On Sinning Without Law

That man has always been under some kind of law from God, I think there is little doubt. We know Adam and Eve were under law, but what about those who came after them but before the Law of Moses? The flood came upon mankind because of “wickedness” and “every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” (Gen. 6:5 NKJV) The earth was “corrupt before God” and “filled with violence.” (Gen. 6:11 NKJV) Peter spoke of the world before the flood as “the world of the ungodly.” (2 Peter 2:5 NKJV)

Were these people innocent, not having a law of God before them for guidance and direction in life? Did they not have a way of knowing right from wrong, good from evil? There is no evidence we have of a written law, but we do know Noah was “a preacher of righteousness.” (2 Peter 2:5 NKJV) How did Noah know what was righteous and what was not? What is my point? It is threefold: (1) God had a law by which man was to live even if unwritten, (2) man had some means by which to know God’s will, and (3) man could sin “without law,” that is, in this case, without written law. God would and did hold man responsible for man’s lawlessness by means of the flood.

Moving up to the account of the events surrounding the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, the Bible says, “The men of Sodom were exceedingly wicked and sinful against the LORD.” (Gen. 13:13 NKJV) Lamentations 4:6 speaks of “the sin of Sodom.” (NKJV, NAS) But there was no written law. They sinned against God, but they sinned without law, but only in the sense of written law. God had a standard, a law, against their conduct whether written or not.

To elaborate, Peter says, speaking of Lot and Lot’s time in Sodom, “That righteous man, dwelling among them, tormented his righteous soul from day to day by seeing and hearing their lawless deeds.” (2 Peter 2:8 NKJV) Lot saw them; Peter called them “lawless deeds,” so there was law there even without a formal code, as was later found in the Law of Moses.

I have said all of this in order to lay some background material for Paul’s discussion of the sins of the Gentiles in Romans 1. (I remind the reader the Gentiles were never given the Law of Moses; it was given to the Jews at Mt. Sinai while the Gentiles remained without a formal law code or written law from God.) I cannot quote it all here, but the reader would be advised to stop and read Rom. 1:18-32 before proceeding. Paul lists the sins of the Gentiles, especially in Rom. 1:29-32. How did the Gentiles come to know these things were sins? They had no written law, and in that sense they were “without law,” a phrase Paul uses later in Rom. 2:12.

I ask again, how did the Gentiles come to know these listed sins were sins when they were without law? That they did know is evident, for Paul says in Rom. 1:32, “Who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them.” (NKJV) They knew; Paul says so.

I do not propose in this piece to give you answers that would be mere speculation on my part as to how the Gentiles were to know sin from righteousness other than the fact that some things ought to be self-evident to all men. The Gentiles went for thousands of years, up until Christ, without any kind of formal law from God, but they “sinned without law.” (Rom. 2:12 NKJV) One might ask, how can this be, since “sin is the transgression of the law?” (1 John 3:4 KJV) That is the question.

This is my opinion, and mark it down as that, just opinion, which is that God has law (or, put another way, a set of standards for conduct) whether it is given to man or not, and any violation of that law is sin. For example, as far as we know, God never told Adam and Eve and Cain and Abel not to murder or kill. Does that mean Cain did not sin when he murdered his brother? (Should one not know instinctively that this is sin?)

Sin is the transgression of God’s law, but one can sin without a formal law being in place. How would one do that? Well, one could not do it today since all men today are under the law of Christ, but back in Old Testament times, after Mt. Sinai and God’s covenant that was made there with the Jews, things were different. The world was divided thereafter into two groups of humanity. You were either a Jew or a Gentile (anyone not a Jew was a Gentile). To the Jews, God gave a formal law—the Law of Moses. The rest of humanity was without law, that is, without a written formal code of law.

The Jews obviously sinned anytime they broke the Law of Moses. The Gentiles sinned without law, without a formal law code such as the Law of Moses. However, that does not mean they did not break God’s law, for God has a standard of right and wrong whether it has been delivered to man formally or not.

Sin is a transgression of God’s law, period. Romans 1:18-32 is the Holy Spirit’s listing of and condemnation of the sins of the Gentiles. Paul says, “where there is no law there is no transgression” (Rom. 4:15 NKJV), thus the Gentiles were under condemnation for the very reason that they had transgressed God’s law. “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” Paul said in Rom. 3:23 (NKJV), but that would not be true of the Gentiles in the period under discussion if they had no law of God to transgress.

