ABC’s of Repentance – by Joseph A. Cortes

Open your bible to John 3:16. Anyone who has been a Christian for any period of time is very familiar with this verse.

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth [pisteuo in the Greek, another word for faith; the definition of that word in the Greek is trust and confidence in Jesus Christ.] in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

In the gospel records and in the apostles’ epistles, we repeatedly see the requirement for salvation: whoever has trust and confidence in Him; that He came, He died, He rose again, and He carried His shed blood up to the heavenly mercy seat and sprinkled His blood to finish His commission, which we benefit from. That is our rescue plan. He is our savior.

I have been going through many different verses demonstrating that it is not by any works of ours that earns us salvation. There is nothing we can do—nothing whatsoever—to be saved. It was all Christ’s works. There is nothing we can do. But if you look at the statements of faith across many ministries (e.g. ministry websites or church bulletins), you will see they mix in a little bit of the works.

First of all, they don’t get the concept down because they keep using the word repent. We see the word repent in the King James Version and other translations, which is an English word meaning to be sorry or sorrowful. Christ never used the word repent. He used the word metanoia, which literally means a change of mind. [See A Change of Mind, Vol. 1.] A change of mind will change your heart. There is another word that is similar, but it was never a word Christ used, ever, nor His apostles. All Christ wants from us is our trust on His finished work He completed. That is the only way we can have salvation in our life. We can’t earn it.

“What about the things we do after salvation?”

Well, that is after salvation. Don’t mix the two. Discipleship and Salvation are two different things even though many ministries like to combine them together, slipping into works on the backend. I’m sorry, but that is taking God’s righteousness that He imputes to you, because you have trust and confidence in Him and His finished work on the cross, and then adding in some of your stuff, which becomes self-righteousness because it puts the focus on your works for salvation.

Why do we do what we do as disciples? A) Because it pleases God, it puts us in positions to have faith and trust in Him; and B) It earns us rewards, it earns us different crowns in heaven. So, number one: be obedient and be faithful as a disciple in the place that He has put you in His Great Commission. Not everyone is called to do the same thing. Whatever capacity God has called you to be part of, a ministry or church or to be on point, be faithful as a disciple, a learner—that is what disciple means in the Greek—be ever growing and maturing in Jesus Christ, taking the challenges of faith head-on, trusting and leaning on Him to get you through. And if you do that, it pleases Him. It shows you to be obedient to stay in the faith and be faithful to Him. And number two: it earns you all kinds of rewards.

See, Christ wants to reward us when we get there. Why do you think there is a Judgment Seat of Christ? Not everyone will be rewarded the same. Some will receive greater rewards than others. The Judgment Seat of Christ would not be necessary if rewards weren’t ahead in our future. Once you are saved because you trust in Jesus Christ, you’re going to heaven, so why would you need something in between? As I taught in the Giving series, it is because He wants to give you inexhaustible rewards that will carry on throughout eternity.

Yet so many have taken this message of salvation and slipped in works and their manmade inventions called doctrines, that has brought in confusion and turned off many and made many more self-righteous Christians who think God is impressed with their good works, and for that, they are saved. Sorry, it doesn’t work that way.

I want to read to you from someone commenting on a very popular ministry’s write up. I won’t name names yet about this ministry and how a lot of it sounds good but see if you can recognize the change that twists the Salvation plan differently from what the gospel record declares it what to be. This is from a pastor in San Antonio, Texas: His mission in the ministry is to “aggressively fulfill” the Great Commission by making disciples out of all people, to bring the lost to Christ, and support fellow believers. [He has a] television show [that]can been seen all over the world. His show is on most everyday on the TBN station, as well as other stations. He has written many books. He is an all-around good guy who believes in what he is doing for Christ and for others.

And I believe that they do believe that. [He] is a good, sincere man who preaches his sermons with both a force and a conviction rarely seen in other pastors, today. In fact, one of his trademarks is to shout loudly phrases such as “Give Him praise and glory…” at specified intervals during his sermons. He is thoroughly entertaining, very intelligent, and a master of the art of public speaking.

