Topical Studies
Turning to Good
(From Forerunner Commentary)
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Amos 5:14-15 (Go to this verse :: Verse pop-up)
How can this calamity be averted? The solution is so simple and obvious that God seems to spend very little time on it within the book of Amos. In reality, every word of the book screams what Israel needed to do then—and needs to do today. "Seek good and not evil, that you may live; so the LORD God of hosts will be with you, as you have spoken. Hate evil, love good; establish justice in the gate." A person does not need to seek God if He has already revealed Himself to him. Thus, seek means "to turn" to Him in repentance, not necessarily "to look for." This is a way of saying, "Set aside your time and life for God." Seek in the Hebrew is imperative and has the force of a command. Seeking good, or seeking God (verse 4), is an act that we have to set ourselves to do; it is not a natural inclination (Romans 8:7). But it is worth the effort, for its product is life—not just physical existence, but life as God lives it (John 17:3). If we determine to seek good, and continue in it, the result—truly living!—will follow. Seeking the Lord produces godly life. In living by every word of God, we should notice the order in which He lists these commands: "Seek good and not evil. . . . Hate evil, love good." The action of turning to good precedes the emotions of hating evil and loving good. Holiness involves action and emotion: seeking and shunning, loving good and hating evil. He wants us to turn to the good and make it a target in our daily life. If we wait for God to infuse us with the right kind of feeling before we try to do good, then we will wait a long time because it will never come. We have to take action first by faith and the corresponding right feeling will follow. If holiness does not involve both action and emotion, it becomes something that we can put on and take off. We could hypocritically live one kind of life during the week, and on the Sabbath put on our holy look and go to services. Action and emotion combine to make a whole way of life. Holiness is not just a way of life or a rule to live by. It also produces the very best quality of life—the way God lives eternally. God's people have to think constantly of holiness, appreciating that He has chosen us out of this world and given us grace to be holy.
John W. Ritenbaugh
Prepare to Meet Your God! (The Book of Amos) (Part Two)
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Matthew 3:8 (Go to this verse :: Verse pop-up)
The original words in the Hebrew and Greek from which "repent" and "repentance" are translated, mean to turn, to change direction. And true repentance is exactly that. It is a complete about-face from disobedience toward God to obedience, love, and cooperation with Him. True "repentance" is coming to a full realization that we have rebelled against our Maker—against His way and His righteous law. It means that we come to abhor ourselves for our self-willed, rebellious, sinful past. We must be truly broken up and ready now, with God's help, to bury our old natures, quit sinning, quit rebelling, and submit to God with all our hearts. The time of repentance is the crisis of your life. It is the turning point in your entire destiny! When we are finally brought to real repentance, we mean business. We are ready, in every phase of our lives, to say: "Yes, Lord. Your will be done." In real repentance, we have become completely sick and tired of our own selfish ways. We are truly sorry for our sins—and we are ready and willing to make a permanent change. We are now ready to "turn around and go the other way"—God's way. Learning this great lesson of our own helplessness, misery and inadequacy apart from God is a vital step toward attaining the real purpose of our lives. Once we have learned this, our Creator can begin the process of creating spiritual character in us by placing within us His Holy Spirit—His nature—that will give us the spiritual power to conquer and overcome the inordinate Satan-inspired pulls of the mind and flesh.
What Is Real Repentance?
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Matthew 7:21 (Go to this verse :: Verse pop-up)
Notice what else Jesus says about people who want to worship Him without obedience to God's commands: "And in vain they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men. For laying aside the commandment of God, you hold the tradition of men. . . . All too well you reject the commandment of God, that you may keep your tradition" (Mark 7:7-9). Man would rather do almost anything else than surrender himself to God. His natural mind (Jeremiah 17:9; Romans 8:7-8) rebels at the thought of submitting to God's law. Therefore men have substituted their own laws and customs for God's commandments, thinking they can still receive salvation by only believing in Christ as their Savior. Human nature wants to be right, but it does not necessarily want to do right! So people often say, "Well, here's the way I look at it"—thus putting their concept of righteousness above the Bible. If it "looks right" to them, it becomes their law. This is nothing but self-righteousness. And we already know where doing what "seems right" to us will lead (Proverbs 14:12; 16:25), unless we repent of this kind of thinking. Clearly, no amount of human works can bring about the forgiveness of sin. Even the great sacrificial laws of the Old Testament could not bring about forgiveness and a clear conscience. They were only a type looking forward to the supreme sacrifice for sins—Jesus Christ—who was to come much later (Hebrews 9:9-14; 10:4-10). There is simply no way we can "make up" for our sins. Beads, indulgences, penance, fastings, or afflicting one's flesh in some other way will not erase the guilt of sin either. We cannot punish ourselves for sin, and thus avoid God's punishment. Only the sacrifice of Christ can pay that ultimate penalty. And the only way that sacrifice can be applied to blot out our sins is by accepting it and forsaking our past lives of disobedience—by repentance!
What Is Real Repentance?
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Acts 3:19 (Go to this verse :: Verse pop-up)
God tells us there is something we must do before He will apply the sacrifice of Christ to pay the penalty of our sins. We must demonstrate that we no longer wish to continue in the way of life which leads to eternal death. We do so by changing our way of living. That change of direction is called "repentance" in biblical terminology. But what, exactly, do we repent of? Sin! Actions and deeds that are contrary to God's law are simply defined as "sin." Sin is the violation or transgression of any of God's great spiritual laws. Notice the definition of sin in the Bible: "Whosoever commits sin transgresses also the law: for sin is the transgression [breaking] of the law" (I John 3:4). Sin, however, is not always a wrong deed. Sometimes we sin by not doing what is right or good. "Therefore to him that knows to do good, and does it not, to him it is sin" (James 4:17). To repent of sin, then, simply means to "change direction." We turn from the way of self-indulgence and "get" to the way of "give." We stop serving the inordinate lusts of our own flesh and begin to serve others. We turn from selfishness to selflessness. When we begin demonstrating our willingness to change and ask God to forgive our past way of life, He applies the sacrifice of Christ on our behalf. We are then freed from the crushing guilt of sin and its penalty. We are forgiven and our conscience is cleared. The penalty of sin—eternal death—no longer hangs over our head. Paul explained it this way: "How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?" (Hebrews 9:14).
What Is Real Repentance?
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