Where did this law that was never formally given to the Gentiles, that the Gentiles lived under, and a law they could and did violate, come from, since it was not formally given? Some of it came, evidently, naturally or instinctively, as Rom. 2:14 says, “For when Gentiles who do not have the law do instinctively the things of the Law, these not having the Law, are a law to themselves.” (NAS)

The law the Gentiles lived under was not as strict as that the Jews lived under. Of that, there can be little to no doubt. When the scriptures talk about doing instinctively the things of the Law, they surely are not speaking of offerings, sacrifices, clean and unclean foods, etc., the kinds of things that were regulated in detail and could only be known by a direct revelation from God (the very thing the Gentiles did not have). The scriptures thus had to be speaking of things that relate to man’s relationship with his fellowman and of his reverence toward God. Paul summed up the fulfillment of the law when he said, “For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’” (Gal. 5:14 NKJV) A Gentile was capable of doing that without a formal written code.

Did anyone, Jew or Gentile, ever live perfectly without sinning against the law under which he lived? Of course not! That is the point Paul is driving home in Romans chapters 1 and 2. He says, “We have already charged that both Jews and Greeks are all under sin; as it is written, ‘There is none righteous, not even one.’” (Rom. 3:9-10 NAS)

Paul says, “Through the Law comes the knowledge of sin.” (Rom. 3:20 NAS) Does this mean that since the Gentiles did not have a formal written code or even an oral code from God, they had no knowledge of sin? No! Why not? Paul speaks of “the Law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness, and their thoughts alternately accusing or else defending themselves.” (Rom. 2:15 NAS) Is there a man, living or dead, Jesus being the exception, who ever lived to manhood who could honestly say he never violated his own code of conduct, his sense of right versus wrong, never ever violated his own conscience? Our own hearts have condemned us all at one point in time or another.

Law has condemned all men, even those the Bible refers to as being “without law,” for that phrase means only without a legal code of the likes of the Law of Moses.

There is a passage in Rom. 5 that raises questions that ought to be dealt with. It reads as follows: “For until the law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law.” (Rom. 5:13 NKJV)

If a person were to read this for the first time ever and have no knowledge of the Bible, he would think that God did not punish sin or hold man accountable for sin before giving to mankind a formal written code of law, but we have already discussed the account of the flood and why it came and talked about Sodom and Gomorrah, and we have even discussed how God held the Gentiles to account for their sins as recorded in chapter one of this very same book—the book of Romans. We have also discussed how men had law but just not a written law, and we have shown how the Gentiles violated the law, the light they did have.

My take on this verse (Rom. 5:13), then, is this—we take it at face value. What do I mean? It is a simple declaration, “sin is not imputed when there is no law.” (Rom. 5:13 NKJV) Thus, if sin exists at any place, anywhere, or anytime, among any people, then there was a law that was violated even though that law may not have been in the form of a written or oral code and may not have been in the form of a specific commandment such as Adam was given. Put another way, one could say it is impossible to sin against a law that does not exist; thus, if there is sin, there is law.

It is true, as some commentators point out, that there is no “the” before “law” in the original Greek of this Rom. 5:13 passage, but read in the context of Rom. 5:20, where, again, there is no “the” before “law,” I think it is obvious the law spoken of is the Law of Moses, for what other law was there that the text says “entered.” I know of none. Do you?

If Gentiles who lived in the period between Adam and Moses were eternally lost because of sin, how could it be said that sin is not imputed when there is no law (they had no law given by revelation as did the Jews)? We have already shown the wickedness of many in that time. The answer is there was law, just not a written code of the nature of the Law of Moses.

I add in closing that I do not presume to become the judge of the Gentiles before the Christian dispensation. That is God’s realm, not mine. I am only saying God was not unjust in those he condemned because they were “without law.”

