The christian Foundation Docrines Part 1
by: lebooa
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“Therefore, leaving the discussion of the elementary principles of Christ, let us go on to perfection, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God,
Of the doctrine of baptisms, of laying on of hands, of resurrection of the dead and of eternal judgment.
And that we will do if God permits”
THE CHRISTIAN FOUNDATION DOCTRINES: PART 1
REPENTANCE FROM DEAD WORKS
THE CHRISTIAN FOUNDATION DOCTRINES
CONTENTS
1. PROCLAMATION
2. INTRODUCTION
3. THE VISION OF CHRIST
4. THE TARBENACLE
5. CHRISTIAN FOUNDATION
6. REPENTANCE FROM DEAD WORKS
7. E
8. SUMMARY
THE CHRISTIAN FOUNDATION DOCTRINES.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in any form or transmitted in any way without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.
Unless otherwise noted, all scripture quotations are taken from the Good News Bible, Today’s English Version, Bible Society of South Africa. Copyright@ third South African edition 1993 published by the Bible Society of South Africa.
All royalties for this book have been assigned to Joseph Morakile Lebooa Ministries.
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Copyright 2001 by Joseph Lebooa
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THE CHRISTIAN FOUNDATION DOCTRINES
Welcome to this program “Today with Joseph Lebooa”. I am very honored to have you with me this Sunday morning as we dwell into the word of God and reveal for you the wisdom that God has planted in His word. Jesus Christ is the foundation of Christianity and He wants to see all men saved. Each one of us has a role individually and collectively to go out there and preach the Gospel and to baptize those that believe in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. This is the harvest that we always talk about, to win souls for Christ and to expand the kingdom of God.
Today as usual we shall resume our study with a proclamation of the word of God. Our proclamation for today comes from the book of Hebrews 5: 12-14 and Hebrews 6: 1-3 and it reads thus:
1. PROCLAMATION
“For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God; and you have come to need milk and not solid food.
For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe.
But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.
Therefore, leaving the discussion of the elementary principles of Christ, let us go on to perfection, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God,
Of the doctrine of baptisms, of laying on of hands, of resurrection of the dead and of eternal judgment.
And that we will do if God permits”
2. INTRODUCTION
The title of our study number 16 is the Christian foundation. This study is somewhat deep in content and will require some special attention from my listeners. I would like you to cooperate with me as I try my best to unfold this message and bring forth the truth and meaning of the word we will study this morning.
The essence of this study is to reveal to you by using scripture that Christianity is not an arbitrary religion based on hearsay. My intention is to prove to you that Christianity has a specific foundation upon which you can build your life. This Christian foundation can be compared to the foundation when building a house. Usually in the case of a house it is important when building the foundation to estimate the weight and size of the load that will be placed on top of the foundation. The foundation must be of such strength that it will be able to support and carry any load placed on it.
The same principles apply to the Christian faith, there is a specific foundation, which all Christians ought to have and upon which you can build a successful and well-balanced and stable Christian life. This foundation needs to be build in its physical form and in its doctrinal form. The foundation is verifiable, open and available to everyone that wants to be a believer and in it lies the full integrity of the Christian faith.
As much as the foundation of a house differentiates that house from any other house, the foundation for Christianity also likewise differentiates Christianity from any other religion. This foundation allows us to know the Christian faith as a unique faith and to understand how it functions and operates. This foundation lays the scriptural relationship between man and God and through it the entire purpose and strategy of God for humanity is unfolded.
As I have said, the important thing about this study is to allow us to adjust our lives to this foundation and to see why in some cases we have not been as effective as we would have wanted in our service to Jesus Christ. Some Christians battle with faith all their lives and no matter how much the pray or read the word of God they never seem to have enough faith for anything. A key reason for this could be that we have not laid the correct foundation for our Christian faith.
3. THEVISION OF CHRIST
The function of the church of Jesus Christ is to take humanity from the sinful world we live in and guide them into a new kingdom characterized by the manifest presence of God Himself. This processes of taking a person from the sinful world and into the presence of God is characterized by various stages through which we all must go. According to the Bible you must first offer your body as a living sacrifice and then renew your mind before you can know the will of God and before you can prove its goodness.
The Bible makes this point very clear in the Book of Romans 12:1-2 which reads:
“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.
