EPISODE 851 – UNDERSTANDING SALVATION AND REPENTANCE 1

Their sins and transgressions cut them off from enjoying God’s goodness.

The prayer of Solomon the king (during the dedication of the temple) exposed the understanding of the Jews under the Old Covenant.

“If they sin against thee, (for there is no man that sinneth not,) and thou be angry with them, and deliver them to the enemy, so that they carry them away captives unto the land of the enemy, far or near; Yet if they shall bethink themselves in the land whither they were carried captives, and repent, and make supplication unto thee in the land of them that carried them captives, saying, We have sinned, and have done perversely, we have committed wickedness; And so return unto thee with all their heart, and with all their soul, in the land of their enemies, which led them away captive, and pray unto thee toward their land, which thou gavest unto their fathers, the city which thou hast chosen, and the house which I have built for thy name: Then hear thou their prayer and their supplication in heaven thy dwelling place, and maintain their cause, And forgive thy people that have sinned against thee, and all their transgressions wherein they have transgressed against thee, and give them compassion before them who carried them captive, that they may have compassion on them” 1 Kings 8:46-50 (KJV)

The picture they had was that, until they repent (turn from their wicked ways) God will not forgive them.

That was the Old Covenant requirement. But they couldn’t completely turn from their wicked ways. 

They kept living in disobedience of the law because they lacked the ability to walk in obedience.

The Jews kept returning to captivity every time they transgressed. This was exactly as Solomon the king addressed in his prayer.

Even after the Israelites or the Jews were delivered and brought back to their lands, they were taken back into captivity whenever they transgressed.

They couldn’t live as the law demanded because, the law doesn’t supply ability for what it demands. Their repentance was never able to usher them into eternal Salvation.

However, in the New Testament, when you receive Salvation according to the Goodness of God’s Grace, the ability of God is supplied to you to live right.

Now the Old Covenant is obsolete. In Christ Jesus, God has established a better Covenant.

“But now hath he obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also he is the mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises. For if that first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second. For finding fault with them, he saith, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah: Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord.” Hebrews 8:6-9 (KJV)

God’s forgiveness is not dependent on your repentance. 

Unlike the Old Covenant, where repentance leads to accessing God’s goodness, in the New Testament, it is God’s goodness that leads to repentance.

Hallelujah!

(Read more in tomorrow’s episode)