What God will do with the Gentiles of those ages past who lived without a written code is a question only he has the answer to. I do know each of us will stand before the Lord on the Day of Judgment individually, not as a group, to answer for our own deeds. Luke 12:47-48 seems to teach we will be judged to an extent on our ability to know and do. My purpose in writing this article was certainly not to make myself a judge of the Gentiles or to answer questions men have been contemplating for centuries. But I do have an answer. “Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?” (Gen. 18:25 NKJV)

Postscript: I reserve the right to revise my understanding of these matters, especially of the Rom. 5:13 passage, if in time to come I learn better. It is a difficult passage. While what a person must do to be saved in the scriptures is plain enough for all to understand, everyone will agree there are difficult passages in the Bible. One who reads the writings of others should always examine the scriptures for himself and never take any commentators’ words as the be-all and end-all of discussion.

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On Praying For Others

Is it a sin to not pray for others? When we think of sin, I am sure a failure to pray for others does not come immediately to mind like, say, lying, dishonesty, theft, slander, etc. and other more notorious sins. Yet, in the book of 1 Samuel, chapter 12, verse 23, we read this statement from Samuel spoken to the children of Israel: “Moreover, as for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for you.” (NKJV)

Now, I am not Samuel, but it makes you stop and think, does it not? Samuel was praying for God’s people. Are we exempt from doing the same? Are we under no obligation?

During Jesus’ ministry he once was asked what the greatest commandment in the law was . (Matt. 22:36) His response was to love God “with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind” (Matt. 22:37 NKJV), but he then went on to talk about the second greatest commandment, which was “love your neighbor as yourself.” (Matt. 22:39 NKJV) Do we pray for ourselves? If we do, are we not under obligation to pray for our neighbor? We are if we love him.

We are clearly commanded to love one another as disciples of Jesus, for none other than Jesus himself gave the commandment when he said, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another.” (John 13:34 NKJV) Thus, in the book of 1 John we read in chapter 3, verse 16, “By this we know love, because he laid down his life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.” (NKJV)

If I am to love you as Jesus has loved you (and loved me), to the extent he gave his life for you, then surely I am to pray for you. Jesus prayed for us (John 17:20), and we are to “be imitators of God as dear children and walk in love, as Christ also has loved us.” (Eph. 5:1-2 NKJV)

But we are not just to love and pray for our neighbors and the brethren but even for our enemies, for Jesus himself has told us, “love your enemies” (Matt. 5:44 NKJV). You cannot love your enemy without seeking his welfare, and that certainly involves praying for him.

Paul asked the brethren to pray for him and his company, “Brethren, pray for us.” (1 Thess. 5:25 NKJV—see also 2 Thess. 3:1) The writer of the book of Hebrews requests prayers when he says simply, “Pray for us.” (Heb. 13:18 NKJV)

One prayer request by Paul seems to be more than just a request. To the Romans, he writes, “Now I beg you, brethren, through the Lord Jesus Christ, and through the love of the Spirit, that you strive together with me in your prayers to God for me.” (Rom. 15:30 NKJV)

That one especially touches the heart, “I beg you.” Have you ever wished people would pray for you? I have wished they would pray for me. We often feel alone. People know us, but it seems too many are just figures passing in the night. They stop long enough to say hello, smile, and ask how you are, and then they are off and gone, and you are left alone with every single problem you ever had, and no one cares, or so it seems. We just wish someone cared enough to pray for us.

What is wanted is not just “Father, be with (you fill in the name).” What we want is people who really care, who really love us, whose prayer for us will be fervent, zealous, and deeply heartfelt. We want a sincere prayer from the heart, not just a word said in passing. When we become Christians who have taken God’s command to heart to love one another, only then will we get the kind of prayers that are sought and effective. It is “the effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man” that “avails much.” (James 5:16 NKJV)

Paul prayed for others continually. To the Romans, he says, “Without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers.” (Rom. 1:9 NKJV) To the Colossians, he wrote, “We give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you.” (Col. 1:3 NKJV) To the Philippians, he wrote, “In every prayer of mine making request for you all.” (Phil. 1:4 NKJV) To the Thessalonians, he wrote, “We also pray always for you.” (2 Thess. 1:11 NKJV) In a personal letter to Timothy, he says, “Without ceasing I remember you in my prayers night and day.” (2 Tim. 1:3 NKJV)

We ought to pray for one another. Paul says, “Imitate me, just as I also imitate Christ.” (1 Cor. 11:1 NKJV) Did Christ pray for his disciples? To ask is to answer. We are to “pray without ceasing.” (1 Thess. 5:17 NKJV) A question we all need to ask ourselves is how much of my praying time will I devote to praying for others? When I do pray for them, will it be with a deep heartfelt concern for their welfare or just to fulfill a requirement? I guess it comes down to how much I really love. That seems to be the bottom line, does it not? Does what is happening in the other guy’s life make any difference to me? The Bible teaches it should.

