Repentance or Regeneration: What Comes First?

Do I have to repent to be saved, or do I repent because I'm already saved? That's just one of the questions we'll be answering on today's edition of CORE Christianity. Well, hi, I'm Bill Meyer, along with Pastor Adriel Sanchez, and this is the radio program where we answer your questions about the Bible and the Christian life every day. And we get some great questions.

We'd love to hear yours. And of course, you can always post your question at one of our social media sites. And we have a YouTube channel.

You can watch Adriel live in the studio right now on YouTube and see what cool outfit he's wearing. And you can always email us your question at questionsatcorechristianity.com. Now, we do have an email to start off with today, and this one's from Randy, and it ties in with some questions we've received earlier on baptism.

And here's what Randy asks Adriel. What is your position on being baptized multiple times at different denominations of churches? Yeah, we did just get a question similar to this with a caller yesterday, I believe. And my position would be that you can only be baptized one time. I mean, if you've been legitimately baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, in an Orthodox church, a church that believes in the core doctrines of the Christian faith, summarized in places like the Apostles' Creed and the Nicene Creed, then that can only happen once. And so we shouldn't, and this was actually something that was somewhat of a controversy even in the early church, this idea of going and trying to get baptized again and again and again.

You just can't do that. If baptism is rooted first and foremost in God's promise, his word, baptism is a sign and seal of his gospel grace to his people, well, then it's dependent upon the word of the Lord above everything else, not dependent upon the holiness of the person who's administering the baptism, your pastor, not dependent on the amount of water that's used. Did you get sprinkled or were you just immersed in the ocean, that kind of a thing? Baptism is a sign, a sacrament that's done with water in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. And if you've done that, if that's happened, you shouldn't try to go and get quote-unquote baptized again.

It wouldn't be another. There is no other baptism to do. And let me just say, I think sometimes people are looking for a sort of unique experience in baptism. I remember speaking to someone a few years ago now who told me, when I first accepted Jesus into my heart, I had these warm tinglies and it just really felt like I was close to God. But then later when I got baptized, I didn't really feel anything.

And this individual was really concerned about this. They thought, well, maybe the baptism didn't stick. I was expecting to have this deep emotional, spiritual experience. But again, the legitimacy of baptism, whether or not we were actually baptized, doesn't depend on our feelings, on our emotions. It depends on the word of Christ. And so let baptism be God's gospel promise to you as his people and receive it by faith. But don't try to turn it into something that it wasn't meant to be and then feel like, well, I didn't have that experience, so maybe I need to go get baptized in another church, another denomination, just sort of searching for that kind of emotional high.

That's not what we should pursue. And so thank you for that question, and Lord bless you. Just a follow up question. We've received calls from people before who say they start attending a new church and they tell them that their former baptism wasn't sufficient, that it didn't, quote, do the trick. How would you respond if you're attending a church and church leadership tells you that?

Yeah. Well, I've said before, we want to take baptism seriously. And so I guess we've had people come to the church where I pastor who weren't baptized according to what the scripture teaches. Maybe they were baptized in a church that rejected the Trinity. And so in that situation, I would say, well, no, you need to actually get baptized. The church that you were baptized in was not a true church.

They rejected core Christianity, the core doctrines of the Christian faith. And so there might be instances where you need to actually get baptized for the first time. But sometimes this can also be used by churches as a way of, you know, sort of diminishing the work of another faithful ministry.

And I think that that's unfortunate. Again, our confidence can't be in the minister or even the particular denomination. It's in the word of God. And so so long as we're focusing on that, I think we can we can gratefully receive those who have been baptized in sound churches in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Great counsel. This is core Christianity with Pastor Adrian Sanchez. We're taking your calls right now.

If you have questions about the Bible, the Christian life, maybe you have some doubts about Christianity, or maybe you're involved in a different faith and you're kind of wondering, I don't really understand this whole gospel thing. We're open to your calls right now. Here's the phone number. It's 833-THE-CORE. That's 1-833-843-2673.

Here's a voicemail from one of our listeners named Frank. At one time I was a real good Christian or tried to be, and I fell real bad. And I can't go to no one and tell no one how bad of a sin I've been doing. I'm trying to quit and repent. And I'd like for you to ask the pastor if the Lord will forgive me.