And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”
So the above scripture makes it very clear that if you want to know and prove the goodness of the will of God you cannot be conformed to this world, in other words, you cannot live by the rules and standards of the present world. The only way to know the will of God for your life is if you offer your body as a living sacrifice and if you renew your mind. These two facts are very important to understand because they determine whether you as an individual will live your life in the presence of God or not.
I have said that it is the responsibility of the church to take a man from the street right up to the holy presence of God. The church is supposed to provide to the individual the guidelines and the necessary instruction and teaching that will make this individual eventually live a successful life in the presence of God. The problem we have today is that the church as a whole is growing at different levels, the vision of the different churches addresses different aspects of the path I have just mentioned. Some Churches are more focused on the aspect of the sacrificial body whilst others tend to focus more on the aspects of the renewal of the mind. Other churches are focused on both the sacrificial aspects of the body and the renewal of the mind at the same time.
What needs to happen is that more collaboration needs to be fostered between the different institutions of Christ to ensure that the vision for the body of Christ is unified. Jesus Christ Himself has only one vision which is to bring to earth the kingdom of God which is in heaven. The church also must have the same vision, that of bringing the Kingdom of God to earth.
Remember that God intends to bring His kingdom to earth by using us. God has made us part of His divine plan to execute His will and bring forth His kingdom into existence in the earth we live in. Many people don’t realize that God’s plan is not to take us to heaven but rather to establish His kingdom with us here on earth. God has also laid many promises for us as incentives along the way as we endeavor to bring His kingdom on earth. It is important though that the promises that God offers us should not be taken as the end purpose of our mission. The end purpose of our mission is to come into the Holy presence of God in fellowship to worship Him forever.
The nation of Israelite before and after they were released from captivity in Egypt, battled with this concept for a very long time. In their minds, they wanted to get out of Egypt into some promised land, but God had different plans for them. God wanted them to get out of Egypt and come to Him in fellowship and worship. The real promise was not the Promised Land but rather, a land full of promises, which is the kingdom of God. God does not want us to go for a specific promise but He wants us to go for all the promises, in other words, any single promise should not become an end in itself but He who promises should become our end desire. God is not calling us to Israel but to Himself because in Him are all the promises.
Today some people have different conceptions about what it means to serve God. People have different conceptions about what it means to be a Christian. Some only want to win souls, whilst others only want to disciple. Others want to do both, win souls and disciple. However what many forget is that the final objective is to have all people worship the almighty God permanently in the beauty of holiness. The final objective is to have every man come to the presence of the living God and fellowship with Him forever.
The function of the church therefore said in a nutshell is to take humanity from the corrupt and condemned world into the everlasting presence of God. Every vision of the church needs to reflect this matter.
4. THE TARBENACLE
In the Old Testament God illustrated this point of moving from the corrupt and condemned world, into His kingdom and into His manifest presence, by using a triune structure called the tabernacle. Although the tabernacle was an earthly structure used as a shadow of the heavenly things, it illustrated the path that God wanted for humanity in its transition from the world to His manifest presence.
The tabernacle had basically three sections all of which could not be seen by a man standing outside the structure. This means that if you were in the world and you wanted to know what was going on in inside the tabernacle the only way to do so was to get inside through the outer court. In other words, no one could peep into the kingdom of God, you were either inside the kingdom or you were outside. This is still the problem with most people today; some people think that you can study God from the outside. That is not possible; God does not reveal His secrets to the world. To be able to know what goes on in God’s kingdom you have to be inside because from the outside you cannot see anything.
The three sections of the tabernacle were the outer court, the Holy place and the Holy of Holies. From the world the priest went first into the outer court, then into the Holy place before entering into the holy of holies. There was no way to alter this sequence, as God had required that certain specific things be fulfilled in each section. In each section there were specific items, which needed to be dealt with before passing to the next section. The function of the priest was basically to go from the outer court into the manifest presence of God in the holy of holies.
In principle there were two essential requirements for a person to move from the world into the Holy of Holies. The first requirement was enter into the outer court to offer sacrifice on the brazen alter and the second requirement was to renew or purify the mind in the Holy Place. Once the sacrifice was offered on the brazen altar and the mind renewed and purified the priest qualified to enter into the manifest presence of God and worship Him.