Jesus tells us to “love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you.” (Matt. 5:44 NKJV)

Paul, in 1 Tim. 2:1-4, adds this, “Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” (NKJV)

God is “not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.” (2 Peter 3:9 NKJV) In Rom. 10:1, Paul speaks of his praying for those who were not Christians, for his desire for them was that they might be saved. In 2 Cor. 5:11, he spoke of knowing the terror of the Lord and thus sought to persuade men. We too know something about the terror of the Lord and ought to be praying for those who need to obey the gospel, praying fervently on their behalf, praying that such events might transpire in their life that their eyes will be opened and they can see their need and will turn to the Lord.

We ought to be praying for the needy, the poor, the sick, the lonely, the alien, for those who have fallen away, the aged, the young, parents, children, and many, many others, for the list could go on. I have all of the proof I need to make up my mind whether or not it is a sin to not pray on behalf of others. I will pray for others and hope they will pray for me.

Will it do any good? James said it would (James 5:16), but it will have to be a “fervent prayer of a righteous man.” (NKJV) There are many, many people who need prayers beginning with little children to the very aged, and yet there is, I fear, a shortage of righteous men and women to do the job. It is a good work greatly needed.

“Epaphras,” Paul told the Colossians, “greets you, always laboring fervently for you in prayers.” (Col. 4:12 NKJV) The prayer of a righteous man is a labor of love. May God send us more righteous men and women willing to labor fervently in prayer for others, and I hope some of those prayers will be for you and me.

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Why Christianity Offends

If someone was to ask you or me what constitutes Christian character, what would we say? Off the top of our head, we would most likely say love for God and our fellowman and faith in the Lord Jesus. As we thought about it more intently, we would add things like the fruit of the Spirit, "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control." (Gal. 5:22-23 NKJV) We might recall Peter's admonition to add to our faith virtue and godliness in 2 Peter 1. No doubt we would add humility (1 Peter 5:5), mercy and meekness (Col. 3:12), thankfulness (Col. 3:15), and truthfulness (Eph. 4:25) to our list, and our list would still not be all-inclusive of the good things to be found in Christian character at its best.

It is hard to look back over this list and see anything that should offend anyone. It is certainly not the Christian's desire to offend. The word of God teaches the Christian to "pursue peace with all men" (Heb. 12:14 NKJV), "to speak evil of no one, to be peaceable, gentle, showing all humility to all men" (Titus 3:2 NKJV), and "as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men" (Rom. 12:18 NKJV). How is it, then, when it is the Christian's desire to be non-offensive to others and he or she has good character, that the Christian ends up offending so many?

The answer lies in what the Christian believes. The very fact that Christians believe what they believe is offensive to many. To whom, you might ask? To those who believe otherwise—to the atheist, to the communist, to the Islamist, to those who will not believe and obey the gospel and live faithfully, to all who do not want to be confined within the constraints the New Testament places on their lives. They know they are living lives that are contrary to the gospel, that the gospel condemns their life choices, and they do not like it. The very fact one is a Christian condemns them. They feel Christianity judges them, and they do not like it.

Let us look at just one example. If the Christian believes it is sinful to live the life of a fornicator, who is likely to be offended by that belief? To ask is to answer—the fornicator, to those who see sex as a sort of human right, married or not. If the Christian was to speak against living together outside of marriage, how many friends do you think he or she would make in the world we live in today? Not many. If he speaks up, it is said he is making himself a judge. He is intolerant and causing trouble. He is considered harsh and hard (as though God would tolerate the sin). He is unloving.

You can go right down the list of what the Bible calls sins, name them one by one, ask the same kind of question, and get the same kind of answer. Who is offended by the sin the Bible condemns? The answer is the person practicing the sin. Christian beliefs themselves are offensive to many—to a great, great many—no matter what subject you end up talking about. It is not so much what the Christian does that is so offensive but what he believes. Jesus said we would be judged by the word of God (John 12:48), and God's word does offend many by limiting their freedom to sin without being rebuked. The word rebukes them. If you believe the word, then that is a rebuke to them, and that is offensive. You offend them because of what you believe about the word, namely, that it is the truth.

