Bible Doctrine

Once Saved, Always Saved And Sealed Until The Day Of Redemption According To The Bible Doctrine Of Eternal Security For Church Age Christians

Scoffers who disallow the eternal security that the bible clearly teaches mockingly say that the doctrine of eternal security is a license to sin, and that is completely untrue. Eternal security is a promise from God to keep those that are His, and as such it is a great comfort to all true believers.

Published

10 years ago

August 5, 2015

Geoffrey Grider

Once Saved, Always Saved And Sealed Until The Day Of Redemption According To The Bible Doctrine Of Eternal Security For Church Age Christians

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That is the state of the true believer in Jesus Christ, that we are part of His flesh, a part of His bones. He is not only holding us in His hands, we are grafted into His very body. Nothing exists in this universe or any other that is capable of undoing that.

In Christian circles, the topic of eternal security is a hotly-debated subject. But we are not so much interested in man’s opinion as we are in what the bible has to say about Eternal Security. So any sincere treatise on eternal security must first start with a look at salvation, and how it is accomplished.

“My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand. I and my Father are one. “ John 10:27-30 (KJV)

**Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved**

The Lord is gracious, and good to us, much better than we deserve. He is so good to us, that He made sure to make the process by which one is saved unbelievably simple to understand, and simple to do. As I read my bible, I see that there is one thing and one thing only that one must do to be saved, as shown here in Acts 16:

“And brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.” Acts 16:30,31 (KJV)

That’s truly all there is to it – an honest and sincere belief within yourself that Jesus is who He said He is, that He is THE Way, THE Truth and THE Life. It’s not complicated, and God purposely set it up that way to make it easy for us. All the work of salvation was done by Jesus Himself. He took upon Himself the punishment for our sins as well as the sins themselves, and went to the cross and paid for every sin that would ever be committed throughout history.

“For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” Romans 10:13 (KJV)

And when you, by faith, BELIEVE that sincerely in your heart, then the price He paid is applied to YOUR sin debt, and your salvation is secured forever. In fact, the bible says that you are not simply secure, but also “sealed” until the Day of redemption. Salvation is a transaction you make between you and Jesus. You give Him your sins, past, present and future, and in exchange He gives you His righteousness. You are exchanging your lost state for His redemptive work on the cross at Calvary. Once this transaction is complete, it can never be undone. Why? Because your salvation is in HIS HANDS, not your hands. You are SEALED IN, and not let to your own goodness to “stay saved”.

You are eternally secure because you have been sealed at salvation

“That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ. In whom ye also [trusted], after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise, Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.” Ephesians 1:12-14 (KJV)

You are not kept saved because of your good works, or because you read your bible, or because you’re nice to people, or anything else. You are saved by the work of Jesus Christ on the cross and His resurrection, and sealed by the power of the Holy Spirit at the moment of salvation. This makes sense as you did nothing to earn your salvation, so why would you think you could do anything to keep it? Jesus is the Good Shepherd, and as such the responsibility to keep all the sheep safe are His, not the sheep’s. The whole reason why sheep need a Shepherd is because they cannot do it themselves.

Forever Safe in the Master’s Hands

One of the strongest passages for eternal security is found in the gospel of John, chapter 10, where we read this –

“I am the good shepherd, and know my [sheep], and am known of mine. As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father: and I lay down my life for the sheep. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no [man] is able to pluck [them] out of my Father’s hand. I and my Father are one.” John 10 (KJV)

Please go back and reread that passage selection, and let His words and promise to keep to safe eternally sink down deep into your ears, and into your hearts. Jesus promises here that once you are in His Hand, nothing, nothing, nothing anyone can do can put you out of it. He says that “neither shall ANY” take you out. Thats everyone. That includes all external forces like the world, the flesh and the Devil, and internal forces like ourselves. Now if your church teaches something different, don’t get mad at us. We are just going by what the bible says.

And not only are we safe in the hands of God eternally, we are more than just “in his hand”, we are also part of His body.

“For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church.” Ephesians 5:30-32 (KJV)

That is the state of the true believer in Jesus Christ, that we are part of His flesh, a part of His bones. He is not only holding us in His hands, we are grafted into His very body. Nothing exists in this universe or any other that is capable of undoing that. You think you can sin your way out? How? ALL your sins are already paid for at Calvary. All of them. But there is one thing that you can lose, and that is fellowship with our Lord.

