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REPENTANCE AND RESTORATION
A. Introduction: Jesus’ first promise to His people after He returned to Heaven was, I’ll be back. Jesus
warned that the years preceding His return will be marked by religious deception, lawlessness, and tribulation
unlike anything the world has ever seen. Acts 1:9-11; Matt 24:4-5; Matt 24:11-12; Matt 24:21; etc.
1. The religious deception will consist of false Christs and false prophets who preach false gospels. The
lawlessness will come out of a rejection of God, the ultimate Law Giver, and will be expressed through
chaos and wicked behavior (many lessons for another day).
a. Accurate information from the New Testament accounts about Jesus (who He is, why He came, and
how we are supposed to live in light of who He is and why He came) is more important than ever.
b. To help us navigate through the chaos that is developing, we’ve been looking at who Jesus is and
why He came, according to the New Testament. We’ll soon transition to how Jesus wants us to live.
2. In the last few lessons we’ve focused on a specific statement Jesus Himslf made about why He came.
Jesus told a group of religious leaders who criticized Him for eating with tax collectors and sinners that
He came to call sinners to repentance. Matt 9:13
a. Repentance isn’t a popular topic. For many of us the word brings up images of wild eyed preachers
shouting at everyone to repent or God will get you. Others reject the idea of repenting for sin
because, for them talk of repentance is connected with what they think is judgmental religion.
b. But repentance is a fundamental doctrine of the Christian faith. When Paul urged believers to grow
and mature in Christ, he called repentance and faith toward God a foundational teaching. Heb 6:1-2
c. Repentance is the first step in becoming a Christian and a vital part of a healthy spiritual life, so we
must talk about it. Let’s clearly define the words sin and repentance as they’re used in the Bible.
1. Sin is an act that violates God’s Law, God’s standard of morality (right and wrong). When you
sin you choose independence from God by putting your standard above His. Isa 53:6; I John 3:4
2. Repentance means turning from sin toward God. It is a moral action—recognizing that what
you are doing is wrong, and then choosing to turn from it and do what is right, according to
God’s standard of morality (His standard of right and wrong).
d. Repentance is not turning over a new leaf, giving up bad habits, or cleaning up your life. These
elements are included in repentance, but these elements alone are not Biblical repentance.
3. Talk of repentance doesn’t seem practical when all of us have real problems and need real solutions to
those problems. But, all of the problems we face pale in comparison to humankind’s greatest problem.
We are cut off from God and lost to our created purpose because of sin. Rom 3:23; Rom 6:23
a. Human beings were created to become sons and daughters of God. We are meant to be indwelled
by God (His Spirit, His eternal life), and then reflect Him to the world around us by the way we live.
b. Sin has made relationship with God impossible. We are no longer qualified for His family or
capable reflecting His glory. Because of our sin, we are doomed to eternal separation from Him.
1. Jesus came to earth to save us from the penalty and power of sin by dying as a sacrifice for sin.
Through His death and resurrection, Jesus opened the way for us to be reconciled to God and
restored to our created purpose, through faith in Him. Luke 19:10; I Tim 1:15; Matt 1:21
2. Repentance is about being reconciled to God and restored to relationship with Him through
Jesus. We have more to say tonight about the connection between repentance and restoration.

B. Last week we said that negative ideas about repentance come from the fact that the term repentance is
disconnected from the big picture, or God’s overall plan for humanity. Let’s restate God’s plan.
1. Eph 1:4-5—Long ago, even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy
and without fault in his eyes. His unchanging plan has always been to adopt us into his own family by
bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. And this gave him great pleasure (NLT).
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a. Note that God’s plan is to have sons and daughters who are holy and without fault in his eyes. The
Greek word translated holy has the idea of separated from sin—morally pure, upright, blameless in
heart and life. The Greek word translated without fault means without blemish, spotless. Eph 1:4
—To be holy ones and without blemish before his searching, penetrating gaze (Wuest).
b. God created human beings knowing that we would choose independence from Him through sin, and
devised a plan to restore to Himself all those who choose to return to Him through Jesus.
1. Jesus (the Second Person of the Trinity) took on a human nature and was born into this world to
die as the perfect sacrifice for sin. Jesus’ death satisfied Divine Justice on our behalf.
2. Through His death Jesus took away our guilt and opened the way for God to forgive us without
violating His own standard of justice.
