Repent and Believe (pt. 2)

Welcome back, everyone. Today is Tuesday, January the 31st. I'm Ryan Hill.

I'm John Galantis. You're listening to Clearview Today with Dr. Abbadon Shah, the daily show that engages mind and heart for the gospel of Jesus Christ. You can visit us online at ClearviewTodayShow.com, or if you have a question for Dr. Shah or a suggestion for a future episode, send us a text at 252-582-5028. You can also email us at contact at ClearviewTodayShow.com. That's right, and you guys can keep this conversation going by supporting the podcast, sharing it online and leaving us a good review on iTunes. We're going to leave a link in the description of this podcast, so you can do just that. But before we do that, Ryan, hit them with the verse of the day. I would love to, my friend. I pointed to you, but I look at the camera.

I would love to, my friend. The verse of the day today comes from Hebrews chapter 10, verse 39. But we are not of those who draw back to perdition, but of those who believe to the saving of the soul.

Yeah. I mean, I think about God's people over the course of the centuries and all throughout the Bible. You know, they're not cowards. God doesn't use cowards. He might use the meek and the lowly, but he doesn't use, as what my mom would call, scary people. Scary people? See, scary people in the South means, you know, you're not scary, you're afraid. You're a coward. Right.

You are. You are able to be scared. You know, I mean, and God's people have their bad moments, but all in all, they don't shrink away.

You know what I mean? Their faith endures. Yep. Yeah. They may have moments of fear.

They may have moments of cowardice, but that does not define who they are. My wife sent me a question yesterday. My wife?

I didn't realize we were segueing out of that yesterday. My wife sent me a question yesterday that I wanted to bring up to you. And David, if you want to hop in on this as well. Let's say ketchup no longer exists in the world. What do you eat on your fries? Like, what's the perfect fry sauce?

Ooh, that's a good question. But no ketchup. Ketchup is not an answer. A1. Okay. I like A1 on fries.

I'm kind of with David. Yeah, I like A1. A1. Ranch. No. Ranch on a fry? Yeah, ranch. No. Yeah, that's good. Ellie loves ranch, dude.

Ellie would fill up the bathtub and take a bath in the stuff and then dip her fries in it. That's delicious. No. Oh. Barbecue sauce. Barbecue sauce on fries is good.

Like sweet baby rice? Yeah. Yeah, that's good.

Yeah. That's good. That's good. I like that.

That's good. It's good on steak fries. You know what's really good on... I've had it on Chick-fil-A fries, but I haven't had it beyond Chick-fil-A.

I assume it would be good. Is the spicy sweet sriracha sauce that they have? Very good. On who's fries? On Chick-fil-A's? Chick-fil-A's. Heinz 57. Heinz 57? Yeah.

That would be good. Are you in the camera shot? Yeah. Yeah.

Nick's weighing in on this one. I could be behind that. Heinz 57? Heinz 57 is good for chicken and stuff, but I don't get people who like Heinz 57. If you're a Chick-fil-A and you want good sauce for your fries, um, it's the honey roasted barbecue.

Yes, that is good. Very good Yeah, it's it's kind of like a honey mustard But it's a little smokier than a honey mustard like it's got some like some more bold flavors if you're in dire straits Don't hate me Mayonnaise get out. I knew you were gonna say that my wife is the same out Same get out throw your microphone away. I can't stand that Unbelievable hot mayonnaise. No, you didn't people just want to eat some large No, it makes it with some ketchup. Oh, wait, we don't have ketchup Yeah, but Ellie loves mayo barf just just loves me real thick mayonnaise globbed on a french fry You know what?

I see girls do all the time. Maybe some guys do it So I don't want to insult nobody out there, but girls take their french fries and dip it in a milkshake. That is good It's delicious so dairy, it's so good so dairy and it's cold It's so dairy on the salt on the fry in the milkshake It's the saltiness of the fry and the sweet milkshake. I've never done it I would be willing to do it on the pod.

