Books by Jeremy Myers Archives - Page 20 of 44

What the Bible says about repentance is quite controversial.

Repent and Believe to Receive Eternal Life?

In some circles, repentance is a necessary first step to conversion, usually preceding faith. Those who hold this view often say things like “Repent and believe.” The idea, of course, is that in order to receive eternal life, people must first repent of their sin, and then secondly, believe in Jesus. Passages such as Mark 1:15 where John the Baptist calls on people to “repent and believe the gospel” seem to support such a view.

Is Repentance a Synonym for Believing?

However, since turning from sin as a precondition for faith is a form of good works, many Christians are uncomfortable with defining repentance this way, and so think of it instead as a synonym for faith. They note that the Greek word for repentance (metanoia) literally means “to change the mind” and so those who hold this view argue that repentance is simply the process of changing the mind about the source of one’s eternal life.

While previously we might have thought that we could gain or earn eternal life through our own merit and good works, once we recognize that we are sinners in need of God’s grace, we change our mind about how to receive eternal life (that is, we repent), and believe in Jesus for eternal life instead. In this way, repentance and faith are two sides of the same coin.

What Repentance is and Is Not

I am convinced that both views are partially right and partially wrong. While it is true that repentance literally means “to change the mind,” the term is almost always used in reference to sin and so it is accurate to think about repentance as a turning away from sin and back toward God.

When we repent, we change our mind about our behavior, and in so doing, actually change our behavior as well. Yet despite the fact that repentance refers to a turning from sin and turning toward obedience, this does not in any way mean that repentance helps us earn or merit eternal life.

Eternal life is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. Turning from sin is not required.

It is probably best to think of repentance as an aspect of discipleship. Both believers and unbelievers can understand God’s instructions in Scripture, see the devastating consequences of sin in their own lives, and as a result, repent of their sin and seek to follow God instead.

If unbelievers do this, such repentance may help bring them to the place where they believe in Jesus for eternal life, but if this happens, such repentance does not in any way contribute to their eternal life.

Of course, once a person believes in Jesus for eternal life, they can still (and should) repent of sin that they commit so that their lives can be transformed more and more into the image and likeness of Jesus Christ.

So what is repentance?

Repentance is a turning from sin and returning to the life God wants for us.

This turning from sin does not help us earn or keep eternal life, but does help us follow Jesus on the path of discipleship. Repentance helps us gain freedom from the damaging and addicting power of sin in our lives.

Remembering this will help clarify the scores of passages in the New Testament which talk about repentance. These passages on repentance are not calling people to make changes to their behavior so that they can receive eternal life. No, passages on repentance are calling all people to change their lives so that they can avoid the negative and physical consequences of sin and live the life of joy and freedom that God wants.

Repentance is vitally important for living life with God and with each other the way life was meant to be lived, but repentance is not one of the conditions for receiving eternal life from God. Thankfully, eternal life is a free gift of God to anyone and everyone who believes in Jesus for it.

Two Kinds of Forgiveness – One is free, one is conditional

By Jeremy Myers

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When seeking to understand the biblical definition of forgiveness, it must first be understood that there are two main Greek words for forgiveness, both of which refer to a different kind of forgiveness.

Charizomai Forgiveness

The first type of forgiveness is charizomai forgiveness, by which God has graciously forgiven us of all our sins—past, present, and future — whether we confess and repent of these sins or not.

All people have this gracious forgiveness (charizomai) from God, whether they are a Christian or not.

As far as God is concerned, your guilt has been removed from you. Your sin is no longer an issue with God.

Aphēsis Forgiveness

However, we all still struggle with the consequences of sin in our lives and in our relationships. The biblical answer to this problem is to first of all recognize that we have the gracious and loving forgiveness of God, but then to admit to God that we have actually messed up our lives by failing to live according to His instructions, and then seeking to take steps and make changes which allow us to live according to God’s will.