2. Because of what Jesus did, sinful men and women can be made holy and without fault in God’s eyes.
We can be made righteous: For our sake he (the Father) made him (Jesus) to be sin who knew no sin, so
that in him we might become the righteousness of God (II Cor 5:21, ESV).
a. Righteousness comes from a word that means right in character or action. The word was formerly
spelled rightwiseness.
b. Jesus died, not only make us right with God and restore us to relationship with Himself. Jesus died
to make us right in ourselves, in all of our thoughts, motives, words, and actions)—righteous or right
in character and behavior.
c. God desires sons and daughters who are like Jesus. Remember, Jesus is God Incarnate—God
become fully man without ceasing to be fully God. Jesus, in His humanity, is the standard for
human behavior, the standard for sons and daughters of God.
1. Rom 8:29—For those whom God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness
of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers (and sisters) (NLT).
2. Jesus lived in voluntary submission and obedience to God the Father. Jesus said: For I have
come down from heaven to do the will of God who sent me, not to do what I want (John 6:38,
NLT); For I always do those things that are pleasing to Him (John 8:29, NLT).
d. When a man or woman believes on Jesus, he or she comes into vital union with Jesus. Jesus
indwells him or her by His Spirit and uncreated, eternal life to empower him or her to live a new
kind of life—one that is fully pleasing to God the Father. John 14:20; John 15:5; Col 1:27; etc.
3. Salvation is more than getting our sins forgiven so we can go to Heaven when we die. Salvation is
about the transformation and restoration of human nature, so we can be returned to our created purpose
as sons and daughters of God who are fully glorifying to Him every thought, word, and deed—like Jesus.
a. Human nature has been corrupted by sin, beginning with the first man, Adam. When Adam
disobeyed God and ate from the forbidden tree, he set his own standard of right and wrong. Since
Adam was created to live in voluntary submission and obedience to God, through his disobedience,
he corrupted himself. Adam’s choice also affected the race resident in him. Rom 5:19
b. All humans inherit a corruption from Adam that inclines us to go our own way and to put our will
above God and His will. We are born with a bent toward selfishness—putting self above God and
others and doing what we want to do the way we want to do it.
4. Repentance is the first step in the process of restoration that is now available to us because of Jesus’
sacrifice. Repentance is a voluntary return to your created purpose. You choose to turn from sin to
Almighty God. You renounce sin and living for self (your way instead of God’s way).
a. Matt 16:24—Jesus said…if any one desires to be My disciple, let him deny himself—that is,
disregard, lose sight of and forget himself and his own interests—and take up his cross and follow
Me [cleave steadily to Me, conform wholly to My example in living and if need be in dying, also]
(Amp). (More on this in upcoming lessons)
b. God gave humankind free will. You were created to live in voluntary submission and obedience to
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God. True freedom is found in obeying God.
1. Jesus said to people who believed in him, “You are truly my disciples if you keep obeying my
teachings. And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:31-32, NLT).
2. Sin brings bondage. Obedience brings freedom. Paul the apostle wrote: Don’t you realize
that whatever you choose to obey becomes your master? You can choose sin which leads to
death, or you can choose to obey God and receive his approval (Rom 6:16, NLT).
c. Repentance and restoration work in tandem with each other (tandem means to act in conjunction
with or work together for a common purpose).
1. Repentance is a change you must make, because you have free will. Restoration is a change
that God makes, because restoration requires something supernatural. We need more than
forgiveness of sin to be restored to our created purpose. We need life from the Spirit of God.
2. Jesus died as a sacrifice for our sin to make this possible. When we repent and turn from sin to
obedience to Him, Almighty God regenerates us, or indwells us by His Spirit, and makes us His
sons and daughters through new birth. Then He begins to progressively renew and change us
as we obey Him. John 1:12-13; John 3:3-5; Phil 2:12-13
d. You might ask: Do I have to repent for every sin I ever committed? The point is not to catalogue
every sin. The point is willfully turning from something (sin) to something (obedience to God).
1. As you grow and mature, you progressively recognize things in your life (behaviors, attitudes,
thoughts) that need to change. And, at those times, repentance is appropriate—a commitment
to turn from what you now realize is wrong to what you now know is right.
2. Your initial turning from sin to the Lord must be reinforced by daily choices to surrender to His
standard and obey Him. Repentance is a way of life.
5. Some might say that by calling repentance the first step in the process of salvation and restoration, it
takes away from God’s grace because repentance is something that we must do, and we’re saved by
grace through faith not by our works.
a. But repentance itself is a gift from God and an expression of His grace. None of us would have
turned to the Lord in the first place unless He drew us by His Spirit.
1. John 6:44—(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 (Amp).
2. Rom 2:4—Do you show contempt for the riches of (God’s kindness), tolerance and patience,
not realizing that God’s kindness leads you toward repentance (NIV).
b. God the Holy Spirit influences us without violating our free will, by showing us the Lord’s goodness
and kindness as well as our need for Him—No one is able to say that “Jesus is Lord” except by the
Holy Spirit (I Cor 12:3, NLT).