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Sealed Until The Day Of Redemption

When we become saved, there is also another action that takes place that many Christians who do not study their bible may not be aware of. The sealing of the believer so that they can never fall away. Please note the following verses that discuss the sealing of the believer:

“In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise, Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.” Ephesians 1:13,14 (KJV)

“And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.” Ephesians 4:30 (KJV)

“For all the promises of God in him are yea, and in him Amen, unto the glory of God by us. Now he which stablisheth us with you in Christ, and hath anointed us, is God; Who hath also sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts.” 2 Corinthians 1:20-22 (KJV)

Read those verse very carefully, can you see that you are sealed? Remember when Noah and his family got into the ark, what did God do? He sealed them in so they couldn’t change their mind once the journey got rough. And it got very rough.

Thats how much God loves us, He has given us a complete salvation. Not a salvation that is part His works and part your works. Thats not biblical salvation by a long shot.

Fellowship and the Judgement Seat of Christ

Scoffers who disallow the eternal security that the bible clearly teaches mockingly say that the doctrine of eternal security is a license to sin, and that is completely untrue. Eternal security is a promise from God to keep those that are His, and as such it is a great comfort to all true believers. But a license to sin? God forbid. If the Christian backslides and becomes a prodigal son, there is something that they absolutely lose for a time, and that is fellowship with the Lord. Note the following on the prodigal son –

“And not many days after the younger son gathered all together, and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living.” Luke 15:13 (KJV)

When the prodigal son took his inheritance and went out to revel in sin, the first thing he had to do was to leave his father’s house. The father would not keep him there against his will, that’s not love. If you, as a believer in Jesus, backslide and go out into the world, you are free to do so. The son wanted to go join the world, the father whom we can imagine with tears in his eyes, let him go have at it. And Luke goes on to describe the sins that the son fell into. But all the while that the son was engaged in sin, he lost the sweet, intimate fellowship he had with his father. But when did he stop being his father’s son? Never.

We all know the story…he spends all his money on booze, whores, nightclubs, dancing and whatever else he could find, until he has nothing. His new-found friends turn on him, he’s broke, hungry, and winds up feeding the pigs when all of a sudden he has an idea –

“And when he came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my father’s have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee, And am no more worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants.” Luke 15:17-19 (KJV)

What’s his great idea? To return to where is is truly and eternally loved…in his father’s house. So he shakes the dust off and returns at full speed to find his father. And what does he find when he gets back to his father’s house? He finds this –

“And he arose, and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him.” Luke 15:20 (KJV)

He ran back to find his father only to discover that the father was already looking for him to return, and when he did come back it was a joyous reunion with a full restoration of fellowship. But he lost a few things along the way. He took his inheritance and wasted it. He lost his testimony. And he lost all that time that he could have been with his father. But he did not lose his position as his father’s son, that is eternally secure. Another reason that the true believer in Jesus Christ knows that eternal security is not a license to sin is the Judgment Seat of Christ.

“For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad. Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men; but we are made manifest unto God; and I trust also are made manifest in your consciences.” 2 Corinthians 5:10,11 (KJV)

When we stand before the Lord, we will be judged on how we lived our lives, the things we said and the things we did, as it says in Matthew –

“But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment.” Matthew 12:36 (KJV)

The bible says that even as saved Christians, we will sin again. But the Christian who falls into a sin is sealed, and while they may lose fellowship with the Lord, like the prodigal they remain sons and daughters of the Father. Charles Spurgeon said it like this –

“When he was yet a great way off, his father saw him.” It was not with icy eyes that the father looked on his returning son. Love leaped into them, and as he beheld him, he “had compassion on him”; that is, he felt for him. There was no anger in his heart toward his son; he had nothing but pity for his poor boy, who had got into such a pitiable condition. It was true that it was all his own fault, but that did not come before his father’s mind. It was the state that he was in, his poverty, his degradation, that pale face of his so wan with hunger, that touched his father to the quick. And God has compassion on the woes and miseries of men.