Jesus said on one occasion, "The world…hates Me because I testify of it that its works are evil." (John 7:7 NKJV) Do you think the sinner wants to hear or be told that his works (his sins) are evil? The minute the Christian speaks up against a sin, he puts himself in company with Jesus, and the world will hate him too, just like it hated Jesus. The men and women of the world want not only the silence of the Christian but, even more than that, they want the Christian's approval. They basically desire the Christian give up his faith, deny the word of God, and join them, join them at least in heart.

Jesus said on one occasion to those who sought to kill him, "You seek to kill Me, because My word has no place in you." (John 8:37 NKJV) When God's word has no place in a man, then, given the right circumstances and provocations, as the man sees them, there are no limits to the depths of sin that it can lead a man to. The word of God places boundaries upon men, boundaries that do not satisfy those of a worldly bent, but boundaries that keep men from the evil which men are capable of doing when at their worst. The Christian respects God's fences (boundaries), but the man of the world whose desires are for the world rips the fences to pieces.

The world thus often puts the Christian in a spot that, if he had his choice, he would rather not be in. No one who has had any upbringing about him wants to be offensive to others. We all desire the friendship of others and their affection, we want friends, not enemies, and let us be honest, even if a person is worldly, it does not mean they are unlikeable. Many have very winning personalities. They are often not bad people measured by the standards of everyday life, but the problem is the Christian can have only one standard, and that standard is not the standard of everyday worldly living.

Paul gave us all words of wisdom when he said, "For we dare not class ourselves or compare ourselves with those who commend themselves. But they, measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise." (2 Cor. 10:12 NKJV) Christ is the only acceptable standard a Christian can have. The goal and the desire is not to be the best of the average everyday person but to be Christ-like. Our desire is to be saved, and in order to be saved we must live like Christ and not like the average of men. We must seek to please God, not man. "If I still pleased men, I would not be a servant of Christ." (Gal. 1:10 NKJV) The command of God is, "Come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord." (2 Cor. 6:17 NKJV)

The condemnation of one group of believers in Christ lay at this very point. "Nevertheless even among the rulers many believed in Him, but because of the Pharisees they did not confess Him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue; for they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God." (John 12:42-43 NKJV) Thus we come to the fork in the road where we must make a decision. What will it be? Will we go with God and his word, or will we go with the majority of men? Will we offend God, or will we offend man, for that is what it comes down to?

No matter how much you and I desire the salvation of all men, we do not desire it any more than God does. God is "not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance." (2 Peter 3:9 NKJV) He "desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth." (1 Tim. 2:4 NKJV) He loved the world (mankind) so much he gave his only begotten son that man might be saved (John 3:16). Nevertheless, the Bible teaches "narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it." (Matt. 7:14 NKJV)

Now let me ask a question. If God is so desirous of men being saved, why is the gate to life so narrow and the way to life so difficult? (Matt. 7:14) The gate is narrow and the way is difficult because man finds it hard to accept God's will, believe it, and obey it. Put another way, man finds it difficult to bring his will into subjection to God's will. Anyone and everyone could be saved, God does not show partiality, but God is God and man is often and generally unwilling to accept salvation on God's terms. It is offensive to man.

What does please man is the way that seems right to man. But what is the end of that way? "There is a way that seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death." (Prov. 14:12 NKJV)

Even among those the world calls Christians (whether they are or not, God will judge based on his word), very, very few are willing to accept that a child of faith must repent and be baptized for the remission of sins despite Peter's exact words to that effect. "Then Peter said to them, "Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit." (Acts 2:38 NKJV) He had to be mistaken, he could not have meant it, it is offensive, the very thought is offensive. We want non-offensive Christianity. Non-offensive Christianity demands disregard for the word of God.

