Independence Day

Each year on July 4th our nation observes its annual celebration of Independence Day. Festivities of all kinds are held which serve to remind us of the freedom that we enjoy. This freedom is not to be taken for granted and ever since the terrorist attacks of 9/11 a new appreciation for freedom has been felt by many resulting in a wave of patriotism that has not been witnessed since World War II. Many have considered, perhaps for the first time, the tremendous cost to procure this freedom, realizing that freedom has come at the price of many precious lives being offered on battlefields throughout the world. I trust that every United States citizen reading this cherishes the freedom we have, not only on July 4th, but every day of the year.

The Bible has much to say about freedom, not so much the kind of freedom mentioned above, but the freedom we can have from sin and its consequences. Consider the following dialogue between the Lord Jesus and some religious Jews of His day recorded in John 8:31-36, "If ye continue in My Word, then are ye My disciples indeed; And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. They answered Him, We be Abraham's seed, and were never in bondage to any man: how sayest thou, Ye shall be made free? Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant [slave] of sin. And the servant abideth not in the house for ever: but the Son abideth ever. If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed." It is interesting to see that as soon as the Lord Jesus broached the subject of freedom, His hearers immediately thought of being free from the tyranny of other men. Thus their response was that they were free from men (which was actually not true, for they were in bondage to the Roman Empire). But the Lord's reply ("whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin") revealed to them a much deeper form of bondage that enslaved them--the bondage of sin.

These words, though addressed to religious Jews 2,000 years ago, apply equally to all men at all times. The Bible clearly states, "All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23). Since all have sinned, and whoever commits sin is the servant of sin, we must conclude that all are in bondage to sin. You cannot escape this conclusion, for the Word of God declares it. If you are honest with yourself you will admit that your own experience agrees with the testimony of the Word, for you know that you have sinned and that there are particular sins that enslave you. Add to this bad news the truth that sin has terrible consequences beyond this life, for we read in Romans 6:23, "The wages of sin is death" and in Hebrews 9:27, "It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment." God is holy and hates sin, and as the divine Judge of the universe, this is the two-fold penalty that He has passed because of sin.

Were we to end this article at this point, all would be doom and gloom. But did we not read of the Lord Jesus speaking of being made free? We most assuredly did! He stated clearly and emphatically that "the truth shall make you free" and "if the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed." What did He mean by those words spoken as He was looking on to Calvary's cross where He would lay down His sinless life for us and bear the two-fold penalty of sin in our stead? The Bible says, "Christ died for our sins" (1 Corinthians 15:3) and that "Christ also hath suffered once for sins, the Just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God" (1 Peter 3:18). Yes, dear friend, in love for you and me the Lord Jesus allowed wicked men to put Him on a cross and on that cross He suffered, bled and died for our sins. It was there that God "made Him sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him" (2 Corinthians 5:21). God treated His Son as if He were the sinner, executing His divine justice by pouring out His wrath against sin. After three hours of awful judgment, Jesus cried out, "It is finished: and He bowed His head, and gave up the ghost" (John 19:30). The two-fold penalty against sin (death and judgment) was paid!

That wondrous day, when the Son of God laid down His spotless life for sinners, is the true Independence Day. Because of what happened on that day, you can be set free from sin's bondage and its penalty by claiming the Lord Jesus, by faith, as your Saviour. "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved" (Acts 16:31). The moment you trust in Christ and His finished work at Calvary you will be redeemed, which means to be "set free by a purchase price." Then, and only then, will you experience true freedom from sin, and you will gladly give Christ all the glory for your new-found freedom, knowing that "Ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold ... but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot" (1 Peter 1:18,19). We mentioned the many lives offered on battlefields to procure our nation's freedom, but salvation brings with it the knowledge that Christ "put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself" (Hebrews 9:26). Such is the infinite value of the Lord Jesus, and the work He did to put away sin!