It is important to realize that this principle has not changed even today. In order to come into the permanent presence of God and live in accordance with His will we still have to do the same old thing that the priest did. We need to offer our bodies as living sacrifices and to renew our minds. I am certain that in the future we will be able to study the tabernacle in more detail but I hope that this preview helps you to see that Christianity is not an arbitrary religion or faith. Christianity as a faith is a religion that takes you from the sinful world, puts you into the outer court of God’s presence to offer you as a living sacrifice, then after washing you and cleansing you in the lava you are passed to the holy place where your mind is renewed and only then do you qualify to enter into the Holy presence of God
5. CHRISTIAN FOUNDATIONS
So what we are saying is that in order to go from the world and into the presence of God there is a prescribed way. The way consist of getting into the outer court and then into the Holy Place and finally into the Holy of Holies. A person coming from the world will start in the outer court where he will get some foundation and once a person has some foundation he can then move to perfection. So I can liken the outer court to foundation formation and both the Holy Place and the Holy of holies to perfection.
Having said the above we can then conclude that the function of the church is first to give people the foundation for Christianity and then secondly to guide them into a perfect walk in Christ. These two objectives are precisely what we intend to study in the next few weeks. Our study today, which is study number 16, will focus on the first point, which is the foundation for Christianity. Remember that we have said that before we can walk in perfection we need to have an adequate Christian foundation in Christ Jesus.
The important thing to realize once more is that Christianity is not an arbitrary religion; there is a specific foundation for Christianity, which needs to be laid down by every believer so that his Christian life can be balanced and consistent. Some people become Christian without building the proper foundation and after many years of dedication to Christ their spiritual life collapses and their Christian career ends miserably because they did not build on the foundation. The problem with not building a foundation first is that you often tend to accumulate a lot of building materials such as prayers, praise, worship etc and these materials at some stage become too heavy for the entire structure because there is no foundation. As a result your entire Christian career all of a sudden comes crumbling down and becomes a heap of unanswered prayers and frustrations.
This compares to when a person is building a house, it is always advisable to ensure that the house building starts with a concrete foundation otherwise the house may not be able to support the structure and materials used and may subsequently fall. Your Christian career must resume with a foundation at the bottom just like a house starts with foundation. The problem with many people is that they want to start at the top and not at the bottom where the foundation must be laid. This is the main reason why a lot of Christian careers end up in the dustbin.
Even in normal life most careers begin at the bottom and build up towards the top with the progression of time. Most careers don’t start at the top. The only few careers that are said to begin at the top are hole digging and grave digging. Otherwise all other careers start from the bottom.
The foundation for the Christian religion is given in a person and that is the person of Jesus Christ. In other words, Jesus Christ in His personality is the only foundation for the Christian faith. The Bible is very clear about this matter when it says the following:
“For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. 1 Corinthians 3:11
The above passage says it all, that nothing else can constitute a foundation for Christianity other than Jesus Christ Himself. Some religions may have different foundations such as the worship of ancestors or a mix of the worship of ancestors and Jesus Christ. Others may worship specific individuals including certain idols and spirits. The Christian faith has as I have already said only one foundation and that foundation is in the person of Jesus Christ. It is important to realize that this foundation for Christianity is only one. There are no two or three foundations and this unique foundation cannot be mixed with any other thing. It is the all-sufficient foundation.
The above scripture is very clear on this matter that if you lay any other foundation other than Jesus Christ Himself you will be in contempt of 1 Corinthians 3:11 and therefore you will be in breach to the entire Bible. Jesus Christ is the only foundation for Christianity and this is emphasized in the following scripture when Jesus Himself was speaking:
Whoever comes to Me, and hears My sayings and does them, I will show whom he is like:
“He is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation of the rock. And when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently against that house, and could not shake it for it was founded on the rock.
But he who heard and did nothing is like a man who build a house on the earth without a foundation, against which the stream beat vehemently and immediately it fell. And the ruin of that house was great.” Luke 6: 47-49
Note that Jesus compares a person who builds a foundation in Him to a wise builder and he who does not build in Him a foolish builder. It is also important to note that both houses will be subjected to the same stream and storms but the house build on the foundation of Jesus will withstand the storms and the house not build on the foundation of Jesus will not withstand. Another important thing from the above scripture is that the house build on the foundation of Jesus is likened to a house build on the rock; actually, Jesus Christ Himself is called the rock.
So in order to build our foundation on this rock, which is Christ Jesus Himself, we shall first examine how Jesus the Rock is revealed to us and for this we will look at the confrontation Jesus had with Peter.
When Jesus came into the region of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples, saying, “who do men say that I, the son of man , am?”