It is very good on the right We'll have to do it. We'll have to do fries and milkshake Maybe next week will bring in fries and a milkshake and that'll be just like I can I can just tell like producers like hey Like just bring me fries and we need it as it's a prop, right? But then afterwards I'm like, well, I got a fries. I got a hot now the producers right and let us know if ketchup doesn't exist What are you dunking your fries in two five two five eight two five zero two eight You would look to me like because cuz cuz David is still are were you on the air when you said that? Yeah, I mean y'all y'all go bring me The producers and I looked at Nick about that. We do mean I do mean David Nicholas Yeah, yeah, so we're gonna jump into today's episode in just a second But if you guys have any questions or suggestions for future episodes write in and let us know at two five two five eight two Five zero two eight or you can visit us online at clear view today show calm. We're gonna get dr. Shaw and we'll be right back Hey everyone, my name is Ellie and I'm David We want to take a minute and let you know how we can actually serve you as you're listening to clear view today The Bible paints an extraordinary picture of who we are as a church body The mission of Clearview Church is to lead all people into a life-changing ever-growing relationship with Jesus Christ a Huge part of leading people is praying for them a big reason that Christians have unanswered prayers in their life is because they're not praying You know first John 5 15 says and if we know that he hears us whatever we ask We know that we have the petitions that we have asked of him If you're listening to the clear view today show we want to know how we can pray for you as well There's a number of ways that you can get in touch with us at Clearview and share your prayer requests But the best way is by texting us at two five two five eight two five zero two eight You can also send us an email at prayer at Clearview BC dot o RG or you can download the Clearview app on iTunes Or Google Play, you know on that app There's a dedicated prayer wall that helps us to get to know what's going on in your life How we can pray for you and how we can take any necessary steps to get you moving in the right direction Thanks for listening.

Now. Let's get back to the show Hey there listeners, I'm John Galantis, and I'm Ellie Galantis And we just want to take a quick second and talk to you about dr Shah's and Nicole's book 30 days to a new beginning daily devotions to help you move forward You know This is actually the second book in the 30 days series and the whole point of this devotional is to help us get unstuck From the ruts of life and when it comes to running the race of life It matters how you start but a bad start doesn't ultimately determine how you finish the race You can have a good finish even with a bad start and that's where this book comes in No matter who you are or where you are in life You're gonna get stuck instead of going out and buying some gadget or some planner like I know I've done several times I know that's right 30 days encourages you to find your fresh start in God's Word Your life doesn't have a reset button, but our God is a God who does new things His mercies are new every day, which means every day is a new chance for you to start over You can grab 30 days to a new beginning on amazon.com We're gonna leave a link in the description box below and if you already have the book let us know what you think about it That's right. Send us a text to five two five eight two five zero two eight share What God has done in your life through this devotional?

Hey, maybe we'll even read your story on the air Ellie you ready to get back to the show? Let's do it Welcome back to clear view today with dr. Abbadon Shaw the daily show that engages mind and heart with the gospel of Jesus Christ You can visit us online at clear view today show calm or if you have any questions or suggestions for future episodes Make sure you let us know by sending us a text at two five two five eight two five zero two eight Now just shall welcome back to the studio today. Happy Tuesday. Thank you. I hope you guys are having a great week as well Yeah, good to be here.

I'm hoping maybe later today. We can turn this into a taco Tuesday Tacos never taste better than on Tuesday. There's some about Taco Tuesday. That's just right with the world like it just Just makes the world have you never said there's not any other days of the week like that like you don't have like meatloaf Monday You spoiled my appetite I'm just gonna fast today if you guys are new to the show You're visiting with us for the first time.

