God's Plan with Men

believe the gos

nd faith toward our Lord

pented not afterward, that ye m

e shall all likewise

o must the Son of man be lifted up; that whosoever believeth

they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus an

s believe in God's existence, that He is; Thomas Paine believed in God's existence, that He is. But the faith that results in salvation invariably comes after repentance; "And ye when ye had seen it, repented not afterward, that ye might believe him."-Matt. 21:32. If, therefore, the faith that s

aul preached "repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Je

ount Hor by the way of the Red Sea, to compass the land of Edom: And the soul of the people was much discouraged because of the way. And the people spake against God, and against Moses, Wherefore have ye brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no bread, neither is there any water; and our soul loatheth this light bread. And the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and much people of Israel died. Therefore the people came to Moses, and said, We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord, and against thee; pray unto the Lord that he take away the serpents from us. And Moses prayed for the people. And the Lord said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole, and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live. And Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole, and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived."-Num. 21:4-9. These people realized that they had sinned against God; that their sins deserved punishment; that they were justly condemned-"we have sinned";-that

God" as well as "faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ."-Acts 20:21. Go back and notice the jailor's case: the night before, he had taken Paul and Silas with their backs bloody from the beating they had received, and had not washed their stripes (Verse 33), had given them no supper (Verse 34), and had thrust them into the inner prison and made their feet fast in the stocks. He was utterly hardened. The praying and singing hymns to God by Paul and Silas, the sudden earthquake, Paul's crying out aga

. H. Carroll, President Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary: "We may therefore give as the one invariable definition of New Testament repentance that it is a change of mind." B. H. Carroll, again, "Repentance is a change of mind toward God concerning a course of sin leading rapidly down to death and eternal ruin." Once more from B. H. Carroll: "If in one moment the soul is contrite enough to turn in a

been convicted of sin, who has not seen himself a guilty, justly condemned sinner, it follows that no one is saved, no one can be saved, who does not believe that God

quires, but the thing repentance, and a sinner must repent or he cannot believe (Matt. 21:32) and he will perish (Luke 13:3). The gospel of John is the only book of the Bible given specifically to sinners to lead them to be saved. The way of salvation can be found in many of the books of the Bible, and is taught in them; but the gospel of John is the only book of the Bible given for the special, specific purpose of leading a sinne

, and is rarely extended to a change of purpose, thus corresponding to the Hebrew word which we render 'repent,' but not corresponding to the terms employed in Old Testament and New Testament exhortations. Hence a subtle and pernicious error, pervading the whole sphere of Latin Christianity, by which the exhortation of the New Testament is understood to be an exhortation to grief over sin, as the primary and principal idea of the term. One step farther and penitence was contracted into penance, and associated with medi?val ideas unknow

n; nor does the sorrow that leads to repentance make him a fit subject for salvation. No one can see that he has violated God's just and holy law and is guilty, justly condemned, helpless, without its producing

e different degrees of sorrow in different people, but there must be enou

rief for sin is left in the background, neither word directly expressing grie

; but the main point is the turning of the heart from sin to Christ. If there be this turning you have the essence of

himself as he is and as God has all along s

shall think of himself as God does, and so cease to suppose it possible that he can be justified by any excellence of his own. Having altered the sinner's good opi

ng to appreciate God's mercy unless he first feels His justice as manif

he is convicted of sin in himself."-Walker

from existing difficulties and impending dangers, the more grateful love will the heart feel for the being who, moved by,

ition, in the same proportion will it exercise love to the being who grants spiritual favor and salvation. How then could the spiritual want be produced in the souls of men in order that they might love the spiritual benefactor?"... "The only possible way by which man could be made to hope for and appreciate spiritual mercies and to love a spiritual deliverer would be to produce a conviction in the soul itself of its evil condition, its danger as a spiritual being, and its inability, un