click here to learn more about being redeemed from sin and set free to serve God in spirit and in truth. click here to learn more about holiness click here to learn more about being changed into the same image click here to learn more about sowing and reaping click here to learn more about the free gift of righteousness. click here to learn more about how faith gives us access to grace and grace does the works. click here to learn more about faith and how it comes. click here to learn more about acknowledging Jesus click here to learn more about how God speaks Who will you listen to?  Click here to learn more. click here to learn more about the pattern of God. click here to learn more about the pattern of God for individuals, marriage, and family. click here to learn more about the pattern of God for the local church click here to learn more about the Church universal
 
SeekFind Logo Menu

Questions and Answers: Prerequisites for Repentance

 

Question:

Can a person truly repent if he or she doesn't know how God views his or her life and actions?

Answer:

The simple answer is, "No." A person needs to know how God views his or her life and actions. The Holy Spirit convicts the person. The Father draws the person to Jesus. When a person is born again, they have a slight idea of how wicked they are in the sight of God. That is enough to make the unsaved person feel condemned and drive them to Christ, but a new-born Christian has no real idea of the distance they are from spiritual maturity. They don't truly know what Jesus means when He says, "You must be perfect as the Father in Heaven is perfect." They don't know what God is asking them to become in Christ.

Repentance is progressive. Some Christians think that being born again is the goal rather than the door to the next step with God. All flesh is blind, even the flesh of Christians. Being born again is just the first step. Repentance must continue after being born again until we reach what the Bible calls the Manifestation of the Sons of God.

Repentance is often misunderstood. The word, repent, is a translation of the Greek word, metanoia or metanoeo. These words mean, literally, to have a new mind. (read more about this)

Romans 12:1-2 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

We have a problem. Even after we are born again, we have a corrupt natural mind. Before we are born again, the Father must draw us for us to accept Jesus. After we are born again, we must continue to repent, just as Paul told the Roman Christians.

God has given us ways for us to receive His mind. These ways are laid out in Scripture. However, none of us can really see reality fully at present. Our minds distort our vision. We can easily be fooled. Look at the way that sincere, Bible-believing, Christians disagree about the exact same scriptures. The battle with the enemy is for our minds. Did you realize that the same Greek word that is translated as "soul" is also translated as "mind," "heart," and "life?" These are synonyms. They mean the same thing.

Satan is after the mind. So is Jesus. We need to yield to Jesus rather than Satan. When we do choose to obey Jesus, our minds are changed. This is repentance.

As our minds are changed, our senses are exercised by reason of use. We begin to have more ability to see reality. We start to desire the Scriptural order of the Church. We begin to discern the Body of Christ. We start to find out how we fit into that Body. (read more about this)

This word, transformed, actually means "transfigured." The Greek word, metamorphoo is the word from which we get the English word, metamorphosis. Metamorphosis is a change from one type of thing into another type of thing. We apply this word to caterpillars turning into butterflies. This word, metamorphoo, comes up is in the transfiguration of Jesus. This is the secret coming of Jesus. The transfiguration is referred to as the His coming. It appears in three gospels and in one of Peter's letters, and it is His coming--the Greek word is Parousia, meaning "abiding presence."

 



Author/Compiler
Last updated: Sep, 2011
How God Will Transform You - FREE Book  
 




Bread Crumbs

 
Home     >   Meaning     >   You Must be Born Again     >   Why Reject the Offer?     >   Q&A: Prerequisites for Repentance

Main

Foundations

Home

Meaning

Bible

Dictionary

History

Toons & Vids

Quotations

Similar

What's so bad about not receiving Jesus as Savior?

Those Who Reject God Are Actually Rejecting Love

Why Would Anyone Go Through The Mental Gymnastics Required To Rationalize Rejecting God's Free Salvation?

Why Do People Reject God? Why Do People Reject Jesus?

One Excuse: Hypocrisy Among Christians

Questions and Answers: In practical terms what does true repentance involve in daily life?

Questions and Answers: Prerequisites for Repentance

Questions and Answers: When you go God's way instead of your own, what will rule in your heart?

Related

Repentance and Repenting




















Questions and Answers




































































































































































































































Recent

Home

Answer to Critic

Appeal to Possibility

Circular Reasoning

Argument to the Future

Insignificant Cause

Word Magic

Love Between a Man and Woman

Author/Compiler

Colossians 2

Righteousness & Holiness

Don't Compromise

Sin

Proof by Atheism

Scriptures About Marriage

Genuine Authority

The Reason for Rejecting Truth

Witness on the Internet

Flaky Human Reasoning

How Do You Know?



Featured


The Real Purpose of the Church

The Real Purpose of Life

From Glory to Glory

REAL Faith--What it IS & IS NOT

REAL Love--What it IS & IS NOT

How to be Led by God

How to Witness

Wisdom: Righteousness & Reality

Holiness & Mind/Soul

Redemption: Free From Sin

Real Reality

Stories Versus Revelation

Understanding Logic

Logical Fallacies

Circular Reasoning-Who is Guilty?

How Can We Know Anything?

God's Word

God's Process

God's Pattern

Mind Designed to Relate to God

Answers for the Confused

Fossil Record Says: "Creation"

Avoid These Pitfalls

Public School's Religion

Twisting Science

Evolutionism

Public School Failures

Twisting History


How can we know anything about anything? That's the real question

more info: mouseover or click

The complexity of Gods Way understood in a single diagram
Obey your flesh and descend into darkness