L eroy Brownlow, was an interesting and skillful preacher of God’s word. In one humorous story he told about an old preacher affectionately known as "Grandpa." Grandpa believed that church life demanded reformation. He said, "One winter we broke the ice on a frozen pond to baptize some people. ‘Is the water cold, Sam?’ a decaon shouted to the shvering, dripping convert after he had been immersed. ‘Not a bit cold,’ replied Sam as he shook. ‘Better put him under again, Preacher,’ said the deacon. ‘He hasn’t quit lying yet’ " (p 33, Grandpa Was a Preacher). That deacon understood a vital and fundamental fact related to becoming a Christian – we must change!
Inspired first century preachers called on people to make that change through faith and repentance. A clear example found in the apostle Paul’s sermon to King Agrippa in Acts 26:20. Paul told the king that after becoming an apostle of Christ, he [Paul] "declared to those in Damascus and in Jerusalem, and throughout all the region of Judea, and then to the Gentiles, that they should repent, turn to God, and do works befitting repentance" (or as the English Standard Version says "performing deeds in keeping with their repentance"). Note that repentance came first, then deeds produced by repentance followed. That idea accurately reflects the New Testament concept of repentance. The Greek word is metanoia meaning "a change of mind" or "to think differently." But caution is needed, because, us Paul told Agrippa, repentance goes way beyond mere mental activity. James Meadows accurately and succinctly defined repentance in a sermon at (what was then) East Tennessee School of Preaching in Knoxville, TN on March 9, 2010. Meadows said, "Repentance is a turning of the mind brought about by godly sorrow that produces a change in life." Without a change in mind and in manner of life, there is no Biblical repentance. There are people who weep and cry and even go so far as to confess Jesus and be "buried with Him through baptism into death" as taught in Romans 6:4a. But sadly, judging by what happens after they come up out of the water, the case can be made that they didn’t repent of their sins, they only reported them, as I heard West Virginia preacher David Powers say it more than 40 years ago. There is no "waking in newness of life" as taught in Romans 6:4b. A dry sinner was buried down into the water but the same old sinner was resurrected up out of the water, only now wet! No reformation, no apparent commitment to change sinful attitudes and actions occurred. Little love for the church and her worship assemblies and work. They claim to have gotten into Christ through their baptism (a very scriptural idea – see Romans 6:3 and Galatians 3:27). But they are hard pressed to prove by their deeds that Christ got into them at all! Still dominated by stinking thinking and low living. Contrast all that with what we read in Romans 12:2 – "And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. Like a caterpillar that goes into a chrysalis and comes out a butterfly, so, too, becoming and being a Christian necessarily involves a radical transformation in the way we think and live. Christ is the Great Transformer! Are you being transformed?
By: Dan Gulley, Smithville, TN
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