Repentance Misunderstood
The alluring false gospel of men, as presented by Jack Hyles, guarantees you a place in Heaven if only you turn from not believing Jesus is your Savior. In contrast, the True Gospel of Jesus Christ calls for repentance from all sin and obedience by faith, in order to be established in the Kingdom of Heaven. Men want their pay up front, but though salvation is free, God calls for men to pay up front – “For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it” (Matthew 16:25 ESV).
Paul heard back from a correspondent:
Hi Paul,
It is nice that you are doing a follow up. I had to rethink about our conversation. I looked over the false teachers list.
I learned how to share my faith with “The Way of Master” Training course. However. Over time I slowly got away from Ray Comfort’s teaching.
When Ray talks about turning away from your sins (repent) and turning to God. That had bothered me for a very long time. I thought that I had to actually “stop sinning” or I had no fellowship with God. Then I came across Eccl. 7:20 “For there is not a just man on earth who does good and does not sin.”
I had a tremendous amount of weight taken off. Paul even talked about the war raging inside with him. I Read a book from Jack Hyles “Enemies of Soul winning.” One of his chapters “Misunderstood repentance” brought new light on the subject for me. You can down load that chapter at www.jackhyles.com.
When I wrote to you, I was trying to get answers to a lot of my questions. You are right about people twisting the truth to fit their thinking… Help me put things in perspective.
Steve
Paul’s reply:
Hi Steve,
You write: “I thought that I had to actually ‘stop sinning’ or I had no fellowship with God. Then I came across Eccl. 7:20 ‘For there is not a just man on earth who does good and does not sin.’”
Well, you do have to actually “stop sinning” to have fellowship with God.
“If we say that we have fellowship with Him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin” (1 John 1:6-7 MKJV).
“But we know that God does not hear sinners, but if anyone is God-fearing and does His will, He hears him” (John 9:31 MKJV).
The catch is we can’t turn from sinning by our own willpower or righteousness, of which we have none. When we are given this revelation by faith, knowing we’re in wrongness and can’t right ourselves, then we’re compelled to look to the Lord for His forgiveness and to take over our lives, setting them right. This can only happen because God draws us to the Son, by Whom we recognize our inherent corruption and helplessness to do anything about it without His grace:
“For it is God Who works in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure” (Philippians 2:13 MKJV).
Repentance is the gift of God that turns us from sin and independence to dependence on Him and walking in His righteousness, so we might be perfect as commanded: “Therefore be perfect, even as your Father in Heaven is perfect” (Matthew 5:48 MKJV).
This doesn’t mean the believer will never sin, but it does mean the believer will be convicted of sin and set right by God, Who doesn’t impute sin to His beloved.
“Blessed are those whose lawlessnesses are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; blessed is the man to whom the Lord will in no way impute sin” (Romans 4:7-8 MKJV).
As for the Scripture from Ecclesiastes you mentioned, it’s in agreement with the things I’m pointing out from the Scriptures. Here’s the context:
Ecclesiastes 7:18-20 MKJV
(18) It is good that you should take hold of this; yea, also from this do not withdraw your hand; for he who fears God shall come forth from all of them.
(19) Wisdom makes the wise stronger than ten mighty ones who are in the city.
(20) For there is not a just man on earth who does good and does not sin.
It’s the fear (reverence) of God that makes us wise and turns us from sin, not any goodness in us. “No man is good,” said Jesus, the Same Who calls on us to repent and be perfect.
Hyles is another false teacher. As with all false teachers, he says some true things, but insofar as salvation is concerned, he has neither experienced it nor properly taught it to others. His teaching is full of error and confusion. For example, he writes:
“There are those who say we have to repent of our sins in order to be saved. No, we have to repent only of the thing that makes us unsaved, and that is unbelief. If a person needs to turn from his sins in order to be saved, what sins does he turn from? Does he turn from pride? Does he turn from selfishness? Does he turn from covetousness? The truth is, nobody can turn from all of his sins until he is raptured and he receives a body like the body of the Saviour.”
What gospel is he reading? Here’s what it says in the Gospels we’ve been reading:
“John came baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins. And all the land of Judea, and those of Jerusalem, went out to him and were all baptized by him in the Jordan River, confessing their sins” (Mark 1:4-5 MKJV).
Did John tell them they’d be OK if they didn’t turn from all their sins and start producing good fruit?
“Bring forth therefore fruits worthy of repentance…. And now also, the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Therefore every tree which does not bring forth good fruit is cut down and cast into the fire” (Matthew 3:8, 10 MKJV).
(As I’ve said, repentance happens by the grace of God only. How else can one respond to His call to obedience?)
