BELIEFS AND DOCTRINES OF THE NEW TESTAMENT CHURCH

The True Teachings and Doctrines of Jesus Christ and His Apostles as Revealed in the Holy Bible

The apostolic New Testament Church, also known as the Primitive Church of God, believed and practiced the true teachings and doctrines of Jesus Christ and His chosen apostles as revealed in the Holy Bible—The Old Testament and the New Testament. The New Testament Church of God has never ceased to exist, though it has always been a scattered "little flock," despised and hated by the world and its great religious organizations. The New Testament records many of the persecutions that the true believers of Jesus Christ suffered during the time of the apostles at the hands of the unbelieving Jews and Romans. Later, after the death of the apostle John in 97 AD, a great apostate, counterfeit Christian church arose, 100 AD-325 AD. It continued to persecute the brethren of the true Church of God. Beginning in the time of the Roman Emperor Constantine, under orders from the emperor and the apostate Church leaders—its bishops and later popes—the civil government of the Roman Empire persecuted, killed and drove the true Christians beyond the bounds of the Empire. The histories written about the scattered brethren of God's true Church, preserved by Romish and Orthodox historians, refer to them as heretics, because they steadfastedly rejected the usurped ecclesiastical authority of the Roman Church and refused to believe or accept its false paganized teachings and doctrines. Rather, they always submitted to the authority of God the Father, Jesus Christ and the Word of God, believing and practicing the true doctrines and teachings of the Bible. The following doctrinal statements are the biblical teachings and doctrines of the true Church of God from the Old and New Testaments, which are the same scriptural teachings and doctrines that the apostles of Jesus Christ taught the primitive Church of God and wrote in the New Testament. Today, the Christian Biblical Church of God derives all its teachings and doctrines from the Scriptures, as did the early New Testament Church of God. These statements are designed to give a brief summary of each doctrinal belief and are not intended to be exhaustive treatises. The scriptural references, which follow each statement, are by no means a complete listing of the many Scriptures that support these doctrines.

I. The Nature of God

The God Family

God—the Hebrew word is Elohim, a plural noun inherently meaning more than one—is a holy Family of intelligent Beings, composed of spirit. The God Family is eternal and all-powerful. The God Family is perfect in love, purpose and character. The God Fam­ily is Lawgiver, Creator and Sustainer of all substance and life, and upholds and controls the universe. The Scriptures reveal that the God Family created mankind "after Our image and after Our likeness." Therefore, God is the reality of the "image and likeness" from which man was created. The God Family presently consists of God the Father and God the Son. These two members of the God Family have the same form, or "image and likeness," which They have given to human beings, though They are composed of spirit. One of Their pur­poses is to increase the God Family. According to this plan and purpose, They will share Their eternal spiritual existence and Their vast creation with those human beings who will be born again by the resurrection from death into the God Family, thereby inheriting Their mag­nificent love, glory and power as sons and daughters of God throughout eternity.

Scriptural References

Gen. 1:26                                 Eph. 3:9-21                                  I John 4:8

Dan. 7:9-10                              Eph. 1:3-5, 9-10                            Rev. 1:14-16

Col. 1:12-27                             John 4:24                                     Psa. 19:1-7

Psa. 8:1-6                                Is. 40:12-28; 57:15                         Rom. 1:20

God the Father

God the Father is the supreme, glorious, divine Spirit Being Who is the Sovereign Ruler of the universe. God the Father accomplishes His will through the power of His Holy Spirit. God the Father, Who has all power and all authority, is love. He has perfect, holy character and is full of grace and mercy. God the Father is greater than His Son Jesus Christ but shares all that He has with His Son. God the Father sent Jesus Christ, His Son, to reveal the Father's love and grace and His magnificent plan for all mankind. God the Father di­rectly calls each individual to salvation, grants repentance, and imparts the Holy Spirit as a begettal, so that the individual becomes a child of God the Father. God the Fattier Himself personally loves each one He calls and is directly involved in the life of each individual, con­tinually imparting His love, grace, mercy and blessings so that he or she can develop His lov­ing, perfect, righteous character. He personally hears and answers the prayers of all His be­gotten children.