His ministry operates a well-built Internet site. You may visit his ministries website and read about him, his ministry, and about everything his ministry accomplishes. He also has a place on his site where you can learn about salvation, the plan salvation. He has a video posted on his internet site. Once you click on that in a certain section, you will be taken to a video presentation.

I will paraphrase for you the plan of salvation according to [this minister] rather than provide it word for word so as to avoid any legal copyright issues.

Now this is a person writing. I don’t have any problems with that.

The plan of salvation according to [this person] is as follows (paraphrased):

[He] says that we are all sinners. He quotes Romans 3:23, which says, “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;” [he] then says that we all need Christ’s blood to cleanse us from our sins. [He]says that our good works cannot save us. He says that God loves us, and he then quotes Romans 5:8, which says, “But God commendeth his love toward us.” [He] then says that Jesus is God’s gift to us. He then quotes Romans 6:23, which says, “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

[He] says repeatedly that salvation is a gift from God and that we cannot earn this gift by our works.

I have no problem with that.

[He] then quotes Ephesians 2:8-9, which states, “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.” In his explanation of Ephesians 2:8-9, [he] says repeatedly that salvation is “not of ourselves.” He repeatedly says that salvation is by “grace” through “faith” and that it has nothing to do with “us.” He says that good deeds, such as giving to the poor, cannot count toward our salvation.[He] then talks about repentance.

[He] defines repentance as turning from your sins. [He] says that turning from your sins is a “required action” …

Listen to that. Most of you, if you hadn’t heard the previous teachings on this topic, would say, “What’s wrong with that? Isn’t that what we are told in the gospel record?” Find it for me. Find it with the proper understanding of what the Greek word metanoia means, what Jesus said, change your mind. For the English translation, the King James people put in repent, which means something totally different than what metanoia means. Change your mind about who? Christ and what He was about to do…and what He has already done. Your ways are not going to cut it. Once this life is through, that’s it. He came with a plan of salvation that would give you eternal life forever. So, you had to change your mind about what Jesus did for all of us and the benefits that come with it.

 …” required action” on our part if we want to be saved. Then [he]quotes Romans 10:9, which says, “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe…

That Greek word there for believe is pisteuo, which means trust and confidence.

…in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.”

By the way, for confess in this verse, the Greek word meansprofess…profess with thy mouth. Profess what? That you have trust and confidence with all your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved. Not confess—but profess. Some of these well-known characters should learn how to read the Greek. [He] says, in light of this verse, that we have to confess Jesus as our Lord with our mouths, verbally, and that we also have to confess our sins. [He] then teaches that we have to ask Christ to come into our hearts. His prayer of salvation instructs us to admit to God that we are sinners, to ask God to forgive us, to ask Christ to come into our hearts, and to be the Lord of our lives. [He] says that we must tell God that we will obey Him and that we will follow Him all the days of our lives. In sum, that is the plan of salvation.

According to this famous pastor.

Old television shows are the best, and when you get right down to it, I’m sure you’ll agree that they just don’t make television shows like they used to. As for me, I absolutely love the television show known as “Green Acres.” The show is based upon a lawyer who becomes tired of his job and of life in the big city. He, along with his reluctant wife, move to “Hooterville” where they buy an old ramshackle house on several acres of farmland. Mr. Douglas’ neighbors are truly unique personalities who always end up giving him tremendous amounts of grief. What is so funny about the show is the utter frustration that his wife and neighbors cause him. There is a form of constant “communication breakdown” that occurs in all of his dealings with the townsfolk of Hooterville, which is actually very entertaining and worthwhile to watch as a whole because we realize the show is only make believe. It is not real; therefore, it is funny in its own, crazy way; however, if the problems that Mr. Douglas had to deal with during each episode of this show were true, it would be a different story altogether.

When it comes to a person’s eternal life, we cannot afford any “communication breakdowns.” A good way to view a presentation of a false plan of salvation would be to equate the preacher of a false gospel to that of a lawyer who is guilty of malpractice. When a lawyer is found guilty of gross negligence in his or her duty, resulting in egregious error, they are often found guilty of malpractice and, as a result, are not allowed to practice law anymore. They become an object of scorn and they become disbarred.