With non-offensive Christianity, we can have, I recently read, 34,000 Christian denominations (A Short History of Christianity, Stephen Tomkins, page 245). With denominationalism, everyone gets what they want, the church of their choice; all will be saved no matter what group they are with as long as they, in the broadest sense of the term, "believe" in Jesus, and thus no one is offended—non-offensive Christianity. No one is offended because in the end denominationalism means doctrine does not matter. You read it the way you want, I read it the way I want, we are both saved, it doesn't matter which one of us had the truth.

Denominationalism is a wide gate and a broad way. If I am wrong and that is the narrow gate and difficult way (34,000 denominations), then tell me how many denominations we would have to have to have a broad way? Would a hundred thousand do it, or would it take more like a million? When one can find the church of his choice, rather than God's choice, you have non-offensive Christianity.

There is no doubt that the tender heart that does not want to offend people is good in its attitude toward the feelings of others, but the truth of life, all of life, is that man must make choices, and in making choices he will inevitably offend. There are gentle-hearted people who sincerely want to please everyone, not be offensive to any, and who want to stay out of all fights and disagreements, and they are thus unwilling to take sides or take a stand. They just want to be left alone and left out of any disagreements or unpleasantness, but isn't that the desire of most of us? We want peace, not strife. We want less stress in our lives, not more. But there is a problem.

Life just does not work that way. We cannot stay on the sidelines forever. In failing to choose sides, we choose the side by default that is most likely to be wrong, the side of the majority. If the broad way has most of the people in it (according to the Lord it does—Matt. 7:13-14), and that is the way of destruction, then my choice by default is not going to work out well for me. It is true enough in this life a majority position is the most popular and the least likely to cause you strife in the here and now, but it is also the damning position on the Day of Judgment. On that day you want to be a part of the minority, not the majority.

Paul, speaking by inspiration, says, "All who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution." (2 Tim. 3:12 NKJV) Who is this person who is suffering persecution? Is it the non-offensive Christian? No! The truth is you cannot be a faithful Christian without offending many. You will offend because you will take a side, the side offensive to the world and to much of Christendom.

God calls us to take sides, and he gives us no middle ground. It does not matter if we would prefer to not take a side, for that is not given to us as an option. We will either believe or we will disbelieve. We will either repent of sin or we will not. We will either be baptized for the remission of sins, or we will not be baptized for the remission of sins. We will either be obedient in life or we will be disobedient. We will either battle Satan or we will not battle Satan. God's choices are only twofold. They are either/or. Eve only had two choices, not a half dozen. Yes, this may sound hard and harsh to some. God is a demanding God, but what are you going to do about it? Are you strong enough to take on God and win?

"He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters abroad." (Matt. 12:30 NKJV) It is either/or; there is no other option given. We must "contend earnestly for the faith." (Jude 3 NKJV) We must "fight the good fight of faith." (1 Tim. 6:12 NKJV) Why? Because it is either/or. God commanded it, and we either will obey or we will disobey. There is no third option given. That is the life we live. We can please the majority of men now by not taking sides, sitting on the sidelines, giving the world no opposition, but in doing so we have taken the default position, which is the devil's majority position—the broad way.

We might say we did not ask to get put in this position. No, we did not ask to be put in this position, but God saw fit to place us here. We are his creation. Are we going to fight against God or put on the armor he has given us and go to battle (see Eph. 6:11-17)?

My parents did not ask for the poverty of the Great Depression and then WW II, but that is where they found themselves. The wise man takes a look around to see where he is at and the best course to pursue rather than moan, groan, and complain about where he finds himself. God will give us rest and peace in due time in a place where there is no strife or battle, but that is then and this is now. Those who are overly meek and quiet need to put on the Lord's battle armor and go to war for the time being so they can have peace in a later time, the hereafter. It is an either/or choice; you either do it or you don't. Your future depends on your decision. Do not delude yourself into thinking there is such a thing as not taking sides and sitting on the sidelines, for that is Satan's default position. That is Satan's side.

