In Hebrews chapter 10 and verse 9, Paul is stating an imperative truth. “Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second.” This truth is absolutely necessary to our understanding of the scriptures. He tells us what our Lord did when He came into the world to do the will of the Father. In Christ’s perfect life and perfectly effectual death He fulfilled every jot and tittle of the law. He fulfilled all the precepts of the civil, ceremonial and moral law of God. He completely accomplished every type, shadow, prophecy and promise of the first (revealed) covenant. Our Lord did this in order to establish the second (revealed) covenant, commonly referred to as the covenant of grace or the eternal covenant. Having accomplished every aspect of the old covenant, according to this text, He set that covenant aside. He took it away. That grand old holy thing had done its job, fulfilled its purpose in the glorious scheme of God’s history. Now our Lord has retired it from active duty. It is no longer in effect. The fact is that this was pictured in type in the Old Testament. Moses was the representative of the old covenant, and biblical history tells us that God put Moses to death, buried him in a secret grave somewhere outside the promised land and it is further revealed that the only person interested in the whereabouts of that grave is Satan. (Jude 9).
Concerning that old covenant, it was given to an elect people, chosen by the arbitrary decree of God. This nation was made up of the descendants of one man, a Gentile named Abraham. This old covenant was not given to Abraham but rather to his lineage some four hundred thirty years later. God did establish a covenant with Abraham. It was a covenant of promise and was an early revelation of the covenant of grace. This covenant that God established with Abraham concerned the seed of Abraham that, according to Paul’s letter to the Galatians, is Christ and all who believe on Christ (Galatians 3:16, 29). Abraham was neither a Jew nor an Israelite. He was a Gentile who is referred to as the father of the faithful. Abraham’s true lineage is spiritual and is traced through his miraculously born son Isaac (Romans 9: 6-7; Galatians 4:22-28). Isaac’s son Jacob was renamed Israel and his twelve sons were called the children of Israel. The nation of Israel, descendants of these twelve sons, was formed in captivity in the land of Goshen over a period or four hundred years. The token of their relationship to God was circumcision, a symbolic act given to Abraham that pictured a spiritual principle of the heart (Deuteronomy 10:16; Romans 2:28-29; Philippians 3:3). Later, under the covenant established at Sinai, this lovely symbolically spiritual practice was diminished to convey human righteousness (Romans 2: 25-26).
This nation’s worship, prior to the covenant given on Sinai, evidently consisted of the offering of blood sacrifices to God. There is no record of Abraham, Jacob or any of the Children of Israel ever keeping the Sabbath or any other law save circumcision and sacrifice prior to Sinai. Until Sinai there was no priesthood, no high priest, no tabernacle and no temple. There was only the blood of the Lamb. The name “Jew” is first mentioned sometime during the reign of Jotham in Judah. The word “Jew” means a descendant of Jehudah or Judah. This is spiritually significant because Judah pictures Christ in Genesis 49: 8-12 and Christ is said to be a priest from the tribe of Judah in Hebrews 7:14.
When God established the Sinai covenant on the mount, what did He give to this nation of Israel? He gave them a religion consisting of a covenant of works. Jews are not a race, but rather a religion. According to scripture, under that religion no one was ever saved, no sin was ever remitted, God’s justice was never satisfied nor was He ever pleased (Hebrews 10:1-5). Under that covenant, not one sinner was ever redeemed, justified or sanctified! That covenant was a covenant between God and men. It was a covenant given to fallen men. That covenant revealed what religion is when practiced by fallen men and that by design (I Corinthians 1:21). That covenant is the religion of fallen men. That same religion, though it yet has no saving value, is still the religion of fallen men today. That covenant, that religion was not then, nor is it now, designed to save, give life or make a person accepted with God.
The covenant given on Sinai to the nation Israel was a conditional covenant. This means that the promise of blessing was conditioned upon the individual’s or group’s active obedience to the requirements of the covenant. For example, prosperity, having stuff, collecting stuff and keeping stuff was contingent upon paying a ten per-cent tax (tithe) of all of that a person possessed. The good life, yea life itself, was conditioned upon total rest, performing no servile work on Saturday. Long life was conditioned upon obedience to parents. Being righteous was conditioned upon personal obedience to the precepts of the Law, as Hannah said of God in her prayer, “for the LORD is a God of knowledge, and by him actions are weighed”.