This also occurs to physicians who are grossly negligent or incompetent in the practice of medicine.

But for a pastor to be guilty of “malpractice” is much more serious.

Woe to the shepherds. I preached a whole series on that in the beginning years of this ministry.

When a pastor or bible teacher promotes a false plan of salvation, the results are eternal and not merely temporal.

At this point, I would like to share with you the plan of salvation according to Jesus Christ. Since Christ wrote the bible using the inks and scrolls of people, I would like to share various verses with you on what Christ says about salvation – some quote Christ directly, while others do not; however, they are the words of Christ, nevertheless.

Jesus told Nicodemus point blank that he had to “believe” …

No, he had to pisteuo, the Greek word there. The King James put believe but the word in that particular verse is pisteuo, not believe. I already told you, that is the “so be it faith.” The faith that you have full trust and confidence. Pistis is the kind of faith you begin with. Faith comes by hearing and hearing the Word of God. Pistis is the hearing that leads to persuasion that what you’re hearing is the truth. That will build confidence and trust that what you are hearing you can stand by it, live by it in your journey with Christ.

So, Jesus didn’t point blank tell Nicodemus he just needed to “believe.” He told him he needed to trust on Him and Him alone. (John 3)

Jesus said to Nicodemus (and to us all) in John 3:16 that, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth [trusts and has confidence] in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” The only “requirement” Jesus mentioned in this verse is “believeth,”

No. Once again, the only requirement isn’t “believeth.” I disagree with the author. It is pisteuo; having trust and confidence in what Christ did.

…which in the original Greek manuscript means to “trust.” [finally, he catches up] Jesus told Nicodemus that in order to be born again he had to “trust” that Jesus was the Messiah, that He would die for the sins of the world, and that He would rise from the dead.

By implication, Christ always meant that He would die, be buried, and rise from the dead when He spoke of “believing in Him.” [once again, plug in “trusting” in Him] Nicodemus asked Christ how he might go back into his mother’s womb, and Jesus had to correct him by telling him that being born again involved being reborn spiritually.

In Thessalonians 4:14, we see Christ’s plan of salvation with complete clarity: “For if we believe…

There again, it is not the word believe, but trust and confidence,pisteuo.

…that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.” Pay close attention to that first phrase. “For if we believe [have trust and confidence] that Jesus died and rose again…” is the plan of salvation according to Christ. The second phrase deals with the dead-in-Christ whose bodies will rise out of their graves.

While this chapter of Thessalonians deals primarily with a future event, we are given the plan of salvation according to Christ in its simplicity. This is exactly what Jesus was telling Nicodemus and exactly what he was saying in John.

According to Ephesians 2:8-9, God is telling us through Paul that, “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God. Not of works, lest any man should boast.” This means salvation is a free gift given by God to all who place their trust in His son alone, apart from works. And by works, God is in fact referring to anything of self such as turning from sins.

Turning from sins…Jesus never said that. That is added on by preachers and pastors and theologians who added to the plan of salvation. Nothing need to be added. I mean if you think once you are saved, you are never going to sin again, you are crazier than a loon. And if you know the formula, please inform me because I haven’t figured out how to accomplish that. That old nature in me still wants to sin on occasion. Now the more Christ molds me into the creature He wants me to be, the less I have the desire for those things. But it is a fight between the old and new creature in me and it is going to be a fight until the end. Christ knew that. That is why He said to just trust in Him. He didn’t say trust in him and turn from your sins. I challenge you to find it in the gospel record. You are going to think it’s there because that is what you have been brainwashed with repeatedly by ministry after ministry believing that to be true. “It has to be in the gospels. Why would they tell me anything different?” Like I said, I challenge you to find it.

In following him in obedience for the rest of our lives.

“Well, don’t we have to follow Him in obedience for the rest of our lives?” Sure. But those are the aspects of Discipleship, which I haven’t gotten to yet.