They may have brought their troubles on themselves, and they have indeed done so; but nevertheless God has compassion upon them. “It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not.” We read that the father “ran.” The compassion of God is followed by swift movements. He is slow to anger, but He is quick to bless. He does not take any time to consider how He shall show His love to penitent prodigals; that was all done long ago in the eternal covenant. He has no need to prepare for their return to Him; that was done on Calvary. God comes flying in the greatness of His compassion to help every poor penitent soul.” Spurgeon Archive

It is the heart’s desire of every blood-bought believer in Jesus Christ to live right, think right, do right and be right. But when we fall short, as we all will do to varying degrees, the bible assures and reassures us that our loving, Heavenly Father is waiting for us with kisses, and full restoration to fellowship with Him, if we will only repent of the sin that dragged us down, and run with all abandon back to the Father’s house.

There is so much more to teach on this topic, but for now grasp by faith the simple and amazing promise of God towards us to never, ever let us go.

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Bible Doctrine

Don’t Be Fooled Into Observing Phony Roman Catholic ‘Holy Week’ Rituals Like Easter, Here Is What Actually Happened To Jesus During His Week Of Passion

Published

33 minutes ago

April 15, 2025

Geoffrey Grider

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The weeklong passion of Jesus and the Easter Holy Week of the Roman Catholic Church have very little in common if truth and accuracy are of any value to you

For starters, we call it Passion Week because ‘passion’ is the term the Bible gives the events that took placed during that time, and it lasted from Sunday to Sunday. The Roman Catholic Church calls it ‘Holy Week’, sounds about the same, right? It does, until you come to realization that the path the Roman Church takes you down is not the path that Jesus walked.

“To whom also he shewed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God:” Acts 1:3 (KJB)

The apologist site Catholic Answers says this about ‘holy week’: “Holy Week is the most sacred seven days each year in the Catholic Church. It encompasses the crescendo of Lent, the sorrow of Good Friday, and the joy of the Easter Vigil which commences the celebration of Easter Sunday. There are many other rich traditions and key events during the week, from Jesus’s institution of the Eucharist at the Last Supper on Holy Thursday to the solemn events of Good Friday, including the Stations of the Cross.” source

So what’s wrong with that? Plenty. In the Bible, there is no Lent, there is no Good Friday, and the only people celebrating Easter are the pagan Romans like Herod who killed Christians. It breaks my heart seeing Baptist churches putting up signs for ‘holy week’, and ‘come celebrate Good Friday with us’, proving just how hard it is to extricate yourself from the grip of Mother Rome, even for Baptists. That’s why I wrote the handy, little guide showing you the Bible truth about the week-long passion of Jesus Christ. For extra credit, please also read ‘Lent Is Taken From The Babylonian Practice Of Weeping For Tammuz’, and ‘Good Friday’ Is A Roman Catholic Invention, The Bible Says Jesus Went To The Cross On A Wednesday’ Hope it’s a blessing, enjoy and share!

The Two Babylons

For a detailed and eye-opening look at the actual origins of pagan practices like Easter and Lent, we highly recommend you purchase of copy of The Two Babylons and see where the Roman perversion of Easter comes from.