Scriptural References

I John 4:8,16                            John 6:44                                      John 8:16-18

John 1:1-2,17-18                      John 14:28                                    Eph. 3:14-19

John 16:27                                Heb. 1:1-2; 2:3-9                           Eph. 4:4-6

Matt. 11:27                               I Cor. 15:24-28                              Rev. 21:22

God the Son, Jesus Christ of Nazareth

Prior to His human birth, the Elohim of the God Family, Who became the Son, eter­nally existed with the Elohim of the God Family Who became the Father. All things were created by God the Father through God the Son. The Son is revealed in the Old Testament as the Lord God and Lawgiver and in the New Testament as the Word of God. In order to become the Savior of all mankind, He willingly divested Himself of His position in the God Family, giving up His majesty, glory and power, to become a fleshly human being, born of the virgin Mary and begotten of God the Father, Who directed that He be named Jesus. His full New Covenant name is Jesus Christ of Nazareth. As a human being having sinful hu­man flesh, He was subject to the same temptations as every human being, yet He never sinned. As the perfect Lamb of God, He gave Himself to be God the Father's special, unique sacrifice through the crucifixion as an atonement for the sins of all mankind. After being dead in the grave for three days and three nights, He was resurrected to eternal life through the power of God the Father, becoming the Firstborn from among the dead. He was again invested with the full divine nature and power of the God Family. He ascended into heaven to sit at the right hand of God the Father as mankind's High Priest, Advocate and Intercessor and Head of His Church. Jesus Christ will return to earth in the power and glory of His Fa­ther to establish the kingdom and government of God on the earth. As King of Kings and Lord of Lords, He will rule the earth forever with His brothers and sisters, the children of God the Father. (See Salvation, The Nature of Mankind and The Resurrections.)

Scriptural References

John 1:1-3                                Phil. 2:6-11                                   Eph. 1:6-23

Heb. 2:9-14                              Heb. 4:14-16                                 Heb. 5:7-9

Rom. 8:3, 29                             Rev. 1:5,13-16                               Rev. 5:9-10

Rom. 5:8                                  John 3:16                                      John 17:1-26

I John 2:1-2                              Rev. 13:8                                      Col. 1:14-20

II. The Nature of Mankind

The Elohim of the God Family Who later became Jesus Christ personally created Adam and Eve with His own hands. He created them in the image and likeness of God, or Elohim, but a little lower than God. Human beings are made of flesh and blood and do not have inherent immortality. (See Salvation.) However, at creation God gave a spirit essence to the human brain called the "spirit of man." This spiritual dimension in the human brain imparts reasoning power and intellect and gives human beings the capacity to think, speak, learn, write, plan, devise, create, build, control, teach, choose, worship, build character, and, experience every emotion. God made male and female with the capacity to express intimate, personal love for each other as husband and wife, and through this physical union, to create children after their own kind, producing families, clans, tribes and nations. Adam and Eve were created sinless but with a nature that was subject to temptation. God gave them free­dom to choose between obedience and life, or disobedience and death. After they sinned by eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, God sentenced them to suffer the pain and sorrow of living with a sinful nature and finally to reap the penalty of death. This penalty of death was passed on to all mankind by the physical inheritance of sinful human nature. Human nature is inherently and naturally hostile to God and is not subject to His laws and commandments. From birth, human nature is a mixture of good and evil. When a person dies, his or her conscious thoughts cease. The body returns to the dust of the earth, and the spirit of man goes back to God. Only through God the Father's gracious and merci­ful plan of salvation through Jesus Christ is it possible for a person to be redeemed and saved from this sinful nature of death. God's ultimate purpose for each human being is complete reconciliation with God the Father through Jesus Christ so that he or she may enter into the Family of God as a literal son or daughter of God, sharing the same eternal existence as God. (See following entries: The Holy Spirit, Salvation and The Resurrections.)