The biblical words for what I have just described are confession (admit, agree) and repent (turn from sin and turn toward obedience). When we do this, we receive release (aphēsis) from the captivating power of sin in our lives.

When understood this way, we see that aphēsis forgiveness has absolutely nothing to do with whether or not a person goes to heaven when they die. Aphēsis forgiveness is about whether or not we live in bondage and enslavement to sin here and now in this life.

This sort of forgiveness is not about whether or not God “forgives” us. He does and He has! No, seeking to gain release (aphesis) from our sins through confession and repentance is about whether or not we gain freedom from the destructive power of sin in our lives which seeks to wreak havoc in our lives, our health, our marriages, our family, our finances, our jobs, and pretty much everything else.

God has forgiven so that we might gain forgiveness

So when we read the Bible and encounter the words “forgive” or “forgiveness,” how should we understand these words? One thing to do would be to get an interlinear Bible so that you can see when the text is talking about aphēsis forgiveness and when it has charizomai in view.

But if you don’t have an interlinear Bible, you can simply look in the context of the verse which talks about forgiveness, and if there are conditions involved to receive this forgiveness (such as repenting, confessing, or forgiving others), you can be almost certain that the forgiveness in question is aphēsis. If, however, the forgiveness is being offered freely by God to all without condition, then you can be confident that the forgiveness in question is charizomai.

Faith Alone in Christ Alone and Forgiveness

Faith alone in Jesus Christ grants us eternal life. But all Christians still struggle with sin. Many still sin just as much as they did before they were Christians. Though they have believed in Jesus for eternal life, there is still a pattern of sin in their lives from which they just cannot break free.

As a result of this ongoing power of sin in their lives, some of them begin to wonder if they are truly Christians. Sadly, many books, pastors, and Christian leaders only reinforce this idea. They teach that if you have patterns of habitual sin in your life, you have good reason to question whether or not you actually have eternal life.

But instead of this damaging line of thought, it is much better to realize that the way to gain release from the power of sin in our lives is not by wondering whether or not God has truly forgiven us and accepted us into His family (He has!), but by accepting by faith that God loves us completely, and wants us to break free from sin even more than we do.

This process of release (aphēsis forgiveness) begins by agreeing with Him that we have sinned (confession), and then making the changes necessary in our lives (repentance) to get back onto the path of righteousness.

So do not let anyone ever tell you that you have committed a sin which God cannot forgive. No matter what sin you have committed, God has already forgiven you for it in Jesus Christ. This forgiveness is free and unconditional, and has already been extended to you whether you know it or not.

But God does want you to confess and repent of your sin, not in order to gain forgiveness, but because you have been forgiven. This confession and repentance is for your own good, so that you can gain freedom and deliverance from the enslaving power of sin in your life.

If this idea is helpful or challenging to you, share it with others using the buttons below to get their input as well!

Salvation Confusion

By Jeremy Myers

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If there is one word which causes the most confusion in Christianity today about the nature and conditions of our eternal life, it is this word “saved.”

Once Saved, Always Saved

Take for example, the debate over “Once Saved, Always Saved.” Those who teach this view have some verses which seem to indicate “salvation” lasts forever, but those who are opposed to “Once Saved, Always Saved” point out numerous verses which say that “salvation” depends on continued obedience, faithfulness, and good works.

The debate over “Once Saved, Saved Saved” is easily solved, however, when we realize that almost none of those verses which talk about “salvation” are actually talking about eternal life. We can hold to eternal security while still affirming that most verses that talk about “salvation” affirm a conditional deliverance from some sort of temporal and physical calamity.

James 2 – Faith Alone Does Not Save

Then there is the whole debate which rages over the statement in James 2 that faith alone does not save. What a confusing text! But it is not nearly as confusing once we realize that to be “saved” in James 2 has nothing whatsoever to do with gaining eternal life and going to heaven when we die.

