our knees in humility and contrition before the holy God! A
repentant nation
is a country in which the individual citizens unmistakably show their
sorrow
over sin. Contrition is a personal, not a political matter. Therefore,
the
admission to be spoken by every American Christian today should embody
the
full, unreserved acknowledgment of our own guilt and the statement of
our faith
in the Savior, taken from the hymnbook of my Church: ‘O Almighty God,
merciful
Father, I, a poor miserable sinner, confess unto Thee all my sins and
iniquities
with which I have offended Thee and justly deserved Thy temporal and
eternal
punishment. But I am heartily sorry for them and sincerely repent of
them, and
I pray Thee of Thy boundless mercy and for the sake of the holy,
innocent, and
bitter sufferings and death of Thy beloved Son, Jesus Christ, to be
gracious
and merciful to me a poor sinful being.’” (From the sermon, “God Make
Us
Penitent”.)
It is not always necessary to
condemn the kind of sins that Dr. Maier rebuked in the first paragraph
of his quote.
In a congregational setting the situation would be different. However,
a pastor
could always comment on crimes in the news or crime statistics, and
then call
on his audience to look at their own sins. Likewise, he could start
with
tragedies like a hurricane or tornado, and then call on his audience to
look at
their own sins, reminding them that if they never experience such a
tragedy it
is only by the grace of God, not because they are less sinful than the
people
who did. [Look at how Christ used a similar circumstance, Luke 13:4-5.]
In conclusion the following
statement by Dr. Walter A. Maier summarizes very well what I have been
trying
to say.
"When Luther undertook the Reformation of the Church and his eyes were opened to the fact that in Christ alone, but in Him completely, every believer has the forgiveness of his sins, it became his all-consuming object in life to exalt the atoning Savior, to preach the crucified, sin-destroying Christ, the risen, life-bestowing Redeemer; and because he humbly dedicated his marvelous mentality and tireless energies to teach Christ, preach Christ, exalt Christ, write Christ, sing Christ, love Christ, live Christ, always as God's Son and the world's Savior, there was not enough power on earth or in hell, among men and devils, to restrain his work. Nor can the churches today ever hope to be used of the Spirit in saving men's souls unless they, too, concentrate their efforts on Jesus." (From the sermon, “O God Cleanse Our Churches”, 1943.)