Thank you very much. Well, Frank, if we cling to our sin and we're hard-hearted, we're rejecting Christ and his call upon our lives, we can't cling to our sin and unbelief and then just expect God to forgive us or God to say, oh, you know, no big deal. I'm just going to turn a blind eye to your sin. Jesus comes against us when we sin.

I'm preaching through the letters in Revelation chapters 2 and 3 where Jesus is writing these letters to the various churches in Asia Minor. And he's threatening judgment because there are people within these churches who are clinging to their sin and false teaching. And he says, look, if you don't deal with this, if you don't repent, I'm going to come to you as a thief in the night.

And you're not going to know the hour that I come to you. We have to take the words of Jesus very seriously. We have to take sin seriously. But when we confess our sins, Frank, God is so gracious, so merciful when we come into the light. And it sounds to me like that's what you're right now at least unwilling to do or don't want to do. And so I would exhort you, encourage you and say, Frank, I don't know what these sins are that you're talking about.

I mean, I think if you've committed a crime, I think that you need to be honest about that. I don't know what's happened, but I can say this for all those who turn to the Lord with grief and hatred of their sin and say, God, have mercy upon me a sinner. I confess my sin to you. For those who do that, there is forgiveness, and so there is hope for you, brother. I would just say don't hide in the darkness and cling to your sin, concealing it.

Get the help that you need. Get the accountability that you need and confess your sins so that you might experience the grace and the mercy of God. I think of the words that we read in John chapter three, whoever believes in Jesus is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment that light has come into the world and people loved darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.

Frank, you need to come to the light. You need to let the light of Jesus Christ shine upon you, and you need to turn from whatever it is that you're doing. And I would encourage you to get accountability if you're in a church.

I mean, you need to be in a church, but talk to the elders there, the pastor there. I would say, I mean, confession is so important. James chapter five talks about the importance of confessing our sins to each other that we might experience that healing that the Lord gives. And so I just want to plead with you, brother, to walk in the light and to address these issues and to experience the forgiveness of Christ in your life.

Thank you. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. Well, wedding season is here. A lot of people getting married right now, people getting engaged right now. And we actually have a wonderful resource on marriage that we'd like to offer you today. Yeah, the resource is called Why Would Anyone Get Married? A Case for the Beauty and Goodness of Marriage. It's an excellent resource if you're thinking about marriage, if you are married.

For those of you who are just dating as well, you know, wanting to understand what is the biblical purpose of marriage. And so I want you to get a hold of these resources. And when you purchase these resources, you help us in doing the work that God has given us to do, creating more resources and Bible studies that encourage you in your walk with the Lord. And so you can get a copy of A Case for the Beauty and Goodness of Marriage for a donation of any amount. And we look forward to encouraging you. You can find that by going to corechristianity.com forward slash offers.

Again, corechristianity.com forward slash offers. And look for Why Would Anyone Get Married? A great resource for you. If maybe you're considering marriage, already married, maybe you have a son or daughter, grandson, granddaughter who's a young adult and considering marriage.

This would be a great resource for them as well. Well, let's get back to another email that we received. And Adriel, this one is from Oceanside, California, from one of our listeners named Hunter.

Hunter says, Hello, Pastor Adriel. Do you believe that repentance is necessary for belief in Jesus Christ? From what I understand, contrition over the reality of our sin and repentance are generally what lead you to the cross to initially put your faith in Jesus Christ.

Yeah. Well, I mean, I think repentance is necessary, yes, for the believer. When we're thinking about repentance into life, maybe that initial turning to the Lord.

This is this is a saving grace. I mean, it's a work of the Holy Spirit first and foremost. And this is the Spirit of God at work in our hearts so that we might repent, a gift given to us by God. And then the entire Christian life is one of continual repentance, taking up our cross and following after the Lord.

It doesn't end. I mean, this is one of the things Martin Luther said in his 95 theses is just the whole of the Christian life is a life of repentance. And so we need to recognize the priority of repentance. Now, sometimes, you know, there are different ways that people have defined repentance. I think initially it's it's sort of like the the negative aspect of faith.

If faith is looking to Jesus and laying hold of all of the benefits that are that are ours, you know, through faith in him. Repentance is sort of the negative aspect of that. It's turning away from our sins.