Scriptural References

Gen. 1:26-27	Psa. 8:3-6	Zech. 12:1
Gen. 2:7-25; 3:1-19	I Cor. 2:11	Ez. 18:4, 20
Mark 7:21-22	Rom. 8:7-8	Heb. 9:27
Eccl. 3:19-21	I Cor. 15:21-22,44-56	Rev. 21:7
I John 3:1-3	Phil. 3:21

III. The Love of God

God's Love Toward Us

The love of God is revealed in that the God Family created mankind in Their image and Their likeness and gave them dominion over the entire earth, which They had bounti­fully created for them. God the Father's profound spiritual love is fully manifested to man­kind through His overall plan as revealed in the New Testament in the life, death and resur­rection of His Son Jesus Christ. In His supreme love, God the Father offers every human be­ing the opportunity to be born into the God Family through the resurrection from death, be­coming a literal child of God the Father, with the same form and spiritual composition as God the Father and God the Son. God's love and reconciliation is now extended to those He is calling and will be extended to all mankind according to His plan. God the Father's love is manifested toward those He has now called by His grace and mercy daily bestowed through Jesus Christ, His continuing intervention and blessings, and the care with which He chastens them.

Scriptural References

Deut.4:37                                          John 3:16                                                   Rom. 5:7-8

I  John 3:1                                        Psa. 145:8                                            I John 4:8-10,16

Heb. 12:6                                        John 16:27; 14:21                                 Eph. 2:4-10

Our Love Toward God

We love God because He first loved us. Our love for God is a result of God the Fa­ther's calling through the power of the Holy Spirit, which opens our minds to understand the greatness and goodness of God's love and the sinfulness of our own nature. God the Father leads us to genuine repentance and acceptance of the sacrifice and blood of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of our sins. We manifest our repentance and our faith in Jesus Christ by be­ing baptized in water, symbolically burying the old self into the death of Jesus Christ and ris­ing to walk in newness of life. Through the laying on of hands, the gift of the Holy Spirit is given to us as a spiritual begettal from God the Father, imparting the love of God into our hearts. The capacity to truly love God comes through His Spirit within us. We are individu­ally to love God the Father and Jesus Christ with all our heart, all our mind, all our soul, all our strength and all our being. Jesus said that anyone who does not love God more than all others is not worthy of Him. Our love and our complete devotion to God the Father and Je­sus Christ are manifested by our willingness to live by every word of God and to keep all His commandments.

Scriptural References

I John 4:16-19; 5:2-3                  Matt. 22:37-38                             Eph. 5:1-2

Rom. 5:5                                  I John 2:5,15                                II John 6

John 14:15-24                           Gal. 5:22                                     Psa. 97:10

Deut. 6:5                                  Deut. 13:3                                   Matt. 10:37-38

Our Love Toward Brethren

Christians are to have a special love for one another because God the Father and Je­sus Christ have individually called and personally love each one. As the begotten children of God, with the Holy Spirit shed abroad into their hearts, all true Christians share a special fel­lowship with God the Father and Jesus Christ. This fellowship is the foundation for the new commandment that Jesus gave to His disciples to "love one another as I have loved you." This true Christian love is a sign by which all people can recognize the followers of Jesus Christ.

Scriptural References

John 13:34-35                         John 15:9-10                           I John 3:16-17

I John 2:6-11; 5:1-2                I John 4:19-21                         II John 4-6

IV. The Holy Bible

The Holy Bible is the Word of God. God directly inspired His chosen servants by the power of His Holy Spirit to record the Scriptures for all mankind. The Holy Bible consists of both the Old Testament and the New Testament. The Old Testament was written in the Hebrew language and preserved by the Masoretes, the Levites who were appointed by Ezra as the official guardians of the Old Testament. The New Testament was written and preserved in the Koine Greek language by the original apostles of Jesus Christ. The apostle John completed the New Testament just before his death, writing the book of Revelation as the final book of the Bible. God has preserved the New Testament text through the Greek-speaking church. Called the Byzantine Text, it was the official text of the Greek-speaking church, after the days of the apostles, from 312-1453 AD. This text, also known as The Stephens Text of 1550, was used to translate the New Testament into English for the King James Version in 1611.