The Passion Week Of Jesus

SUNDAY: “And the multitudes that went before, and that followed, cried, saying, Hosanna to the Son of David: Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest.” Matthew 21:9 (KJB) Here we have the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy from places like Zechariah 9:9 (KJB) showing you what will turn out to be, one day, the Second Advent of Jesus Christ where the literal, physical and literal Kingdom of Heaven will be established on this earth. Jesus the King of the Kingdom of Heaven, riding on the ass, and Jesus King of the Kingdom of God, made possible by His death on the cross. The so-called ‘Palm Sunday’ is actually a presentation of the entire Bible. From here Jesus goes to the Temple and flips over the tables of the moneychangers, and heals the blind and the lame. All this happens on that Sunday.
MONDAY: “Now in the morning as he returned into the city, he hungered.” Matthew 21:18 (KJB) All day Monday, Jesus preaches and teaches the people, prophesying what is about to befall the Jews and the nation of Israel. On Sunday He was presented as a King, here on Monday He is presented as a Prophet. “But when they sought to lay hands on him, they feared the multitude, because they took him for a prophet.” Matthew 21:46 (KJB) When Jesus goes to the cross two days from now, He will be presented as a Priest. “Ye know that after two days is the feast of the passover, and the Son of man is betrayed to be crucified.” Matthew 26:2 (KJB)
TUESDAY: “Now when Jesus was in Bethany, in the house of Simon the leper, There came unto him a woman having an alabaster box of very precious ointment, and poured it on his head, as he sat at meat. For in that she hath poured this ointment on my body, she did it for my burial.” Matthew 26:6,7,12 (KJB) Mary of Bethany, sister to Martha and that Lazarus Jesus raised from the dead, is seen here anointing the body of Jesus in anticipation of His death and burial. The devil Judas hates it and tries to stop her from doing it, but to no avail. Now everything is in place for the last supper the disciples will have with the Lord in the upper room.
WEDNESDAY: “Now the first day of the feast of unleavened bread the disciples came to Jesus, saying unto him, Where wilt thou that we prepare for thee to eat the passover?” Matthew 26:17 (KJB) The number one thing you must keep in mind is that the Jewish day starts at sundown. When does the Jewish ‘Saturday sabbath’ begin? It starts at sundown on Friday evening. So when Jesus and the disciples are in the upper room at night, it is the beginning of the day not the end of it. It is in this 12-hour period on Wednesday (at night on our Tuesday), that the events of the last supper, betrayal and arrest of Jesus will take place. When the sun comes up, it is still the same day, on the Hebrew calendar, that started the previous evening. It is here on Wednesday morning at around 9 AM, that Jesus will be crucified. He will be dead by approximately 3 PM later that same day.
THURSDAY – DAY ONE: “The Jews therefore, because it was the preparation, that the bodies should not remain upon the cross on the sabbath day, (for that sabbath day was an high day,) besought Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away.” John 19:31 (KJB) This is DAY ONE of the 3 days and 3 nights that the body of Jesus will be in the grave. It is also a special High Sabbath, not to be confused with the upcoming regular Saturday sabbath.
FRIDAY – DAY TWO: “And when the sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome, had bought sweet spices, that they might come and anoint him.” Mark 16:1 (KJB) The women come and anoint the body of Jesus after the High Sabbath and before the Saturday sabbath. This is DAY TWO of the 3 days and 3 nights the body of Jesus will be in the grave.
SATURDAY – DAY THREE: “And they returned, and prepared spices and ointments; and rested the sabbath day according to the commandment.” Luke 23:56 (KJB) As we said before, this anointing of the body takes place between two different sabbath days. This is DAY THREE of the 3 days and 3 nights the body of Jesus will be in the grave. You will note that three consecutive 24-hour days, as a day is defined in Genesis 1, have now taken place. You will further note that this is only possible by starting our clock on Wednesday and not “good” Friday, which is not possible.
SUNDAY: “In the end of the sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulchre. And, behold, there was a great earthquake: for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat upon it. His countenance was like lightning, and his raiment white as snow: And for fear of him the keepers did shake, and became as dead men. And the angel answered and said unto the women, Fear not ye: for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified. He is not here: for he is risen, as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay.” Matthew 28:1-6 (KJB) Remember how we showed you that the Jewish day on the Hebrew calendar begins at sundown? Ok, so the Saturday sabbath that began Sunday on Friday is now coming to an end at sundown on Saturday. Sunday is starting, and it is here, sometime between now and the sunrise of the next day, that Jesus will have risen from the dead. The Bible says that as the sun was coming up, Jesus was already up. This is not Easter, this is the biblical resurrection day of the ever-living God, Jesus the Christ.

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“Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;” Titus 2:13 (KJB)

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Bible Doctrine

King Cyrus Had A Biblical Mandate To Authorize The Rebuilding Of The Temple In Jerusalem, President Donald Trump Does Not, And That’s A Huge Problem

Published

2 months ago

February 18, 2025

Geoffrey Grider

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King Cyrus had a biblical mandate from God to rebuild Jerusalem and the Temple, no such mandate exists in the Church Age with Donald Trump. Any Temple built before the Second Advent will be for Antichrist

American president Donald Trump is making momentous changes that will have a global impact, he has only been in office for 28 days, but off to a furious start. One of the things he has said he will take control of is Gaza and the West Bank to the north of Israel proper. It remains to be seen if he can actually do that, but he certainly wants to. In the midst of all this, predictably, comes talk of Trump making it possible for the Jews to rebuild their Temple in Jerusalem. To that point, many are calling Trump a modern-day King Cyrus, a nice sentiment and certainly a compliment, but quite impossible if you believe the Bible.

