How Many "3 Steppers" Do We Have On Aff???

[Adino]

Originally Posted by mizpeh

Adino,

I'm confused by what you wrote. Does faith come simultaneously with repentance or before repentance? Why do you think coverted means believe?

"Therefore repent and return, so that your sins may be wiped away, in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord; NASV

Mizpeh, I understand that saving faith in Christ can only come in the heart which is humbled and contrite before God. The contrite heart is the fallow ground awaiting the seeding of the Gospel. Faith does not come before repentance. Faith comes only upon hearing the Gospel. Faith completes repentance in that it is that element which completes the returning of the contrite heart to God.

In the phrase "repent and be converted" I understand "repent" to point to the heart humble and contrite while "and be converted" points to the call to a return to faith in God. The repenting heart is to "return" via faith. The NT directs this returning faith through Jesus Christ.

In OT repentance there was an implied return to YHWH in faith. The repenting Jew was to return to God. In the NT it is assumed that the repenting person was to return to God, yes... but the addition was that the heart was to return through Jesus Christ. Whereas repentance in the OT involved the contrite heart returning to YHWH in faith, repentance in the NT involves a returning to YHWH through acceptance of the record God gave of his Son (1John 5:10-13). The object of faith in repentance is now Jesus Christ. To believe on Christ is to believe on him who sent Christ (John 12:44).