The Holy Bible contains vital spiritual knowledge revealed by God, which man can­not discover for himself. It also records the essential outline of history from the beginning of creation to Abraham, from Abraham to the birth of Jesus Christ, and from the birth of Jesus Christ to the end of the apostolic era in approximately 100 AD. The book of Revelation re­veals major events prophesied to take place from the end of the apostolic era to the return of Jesus Christ and the establishment of the Kingdom of God on earth.

The Bible is the very foundation of knowledge, imparting understanding of salvation through Jesus Christ and showing mankind how to live God's way of life in both the letter and the spirit of His law. True Christianity is based on the entire Word of God as it applies to the individual Christian and to the Church.

Scriptural References

II Tim. 3:16-17                         II Pet. 1:20-21                              Deut. 8:3

Psa. 111:7-10                           Psa. 119                                        Psa. 12:6; 19:7-9

Prov. 30:5                                Matt. 1:1-17,4:4                            Gal. 1:8-12

Eph. 2:19-20                            Luke 4:4                                        Rev. 1:1-3; 22:18-19

John 6:63                                 II Tim. 1:9-14                                I Cor. 14:37

V. The Laws and Commandments of God

The Nature of God's Laws

The laws and commandments of God as revealed in both the Old Testament and the New Testament are a holy and perfect set of principles based on the love of God. God's laws and commandments are designed to teach man how to love and worship God and how to love his neighbor. God has made known His laws and commandments to the world from the beginning and requires all mankind to keep them. The laws and commandments of God define what sin is, and where there is no law there is no sin. No one could be counted as a sinner, or under sin, if God did not require all the people of the world to keep His laws and commandments. The Scriptures show that God judges all nations according to their obedi­ence or disobedience to His laws, bringing blessings for obedience and curses for disobedi­ence or sin. Because of sin and wickedness in Noah's time, God destroyed the world with the Flood. The men of Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed because they were sinners be­fore God. The Ninevites were a Gentile nation not in covenant with God, but God warned them through His prophet Jonah of His impending judgment for their sins. The inhabitants of the land of Canaan were expelled because of their religious and sexual sins. The people of Israel, God's chosen nation, also sinned grievously against God and were sent into captivity. Through sin and disobedience to God's laws and commandments, the whole world has be­come guilty before Him. Generation after generation has yielded to the sinfulness of human nature and has utterly failed to meet even the minimum requirements of the letter of the law.

While God has always required mankind to keep His laws and commandments in the letter of the law, He desires that every human being learn to worship Him in the spirit of the law. The full spiritual intent of God's laws is that each one learn to love God with all the heart, mind, soul, being and strength; and to love one's neighbor as oneself. The Scriptures reveal that obedience to God's laws in the spirit is a condition for receiving eternal life. Only through the gift of the Holy Spirit is this obedience made possible. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, each Christian can have the laws and commandments of God written in his or her heart and mind and can learn to walk daily in the spiritual obedience that God de­sires. The laws and commandments of God are not contrary to grace and faith but are truly established by faith. (See Grace, Righteousness and Faith.)

Scriptural References

Gen. 3:11-13; 4:7-11                 Gen. 6:5-13; 15:16                         Lev. 18:5

Jer. 18:7-10                               Ez. 20:11, 13, 21                            Prov. 4:4

Deut. 28:1-13                            Deut. 4:1-13; 6:1-4                         Gal. 3:11

Rom. 10:5                                 Rom. 3:9-22; 4:13-16                      Rom. 2:11-13

Matt. 22:36-40                          Psa. 19:1-7                                      Psa. 111:10

John 14:15-24                           Psa. 119                                           I John 2:4-6

Matt. 4:4                                   Is. 42:21                                           I John 3:4

Mat. 5:17-20                             I John 5:2-3                                     II Tim. 3:16

Heb. 8:10-12; 10:16-22            Rev. 22:14                                      Rev. 12:17; 14:12

The Ten Commandments

The Ten Commandments, spoken by God to Israel, are the foundation of all of God's laws. They have been in effect from the beginning of mankind, over 3,000 years before their pronouncement at Mt. Sinai. Their written form is the summation of the spiritual laws which function at all times, whether a person is aware of them or not. Obedience to these com­mandments brings blessings, and disobedience brings curses. The Ten Commandments teach us how to express love toward God and our fellowman. They must be obeyed as a condition for receiving eternal life. (See Faith and Grace.)