So they said, “ some say John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”
He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?”
Simon Peter answered and said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
Jesus answered and said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven.
“And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.”
Matthew 16: 13-18
The above passage shows us how to build our Christian faith on Christ the rock or Christ the foundation. The very first thing we see is a direct personal encounter and confrontation of Peter by Jesus Christ. This teaches us that the only way you can build your foundation on Christ is if Jesus Christ Himself confronts you one on one without intermediaries or go betweens. It is important to realize that we do not choose Jesus but the contrary, Jesus chooses us. The most important thing is how you react when Jesus approaches you.
The second thing we can learn from the above scripture is that when Jesus confronts you, God will give you a revelation of who He is. What you need to know is that you cannot figure out who Jesus is using your normal mental faculties or your intellectual abilities. Jesus Christ Himself told Peter that “for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven.”
So there was no way Peter could have known that Jesus was the Christ except God gives him a revelation of this matter.
Thirdly, it is important to realize that Peter had to accept and acknowledge in person what was revealed to him by God. And finally Peter had to confess publicly the truth, which he had acknowledged. In other words, Peter had to publicly confess with his mouth that Jesus Christ is the Son of the living God.
So in order to summarize, we can say that in order to build on the foundation, which is Jesus, we need to:
1. Have a direct personal confrontation of Jesus Christ
2. Have a direct spiritual revelation of Jesus Christ
3. A personal acceptance and acknowledgement of Jesus Christ
4. A public and personal confession of Christ.
Once we begin to relate to Christ in the above manner, Jesus Christ becomes for each one of us the rock upon which our faith is build. To build on the rock is to hear and do His words and this is why Paul says
And now brethren, I commend you to God and to the word of His Grace, which is able to build you up. Acts 20:32
It is only the word of God when we study it and do it that is able to build us up in faith on the foundation of Christ Himself. If we do not speak, read or study the word of God after Christ is revealed to us, we are like people who build a foundation and never completed the house. We can never develop faith because we lack a housing for it and we lack the revelation of the word of God in our lives.
One thing we need to note is that Jesus Christ is often referred to as the word of God in the Bible. The Bible is also called the word of God. This we can see in the book of Revelation 19: 13 and it reads:
He (Christ) was clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God.
Another scriptural reference where Jesus Christ is referred to as the word can be found in John 1:1 and it reads:
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
He (Jesus) was in the beginning with God.
All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.
In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.”
The above scripture tells us that Jesus Christ is the Word of God in the same way that the Bible is the word of God. Whilst the Bible is the written word, Jesus is the revealed word. The Bible and Jesus are both one and the same thing. So if you love Jesus you must also love the Bible in the same way and visa versa. The amount of time you spend reading your Bible is literally the amount of time you spend in fellowship with Jesus. If you never read your Bible you cannot claim to love Jesus. In other words, if you never read your Bible you either do not know Jesus in the worst case or in the best case you do not love Him.
We need to relate to Jesus Christ in the same way that we relate to the Bible. So when we read and study the Bible or when we confess the word of the Bible with our mouths, we are actually confessing Jesus Christ. When we read our Bible we are reading Christ revealed and we are actually in fellowship with Him. To study the Bible and confess His word is to hear His word and therefore to build on the foundation.
We have now studied the physical and practical way to build on the foundation, which is Jesus and now we are going to look at the doctrinal way to build on the same foundation. You see although we know that there is only one foundation and that this foundation is in the person of Jesus Christ, This same foundation can be illustrated through doctrines or what we call elementary principles. This means that Christianity as a religion has its elementary principles which are also called the foundations. Christianity as I had explained earlier on is not an arbitrary religion; it has concrete doctrinal foundations upon which it is build. We are now going to study the six foundational doctrines of the Christian faith, which are revealed to us through the following scripture Hebrews 5: 12-14
For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God; and you have come to need milk and not solid food.
For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe.
But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.
In the above scripture the writer of Hebrews tells us about two levels of Christianity, first the milk level of Christianity and then the meat level. We are told that Christians of milk are those who still need to be taught the first oracles of God. Note here that what is called the first oracles of God is precisely what we call the foundation or elementary principles. The Bible tells us that the Christians of milk are babies because they are unskilled in the word of righteousness; this means that the Christians of milk are babies who cannot distinguish between right and wrong.