Women Will Be Saved Through Childbearing

And we must not forget the statement by Paul in 1 Timothy 2:15 that women will be saved through childbearing. Due to a misunderstanding of the word “saved” this verse has been tragically used by some misogynistic authoritarian male religious leaders to require women to remain barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen, because otherwise, they cannot be “saved.”

Key Calvinist Texts Misunderstand the word “Saved”

As we study Calvinism, we will see that a large number of the texts used to defend Calvinism depend on a faulty understanding of the word “saved.”

Due to the fact that it is understood to be referring to eternal life and going to heaven when we die, numerous texts are misinterpreted and misapplied so that what should be understood as a passage that encourages and instructs us on how to live our lives so that we can experience God’s life now becomes a passage on how to live our lives so that we can prove that we will have eternal life in the future. We will see this as we go through the various texts in future posts.

What does it mean to be saved?

What then is the definition of “save” or “salvation”? It means “deliverance.” Most of the time, this deliverance has nothing to do with gaining eternal life or going to heaven when we die, but instead, refers to some sort of temporal deliverance from calamity.

This deliverance might be physical, psychological, emotional, relational, spiritual, or financial. There are, of course, eternal consequences which we can be delivered from as well, such as a loss of reward at the judgment seat of Christ, but we will reserve this discussion for a later post.

Have these three posts on the words saved and salvation helped you understand what the Bible means by these terms? Are there any texts which mention “salvation” that you have questions about? Let me know in the comments below and maybe I can write a post on these passages later.

I hope I get saved in this post (and you get saved too)

By Jeremy Myers

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When I was a pastor, Dr. Earl Radmacher once came and spoke in my church. I introduced him as the author of numerous Christian books, the editor of the best-selling NKJV Nelson Study Bible, and the president emeritus of Western Seminary. At that time, one of his most recent books had been Salvation, which is part of the Chuck Swindoll Leadership library, and is a book I highly recommend.

After this introduction he got up to teach and began with a word of prayer. He said this:

Father, I thank you for bringing me to speak to these men and women today, and I pray that as I speak to them, many of them would be saved this hour, and I pray also, that you would save me this hour as well. Amen.

I knew this was coming because this is something Dr. Radmacher often did when he spoke in churches, but it was still enjoyable to glance around at the people in the church and watch them open their eyes and blink in confusion at each other. You could almost hear their thoughts: “Did I just hear what I thought I heard? Did this author, preacher, seminary president, and Bible scholar just ask to get saved? Did our pastor invite one of those unsaved liberal Bible scholars we’ve heard rumors about into our pulpit today?”

Dr. Radmacher went on to explain that his prayer was not only genuinely spoken, but was also an opening illustration for what he wanted to teach.

He truly did want to get saved that hour as he spoke—saved from preaching or teaching anything that might be in error. He also wanted his hearers to get saved—saved from believing some wrong things about the word “salvation.”

He went on to show what the words “save” and “salvation” mean in Scripture, and how many tricky and confusing passages can be immediately cleared up simply by recognizing that when the text talks about “being saved” it is not talking about gaining eternal life or going to heaven when you die, but has some sort of other deliverance in view.

We looked at this idea yesterday, and I have one more post about it tomorrow, but having read this post today, can you say that this post saved you from believing something wrong about the word saved?

As for myself, I hope I was saved in this post from including any typos… There always seems to be one or two in every one of my posts… 🙁

It’s possible to believe in Jesus but not be saved…

By Jeremy Myers

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Like the word “gospel,” the word “salvation” means much more and much less than usually assumed.

Just like the word “gospel,” the way the word “salvation” is often used today is very different from the way the word is used in Scripture.

When people talk about “salvation” today or “being saved,” what they most often have in mind is the idea of receiving the forgiveness of sins so we can escape hell and go to heaven when we die.