We want to welcome you. Dr Abbadon Shaw is a PhD in New Testament textual criticism a professor at Carolina University Author full-time pastor and the host of today's show you can follow his work on his website. That's Abbadon Shaw calm That's right And on today's episode we're continuing a conversation that we started yesterday a lot of times on the show We'll get like diving deep into a topic and we just really get to the good stuff and then we run out of time Yeah, this was not the Tuesday episode. This was not the Tuesday episode we planned, but I think it worked out very well Well, we want to continue the conversation because we began it yesterday talking about the relationship between repentance and belief We spent a lot of time talking about repentance and what it is But we didn't have quite enough time to dive into belief So I I'd love if we can I'd love to dive into that today and talk about you know The relationship between those two things and how we understand it from a biblical perspective I saw the earnestness on your face. Like I would really love I'd love to do like what if that shows like no Well when it comes to repentance and believe just keep in mind that this is the plan of salvation ever since the beginning of time right through the Old Testament now when he comes when you come to Abraham's life you may not find a Statement that says and he repented and believed God, right? It's simply like he believed God and he accounted unto him for righteousness Because the repentance part is there but it's more in the narrative Form not necessarily in in the pronouncement or in the declaration. It's more in the narrative but you have to find it in the story how Many times he misunderstood what God was trying to do and then finally he gets it he gets it He gets it that that through him and Sarah is coming the one who is going to be you know Savior of the world in his mind and and what God told him is more of a he'll be the light unto the Gentiles right see God's revelation is sort of progressive in in time. He spoke to different people in different ways imagine if he had spoken to You know Adam and Eve or can enable the way Paul wrote the book of Romans, you know a point I mean all the truths are there Yeah, but they are at a level that that Adam and Eve are not ready to understand Not that they couldn't understand they were brilliant But but not not much had happened, right? So also Abraham and Sarah, you know Paul did it God didn't speak to them the way he's spoke through Paul In Ephesians chapter 2 right so so a lot of times you have to kind of go back and see in the in the narration Where you see the repentance part of things? Yeah That's why I like having a biblical scholar like you on the show because Context is everything like like with with the more time that passes through history the more context even we have today But we can look backwards in time and see things that happen and we can talk Because that stuff happened and everybody knows they happened we can make references or we can talk about things that people understand that content Right, right like and look in the Psalms look at David's life. There is repentance and belief look at the prophets and what they what they Exhorted people to do was repent and believe but when you get into the New Testament, it is clear. This is it This is what you do, but it's not out of thin air. This was not something that was conjured up You know like okay guys, we need to get this plan of salvation straight. So what do we decide?

No, this was always there now is becoming clearer and clearer, right? And so those are the two sides of the same coin and Just like repentance in the Greek metanoia. We talked about that last weekend, you know, it's a change of mind you know, let's let's leave aside the aspect of you know sorrow or remorse or You know shame or guilt and all that, you know, all those things can be wonderful, but that's Not the heart of repent and repentance is a change of mind about three things sin self and Savior Go back and look at the Old Testament same thing Abraham had to have a change of mind. It took him some time to get there But finally when he gets it he gets it he gets it so well that he did something that none of us would be willing to do Take your son your only son and go sacrifice him Wow He was not he was not struggling. No, yeah, of course in a way he was struggling But he but if you read what Hebrews says about that the commentary of Paul on that whole, you know episode He's like I've already received my son back By faith, he already received his son back Now that doesn't just happen.

That's because he has already received Christ as his Savior and King although he doesn't know his name as Christ and all that so sin self and Savior Sin self and Savior. There's a change of mind. But when it comes to belief again, the word is important in the Greek the word Is pista Ewan and John's gospel is the active verb pista Ewan, which is found about 96 times.