It just means a change of mind in the New Testament, turning away from our sins and looking to Christ. Sometimes I think, you know, we have a incomplete, insufficient definition of repentance, which is, you know, we have this negative view of sin. We realize that it's sin. And then we just sort of wallow in guilt and sorrow. No, repentance is turning away from our sins and self-righteousness and clinging to the righteousness of Jesus Christ. I think that that's that's biblical.

I think that that's that's key. But, you know, in terms of the order, what comes first, you know, is that we repent and then we can believe. Sometimes people have talked about what's what's called the order of salvation, the ordo salutis in the New Testament. In scripture, it seems like there's a sort of logical order that we see in salvation where you have God's call and regeneration, the new birth, which have priority, and then you have faith and repentance. And so that sort of comes out of our regeneration through the word, through the proclamation of the word. Justification, adoption, sanctification, perseverance, glorification. These are biblical words that have to do with our salvation. But you have this kind of logical order that you see in in scripture in the New Testament. I think of what John said in First John chapter four, verse seven. Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Would you see how the love that we have for God, which in part is exhibited in repentance, comes from or flows from our having been born of God, that work of the Holy Spirit. And so regeneration, calling, that comes first, and then we lay hold of Christ by faith, turning from our sins and receiving his grace and mercy.

This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. Our phone lines are still open if you have a question about the Bible or the Christian life or maybe how your Christian walk intersects with what's happening in today's culture, which can be a challenge at times. Here's our phone number. It's 833-THE-CORE. That's 1-833-843-2673. Let's go to Lee, who's calling in from Kansas.

Lee, what's your question for Adriel? Hey, thanks for taking the call today. My question is, I was listening to you about baptism, and while I totally agree with what you're saying about your baptism is your baptism, I recently was experienced with the situation where a person that had an infant baptism and then was told that they needed to have a believer's baptism. So I didn't know really what to say to that. And then also the other part of that is, by them doing a believer's baptism, does that in any way affect anything for them as far as, in other words, would it be considered a sin or would it be considered anything that I know as far as I'm with you and that your baptism is your baptism, but what happens if they try to do multiple baptisms? Yeah.

Hey, Lee, thank you for that question. And it does open up another aspect of the conversation with, yes, baptism comes from God's promise, His Word. Once you've been baptized, you are baptized.

You shouldn't try to go get baptized again. But of course, there are Christians who disagree on whether or not children, the children of believers, are the proper recipients of baptism because the question is, well, if you have to have faith to be baptized, I don't know that a child has faith or can believe. We should wait until they've made a credible profession of faith. And there are, as you know, many people who believe that. And so what they say is if you were baptized as an infant, that didn't count, you have to get truly baptized once you have faith, once you believe in Jesus.

Now, I understand that position, but there are many others who believe. Well, no, the children of believers are the proper recipients of baptism in the same way that the children under the old covenant were a part of the covenant community. This is why Abraham was commanded in Genesis 17 to apply the sign of God's covenant to his infant children, to the sons, the sign of circumcision. And in the New Testament, baptism replaces that sign, that old covenant sign that was the sign of entrance, if you will, into the covenant community. Baptism is now the new covenant sign where we have these promises throughout the Scriptures that foreshadow this in places like the book of Ezekiel. And so in the same way that God included the children of believers in his covenant promises under the Old Testament, he's still doing that today. And so they would say, no, the children of believers are truly baptized.

And so just from my personal standpoint, this is my view, and I've evolved or developed on that over the years. It wasn't always the view that I held, but the more I studied the Scriptures, the more I felt like, no, I see the biblical validity of this. And so the question is really getting into what baptism is and why or why not. Why baptize children or why not? Now, some people think, well, if you baptize kids, what you're just saying is, well, they're saved by that act. No, we're saved through faith, you know, in the word and promise of God, the grace of the gospel. But God extends his promises to us through these concrete signs, these tokens of his love. And we're called always as the people of God to lay hold of those objective promises that he's given to us in his word and in the sacraments of grace like baptism. And so, yeah, so again, I know that there's going to be disagreement here. I think we can be charitable with one another. And it's so important for us to have these discussions and to dig into the Scriptures because that's the main thing. And so I'm with you. I would say, you know, for those who have come to my church and they were baptized as children, I would say, man, that was your baptism.

Praise God and lay hold of the promises that God gave you there exhibited so clearly through the washing with water. Thank you again, Lee, for your question. You're listening to Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez.