1. Note what Peter said about repentance when he explainedwhat happened as he preached Jesus
to a Gentile household for the first time (Cornelius and his family). Peter said that as he spoke,
the Holy Ghost came on the Gentiles just as He had on the apostles at the beginning.
2. Acts 11:18—When they heard this they had no further objections to raise. And they praised
God saying, “Then obviously God has given to the Gentiles also the gift of repentance which
leads to life” (J. B. Phillips); repentance…resulting in life (Wuest).
A. Notice that Peter called repentance a gift from God that leads to, results in, eternal life.
Paul also preached repentance toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus, and he called it the
gospel of the grace of God. Acts 20:20-21; Acts 20:24
B. Repentance and faith are interconnected. One is useless without the other. Belief alone
won’t save you. James 2:19—So you believe that there is one God? That’s fine. So do
all the devils in hell, and shudder in terror (J. B. Phillips).
6. From the beginning to the end of the New Testament repentance is fundamental to conversion (becoming
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a Christian) and to living Christian life as a son or daughter of God.
a. Jesus began His ministry with the words repent and believe the gospel (Mark 1:15). As per Jesus’
instructions, the apostles taught a message of repentance from sin and faith toward God that results
in salvation from sin (Luke 24:46-48; Acts 2:38; Acts 17:30; Acts 20:21-24).
b. When we read the Book of Acts, we find that the apostles did not preach: Just ask Jesus into your
heart, or get saved, or even get born again. When you turn from sin toward God through repentance
and faith, God indwells you by His Spirit and you are born again (born from above). John 3:3-5
c. The New Testament ends with Jesus telling Christians to repent. When Jesus appeared to John the
apostle, the Lord gave him letters for seven churches in existence at that time recorded in Rev 2-3.
1. In these letters Jesus gave both praise and correction. Seven times Jesus told Christians to
repent of specific things—Rev 2:5 (2x); 2:16; 2:21-22; 3:3; 3:19.
2. Note the context of a well known verse: Rev 3:19-20—Those whom I love, I reprove and
discipline, so be zealous and repent. Behold I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears
my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me (ESV)
d. Remember, repentance is relational. Sin is an offense against God both before you become His son
or daughter and after. If you offend your earthly father, all of us understand that it is right and
appropriate to feel sorrow and ask for forgiveness. Is your heavenly Father worthy of less?
C. Conclusion: We must consider repentance in the context of the big picture. We were created to become
holy, faultless, spotless sons and daughters of God. Salvation is about restoring us to our created purpose.
1. Overemphasis on repentance, without understanding it in the context of God’s overall plan, leads to
legalism (strict, literal, excessive conformity to rules). Legalism is keeping rules without a heartfelt,
loving relationship with God and your fellow man.
a. That’s what Israel’s religious leaders, the Pharisees, did. Jesus said to them: Woe to you, scribes
and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier
matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness (Matt 23:23, ESV).
b. Overemphasis on God’s part (grace) leads to hyper (super excessive) grace—It doesn’t matter how
you live. God wants you to be happy. He doesn’t even see your sin anymore! That’s just what
false teachers said in the 1st century: For certain men have slipped in among you. They are
godless men, who change the grace of our God into a license for immorality (Jude 4, NLT).
2. We’ve made the point repeatedly that we are now finished works in progress—fully God’s sons and
daughters—but not yet fully Christ-like in every part of our being. I John 3:1-2
a. Now that we are sons and daughters we must put forth effort (by God’s grace) to grow in Christ-
likeness: All who believe this will keep themselves pure, just as Christ is pure (I John 3:3, NLT).
b. Remember God’s plan for us: Long ago, even before he made the world, God loved us and chose
us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes (Eph 1:4, NLT). The Greek word translated
holy has the idea of separated from sin—morally pure, upright, blameless in heart and life.
Without fault means without blemish, spotless. Note these two verses as we close:
1. Col 1:21-23—And you, who once were alienated and hostile in your mind, doing evil deeds, he
has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless
and above reproach before him, if you indeed continue in the faith (ESV).
2. Jude 24-25—Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless
before the presence of his glory with great joy, to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ
our Lord…be glory…now and forever (ESV).
c. The word translated blameless in each of these two verses is the same Greek word used in Eph 1:4—
without blemish, spotless. He who has begun His good work of restoration through our repentance
and faith will complete it by His power as we stay faithful to Him (Phil 1:6). More next week!