But in biblical usage, the noun “salvation” (Gk., sōteria) and the verb “save” (Gk., sōzō) very rarely have anything to do with receiving eternal life or going to heaven when we die. Instead, the words are most often used in connection with some sort of temporal or physical deliverance. We can be saved from enemies, saved from sickness, saved from drowning, saved from suffering, or even saved from a premature physical death. While “salvation” is sometimes used in connection with sin, this is only because sin often has devastating physical and temporal consequences in our life. To be saved from sin means to be delivered from the destruction and damage of sin in our lives.

One resource that shows this quite clearly is Vine’s Complete Expository Dictionary. Under the entry for “Save, Saving,” the dictionary includes the following options:

(a)    Of material and temporal deliverance from danger, suffering, etc., e.g., Matt 8:25; Mark 13:20; Luke 23:35; John 12:27; 1 Tim 2:15; 2 Tim 4:18; Jude 5; from sickness, Matt 9:22; so Mark 5:34; Luke 8:48; Jas 5:15

(b)   Of the spiritual and eternal salvation granted immediately by God to those who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, e.g., Acts 2:47, 16:31; Rom 8:24; Eph 2:5, 8; 1 Tim 2:4; 2 Tim 1:9; Titus 3:5; of human agency in this, Rom 11:4; 1 Cor 7:16; 9:22

(c)    Of the present experiences of God’s power to deliver from the bondage of sin, e.g., Matt 1:21; Rom 5:10; 1 Cor 15:2; Heb 7:25; Jas 1:21; 1 Pet 3:21; of human agency in this, 1 Tim 4:16

(d)   Of the future deliverance of believers at the second coming of Christ for his saints, being deliverance from the wrath of God to be executed upon the ungodly at the close of this age and from eternal doom, e.g., Rom 5:9

(e)    Of the deliverance of the nation of Israel at the second advent of Christ, e.g., Rom 11:26

(f)    Inclusively for all the blessings bestowed by God on men in Christ, e.g., Luke 19:10; John 10:9; 1 Cor 10:33; 1 Tim 1:15

(g)    Of those who endure to the end of the time of the Great Tribulation, Matt 10:22; Mark 13:13

(h)   Of the individual believer, who, though losing reward at the judgment seat of Christ hereafter, will not lose his salvation, 1 Cor 3:15; 5:5

(i)     Of the deliverance of the nations at the Millennium, Rev 21:24

Though I would not state this list of various definitions quite this same way, and would put many of the references from definition (b) into other categories, it nevertheless shows that the words “save” and “salvation” in the Bible have a wide variety of meanings.

To help the reader of Scripture know what sort of “salvation” is in view when they are studying it, I recommend that whenever you comes across the words “save” or “salvation” in Scripture, you stop, replace it mentally with the word “deliver” or “deliverance” and then ask yourself, “Deliverance from what?” If you look in the surrounding context, you will quickly discover that the deliverance in view has nothing to do with gaining eternal life or going to heaven when you die.

Doing this will drastically help your understanding of numerous difficult passages in the Bible that many have thought of as referring to receiving eternal life, but refer instead to some sort of temporal deliverance.

It is possible, as the title of this post says, to believe in Jesus for eternal life (and of course, receive eternal life as a result), but still not be “saved” from many of the temporal and physical consequences of sin, or from sickness, or from enemies, or from many of the other negative things that can happen in life.

Have you ever heard this taught before? Has it helped your understanding of some of the tough texts in the Bible?

Repentance is not a condition for eternal life

Repent and Believe to Receive Eternal Life?

Is Repentance a Synonym for Believing?

What Repentance is and Is Not

So what is repentance?

Two Kinds of Forgiveness – One is free, one is conditional

Charizomai Forgiveness

Aphēsis Forgiveness

God has forgiven so that we might gain forgiveness

Faith Alone in Christ Alone and Forgiveness

Salvation Confusion

Once Saved, Always Saved

James 2 – Faith Alone Does Not Save

Women Will Be Saved Through Childbearing

Key Calvinist Texts Misunderstand the word “Saved”

What does it mean to be saved?

I hope I get saved in this post (and you get saved too)

It’s possible to believe in Jesus but not be saved…

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