Let's go to Gary, who's calling in from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Gary, what's your question for Adriel? My question is, what are your thoughts, Adriel, on this subject of rapture?

Yeah, thank you for that question. So the rapture, for those of you who don't know, is we're talking about the coming of Christ, his return specifically for his people. And the idea of the rapture is that Jesus is going to come back at a point prior to his second coming specifically to deliver his church from a time of judgment that's coming upon the world. And there are places where people will go in the New Testament to say, I think that this is supporting this idea of the rapture, of Jesus coming for his church. Specifically, I think, of 1 Thessalonians 4, where Paul said in verse 15, this we declare to you, by a word from the Lord that we who are alive who are left until the coming of the Lord will not precede those who have fallen asleep, that is, those who have died. He says, for the Lord himself will descend from heaven with the cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive who are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.

And so we will always be with the Lord, therefore encourage one another with these words. And so there's some of that language right there specifically in verse 17 of being caught up. They'll say, well, that's what it means to be raptured, just caught up in the air to be with the Lord. And they view this as something that's separate, distinct from the second coming of Christ. But I see that text in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 as referring to the one second coming of Christ on the final day, the day of the Lord, as Paul is going to go on and unpack in chapter 5 of 1 Thessalonians. So just in the context, it makes sense to me that he's talking about the one second coming of Christ that's contemporaneous with the resurrection.

And even there you have the language of being raised, the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come. And so what that means is Jesus is coming back. I mean, this is the main thing that we all agree on as Christians, that Christ is coming.

We have to be ready. I mean, over and over again in the gospels, this is what Jesus calls us to is vigilance, watchfulness, being ready for his coming. And when he comes, he's going to judge the whole world. And it's going to be judgment against those who have rejected the gospel and deliverance, salvation, if you will, or the consummation of our salvation, the very end for the believer and judgment for the non-believer. And that's precisely what Paul's going to go on to say in the second letter he wrote to the Thessalonians in 2 Thessalonians chapter 1. And so that's just a brief overview of kind of how I see the rapture and the second coming and their relationship there.

But then again, I mean, I just said this with the previous caller. You know, we want to be charitable with each other because we recognize that there are Christians, solid believers, who love the scriptures and who see things differently. And so it's just an encouragement for all of us to search the scriptures, to be Berean, and to make sure that whatever it is we believe about the Bible is coming from the word of God and faithful to the word of God. This is core Christianity. And we have a Revelation Bible study, by the way, that answers a lot of questions on this particular topic. You can find that by going to coreChristianity.com forward slash revelation. That's coreChristianity.com forward slash revelation.

Here's an email that came in from one of our listeners from Hunter. Hunter says, My grandmother is 92 and she has a very bad memory. She's been a Christian all of her life. But whenever I ask her about how to get to heaven, she answers with a works-based salvation. I've given her the true gospel several times, but she always forgets. Is there anything I can do besides continuing to share the gospel and keep praying?

Yeah, Hunter. Well, I would say, yeah, continuing to share the gospel and prayer, like you said, because ultimately we know that it's the work of the Holy Spirit, our understanding of the gospel. And even those whose minds are weak and struggling, I think, by the grace of the Holy Spirit, can grasp the truth of the gospel.

You think of Jesus' prayer at the end of Matthew chapter 11 where he says, I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise in understanding and revealed them to the babes, to the little children. The gospel is for everyone, including for your grandmother. And you said she's been a Christian her whole life, but maybe right now as she tries to articulate the gospel, she's having a hard time. It's not our perfect understanding of the gospel that saves us, our perfect understanding of the order of salvation. It's clinging to Jesus by faith. And so even when we articulate it poorly, I think that doesn't necessarily mean that we're not saved, that we don't really belong to Jesus and that Jesus isn't holding us in his hands. And so my hope would be that she does believe and know Jesus, even if she's having a hard time articulating the gospel. What I would just say, continuing to encourage her. And let me take a moment right now, Hunter, to pray for you and to pray for your grandmother. Father, I pray for Hunter, asking that you would bless the time that he has with his grandmother and that you would give him wisdom and help him, Lord, to clearly articulate the truth of your love and your grace for her and that she would grasp it, Lord, in these days like she never has before, Lord, that she would experience your grace and mercy now. I pray in Jesus' name. Amen. We pray for you, Lord, together.