.
TCC–1276
1
CALLED TO REPENTANCE
A. Introduction: This year we’ve been focusing on who Jesus is, why He came to this world, and how He wants
us to live. In this portion of our study, we’re looking at why Jesus came—according to the New Testament.
1. The New Testament was written by eyewitnesses of Jesus (or close associates of eyewitnesses), men
who walked and talked with Jesus, saw Him die, and then saw Him alive again after His resurrection.
a. Their documents are a record of what Jesus said and did while on earth. We are examining what
the eyewitnesses wrote to get an accurate understanding of why Jesus came into this world.
b. Many sincere Christians have a lot of misunderstanding about Jesus’ mission. And, if you don’t
understand why Jesus came, you may be living in a way that is displeasing to Him.
1. It is quite common to hear people say that Jesus came to bring peace to this world and to teach
us all how to get along. But, the eyewitnesses quoted Jesus as saying that He came to bring
division. The division comes because some people accept Jesus and His message, while others
reject Him. Matt 10:34-35; John 7:43; John 9:16; John 10:19; etc.
2. Others say that Jesus came to make us happy and give us a great life in this life. However, the
eyewitnesses quoted Jesus as saying that in this world we will have tribulation and trouble. It’s
in the life to come that all will be made right. Right now, our priorities should be on eternal
things which will outlast this life. John 16:33; Matt 19:28-29; Matt 5:11-12; Matt 6:19-21; etc.
2. Jesus came to deal with humanity’s biggest problem. Humanity’s greatest problem is sin. Every
problem in this world is somehow a consequence or result of sin, going back to the first man, Adam.
a. I’m not saying that your problems are necessarily a result of a specific sin that you’ve committed.
They might be. But mostly likely they’re due to the fact that you live in a fallen, sin cursed earth.
b. Adam’s sin affected both the race resident in him and the planet itself. Humanity and the earth
were infused with a curse of corruption and death, resulting in the sorrow, hardships, loss, and pain
which are present in this world. Gen 3:17-19; Rom 5:12; etc. (many lessons for another day).
1. Paul, an eyewitness of Jesus wrote that: (Jesus) came once for all time, at the end of the age, to
remove the power of sin forever by his sacrificial death for us (Heb 9:26, NLT).
2. Matthew, another eyewitness, quoted Jesus as saying: For I am not come to call the righteous,
but sinners to repentance (Matt 9:13, KJV). Tonight we’ll consider some of what this means.
B. God created humanity to become His sons and daughters through faith in Him. However, human beings are
guilty of sin and disqualified for God’s family.
1. Let’s first define sin. Sin is an act or an action that is expressed in motives, thoughts, words, or deeds.
Sin is an act of lawlessness, an act or action that violates God’s Law.
a. Law is a rule of conduct laid down by the supreme governing authority. As the Creator, God is the
Supreme governing authority over this world and its inhabitants. Therefore His Law is the ultimate
Law. This world is His world, and His Law is the standard for human behavior.
1. I John 3:4—Every one who commits (practices) sin is guilty of lawlessness; for [that is what]
sin is, lawlessness [the breaking, violating of God’s law by transgression or neglect; being
unrestrained and unregulated by His commands and His will] (Amp).
2. Eccl 12:13—All has been heard. The end of the matter is this, Fear God—know that He is,
revere and worship Him—and keep His commandments; for this is the whole of man [the full,
original purpose of his creation, the object of God’s providence, the root of character, the
foundation of all happiness, the adjustment to all inharmonious circumstances and conditions
under the sun] and the whole duty for every man (Amp).
b. God’s Law is expressed through His Word, specifically, His written Word. Jesus summarized
God’s Law thusly: Love God with all your heart, mind, and soul and love your neighbor as
.
TCC–1276
2
yourself (Matt 22:37-40). This love is not an emotion, it is an action. Love for God is expressed
through obedience. Love for people is expressed through how you treat them (upcoming lessons).
2. We’ve made the point in the last two lessons that human beings were created for a position of glory as
sons and daughters of God. Gen 1:26; Ps 8:4-5; I Pet 2:9; etc.
a. The Lord made us with the capacity to receive Him into our being and then image, or represent and
express Him to the world around us. This in turn brings honor and glory back to Him. Eph 1:12
b. However, all human beings have violated God’s moral standard, His standard of what is right and
wrong. As a consequence, we have fallen short of our created purpose. Rom 3:23—For all have
sinned; all fall short of God’s glorious standard (NLT).
1. Human beings, by God’s design, are moral beings who are capable of making moral choices—
or choosing between good and evil, between obedience and disobedience. The essence of sin
is choosing your way over God’s way.