To be saved, one must first be born again. Any plan that mixes grace with discipleship is a false plan of salvation according to Christ. While those are right and honorable things to do, they do not count toward salvation. Rather, they come after salvation.

Once you become a disciple of Jesus Christ. And listen, you are going to have your ups and downs as a disciple. There are some things He is going to commission that you do with some things you succeed in and some things you don’t do very well. And because you don’t do very well in them, does that mean you aren’t saved any longer? No, because then you are counting that as works and those works are what is keeping you saved. Sorry, it doesn’t work that way. Sorry, no self righteous are allowed in Christ’s gospel because it is only by His works. I hope you are picking that up as I repeat it.

While this preacher quotes Ephesians 2:8-9 in his salvation video and vehemently agrees with this verse, he then contradicts himself at this very same passage of scripture because of an academic mistake. [This pastor] misidentifies the word repentance. Instead of using the original Greek translation for repent, he uses the English definition for repent[which most people do, by the way] which is different than the intention God conveys in His bible. The English definition includes turning from sin, feeling sorry for sin, and quitting the activities or behaviors that lead to sin; conversely, the Greek definition for repent is to have a “change of mind.” The Greek word for repent is metanoia. “Meta” means “change” and “noia” means “mind.” Join them together and you have “a change of mind.” When Jesus told people to repent, he was also referring to the Greek meaning [because He used the right words] “a change of mind” and never to the English definition.

The Greek word for “turn from sin or to feel sorry for sin” is “metamelomai” and it is never equivalent to “metanoia.” Christ always spoke of “metanoia” when He said “repent.” Well, He never actually even said “repent”. The King James people wrote in repent. Jesus said, “a change of mind.”

In context, Christ was always telling people to change their mind from what they were currently trusting in to get them to heaven and instead to trust only on Him to get them to heaven. Jesus is saying to let go of all of that stuff; it’s just Me you need to put your trust in.

[He] tells us salvation is a “free gift” that cannot be earned, but then he turns right back around and makes quitting bad habits as well as obedience to Christ’s lordship an essential part of salvation.

And like I said, there will be some days, some weeks, and some months that you are going to be more obedient than others. It is an up and down struggle when it comes to discipleship. Even Paul struggled with it. Read the Corinthian letters. I’ve pointed them out to you and hopefully you did the homework on it. Even he struggled with sin.

You’re not a perfect saint, but God looks at you as a perfect saint. Why? Because Christ sprinkled His blood on the heavenly mercy seat.

To give you an accurate equivalent of what [this pastor] is saying here, imagine if you were to ask him for directions on how to get to San Francisco, California. You want to go to San Francisco with all of your heart, and you ask [this pastor] for the directions that will take you there. But instead, he gives you directions on how to get to Tampa, Florida. If you take him at his word, you will not arrive in San Francisco; instead, you will end up in Tampa. If you take him at his word, but then look at the directions and then question him about your final destination, he will say emphatically that he has, in fact, given you accurate directions to San Francisco. If you press him on the subject, he will read various portions of a road atlas to you, but even though you may have doubts about arriving in San Francisco, you assume he knows what he is talking about and you trust him, anyway; however, days later you find yourself in Tampa rather than in San Francisco, despite all the signs you saw along the way that never pointed to San Francisco. You saw the “Tampa signs” and you knew you were going in the wrong direction, but you so wanted to believe he told you the truth, so you didn’t follow that small, soft voice inside of you that said, “This is wrong!” You chose to trust him rather than in what you knew to be “right.”

Friends, when you are “on the road” of a false plan of salvation, you will see “God’s signs” all over the place if you are able to understand only a handful of the verses I have shared with you in this chapter.

And I have shared a little more than a handful with you.

If you are on a road that leads you in the opposite direction of where you know you want to go, pay attention to the signs. In terms of salvation, God says it is “not of works.” [This pastor] also uses the same scriptures that I do and he claims salvation is “not of works.” But reader, “turning from sins” [highlight that somehow in your mind] IS WORKS. It takes effort. And since Ephesians 2:8-9 says that salvation is “not of yourselves,” how then could [this pastor] turn right back around and imply that salvation IS of yourselves while simultaneously saying over and over that it is “not” of yourselves.

