Biblical Repentance

Greetings Brethren,

In our current series in which we are addressing the problem of nominal Christianity, we have mentioned the importance of repentance rather frequently. But we have not addressed the subject very directly or forthrightly, explaining in some detail what the Word of God teaches about repentance and how the grace of repentance is wrought in the heart and life of the Lord's people. I believe that there are many nominal Christians in evangelical churches who have false assurance of their salvation because they have not experienced or manifested what the Bible sets forth respecting repentance and how it touches on biblical salvation. I also believe that many true Christians are troubled and do struggle without the sound assurance of their salvation for they misunderstand what the Bible teaches about the on-going life of repentance that is the experience of every true child of God. I pray that today's study will clarify these matters to us. May the Holy Spirit guide us and help each of us to understand and believe the words of Holy Scripture respecting repentance that leads unto life (cf. Acts 11:18).

Several weeks ago we gave attention to 1 John 5:13, in which the Apostle John gave the reason for having written his epistle. It reads, "These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God." We had expressed then that by "these things" John was referring to his entire epistle of 1 John, not just the immediate, local context of this verse. The purpose for which John wrote was so that his readers