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On Godly Sorrow and Repentance

The words repent and repentance are Bible words, words hardly ever used outside of a religious context. In reading one’s New Testament, beginning with the gospel accounts, the first preaching that is recorded is that of John the Baptist preaching in the wilderness saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” (Matt. 3:2 NKJV) In Matt. 4:17 we see Jesus preaching the same message. The call to men by inspiration from the very beginning of the unfolding of the New Testament was a call to repentance. Jesus said it was a matter so important that it was repent or perish, an either-or proposition. (Luke 13:3, 5)

Repentance is a command to all men, everywhere, in all time to come, as long as the earth shall stand. You and I are not exempt. Paul, in his speech in the Areopagus in Athens, made this statement:

“Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent, because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead.” (Acts 17:30-31 NKJV)

After his resurrection, while meeting with his apostles, Jesus said, “Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day, and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.” (Luke 24:46-47 NKJV) It was thus essential then and essential now that repentance be preached. We see the beginning of such preaching shortly thereafter.

In the very first gospel sermon ever preached, after Christ’s ascension back to heaven and the Holy Spirit’s descending upon the apostles on the Day of Pentecost, in Acts 2, the conclusion of Peter’s inspired sermon was, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins.” (Acts 2:38 NKJV) Repentance was made essential to salvation (as was baptism).

Who must repent? Sinners. “For we have previously charged both Jews and Greeks that they are all under sin. As it is written: ‘There is none righteous, no, not one.’” (Rom. 3:9-10 NKJV) “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (Rom. 3:23 NKJV) Repentance is repentance of sin against God. God “commands all men everywhere to repent.” (Acts 17:30)

Well, if I am commanded to repent on the penalty of repent or perish, what must I do? What does it mean to repent? It is very common to find people who do not understand and who simply think to repent means to be sorry.

If sorrow was repentance, then Judas, the betrayer of the Lord, was a saved man. The Bible says, “Then Judas, His betrayer, seeing that He had been condemned, was remorseful and brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders.” (Matt. 27:3 NKJV) His sorrow was so great he went out and hung himself.

All of that be as it may, Jesus said of Judas, “The Son of Man goes as it is written of Him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been good for that man if he had not been born.” (Matt. 26:24 NKJV) That could not have been said if Judas was to be saved on account of his remorse.

Besides this statement we have Paul’s comment in 2 Cor. 7:10 that “the sorrow of the world produces death.” (NKJV) Since we know assuredly that the sorrow Judas had led to death (spiritual death, for he was not saved according to Jesus), we know his sorrow was of the world. A lesson we ought to learn from this fact is that a man or woman can be as sorry as sorry can be and yet not repent or be pleasing to God.

Paul speaks of another kind of sorrow in the same passage in 2 Cor. 7, a sorrow that leads to repentance. He says, “Now I rejoice, not that you were made sorry, but that your sorrow led to repentance. For you were made sorry in a godly manner, that you might suffer loss from us in nothing.” (2 Cor. 7:9 NKJV) From this, we learn that there is a type of sorrow that leads to repentance.

In 2 Cor. 7:10 it is called “godly sorrow.” “For godly sorrow produces repentance to salvation, not to be regretted.” (NKJV) Peter is an example of a man who experienced godly sorrow. He denied Jesus three times when Jesus was in the custody of those who would be responsible for his death. Peter had deep regret and sorrow and went away and “wept bitterly.” (Matt. 26:75 NKJV)

What then is the difference between the two types of sorrow, say the sorrow of Judas versus the sorrow of Peter? Namely this: godly sorrow leads one back to God. Judas fled from God. That was not something he had to do. Peter said on the Day of Pentecost, to those assembled there that day, “God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.” (Acts 2:36 NKJV) See also Acts 2:23. They were guilty of crucifying the Lord as much as Judas was, and yet we see later in that same chapter 3,000 of them repenting of that sin that very day, being baptized, and becoming Christians. Judas could have repented also, but he chose another course. Peter, while he had denied the Lord after the Lord’s arrest, came back to the Lord.

There are a couple of lessons here for us. (1) Do not underestimate God’s love and willingness to forgive. Did Judas do that? (2) Do not destroy yourself by despair. I speak of destroying yourself spiritually as did Judas (although, admittedly, he destroyed himself physically as well). There are men and women who are sorry for the things they have done but will not turn to God for forgiveness, thinking they have been too evil to be forgiven. They despair. This is a worldly sorrow. It shows a lack of faith in God’s love and willingness to forgive and thus a lack of faith in God and his word.

Others are also sorry for their sins, but it is because they have been caught in them and have suffered as a result (adulterers, those having affairs, are often an example of this type). They are sorry for a reason, but it is not a sorrow that has anything to do with God or God’s laws. They are sorry because they were caught. This is another type of worldly sorrow.