The important thing to note is that in order to be classified as a Christian of milk you need to be taught the first principle or oracles or foundations of God. Without these foundations you have no legitimate claim to the Christian faith. You may have grown up in a Christian family or you may have even attended church all your life, your parents may even be pastors or elders in church but if you are not vested in the foundation principles of the oracles of God, you simply cannot claim to be a Christian. The foundational doctrines constitute the prerequisite and necessary conditions for you to claim to belong to the Christian faith. So the doctrinal foundations for Christianity are very important and I want to advise each and every professing Christians to resume his study of biblical principles with the foundation doctrines.
The above scripture also tells us that after you have been taught the foundation principles, you need to move on and become a believer of meat. A believer of meat is one who has matured and can distinguish between right and wrong. The scripture says that:
“solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.
So solid food is for the matured and these are the people who will move into perfection.
Our study today is going to be focused mainly on the first part of the Christian faith, which is the milk phase. The writer of Hebrews has the following about this matter:
Therefore, leaving the discussion of the elementary principles of Christ, let us go on to perfection, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God,
Of the doctrine of baptisms, of laying on of hands, of resurrection of the dead and of eternal judgment.
And that we will do if God permits.” Hebrews 6: 1-3.
The writer of Hebrews tells us that if we want to go into perfection we need to deal fully with the foundation principles and go beyond them. The important thing is that once we have laid the foundation we should not continue to lay the foundation again repeatedly. Once we have laid the foundation we need to move forward into perfection and do the will of God. The writer of Hebrews also enumerates for clarity purposes each one of the first oracles or foundations of Christ. In total there are six foundations and these are listed in their relevant order as follows:
1. The foundation of repentance from dead works
2. The foundation of Faith towards God
3. The foundation of baptisms
4. The foundation of laying on of Hands
5. The foundation of the resurrection of the dead
6. The foundation of the eternal Judgment
My brothers and sisters, did you know that in order to qualify to become a Christian of milk you need to be planted in the above foundation? Are you aware that without this foundation your claim to Christianity is a fake? If your Christian life is not build upon the six above foundations the chances are that your whole Christian edifice will come tumbling down some day soon. You have possibly accumulated many years in the Christian environment and during these years you have memorized many scriptures, you have many prayers unanswered and you have accumulated lots of literature and friends as well. But because all these things that you have accumulated are not build on the six above foundations, your Christian life is crushing before your eyes and all we see is a heap of unanswered prayers.
6. REPENTANCE FROM DEAD WORKS
The first of the six foundations in logical order is the foundation of repentance from dead works. Sometimes back in one of our studies we dedicated one full hour to the study of dead works. During that time we said that dead works is anything that is not done by faith. God requires that the righteous should live by faith and it is impossible to please Him without faith. Another important thing to remember about dead works is that at the close of the current age there will be a judgment day when God will judge all the living in accordance with their works. Our works on earth are recorded in books by God’s angels and one day these works will determine our fate in eternity. We need to ensure that we have good works recorded in the heavenly books because if all that is recorded in the books are dead works then our destiny will be in the lake of fire.
So the very first oracle of God calls for us to repent from dead works. You see with this foundation God makes it clear that unless you are prepared to confront the truth and deal thoroughly with sin in your life you cannot relate or fellowship with Him. The basis for repentance is the truth.
The word repentance means to change one’s mind and to turn back. This means that repentance is a decision and not an emotion. To change one’s mind is an inner decision whilst to turn back is an outward action. So repentance is both an inner decision of the mind, which is demonstrated by an outward action of turning around. Whenever there is true repentance it needs to be accompanied by action, which demonstrates and proves the change of mind.
The perfect example of true repentance, is found in the parable of the prodigal son in Luke 15:11-32. We are told in this parable that the prodigal son approached his father and demanded His share of the inheritance and then he left for a distant country to squander all that he had in sinful living. Eventually, after he finished all the wealth that he had he became hungry and lonely to a point where he wished to eat the food that was been fed to pigs. However, faced with this poverty and misery he came to his senses and made a decision. He said, I will arise and go to my father (v 18).
He immediately carried out his decision: “And he arose and came to his father” (v 20). This is true repentance, first, the inward decision, then the outward act of the decision which is the act of turning back to go to his father.