It does not require a great stretch of the imagination to see that this religion is, yet today, the religion of fallen men. Though, through the centuries, this religion has taken on divers names, impressive titles, and denominations with regional taboos, it has nonetheless flourished. However, whether it is called Christian, Baptist, Islam, Mormon, Fundamentalism, reformed-whatever, or any of the other myriad of monikers, it yet remains the religion of fallen men. Though the names have been changed to project the innocence, the language has not changed. Men actually stand behind pulpits and say, “Tithe and God will bless you and if you don’t God will take it out in hospital bills”. The pusillanimous pulpiteers of this day actually promise blessing from God if someone will but apply the concepts if “seed faith”. What then is the natural, reasonable conclusion of fallen men who are fed a steady diet of this religious rubbish? Is it not obvious? The only conclusion that can be reached is that if a person does something for God, then God will, in turn, do something for that person. If someone obeys the precepts of the covenant then God will accept him or her. The Old Testament is replete with such conditional statements. One prime example is a text often used by revivalists to get folks to act in a moral manner. In II Chronicles 7:14 our Lord said, “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.” Clearly, under the covenant in which these words were spoken, the natural conclusion would be that “If I do something, then God will do something”. It is very logical and wholly reasonable to come to the conclusion that by obeying the precepts of the covenant, a person recommends himself to God.
Keeping these things in mind, let us consider the doctrine of repentance. Repentance is an absolute in the matter of salvation. Our Lord makes that very clear in His word. Matthew 9: 13 “But go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice: for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” Luke 13:3 “I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.” Luke 24: 47 “And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.” Acts 5: 31 “Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins.” Acts 11: 18 “When they heard these things, they held their peace, and glorified God, saying, Then hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life.” Acts 17: 30 “And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent:” Acts 20: 20-21 “And how I kept back nothing that was profitable unto you, but have showed you, and have taught you publicly, and from house to house, Testifying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.” II Peter 3: 9 “The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.”
What comes to mind when you think of repentance? Generally speaking, most religious folk hold that repentance means to turn, usually from a bad activity or behavior to a good one. In truth, this is more indicative of reform than of repentance. However, under the old covenant, which is fallen man’s religion, the word “turn’ does mean repent. It does not mean to change a person, but rather a behavior or direction. According to the old covenant principles, the one who does the turning may correctly assume that the act performed recommends that person to God. Turning or repentance in this sense, and only in this sense, is actually attributed to God in the Old Testament. In the days of Noah it is said of God that “It repented God that He had made man.” Though God did not change, he did change His direction, or behavior toward man. He “turned” from giving men air to breathe and instead gave men water to inhale. Many times our Lord told His people under the old covenant to turn and He would bless them. Remember, however that the old covenant is gone, no longer in effect. Christ has fulfilled it, and having been fulfilled, it has accomplished its purpose. It is now set aside and another has been established in its place. Whereas under that old covenant repentance meant, “to turn”, under this new covenant repentance means “a radical change of mind”. If, under the new covenant, behavior or direction is changed, that change is a result of a person’s mind and heart being changed. “And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.”
Most of what is called repentance today knows nothing of New Testament repentance! Today’s repentance, by and large, is the repentance found in the religion of fallen man. Involved in this repentance is stopping or turning from some socially unacceptable activity or behavior, usually in a religious manner, and calling that behavior modification “repentance”. This notion has succeeded in creating a new class of people that I like to call the “Generation X”. These folk can be readily seen on the podiums and behind the pulpits of large religious crusades. They are “X”-drunks, “X”-prostitutes, “X”-drug addicts, “X”- gamblers, “X” -people who have reformed their lives, turned from former behaviors and adopted new, more acceptable behaviors. They have made real reformations that they call “repentance”. This “repentance” consists of turning from immoral to moral behavior, and this is commendable. It is not, however, true repentance. True repentance at its core is not a moral issue. It will produce moral consequences, but only as a result of true repentance. Old Testament repentance is legal, moral, religious, visible and palpable and is exactly what the religion of fallen men espouses today. The person who has reformed, turned his life around, got religion and has changed his life style from unacceptable behavior to acceptable behavior has performed Old Covenant repentance, and properly believes (under the precepts of that Old Covenant) that he has repented and therefore recommended himself to God. This fact is manifest in the responses that are given when a lost person is spoken to concerning salvation. How many times have you invited someone to worship and they said something like “I will, just as soon as I straighten up” or “I need to clean up my life first, then I’ll come”? What are they saying? They are saying that they must do something to recommend themselves to God. They are espousing the religion of fallen man’s concept of repentance. Allow me to give a personal illustration. When I was in the Air force during the late 60’s I was accustomed to drinking alcohol on a regular basis. When the time came for me to muster out of the service, knowing I was going to return to my home and the religion of my youth, I decided to give up drinking. Now when I was drinking, I never thought that doing so recommended me to God. However, when I decided to reform and stop that unacceptable behavior, I believed that the moral leaf I had turned over would indeed recommend me to God. Where did this notion come from? It was born of the natural, Old Covenant religion under which I was reared. I believed that what I did made me accepted with God. Needless to say, I was in a more dangerous state thinking that God accepted because I had stopped drinking than when I knew God did not accept me because I was drinking. This erroneous thinking is the tool of freewill, works religion. Its design is to tame and control men’s behavior and to name that activity “preaching repentance”. I refer to this “binding and taming” aspect of legal religion as “whip or biscuit” theology. Religious people are kept in check with the “whip” which is holding forth the punishment of the law for disobedience. The primary cord with which this whip is platted is guilt. This preaching is designed to operate on the conscience not on the heart. The “biscuit” is holding forth blessings (i.e. health, wealth, and lots of stuff) as reward for proper behavior. The result is that the dumb mules of defunct religion follow the “carrot-on-a-stick” of perverted promise all the way to the glue factory of perdition, all the while braying that they have repented. It is precisely this repentance that needs to be repented of!