Wow Use a lot. Yeah, it's a lot and You know It is found in the epistles as a noun pistis And the meaning of both the verb form and the noun form are a lot stronger than our English word belief or believe you know when we say belief or believe in in our everyday conversation It's like I believe it's gonna rain today What comes to your mind yeah, just like I think it possibly will yeah, I don't really know I'm, not really sure almost kind of the opposite of I think what Paul is trying to yeah Maybe you may even say a strong possibility, right? but When when we use the word pista Ewan or pistis in the Greek, it has the idea of trust and again once again the English doesn't really communicate the full meaning of trust that the Greek pista Ewan and pistis has so in Greek in English we can say Something like I'm trusting in this life jacket to hold me up or the safety harness to hold me up Okay, it's for it's a little more than belief. But again, there's still some doubt. There's still I trust this holds me up. Yeah Well, there's there's that little inkling that you know of a chance like it might not it's not it's not complete knowledge yet Yeah, isn't it funny how languages work where like you have these two seemingly contradictory ideas Like I have this strongly deep rooted belief That's a there's a rock-solid trust and also I believe this may happen, but it really may not I'm kind of up in the air It's too contradictory ideas represented by the same word.

Oh, it's something that's so fascinating to me And I love that you bring that up in your messages. Dr. Shaw about how words don't they're not exact translations Like we have this means this in English and this is how you translate it in in Greek Or this is the original word in Greek and this is our English equivalent of it, but it's not a it's not like a one-to-one Translation like it's this is our best interpretation of the meaning of this word But there's like I mean like the phrase goes there's some things that are just lost in translation There's some meaning that's just not accurately conveyed. That's right. And so so we have to You know think through that and and work through it like like for example Hebrews chapter 11 and verse um 17 can I read that?

Yeah, please. Okay. So this is what we were just talking about. I went and found found it by faith Okay by faith Abraham when he was tested offered up Isaac and he who had Received the promises Offered up his only begotten son of whom it was said in Isaac your seed shall be called a concluding concluding means he Based on his his faith. The word is pistae Right coming from that same same family of words by faith Abraham So he concluded based on that faith that God was able to raise him up even from the dead from which From which he also received him in a figurative sense. I preached on this You know about a month ago in our manna promise series. So I hope that makes sense.

He already concluded I got my son back. So do you see it's much more than our belief or even our trust? It's it's it's that knowledge that certainty the assurance Like you said he concluded in his mind sort of the same thing you were talking about repentance, right? Where is a change of mind It's a change of thinking and that belief kind of comes into where it's like I've made up my mind You you were telling me about this when we started working out, you know If you make up your mind you will nine times out of ten get that weight up.

Yeah, you know what I mean? It's a it's a mental thing where it's like, okay. I've decided i'm not floundering back and forth anymore We do that all the time by the way only when it comes to god. We we are not quite sure Yeah, we do that all the time for example Think about when you get in the car and drive and you drive through you know crossroads, you know, like like intersections, I mean What assurance do you have that people coming down that the side will stop right?

Yeah, right ultimately none I mean you hope that they'll obey the traffic laws, but Yeah, you get in a plane you travel What assurance do you have that the pilot up front is really capable right to? fly the plane and land it I mean You don't you don't but once you get in you sit down relax You know, you're watching movies or eating food or sleeping or talking or laughing But how are you? Sure, you're you're up in a little tube. Yeah flying through the sky.

Yeah, like I actually falling through the sky. Yeah Yeah at some point you just make your mind up And and and you go with it. Yeah, that's it's funny how much of Belief and how much of christian Christianity and and faith takes place in the mind Yeah, we always think it's the spiritual and it is we always think it's the spiritual ethereal thing But really it's a lot of it is in the mind. It's a decision.

Yeah. Yeah belief is is kind of a decision that you're making yeah, and you know and I'll Say this now, but hopefully we'll kind of unpack it later or maybe in another episode, you know only those who will push through will Find eternal life You know and and it doesn't mean like the salvation is dependent on you. What all i'm saying is Pushing through is part of the christian life.

Yeah Is the way you know the broad is the way narrow is the way Those who are on the narrow road are the ones who will reach eternal life It's already settled. Okay. We're not talking about Okay, you know doubting your salvation. Am I going to make it do I'm not pushing how far enough? No, i'm not i'm not I'm not making anything dependent on the human being right?