Something is wrong! Something is very, very wrong! Either [he] is right and Christ is wrong, or [he] is wrong and Christ is right!

Isn’t it sad how so many intelligent and learned men and women cannot rightly define repentance? What they say about repentance flies in the face of the very scriptures they point out to us. If you say that salvation is a free gift and that we cannot earn it, and then turn right around and imply that it will cost you, that you have to change your behaviors, submit yourself to following Christ in obedience to His Lordship “in order to” be saved and make it to heaven, then that is nothing more than “double-speak.”

“Well, are you saying we’re not suppose to follow Christ’s Lordship in obedience?” Sure, as a disciple of Jesus Christ, but His salvation plan is simple. It doesn’t require any of that to be saved. That is an after the fact event, after salvation, with different implications for the reasons why you are a disciple.

It is literally the same thing as asking for directions to San Francisco but receiving directions to Tampa, instead. Trusting in “turning from sins”in addition to faith in His death and resurrection from the dead sounds completely wonderful and holy, but it is not the plan of salvation according to Jesus Christ. It is just a “counterfeit” of the original.

Yes, [this pastor] is a good man. I admire him in a lot of ways, especially his support of Israel. But [this pastor] presents us with a plan of salvation that differs from the one Christ Himself presents in His bible.

If you choose any plan of salvation other than the one Christ offers, you will be accountable for it because you are adding something to what Christ already said, it’s all on Him; not on you. It is not of yourselves.

If you remember only one thing, I want you to remember what the will of God the Father is concerning how to be saved. Jesus said, “And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth [pisteuo, have trust and confidence] on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day” (John 6:40). Jesus is saying that if we recognize Him as the Messiah, that if we trust in Him alone (death, burial, resurrection [blood on the heavenly mercy seat]) that we will be saved. Nowhere does the bible say that we must repent of sin.

Nowhere! Even John the Baptist didn’t use it. But we have been led to believe that is what is being said by using the English definition for being sorry or sorrowful for your sins. Christ didn’t ask us to do that. All He did was ask us to trust in His redeeming work as all that is needed. Nowhere does the bible say we must repent of sin. Find it for me! I know you are going to look up the verses and see the word “repent,” but do your research. Dig deep. You cannot find it anywhere in the original languages that these scriptures were written in. You cannot find it anywhere, but that is what is preached around this world.

The phrase “repent of sin” doesn’t even occur in the bible, nor does it ever imply that we must “turn from sin” in order to be saved.

So, who is this popular preacher/minister out of San Antonio, Texas? John Hagee. Do I believe he is sincere? Do I believe he is passionate about what he does? Absolutely. But I don’t believe he has the plan of salvation down. And he is not the only one that adds additional works on the back-end because they don’t understand what Christ revealed to us, the only thing He wants from us to be saved. Salvation is alone by Christ alone. There is nothing we can do to earn it, to merit it, to get it on our own. It all is through His redeeming work. What people confuse is the discipleship journey. They somehow want to incorporate that into salvation and you better do those discipleship deeds or you lose your salvation. Not once will you find that in scripture. “So, are you saying we don’t need to be a disciple?” Not at all. I am saying Salvation is just the beginning; Discipleship comes after. Discipleship is where we get involved. We get to participate in what God has called us to do in the capacity he has called you to do it to please him from faith to faith, and to earn those heavenly and inexhaustible rewards we will receive; because He is waiting there to bless us with those because of our faithfulness. Don’t mix the two. Too many have. But don’t.

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encouraged and strengthened your faith.

In 2 Corinthians 9:7 it reads, “God loveth a cheerful giver.” The Greek word for cheerful is Hilaros which means when someone is prompt to do something, they are ready in mind, with a joyful heart. In the Septuagint it also means to cause to shine. Today I am looking for Hilaros Givers who are ready and full of joy for the opportunity to cause others to shine by hearing, learning, and growing in God’s Word.

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