Antipas_14
Puritan Board Freshman
Hi everyone,
I'm having a little trouble understanding the doctrine of repentance, and was wondering if anyone would be able to help. Just for a little background, I was born and raised in a devout Roman Catholic family, and converted to reformed theology about 2.5 years ago. I try to teach my family everything I am learning, especially the doctrine of justification by faith alone. But when specifics come up, such as my questions below, I would like to strengthen my ability to explain to explain the hope that I have. Also, I do find myself falling into old ways, at times unknowingly thinking in terms of mortal/venial sin, so understanding this will be beneficial to my life application of the truth.
My question is rooted in providing a distinction between an attitude of repentance versus the action (or bearing fruit) in repentance. If an individual believes he is part of God's elect, trusting in Christ for salvation bears some fruit of repentance for some time, yet falls into a season of unrepentant sin and then dies, (I'm using extremes to illustrate a point) is that an indication that the person was never saved? The assumption I would want to call out here, is, the person did persevere in faith, and never came to a point of final apostasy.
Using the same example, but changing a few of the variables: if the same person mentioned above fell into unrepentant sin, but then over time began to feel remorseful for the sin, mourned over it and longed to be granted repentance, but never saw the fruit of that attitude change become a reality in his life, is that person still saved?
In summary, I am trying to understand the distinction between an attitude of repentance versus the action of repentance. What is the mark of true repentance, a change in attitude alone or a change in attitude followed by taking action, thus bearing fruit of repentance?
The answer I have in mind is that the attitude would produce the action (thereby putting sin to death by the Spirit). But what are we to make of an individual with an addiction, in which he or she no longer wishes to be bound by the sin and hates it because they long to please God, but for whatever reason, never bear the evidential fruit of repentance? What if the sinner dies before he can take action? 1 John 3:9 seems pretty clear, that person would be condemned, even though they hated the sin, they never bore fruit of repentance as we are called to do (not in a meritorious way).
I have Luke 23:40 in mind, in which the criminal on the cross comes to faith, but dies before he can repent. One could argue that the criminal did somewhat bear fruit of repentance by the words he said on the cross to the other criminal and Jesus, but I'm not sure what to make of this.
I apologize if this is somewhat elementary, but am really looking to gain an understanding for both myself and my family. Any insight or resources you can provide would be appreciated!
I'm having a little trouble understanding the doctrine of repentance, and was wondering if anyone would be able to help. Just for a little background, I was born and raised in a devout Roman Catholic family, and converted to reformed theology about 2.5 years ago. I try to teach my family everything I am learning, especially the doctrine of justification by faith alone. But when specifics come up, such as my questions below, I would like to strengthen my ability to explain to explain the hope that I have. Also, I do find myself falling into old ways, at times unknowingly thinking in terms of mortal/venial sin, so understanding this will be beneficial to my life application of the truth.
My question is rooted in providing a distinction between an attitude of repentance versus the action (or bearing fruit) in repentance. If an individual believes he is part of God's elect, trusting in Christ for salvation bears some fruit of repentance for some time, yet falls into a season of unrepentant sin and then dies, (I'm using extremes to illustrate a point) is that an indication that the person was never saved? The assumption I would want to call out here, is, the person did persevere in faith, and never came to a point of final apostasy.
Using the same example, but changing a few of the variables: if the same person mentioned above fell into unrepentant sin, but then over time began to feel remorseful for the sin, mourned over it and longed to be granted repentance, but never saw the fruit of that attitude change become a reality in his life, is that person still saved?
In summary, I am trying to understand the distinction between an attitude of repentance versus the action of repentance. What is the mark of true repentance, a change in attitude alone or a change in attitude followed by taking action, thus bearing fruit of repentance?
The answer I have in mind is that the attitude would produce the action (thereby putting sin to death by the Spirit). But what are we to make of an individual with an addiction, in which he or she no longer wishes to be bound by the sin and hates it because they long to please God, but for whatever reason, never bear the evidential fruit of repentance? What if the sinner dies before he can take action? 1 John 3:9 seems pretty clear, that person would be condemned, even though they hated the sin, they never bore fruit of repentance as we are called to do (not in a meritorious way).
I have Luke 23:40 in mind, in which the criminal on the cross comes to faith, but dies before he can repent. One could argue that the criminal did somewhat bear fruit of repentance by the words he said on the cross to the other criminal and Jesus, but I'm not sure what to make of this.
I apologize if this is somewhat elementary, but am really looking to gain an understanding for both myself and my family. Any insight or resources you can provide would be appreciated!