Okay. I hope everybody knows that what I am saying is the mindset with which you approach Every single moment of your life Is a mindset of pushing forward? Yeah, it's a mindset of a goal getter In the christian life again, you know, you're not the go-getter you're simply Can I say go getting god right because if you don't have that confident mindset that jesus can remove sin And that jesus can save you then and has saved and has saved you then what do you have? Are you are you a do you have salvation with a little bit of doubt sprinkled in? Doubt sprinkled in from time to time and that's okay for some reason you're just walking through a maze hoping you When you get to the end, yeah that the end you're oh great.

I came out right That's not christianity, right? Yeah pushing through is like, you know that way you have the map you have the gps every turn you're making Is going to lead you out of that maze But you're pushing through And that's that's that's part of I believe I believe Is is what we're talking about here as the meaning of belief. Yeah, what are some things that may cause a person to Either struggle with or lose sight of that belief In my opinion again, i'm not readily running to scriptures to find support in my opinion is it's it's lack of scripture you know when you start getting your eyes off of The word of god and start placing it on yourself or your ideas or your opinions or other people's ideas Opinions when you start living by your emotions or your feelings now feelings are important. They're very important Love god with your heart soul mind and strength, right?

So the heart I would say is the feeling side of you But if you're living by those things and they become more prominent in your life and you just like what happened I'm just going to go with the feelings. Okay, you can do that, but you're going to have a very difficult time Truly walking in with confidence and assurance. Yeah, so Yeah, so I would say Not trusting yourself you know enough of yourself and Just know whom you have believed And know that he can raise you up on the last day. Yeah Amen, when we talk about repentance and belief, I like the the point you made yesterday is that we do repent But in a lot of ways it's the holy spirit working and acting in us You know, I mean, it's it's it's a work of the holy spirit that manifests itself in us Whereas with belief this is where we get to respond, you know with our belief to what the holy spirit is doing This is our right This is our because I think a lot of people make it to where like kind of like you had you clarified earlier People think if I input anything at all, then it's heresy, right? But that's not how god has designed us Yeah, even that is the holy spirit is helping you there.

I mean, so it's all him anyways, right? But the mindset with which you're pressing forward is very important Yeah, you know at the end of this message you broke down what the gospel is in in such a profound way I haven't ever heard anybody else put it this way and I think it is it is Unique and wonderful and it's just it's so clear. Can you talk about that for a little bit? There's there's two things that the gospel Is ultimately right, right. So When it comes to the gospel, there is a declaration And then there is uh the demand okay, so this is just our way of Fleshing it out.

I guess you can say so, you know, if you tell me give me that one passage where all this is laid out I can't there isn't one and and if there is one there's always another one which seems sort of You know highlighting some other aspects of this this gospel presentation But when you take the whole scripture into account in its context You begin to see these two things come to the forefront there's a declaration and then there's a demand Declaration is this jesus brought god's kingdom into the world He is christ god's anointed king He died on the cross for our sins according to scriptures He was buried but rose again on the third day according to scriptures and was seen by many. Okay, that is the the gospel in a nutshell, but the gospel demands a a a a a response What is the response? I would say repent believe and follow Okay, repent is a change of thinking about sin self and savior We covered this last weekend or last show and we also covered this a little bit in the beginning of this today's show belief Or believe is trust that jesus is god's son who has paid the penalty of our sins And he can remove the guilt of sin and give eternal life trust him. So just the way we just discussed, you know that passionate pushing forward Decision that he is the one and he's got this and i'm trusting him And and come doubt come problems come situations if I sink I sink trusting him I'm not going to sink right follow Now some people may say well follow that's that's the same thing Follow that's that's the sanctification. Yes, of course, I understand that but all i'm saying is a decision to follow, right?