“That saith of Cyrus, He is my shepherd, and shall perform all my pleasure: even saying to Jerusalem, Thou shalt be built; and to the temple, Thy foundation shall be laid.” Isaiah 44:28 (KJB)

One of the most astonishing prophecies anywhere in the Old Testament of your King James Bible, outside of those concerning the birth of Jesus, would have to be the foretelling of a king named Cyrus whom God would use to help the Jews rebuild the city of Jerusalem and the Temple after the events of the 70 years of Babylonian captivity. Isaiah makes this amazing prophecy roughly 250 years before Cyrus, who would grow up to be king over the Persian empire, authorized the Jews to go back and begin the rebuilding process. We read about that in 2 Chronicles.

“Thus saith Cyrus king of Persia, All the kingdoms of the earth hath the LORD God of heaven given me; and he hath charged me to build him an house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Who is there among you of all his people? The LORD his God be with him, and let him go up.” 2 Chronicles 36:23 (KJB)

So the first point I would like to make for you to consider in any conversation regarding the rebuilding of the Temple in Jerusalem is that there must needs be authorization from God to build it. King David wanted to do it, but God wouldn’t let him because he had shed too much blood. Instead the LORD chose his son Solomon to build the House of the LORD.

“And when thy days be fulfilled, and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, I will set up thy seed after thee, which shall proceed out of thy bowels, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build an house for my name, and I will stablish the throne of his kingdom for ever.” 2 Samuel 7:12,13 (KJB)

The Temple built by King Solomon was authorized by God, the rebuilding of that Temple at the decree of King Cyrus was authorized by God, and the Temple in which King Jesus will rule and reign with also be, obviously, authorized by God. Chapters 40-48 in the book of Ezekiel lay it all out for you to read.

“And the man said unto me, Son of man, behold with thine eyes, and hear with thine ears, and set thine heart upon all that I shall shew thee; for to the intent that I might shew them unto thee art thou brought hither: declare all that thou seest to the house of Israel.” Ezekiel 40:4 (KJB)

Do you see the problem? The Bible accounts for the first Temple, second Temple and the last Temple, but gives no instructions, decrees, commands or charges for any Jew to build the Temple that will exist during the time of Jacob’s trouble. We know that it will be rebuilt because we see it standing in the book of Revelation at the start of the Great Tribulation, the midpoint of the 7-year time of Jacob’s trouble.

“And there was given me a reed like unto a rod: and the angel stood, saying, Rise, and measure the temple of God, and the altar, and them that worship therein. But the court which is without the temple leave out, and measure it not; for it is given unto the Gentiles: and the holy city shall they tread under foot forty and two months. And I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth.” Revelation 11:1-3 (KJB)

A casual reading of those verses might tempt you to think that Revelation 11 is talking about the Temple of God as in the LORD God of Heaven, but you might want to cross-reference that with these verses before you come to any hasty conclusions.

“Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.” 2 Thessalonians 2:3,4 (KJB)

Antichrist does not come as a god, he comes as the God Almighty and deceives the whole world who is now under the strong delusion in the days after the Pretribulation Rapture of the Church takes place. Paul is clearly showing us that Antichrist, as God, claims the rebuilt Temple as his own, just as Jesus warns about in Matthew. And guess what? The actual God gives Antichrist the whole thing lock, stock and barrel.

“When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:)” Matthew 24:15 (KJB)

What does all this mean for us here in the closing hours of the Church Age? It means that any Temple that is built in Jerusalem before the Second Advent will be the Temple in which Antichrist will be worshipped. That is a non-negotiable fact if you believe the Bible. Donald Trump has no authority from God, and neither does anyone else, to build God’s Temple in His Holy City of Jerusalem. If a Temple is built, and you just may see that happen before the Rapture, it will be the Temple of Antichrist.

