"Your salvation is not a reward for good behavior! It was a grace thing from start to finish; you had no hand in it. Even the gift to believe simply reflects His faith! (Ephesians 2:8-Mirror)
"For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith...”
You did not invent faith; it was God's faith to begin with! It is from faith to faith, (Romans 1:17) He is both the source and conclusion of faith." (Hebrews 12:2)
Our challenge is believing this gospel of grace for ourself and others, daily! It is not a once for all decision; but rather a moment by moment journey of grace ‘by’ faith.
This grace journey progresses in/by a 'mind shift' away from re-penance (faith in the law) to (faith in grace). "The word 'repentance' is a fabricated word from the Latin, penance, and to even give it more 'religious' mileage, the English rendering became re-penance!" Francois du Toit
That is not what the Greek word means at all! The true word that sets the journey of grace, by faith in motion is 'Metanoia'. This comes from (meta)-meaning together with, and (nous) meaning mind, together with God's mind; continuously perpetuated by a 'radical mind-shift.'
Romans 3:27 "A mind shift from trying to impress God with/by your behavior to faith in your righteousness in Christ, is fundamental. There is no life left in the old system, it is dead and gone; you have to move on."
Repentance is 'a shifting and change of mind' which gets you thinking/meditating/focused on 'transformation'. Repentance is a vital 'part' of the grace, by faith journey of being transformed into the image of Christ. Why? Because it gets us to turn away (once and for all) from a failed, fallen minding of ourselves; and turning us to living in God's mind-set as it concerns us.
We can now truly move on beyond ’re-penance' and the sin-consciousness it produces to a moment by moment awareness of sharing in and being covered by Christ's righteousness. God's mind-set; His thoughts and opinion of us becomes our plumb line, bringing us into the eternal realm of his reality, not ours! We literally take on the 'mind of Christ.'
Man, via 'religion' built a doctrine of 're-penance'; which gets us to agree with a faith which is based on our performance, instead of the finished work of Christ. And this renders us 'impotent' to the power of being transformed completely into the image of Christ by grace, through faith.
Further; the thief never owned, nor gets ownership of us! He merely takes advantage of our fallen mind-set, and perpetuates this lie, as the accuser of the brethren. "God did not buy man back from the devil, (he never owned us) but in the New Covenant of Grace, He redeemed us from our own ignorance, our fallen mindsets."
The fallen mind-set passed laws of performance for acceptance. "All that passing laws against sin did was produce more law-breakers. But sin didn't, and doesn't, have a chance in competition with the aggressive forgiveness we call grace. When it's sin versus grace, grace wins hands down. All sin can do is threaten us with death, and that's the end of it. Grace, because God is putting everything together again through the Messiah (Jesus), invites us into life--a life that goes on and on and on, world without end." Romans 5:20-21 (Msg)
God’s mind-set about us becomes a continuous re-minding of our acceptance in the beloved, not performance! And that acceptance propels us into our future of freedom in Jesus! A freedom that attracts the world to the gospel of grace through faith!
Ron Ross
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