Scriptural References

Ex. 20:1-17                              Deut. 5:6-21                                  Deut. 30:15-20

Matt. 19:16-22                          Rom. 7:7-14                                  Matt. 22:36-40

I John 3:22-24                          Rom. 13:8-10                                II John 6-10

The Weekly Sabbath

The weekly Sabbath, known as Saturday today, is the seventh day of the week. In the beginning, the Sabbath was created by God. He blessed and sanctified the seventh day at creation as a special day for rest and fellowship with Him. The Sabbath is a memorial of creation and was made for all mankind. It was the commanded day of weekly worship for 3,000 years before the Ten Commandments were given to Israel. The Fourth Commandment is a reminder to observe and to keep the Sabbath day holy.

As Lord God of the Old Testament, Jesus Christ created the Sabbath by resting on the very first seventh day and by blessing and sanctifying it. In the New Testament, Jesus Christ proclaimed that He is Lord of the Sabbath day. During His ministry on earth, He reaf­firmed the sacredness of the Sabbath and taught its proper observance. Jesus Christ Himself showed by example that it is right to do good on the Sabbath day, in addition to resting from one's physical labor and secular business. The apostles of Jesus Christ and the early New Testament church observed the Sabbath and taught Gentile Christians to observe it.

The keeping of the seventh-day Sabbath is a special sign of the covenant between God and His people. God commands that it be observed from sunset Friday to sunset Satur­day. During this holy time, Christians are commanded to rest from their labor and to assem­ble to worship God and to receive instruction from His Word.  Observance of the seventh-day Sabbath is essential for salvation and for true fellowship with God the Father and Jesus Christ.

Scriptural References

Gen. 2:1-3	Mark 2:27-28	Ex. 20:8-10
Ex. 31:13-17	Is. 58:13-14	Is. 56:1-7
Is. 66:23	Ez. 20:12, 20	Lev. 23:1-3
Luke 4:4	Acts 13:42-44	Acts 17:2
Acts 18:4,11	Acts 19:8-10	Heb. 4:4-10

The Annual Feasts and Holy Days

The Scriptures teach that there are seven annual feasts and holy days, which were or­dained by God to be observed as special commanded convocations. These feasts and holy days portray God's plan of salvation for mankind. The observance of these holy convoca­tions is a sign between God and His people. God's annual feasts and holy days were ob­served by His people during Old Testament times. In the New Testament, Jesus Christ's en­tire ministry was centered around the spiritual meaning of these holy days. The New Testa­ment apostolic church faithfully observed these annual feasts and holy days. The Scriptures reveal that they will be observed by all mankind after the return of Jesus Christ.

As the holy days are annual Sabbath days, they may fall on any day of the week (except Pentecost, which always falls on a Sunday). When a holy day falls on a weekly Sab­bath, the special observance of the annual holy day takes precedence. God's feasts and holy days are to be observed from sunset to sunset in accordance with the calculated Hebrew Calen­dar as preserved by the Levitical Jews. The seven annual feasts and holy days are as follows:

Feast or Holy Day                          Commanded Scriptural Date of Observance

1) Passover                                   14th day of the first month*

2) Unleavened Bread (7 days)          15th through 21st days of the first month

(the 15th & 21st are holy days)

3) Pentecost                                  Counted annually**

4) Trumpets                                  1st day of the seventh month

5) Atonement                                10th day of the seventh month

6) Tabernacles (7 days)                   15th through 21st days of the seventh month (the

15th is a holy day)

7) Last Great Day                           22nd day of the seventh month (a holy day)

*Not a holy day

**Fifty days are counted, beginning with the first day of the week during the Days of Unleavened Bread. The feast is observed on the fiftieth day, which always falls on the first day of the week.