Jesus as our king we are to obey and follow him no matter the cost Without this element. The gospel is not the true gospel first the decision and then one day uh the test, you know, so um Repent believe and follow is part of the demand. Yeah, and that's something that's helped me Uh, you know as as a as a worship leader here at clear view thinking of the gospel in these two ways You told me something years ago.

I think I think I started here at like 21 And I think within that first or second year now just clarify when you were 20 when I was yeah when I was 21 and uh and so You told me something that that sort of sort of went along this line where the gospel is broken up into declaration and demand Demand and you told me that it's not your job to lead people to god. God is already working and moving in people's lives You are giving people a chance to respond to what god has already done, right? God is the one who's doing the moving and the working and the shaking and the revival the revitalizing in people's lives Your job and if you're listening to this if you're a person who leads worship as well Your job is to give people that chance to respond because the demand is there right right and the gospel just just just for those Who may be wondering where did you get the gospel part first corinthians 15?

And now I can go other places too. I can go in the old testament and find the same thing Okay, albeit it's not going to be laid out the way paul lays it out here I can go through the gospels matthew mark luke john is there I can go through other paul's epistles is there I can go through peters and john's epistles and they're there too and I can go to the book of james You know what martin luther called the straw epistle. I disagree with him Is there too? So here's a gospel But I believe here you find it as succinct and and as direct and clear as possible. He says first one First corinthians 15 moreover brethren. I declare to you the gospel Which I preached to you which also you received and in which you stand By which also you are saved If you hold fast that word which I preached to you unless you believed in vain, did you hear that?

Did you hear that? If you hold fast that word which I preached to you Now some people when they take it out of context they go. Well, I mean, what if you don't hold fast? That's not what he's saying.

Yeah, he's talking about that go-getter mindset when it comes to your decision Right, did you get that it's not like if you don't hold then this happens No, not in the context. I mean the entire book is written to believers who are sinning, right? What he's telling them is stop fooling around stop doing the things you're doing and criticizing me and all this stuff But have this sense of moving forward hold fast and go forward Unless you believed in vain Right, and then what is the gospel here? It is for I delivered to you first of all that which I also received that christ died for our sins according to the scriptures And that he was buried and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures and that he was seen by cephas Then by the 12 and after that he was seen by over 500 brethren at once And of whom the greater part remained to the present, but some have fallen asleep on and on. So there you go There's the gospel now the demand repent believe and follow.

Wow, that's awesome. I love that I hope that clarifies things for you guys as well If you have questions about that or you have suggestions for future episodes Make sure you let us know by sending us a text 252-582-5028 and speaking of that this clear view today show of family. We we had some uh, one of our listeners right in And uh, just ask us to uh to spend some time in prayer. Um, as jesus asked that we would So dr Shaw if you'd lead us in prayer if you guys will pray along from what you're listening absolutely Father we come before you today and god we thank you for the privilege of calling you our heavenly father and through jesus christ Uh, he has made the way for us to boldly come to the throne of grace to come before you and ask for what we need And today god, we're praying for uh, this person who is having health concerns and waiting it's it's a very difficult time in her life and her family's life and um Overall, everything seems fine. But uh, she herself knows that you know that there there's some concern So I just pray god number one for your healing to be upon her god. We believe that you heal Sometimes we see times that you choose not to heal and we assume that every time We are to live with that uncertainty and that is not true You have healed us so many many more times than when you don't heal in this life. So god, we pray for healing We pray for comfort. We pray for peace. We pray for assurance and we pray more than anything that your will would be done We pray god that you would work all things together for good in this family For good in this family and help this family to walk forward knowing that you are working Amen. Thank you. Dr Shahn we want to encourage you guys if we can pray for you here on the clear views today show Please let us know by sending us a text to that number 2-5-2-5-8-2-5-0-2-8. We love you guys. We'll see you tomorrow. We'll be today