Hyles continues with his Scripturally-uninformed and unsound teaching:
“Salvation is simply repenting of unbelief, and believing, and letting Christ save us. We yield to Him to save us; He does! Immediately the Holy Spirit comes in to live.”
When John came preaching repentance, followed by the Lord Jesus Christ calling on men to repent, are we to believe they weren’t talking about repenting from all sin? Wasn’t a thief or fornicator acting in faith, when making specific and public confession of their offenses at the river Jordan because convicted by God of their sins? Isn’t repentance made possible because one has been turned from unbelief by God, Who has opened their eyes to see their condition by faith? There is much more to salvation than “simply repenting of unbelief,” according to the Word of God:
“But if the wicked will turn from all his sins which he has committed, and keep all My statutes, and do justice and right, he shall surely live; he shall not die” (Ezekiel 18:21 MKJV).
This is one of the Scriptures Paul was talking about when he wrote:
“All Scripture is God-breathed, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfected, thoroughly furnished to every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16-17 MKJV).
So who is Hyles to contradict the Spirit of God and His testimony?
“If My people, who are called by My Name, shall humble themselves and pray, and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from Heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land” (2 Chronicles 7:14 MKJV).
“All unrighteousness is sin…” (1 John 5:17 MKJV).
Read Do Christians Sin?
As for receiving the Holy Spirit, that also comes by faith and obedience to God’s commandments:
“And we are His witnesses of these things. And so also is the Holy Spirit, Whom God has given to those who obey Him” (Acts 5:32 MKJV).
Only those who obey Him, that is, stop sinning (which is the breaking of His commandments), will receive His Spirit.
Consider what the Scriptures say of the first Gentiles to be baptized in His Spirit, in particular, Cornelius:
“A devout man, and one that feared God with all his house, which gave much alms to the people, and prayed to God always” (Acts 10:2 KJV).
Doesn’t sound like a sinner to me (that is, not one who wasn’t walking in repentance). Hyles’ gospel doesn’t stack up to Scriptural reality.
He then tells this whopper lie:
“The truth is, nobody can turn from all of his sins until he is raptured and he receives a body like the body of the Saviour.”
Jesus instructed the woman caught in adultery (John 8) and the lame man He healed (John 5:14) to sin no more. Why would Jesus tell them to do the impossible, as Hyles seems to suggest? While these things are impossible with men, repentance (cessation of sinning) is possible with God and is certainly required by Him. He provides the grace to those with faith to stop sinning. Read Grace – The Reality.
The reality of freedom from sin and deliverance from the sin nature comes by the grace of God and power of His Spirit indwelling us, not by a change of body:
Romans 8:1-14 MKJV
(1) There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.
(2) But the Law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.
(3) For what the Law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh;
(4) so that the righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.
(5) For they who are according to the flesh mind the things of flesh, but they who are according to the Spirit the things of the Spirit.
(6) For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace
(7) because the carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the Law of God, neither indeed can it be.
(8) So then they who are in the flesh cannot please God.
(9) But you are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone has not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His.
(10) And if Christ is in you, indeed the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.
(11) But if the Spirit of the One Who raised up Jesus from the dead dwells in you, the One Who raised up Christ from the dead shall also make your mortal bodies alive by His Spirit Who dwells in you.
(12) Therefore, brothers, we are not debtors to the flesh, to live according to the flesh.
(13) For if you live according to the flesh, you shall die. But if you through the Spirit mortify the deeds of the body, you shall live.
(14) For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.
And this reality is now, here in this life and world, for those walking with God in the new creation of His Spirit:
1 John 3:8-9 MKJV
(8) He who practices sin is of the Devil, for the Devil sins from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was revealed, that He might undo the works of the Devil.
(9) Everyone who has been born of God does not commit sin, because His seed remains in him, and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God.
The rapture doctrine of men is a doctrine of devils. Read Diabolical Doctrine: Rapture before the Great Tribulation.
For further instruction, read How One Is Saved.
Men like Hyles don’t teach the Bible properly because they don’t know the Author or what He is saying. And they don’t care to. They have the rewards they seek. Why, therefore, should you follow them, if it’s the Lord you seek? Or are other gods more important to you?
Yes, the apostle Paul talked about his battle with sin. He also declared victory through Jesus Christ:
Romans 7:24-25, 8:1-2 MKJV
(24) O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
(25) I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then with the mind I myself serve the Law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.
(1) There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
(2) But the Law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.
Do you really prefer sin? Then you’ll have its fruits – Hell and death – but if you prefer life in holiness and righteousness, you’ll look to the Lord for His salvation.