2. When we’re old enough to know right from wrong we decide what is right for us rather than
submitting to God’s way: All of us have strayed away like sheep. We have left God’s paths
to follow our own. Yet the Lord laid on him the guilt and sin of all (Isa 53:6, NLT).
c. Jesus came into this world to restore us to our created purpose, our position of glory, as imagers of
God, as sons and daughters who bring honor and glory to Him by the way that we live.
1. Jesus tasted death for everyone in the world…it was only right that God—who made everything
and for whom everything was made—should bring his children into glory (Heb 2:9-10, NLT).
2. We (apostles) impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God which God decreed before the ages
for our glory. None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would not
have crucified the Lord of glory (I Cor 2:7-8, ESV).
3. In the last couple of lessons, we’ve looked at a New Testament passage that is a concise summary of how
God restores sinful men and women to their created purpose as sons and daughters who are fully
glorifying to Him: Rom 8:30—And those whom he (God) predestined he also called, and those whom
he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified (ESV).
a. God calls or invites us to come to Him. When we respond to His call, He justifies us (forgives our
sin and declares us righteous and in right standing with Himself). Then He glorifies us.
b. To be glorified means to be made alive with God (His Spirit, His nature, His substance, His essense)
in every part of our being so that we can express Him and His glory.
1. Jesus’ sacrifice so cleanses us from the guilt of sin that God Himself can indwell us by His
Spirit and life and “(We) become sharers (partakers) of the divine nature” (II Pet 1:4 Amp).
2. God’s plan for man is that we be saturated with Him and then express Him. We don’t lose our
individuality. You’re still you. He’s still Him. He is the Creator and we are the created.
But we express Him (His glory) by the way we live.
c. Before we go any further, we need to answer this question: How can a human being express the
glory of the Infinite, Eternal, and Transcendent God? We must understand that God has both non-
communicable (or non-transmittable) attributes and communicable (or transmittable) attributes.
1. God’s non-communicable attributes are those that belong to His essential Being and personality
as Almighty God. They are His alone—His Eternal Being (eternal self-existence), His
Immutability (eternally the same), His Omnipresence (present everywhere at once), His
Omniscience (perfect knowledge), His Omnipotence (sovereignty and all power).
2. God’s communicable attributes are commonly called His moral attributes. Sons and daughters
of God can, and are supposed to, demonstrate these attributes—holiness, righteousness, justice,
mercy, goodness, patience, long-suffering, love. Consider these statements:
A. I Pet 1:15-16—But now you must be holy in everything you do, just as God—who chose
you to be his children—is holy. For he (God) himself has said, “You must be holy
.
TCC–1276
3
because I am holy” (NLT).
B. Eph 5:1-2—Therefore, be imitators of God—copy Him and follow His example—as well-
beloved children [imitate their father]. And walk in love—esteeming and delighting in
one another (Amp).
d. We were created to glorify God by expressing His communicable attributes. How do we do this?
We’ll discuss it more detail in our next series. For now, consider these points.
1. Jesus is God become fully man without ceasing to be fully God. Jesus not only opened the
way for men and women to be restored to our created purpose by dying for our sin, He is also
the pattern for God’s family.
2. Rom 8:29—For whom God foreknew he did also predestinate to be conformed to the likeness
of his Son (NIV); For God, in his foreknowledge, chose them to bear the family likeness of his
Son (J. B. Phillips).
3. Jesus in His humanity shows us how God’s sons and daughters demonstrate His communicable
attributes. He was a Son who did the will of His Father in everything (John 8:29). And He is
now in us by His Spirit to help us accurately represent (image, express) our Creator and Father.
4. Sinful men and women need more than forgiveness of sin to be fully restored to our created purpose.
We need supernatural transformation and restoration by the power of God.
a. God’s plan has always been to indwell men and women and then express Himself through us. This
is what glorification is all about—being made alive with God in every part of our being so we can
express Him.
1. Paul wrote that God commissioned him to “present to you the word of God in its fullness—the
mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations, but now is disclosed to the saints.
To them God has chosen to make known among (believers) the glorious riches of his mystery,
which is Christ in you the hope of glory” (Col 1:25-27, NIV).
2. Glorification is a process that begins when we become followers of Jesus. Right now, we are
partakers of this glory because God is in us by His Spirit, but we are not yet fully glorified or
fully Christ-like in every part of our being. We are finished works in progress.
b. I John 3:2—Yes dear friends, we are already God’s children, and we can’t even imagine what we
will be like when Christ returns. But we do know that when he comes we will be like him, for we
will see him as he really is (NLT). If we stay faithful to Him, He who began a good work in us will
complete it (Phil 1:6).