I would like to relate briefly the conversion of Jesse, a middle-aged man who is now serving a life sentence for murder in a State Penitentiary. I met Jesse at a Bible study which I conduct in a county jail. I found him to be very remorseful for what he had done, so much so that he entertained committing suicide. It was a privilege to point Jesse to the Saviour of sinners and within four weeks he turned in true repentance and faith to the One who said, "If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed" (John 8:36). He found true freedom in Christ and on the day of his sentencing (six months after he trusted Christ) I was able to say to his parents what Jesse had intimated to me many times, "Your son may be spending the rest of his natural life behind bars, but he is truly free." In my correspondence and visitation with him since then, his freedom through Christ has been manifested again and again. May this freedom, dear reader, be yours also!

--Dennis J. Oberg

Repentance Unto Life

"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 11:18).

This unique expression, "repentance unto life," teaches us that there must be repentance on the part of the sinner before eternal life is received. This may seem to contradict many Scriptures (such as John 3:16) which clearly reveal that eternal life is received by FAITH, but in reality the two must accompany one another. Paul preached, "repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ" (Acts 20:21). And the Lord Jesus Himself declared, "Repent ye, and believe the gospel" (Mark 1:15).

The necessity of repentance becomes clearer when we consider its meaning. Repentance means "a change of mind." In the Biblical sense it means for one to "change his mind" about sin. God has said in His Word that we are all sinners by nature (Psa. 51:5; Romans 5:19a) and sinners by practice (Romans 3:23). When a sinner repents, he takes God's side against himself, owning up to the fact that he is guilty before a holy God (see Romans 3:10-19). Until this occurs, the sinner will not see his need of the salvation God has provided. But when this vital "change of mind" takes place, the sinner will then be ready to avail himself of God's wonderful salvation and it will only be a matter of time before faith in Christ crucified and risen is exercised. It was so with the Gentile company that Peter preached to (Acts 10), and it has been the experience of every truly penitent sinner.

"Which comes first, repentance or faith? The two are so intimately related that you cannot have one without the other. The fact is, no man believes the gospel until he has judged himself as a needy sinner before God, and this is repentance." --H.A.Ironside

Before going on, may I ask the reader, "Has this been your experience?" That is, "Have you taken your place as the sinner you are before a holy God, and by faith received the free gift of eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord?" If not, I would implore you to do so.

For the readers who are believers, let us take to heart the truth we have been considering and be sure to give repentance its proper place in our witnessing to the lost souls around us. The tendency today is to speak very briefly (if at all) about man's totally depraved condition and of how he is utterly lost and unable to save himself. The love of God in providing His Son to be the Saviour of the world is the focus, and this only serves to "sugar-coat" the gospel. We must be faithful in first presenting to the sinner his need of salvation before we rush into the good news of how God has provided for that need. And let us not shy away from using the word repent or repentance in our entreaties to the lost. With all solemnity Jesus said twice to the sinners of His day, "Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish (Luke 13:3,5). Peter's word to the conscience-stricken crowd on the day of Pentecost was, "repent" (Acts 2:38). Later the apostle Paul declared that God "now commandeth all men every where to repent" (Acts 17:30).

Many have mistakenly thought that by employing such language (the very language of Scripture!) they would give their hearers to think that there was some merit in the act of repenting. But we must remember that repentance is but the owning of one's true condition before God and there is surely no merit in that. If one discovers and admits that he has some terrible disease, does that discovery and admittance heal him? Certainly not! But then he is in a position where he is able to seek out help. And just so with the one who repents. Upon the discovery and admittance of his malady of sin, he is then in a position to seek the One who can heal him. And we can rest assured that if God has "granted him repentance," it will be "unto life." That is, he will find in Christ's death and resurrection the divine remedy for his loathsome condition, and will be made to see that "with His stripes we are healed" (Isaiah 53:5).

In closing, let us reflect on God's grace in relation to repentance. It has been almost 2,000 years since Jesus commissioned His disciples "that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His Name among all nations" (Luke 24:47). God has, in grace, withheld His judgment that will eventually fall upon this ungodly, Christ-rejecting world. We read of the certainty of that judgment, and of why He withholds it, in 2 Peter 3:9, "The Lord is not slack concerning His promise [of judgment], as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance." How precious to realize that the same "goodness of God" that leads men to repentance (Romans 2:4), also causes God to wait for men to repent. And when one is brought to own his sinful condition before God, how sweet it is to know that all heaven rejoices "over one sinner that repenteth" (Luke 15:7,10).

--Dennis J. Oberg