Works worthy of repentance in Acts 26:20
In his trial before King Herod Agrippa in Acts 26, Paul went out of his way to emphasize that “works worthy of repentance” flow from turning to God and not from our own determination to prove our repentance.
What is sin?
Burning Cultural Bridges? Repentance and Paul in Athens, Acts 17:22-31
Paul’s speech to the rulers of Athens in the Areopagus was a long exercise in deliberate irony, first building and then promptly burning cultural bridges. Paul did this to show them the folly of their deliberate ignorance of the true God.
A God who Speaks, Desire to have our own way, Eternity, Forgetting God, God Acts by Speaking, God is Love, God Never Stopped Speaking, God Speaks to Us, God's Existence and Nature, idolatry, Immanence, Refusing to hear, Rejecting God, Repentance, Sin, The Invisible God's Self-Existence, Truth and Falsehood, What is sin?
Repentance and Earthly Consequences: the Consequences of David’s Sins–including Jesus
Though God forgave David his adultery with Bathsheba and his murder of Uriah, this sin had a traceable chain of earthly consequences which extends to the present and which includes the death of Christ on the cross.
The Prophets Nathan and Gad Deal With King David in His Sins
On both of the occasions when David is said to have sinned in his administration as king, God sent prophets to correct him. God corrected David’s great sin, the one involving Bathsheba and Uriah, by sending the prophet Nathan to confront him. By contrast, in the matter of the census David recognized he had sinned and asked God’s forgiveness as soon as the census was completed. The prophet Gad was sent to him not to bring him to repentance, but to give him a choice of public consequences for not honoring God in the census and instructions concerning how to rectify his error. David repented and was forgiven of both sins, but the first one nevertheless had severe long-term consequences.
God Rejected King Saul, But Declared King David a Man After His Own Heart. Didn’t God Get this Backwards?
God rejected King Saul, a bungler who made a few mistakes trying to do God’s will, his own way. But he accepted King David, a rapist and murderer, forgave him two unforgivable sins, promised him an eternal kingdom, called him a man after his own heart–and put him in Jesus’ lineage! Didn’t God get this backwards? NO!!
Confession and Repentance, Desire to have our own way, forgiveness and mercy, God is Love, God's Existence and Nature, God's rationality, Leaving Our First Love, Peril of Seeking Power, Refusing to hear, Rejecting God, Repentance, Repentance versus Remorse, Sin, Sins versus sin, Social control and statecraft, The Problem of Evil, Trusting sight over God's words, What is sin?
King Saul, The People’s Sin
King Saul is an example of a leader appointed by God–at the rebellious insistence of the people–who followed his people’s idolatrous rebellion against God. Generally, in spiritual matters, worldly leaders follow their constituents rather than lead them. After God warned the people about the way their king would take, and sent a sign of his displeasure, they showed remorse–false, incomplete repentance–but did not change their ways. Ultimately, King Saul also followed their lead.
Repent, turn again, turn away from your wickedness, in Acts 3:19
When Peter preached that the people should “repent,” he explained that meant that they were to “turn away from their wickedness” and so, in their behavior, “listen” to Jesus. Jesus did not come to entertain us or to offer advice, but to turn us away from our own way to obedience to him.
“Repent and be Baptized,” in Acts 2:38
After Peter preached his first sermon, on the day of Pentecost, his hearers asked “what must we do to be saved?” His answer was “repent and be baptized.” Those who believed his message repented by giving up their claims of self-ownership and self-reliance and starting to live in community with each other, sharing freely as any had need.
The Pharaoh who played “let’s make a deal” with God
When God sent Moses to deliver his people from Egypt, the Pharaoh who ruled Egypt responded to some of the plagues with false repentance. That is, he tried to “make a deal” with God, and even admitted that he was in the wrong, only to renege on his agreements as soon as God removed the plague. With each “deal” on which he reneged, his heart became more hardened. But this is always what happens when, out of fear or remorse, we try to “make a deal” with God rather than obey him.
Repentance in the Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus, Luke 16:19-31
Like the rich man who ignored the needs of poor Lazarus in the parable, those who self-indulgently use their wealth and are indifferent to the needs of the poor need to repent. But, because they are accustomed to ignoring God, most have rendered themselves incapable of repentance–even if someone rises from the dead to warn them (as Jesus did).