C. Human beings need more than forgiveness of sins to restore us to our created purpose. Not only do we need
supernatural help, we need a moral change or transformation which then leads to behavior changes.
1. Human nature (everything that we are as human beings) has been corrupted by sin. To corrupt means to
alter from the original or to taint. Corruption is a departure from what is pure or correct.
a. When Adam, the first human being, sinned (broke God’s command to him), he chose to set his own
standard of what is right and wrong. Adam was created to live in loving submission to Almighty
God. By putting put self (himself) above God, he violated his own nature and corrupted it.
b. As the head of the human race, Adam’s actions affected the race resident within him. All human
beings are born with a corruption or an inclination to put self first—above God and other people. If
we are going to glorify God, this trait (this corruption in us, this focus on self) must be dealt with.
1. We pointed out earlier in the lesson that humans are moral beings who are capable of making
moral choices. Morality is a standard of right and wrong. God is the standard of what is right
and wrong. But we have all made our own standards.
2. We have to make a moral change and turn from living for self according to our standards to
living for God: (Jesus) died for everyone so that those who receive his new life will no longer
.
TCC–1276
4
live to please themselves. Instead they will live to please Him (II Cor 5:15, NLT).
2. Because God created man with free will, this moral change requires our cooperation. Jesus said that He
came to call sinners to repentance (Matt 9:13). Jesus’ first words when He began His public ministry
were: Repent and believe, for the kingdom of God is at hand (Matt 4:17; Mark 1:15).
a. After Jesus rose from the dead He sent His apostles out to proclaim repentance and remission of sin
(the wiping out and forgiveness of sin). As the apostles went out to preach the resurrection, when
people asked what they should do in light of their guilt before God, the apostles answered: Repent
and be converted. Luke 24:46-48; Acts 2:38; Acts 3:19; Acts 17:30; Acts 26:20
1. The Greek word translated convert means to revert—turn from living for self and return to your
created purpose. The word translated repentance means more than a change of mind.
2. We can change our mind without making a moral choice. Repentance and conversion involves
a moral change—turning from living for self to living for God. This means turning from sin
(breaking God’s moral law) to righteousness (obeying God’s standard of morality).
b. This moral change is then expressed through changes in behavior. Titus 2:15—(Jesus) gave his life
to free us from every kind of sin, to cleanse us, and to make us his very own people, totally
committed to doing what is right (NLT).
3. As with glorification, this moral change requires supernatural help. Without the power of God, these
changes would not, could not, be made. So, He gets all the glory for our successes, for our glorification.
a. You and I would never have come to the Lord in the first place unless He drew us. Jesus said: No
one is able to come to Me unless the Father Who sent Me attracts and draws him and gives him the
desire to come to Me (John 6:44, Amp).
b. God, by His Spirit, called you, drew you, influenced you, without violating your free will. He calls
us, draws us, by His Spirit. The Holy Spirit reveals Jesus to us to attract us to Him.
1. If we respond to His call (and we can refuse), God indwells us by His Spirit and the process of
glorification begins. The Holy Spirit is in us to empower us to do what God requires of us as
we choose to obey Him and His moral standard as revealed in His written Word (the Bible).
2. II Cor 3:18—And all of us, as with unveiled face, [because we] continued to behold [in the
Word of God] as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are constantly being transfigured into His
very own image in ever increasing splendor and from one degree of glory to another; [for this
comes] from the Lord [Who is] the Spirit (Amp).
4. Paul lived with the awareness that God was in him by His Spirit, and, as he (Paul) put forth effort to do
what he needed to do, the Holy Spirit helped him. Paul urged Christians to live with this awareness.
a. Phil 2:12-13—And now that I am away you must be even more careful to put into action God’s
saving work in your lives, obeying God with deep reverence and fear. For God is working in you,
giving you the desire to obey him and the power to do what pleases him (NLT).
b. Paul wrote that he worked hard everywhere he went, warning and teaching people about Jesus
because he wanted to: present every person mature—full grown, fully initiated, complete and
perfect—in Christ (Col 1:28, Amp). I work hard at this, as I depend on Christ’s mighty power that
works within me (Col 1:29, NLT).
5. Salvation is the purification and restoration of human nature by the Spirit of God, on the basis of the
Cross. The Lord calls us (draws us without violating our free will) and when we freely choose to turn
from living for self (doing things our way), He justifies us (forgives our sin) and indwells us to cleanse
and restore us—to fully glorify us so that we are fully glorifying to our Heavenly Father.
D. Conclusion: The length to which God has gone to indwell us and begin the process of restoration shows
His love for us and our value to Him. It shows us the effectiveness of the cleansing power of the Cross of
Christ. And it shows us that there is hope for us, as we stay faithful to Him. More next week!!