Godly sorrow, on the other hand, leads one to throw himself upon God and his mercy and grace. Godly sorrow is not repentance but is the thing that leads to it. If you are being led to a thing, then you have not yet arrived there, although you will in due time by continuing the course.

Repentance is the actual surrendering of one’s will to God’s will. It is a determination to turn from sin to God, from unrighteousness to righteousness; it is a matter of the human mind and will. The idea is that I will cease being the lord of my life. Jesus will now be my Lord. His will will be my will. It is a determination to follow God. It is the determination to make Jesus my Lord and Savior with all that implies.

It is not yet reformation of life, for reformation is the fruit of repentance. John the Baptist commanded “bear fruits worthy of repentance.” (Matt. 3:8 NKJV) Reformation is, to a degree, a measure of repentance. A man who truly repents reforms his life.

Let me clarify that. There are sincere people who truly have repented who come to doubt their conversion at this very point. When we obey the gospel, we have it in our minds that we are going to live an almost perfect life thereafter. We are committed as we ought to be. Unfortunately, we never live the perfect life. When we next sin, we begin doubting our conversion. Did I really repent? If I did, why did I commit this sin? Doubts arise about our conversion. We begin to wonder, am I doomed to just live my life a hopeless sinner?

There is no such thing as living a sin-free life after conversion unless, of course, you die almost immediately upon being converted. The apostle John, in speaking to Christians, says, “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:8-9 NKJV)

Repentance, unlike baptism, is not just a one-time act. While there is no true conversion without repentance, we are unable to live sin-free over any extended period of time. David Lipscomb once made the comment that he doubted that any man ever lived a single day without sin. Whether or not that is true, I do not know, but my suspicion is that if not true, it is not far from it. There are sins of commission, sins of omission, sins of ignorance, sins of the mind, of the heart, and of the attitude. We are what we are, and none of us will live without sin after our conversion.

We must also bear in mind that if we could be perfect law keepers we could be saved by law, by works, and that is clearly not the case. All who are sincere in their Christian life will readily bear witness to the fact that, despite their best efforts, they fail in keeping the law of Christ from time to time. We can bear witness, for we can name our sins. We know our failures.

The Law of Moses was designed to bring the Jews to Christ by showing them this very thing; namely, you cannot keep God’s law perfectly, and thus the road to salvation cannot be found in perfect obedience. (Gal. 3:24, Gal. 3:10) That was true under the Law of Moses and under the law of God under which we live today (the New Testament). The need for God’s grace is obvious.

The New Testament is full of admonitions to those who are already Christians but who are involved in sin to repent. Read First and Second Corinthians. Even the apostle Peter needed to repent (read Gal. 2:11-13). In the books of First and Second Corinthians, Paul does not raise the question whether or not those brethren who were caught up in sin were genuinely converted. They were true Christians, but they had nevertheless sinned after their conversion and needed to repent. Let me list a few examples.

There was the man who had his father’s wife in a sexually immoral relationship (1 Cor. 5:1); there were those he wrote of in 2 Cor. 12:21 who he feared might not have “repented of the uncleanness, fornication, and licentiousness which they have practiced.” (NKJV) They were also taking one another to courts of law (not an act of love). (1 Cor. 6:7)

We could also read about various churches in the Book of Revelation, chapters two and three, who needed to repent in one way or another. We could talk about the Galatians.

But my point is this—if you were sincere in heart when you obeyed the gospel with regard to your repentance and you then followed through and completed your obedience of faith as per Acts 2:38, being baptized for the remission of sins (Acts 2:38, Acts 22:16), baptized into Christ (Gal. 3:27, Rom. 6:3), then there is no reason down the road to look back and wonder if you were truly converted, to doubt your conversion. Many have done that, and we need more teaching about it so minds can be set at ease on that point.

You will never live perfectly. If you are a human being, you will sin again after your conversion (dare I say many times?). That does not mean you were never converted. It does mean you need to repent just as Peter needed to in Gal. 2. Having repented, confess your sin and pray and ask for God’s forgiveness and ask for the forgiveness of any you may have personally sinned against. (1 John 1:9, James 5:16) God will forgive if we will repent and ask his forgiveness.

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