Repentance is the sinner’s first response to God in an attempt to reconcile with God. What we need to understand is that we are all born sinners and this is due to the sin of Adam, you see Adam sinned before he had children, whilst all his descendents were still inside his body. So when he sinned by eating the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden, he actually sinned for all of us and on all our behalf. This means that each an every person who wants to be reconciled with God has to come to this point where he stops, changes his mind, changes his direction and face the opposite way to repent. Repentance has often been described as a 180 degrees turn which means that after you repent your direction also changes completely, whatever wrong you use to do you now substitute with the right.
Repentance always comes before true faith. Without repentance there can never be true faith. In other words, faith is based on the truth and without the truth there can never be any faith. Therefore for the truth to be revealed it is important that there be true repentance. It is very important to realize in this regard that God was not going to reveal Jesus Christ to the world until there was true repentance. In fact, before Jesus Christ was revealed God send John the Baptist with a ministry of repentance. So John the Baptist’s call to repentance was a necessary preparation for the revelation of the messiah to Israel. Until Israel had been called back to God in repentance, their long awaited Messiah could not be revealed among them.
This same message is still true even today that the truth cannot be revealed to you and me without true repentance. In other words Jesus cannot be revealed to you unless you first repent. This is an extremely important point because what it is basically saying is that it is not possible for any of us to know the true Jesus unless we first repent of our sins. So repentance always comes before knowing or accepting Jesus Christ into our lives. God will not reveal Jesus to those that will not repent. So you may read your Bible day and night, you may fast and pray 24 hours a day but if you do not repent of your sins and acknowledge before God that you are a sinner, there is no way you will ever develop faith in Christ.
A lot of people have problems with this matter because they want to accept Jesus Christ into their lives even without repentance. The problem that follows is that they battle to develop faith in Christ because Jesus is the truth and unless there is repentance, the truth cannot be revealed. The reason why many Christians are not effective in their ministries today is because they do not have faith and without faith there is nothing you can do.
The first commandment that ever fell from the lips of Jesus Christ was not to believe but to repent. First repent, then believe. After His death and resurrection, when Jesus Christ gave the great commission the first word in His message was “repentance”. The book of Luke 24:46-47 reads thus:
“Then He said to them, “Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day, and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.”
Here again it is repentance first, and after that the remission of sins of sins. We can se this point again in two other scriptures: first Acts 2:38 during Pentecost after the Holy Spirit had convicted the multitudes that were standing and watching the people asked, Men and brethren, what shall we do?” To this inquiry the apostle Peter said to them:
“Repent and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”
When the apostle Paul spoke to the elders of the church at Ephesus, he outlined the gospel message which he had preached to them.
I kept back nothing that was helpful, but proclaimed it to you, and taught you publicly and from house to house, testifying to Jews, and also to greeks, repentance towards God and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ. Acts 20: 20-21
The order of Paul’s message is the same: first repentance, then faith. It is important to realize that the order of the foundations cannot be altered, they follow each other in exactly the same order that they appear in the Bible, repentance comes before faith in Jesus Christ and Baptisms only comes after faith in Jesus. Repentence is the first response to the gospel that God demands, nothing else can come before it and nothing else can take its place.
True repentance must always precede true faith. Without such repentance, faith alone is an empty profession. This is one reason why the experience of so many Christians today is so unstable and insecure. They are seeking to build without the first of the great foundation doctrines. They are professing faith but they have never practiced true repentance. As a result, the faith, which they profess, procures for them neither the favor of God nor the respect of the world.
The message preached today is “only believe.” But that is not the message of Christ. Christ and His apostles preached “repent and believe.” Any preacher who is leaves out the call to repentance is misleading people and misrepresenting God. For Paul tells us that it is God Himself who commands all men everywhere to repent (Acts 17:30)
The Bible tells us in the gospel of Luke 13:3
“Unless you repent you will all likewise perish”
SUMMARY
1. The is a prescribed way to move from the world and into the holy presence of God
2. This path so constitute the vision of the church today i.e. to take humanity to the holy presence of God
3. In the Old Testament God used the tabernacle to illustrate this path
4. In the New Testament we are instructed to offer our bodies as living sacrifices and to renew our minds.
5. Christianity has its foundation in the person of Jesus Christ
6. You cannot lay any other foundation other than the one that has been laid, which is Jesus Christ.
7. The Christian foundation can also be expressed in the form of doctrines
8. There are six basic doctrines namely repentance from dead works, faith in God, baptisms, laying on of hands, resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment.
9. Repentance is the first step towards reconciling man with God.
10. Without repentance it is not possible to have true faith and therefore to be effective in your Christian career.
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