Monday, February 11, 2008

Surrender, Repentance and Faith

QUESTION
Properly understood and applied, surrender, repentance, and faith describe how to establish a relationship with the living God. However, if any one of the three is emphasized to the neglect of the others, there is a problem and possibly a misleading interpretation of the Gospel. If faith alone is emphasized, one can move to an "easy believism." If surrender is overly emphasized, one can move to legalism. And finally, emphasizing repentance alone can lead to a works salvation. In sharing our faith, we should listen carefully to hear these three facets, regardless of the words that are being used. What do you think?

ANSWER
The statement is right on when it shows the need for all three. We cannot just have one or the other, it is imperative that we include all three when we share the gospel. In explaining the good news we must remember that Christ calls us to Surrender our lives and living sacrifices to Him, Christ calls us to repent and become forgiven, and Christ calls us to have faith that can move mountains. So how we might communicate this to a person who is seeking Christ is: God calls you to give your entire world to Him, this doesn't mean that you can't come as you are, but what this means is that you must be willing to let God have control over your finances, job, worries, prayers, etc. Next, the Lord asks us to repent for what we have done against God so that we can be cleansed by Christ. Repentance is something that is continual, even as a follower of Christ you will make mistakes and sin and in those times God calls us to repent and be reconciled with Him. Lastly, Faith is important because without it the first two (surrender and repentance) are hard to fulfill. If you are constantly doubting what you believe then it will be hard to see any reason to surrender your life and repent when you do wrong. Jesus tells Thomas to "stop doubting and believe." Later in John 20 Jesus tells Thomas "because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed." All three of these principals are tattooed throughout the gospel as they should be tattooed in our lives.

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