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“Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;” Titus 2:13 (KJB)

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Bible Doctrine

Clearing Up The Confusion That Many Christians Have Regarding The Role That Repentance Absolutely Does Play In Your Salvation In The Church Age

Published

7 months ago

September 17, 2024

Geoffrey Grider

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Biblical repentance toward God unto salvation is the repenting of your disbelief in Jesus Christ as the only begotten Son of God

The role that repentance plays in salvation for born again believers in the Church Age is one of those topics that always seems to create a controversy, and that need not be. God has given us the tool of rightly dividing the scriptures we read for situations just like this. Paul says we are saved by grace through faith, and he says that repentance is necessary in the salvation of a sinner. The question becomes then, what type of repentance is Paul talking about? What, wait…there’s more than one? Yep.

“Testifying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.” Acts 20:21 (KJB)

In the Church Age, there are no works attached to or associated with a lost sinner becoming born again, it is all a work of the LORD. He provides the salvation with Himself crucified in your place on the cross at Calvary, He shed His Blood for the payment for your sin, and it is presented to you as a free gift. Case closed. Baptism does not saved you, the sacraments do not save you, the eucharist does not save you, Mary does not saved you. It is all of Jesus. There is just one problem, though, like the thief on the cross, the lost sinner is lost because he or she does not believe the good news of the gospel that Jesus Christ was crucified, died, buried and rose again on the third day according to the scriptures. It is their disbelief that is keeping them from getting saved, not their sins. Jesus died for your sins, He wants your sins, but your disbelief has to be shed by you.

“Now it was not written for his sake alone, that it was imputed to him; But for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead; Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification.” Romans 4:23-25 (KJB)

Jesus was crucified between two thieves, both of whom mocked and insulted Jesus as they all were up on their respective crosses. Both those thieves mocked and reviled Him equally, in the beginning.

“Let Christ the King of Israel descend now from the cross, that we may see and believe. And they that were crucified with him reviled him.” Mark 15:32 (KJB)

But then a change took place in the heart of one of the thieves, after thoughtfully and carefully considering the entirety of the scene playing out before him in real time, he repented. Not of his crimes, not of his sins, and not by making restitution at all to anyone. But what he did do was to repent of his disbelief in Jesus Christ. That was not a work, it is simply a change of mind, which not coincidentally is the definition of the word ‘repentance’ according to Jonah 3:10. The work is of God.

“Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.” John 6:29 (KJB)

When a lost sinner repents of their disbelief in Jesus, they go from rejecting the gospel to believing the gospel, and when they do, they receive the free gift of God’s salvation. For me, that happened a few minutes to midnight on March 14th back in 1991. When did that take place for you? If you are saved, then you should be able to point to a place and time where you believed the gospel and became saved. If you can’t, that’s a problem. No one in the Church Age is born saved, no one is saved because their granddaddy was a preacher, or because you were raised on the mission field, or because you ‘just always knew that you were’. No one is saved against their will, or without their knowledge. Unless you are a very small child, mentally incapable or some other situation that Romans 5:13 points to, you did not get saved without first repenting of your disbelief and believing on the Lord Jesus Christ.

“And brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.” Acts 16:30,31 (KJB)

So what about repenting of your sins? Glad you asked! After a soul gets saved, then repentance of and from personal sin becomes a vital, daily part of our walk with the Lord. Make no mistake about it, when you got saved you were given God’s imputed righteousness for your soul and you became born again in your spirit. But your body did not, and there’s the battle. There is no such as a sinner who gets saved who never again commits sin, that is a lie of the Devil. No sin you commit is held to your account that is true, from an eternal perspective, but a saved sinner here on Earth absolutely commits sin after salvation. God has provided the remedy for that as well.

“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.” 1 John 1:9,10 (KJB)

We hope this short little Bible study on the two types of repentance involved in salvation clears up some of the confusion surrounding this needlessly controversial subject. As with most other doctrines in your King James Bible, rightly dividing works every time. In Part #2, we will show you how after the Church Age, people will get saved by belief in Jesus and kept saved by enduring to the end with their works. A whole different ball game.