What, then, is New Testament repentance? What is this radical change of Mind? When our Lord began to teach men about the Law and sin, He revealed to them that actions (behavior) were but symptoms of Man’s true problem. (Read Matthew 5:21,22,27-28). When His disciples had trouble with the concept of outward acts, our Lord revealed to them that man’s actions were but a manifestation of the desires of his heart. Sins are symptoms of sin! (Read Mark 7:14-23). Sin is spiritual in nature; therefore true repentance must be spiritual in nature. What is this change of mind? About what is the mind changed? It stands to reason that if, under Old Covenant religion, one believes that their behavior does of does not recommend them to God, then true repentance is radically changing the mind about recommends one to God. True repentance is changing the mind about the basis upon which one is accepted of God. To believe that you recommend yourself to God by reformation, by conviction of conscience, by supposed meritorious suffering of doubts and fears concerning assurance, will cause you to alter behavior in order to remove defilement. This will result in repentance that “worketh death, bring forth fruit unto death, produces dead works and needs to be repented of”. (Romans 7:5; Hebrews 9: 14; II Corinthians 7:9-10).
“Now I rejoice, not that ye were made sorry, but that ye sorrowed to repentance: for ye were made sorry after a godly manner, that ye might receive damage by us in nothing. For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death.”
Since legal (Old Covenant) repentance does not produce this “godly sorrow”, what does? What, in fact, is this godly sorrow that is equated with true repentance? Remember that it has to do with what you thought recommended you to God (i.e. behavior, works, doing and undoing). True repentance is a radical change of mind concerning “your works”, “your reformations” and “your repentances” that you thought recommended you to God. True repentance is to count all of those things as abominations to God. It is to discount them, disown them and count them as dung. True repentance wholly, completely, precisely, emphatically embraces that which does recommend you to God. What is that? The only, absolutely only, singular thing that recommends someone to God is Jesus Christ, the crucified substitute. His person, His life, His death are the bare essentials of acceptance with God. (Read Philippians 3:3-10). Paul counted all his thoughts, all that he was, and all that he did before he believed, as manure, flesh, dead and shameful. Mark well that it was not Paul’s “gross immorality” that kept him from God, it was his” gross morality”! That which keeps a man from God is the religion of fallen man. (Read John 16:8-11). Everything before belief is sin!
True repentance, New Testament repentance, established Second Covenant repentance is radically changing your mind about the god you worshipped, the gospel you embraced, the savior you trusted, the life you lived, your reformations, your sorrows and you works before you heard and believed the truth. True repentance is to trust, rely upon, embrace, adhere to, and abide in that which truly recommends you to God. Christ alone! Godly sorrow is to grieve over everything that you thought, believed or did before you believed on the true Christ.
II Corinthians 7:11 “For behold this selfsame thing, that ye sorrowed after a godly sort, what carefulness it wrought in you, yea, what clearing of yourselves, yea, what indignation, yea, what fear, yea, what vehement desire, yea, what zeal, yea, what revenge! In all things ye have approved yourselves to be clear in this matter.” Carefulness: despising the garment spotted with the flesh. Clearing: denying everything before knowing Christ and after knowing Christ as having anything to do with being accepted by God. Indignation: despising anything that even hints of legality. Fear: of anything we do that causes us to feel accepted. Vehement desire: to live, embracing Christ alone. Zeal: for pure, precise, unadulterated Truth. Revenge: against everything in us, every imagination and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God. To bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ (not our obedience, but HIS)! II Corinthians 10: 4-5; John 3:21.
Except ye repent, ye shall likewise perish.