Scriptural References

Lev. 23	Ex. 23:14-17; 31:13	Ex. 12:1-20
John 7:37	Matt. 26:17-18	I Cor. 5:7-8
Acts 2:1	Acts 18:21	Acts 20:16
I Cor. 16:8	Zech. 14:16-19	Is. 66:23

VI. Sin

Sin is the transgression of the holy laws and commandments of God, whether in the letter or the spirit of the law. Therefore, sin is lawlessness or anti-law. Sin is also a defilement of one's conscience. When a person knows to do good and doesn't do it, it is sin. The ultimate penalty for sin is eternal death. Upon deep and sincere repentance toward God, one's sins will be forgiven by faith in the blood and sacrifice of Jesus Christ for the payment of those sins through the mercy of God the Father. The only unpardonable sin is persistent, knowledgeable and willful transgression of the commandments and laws of God. This sin cannot be forgiven because it is willful rejection of God's salvation, willful rejection of and blasphemy against the Holy Spirit of God the Father, and despising the sacrifice of Jesus Christ as an unholy thing. Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is the sin of condemning the works of God the Father, accomplished through the power of His Holy Spirit, and attributing such works to Satan the devil. When a person has committed the unpardonable sin, his or her conscience is seared with a hot iron, and it is impossible to be convicted by the Holy Spirit and be led to repentance. God's judgment for the unpardonable sin is the second death, or eternal death, from which there is no resurrection.

Scriptural References

I John 3:4                                 Rom. 7:12-14                                I John 1:5-2:2

Acts 2:38                                  Eph. 1:7                                        Eph. 1:7; 2:1-10

I John 5:17                               Jas. 2:10-11; 4:12                          Gal. 5:19-21

Rom. 6:23                                Rom. 14:23                                   Acts 3:19

Matt. 12:31-32                          Heb. 6:4-6                                     Gal. 1:8-9

Heb. 10:26-27                           Rev. 20:14-15                               Rev. 21:8

VII. The Holy Spirit

The Holy Spirit is not a person or a third member of a so-called Trinity. The Holy Spirit is the power by which God the Father and God the Son accomplish Their will. The impregnation of the Holy Spirit from God the Father as a spiritual begettal is granted freely to each believer upon repentance of sins, baptism by immersion, and the laying on of hands. This begettal of the Holy Spirit is the earnest and assurance of the promise of eternal life through Jesus Christ. It is the power of God, which makes each begotten child of God a par­taker of the divine nature and imparts the ability to develop the love of God. The fruits of the Holy Spirit are love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness and self-control. The indwelling of the Holy Spirit imparts the power to each individual to live in accordance with God's will and to overcome the temptations of human nature, the world, and Satan. As the spiritually begotten believer seeks to serve and obey God the Father and Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit will lead him or her into all Truth that is contained in the Word of God and is essential for salvation.

Scriptural References

Gen. 1:2                                   Acts 2:38                                      John 14:16, 26

Rom. 8:9-14                             I Cor. 2:9-10                                 Acts 8:15-17; 19:6

Gal. 5:22-23                             II Tim. 1:6-7                                 Eph. 1:13-14

II Cor. 1:21-22                          Is. 55:1-3                                      John 7:37-39

I John3:9-ll                            I John4:4-8                                   II Pet. 1:1-11

VIII. The Grace of God

Grace is the free and undeserved gift of God the Father through Jesus Christ. The grace of God is the greatest expression of God the Father's love and all-encompassing mercy. Grace is more than the forgiveness of sins. To be under grace means to be receiving continually God's divine love, favor, blessing, gracious care, help, goodwill, benefits, gifts and goodness. God the Father is the source from which grace comes to the believer. The ONLY MEANS by which grace is granted to the believer is through the birth, life, crucifixion, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ as the perfect sacrifice of God the Father. The be­liever enters the grace of God through faith in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of his or her sins. God the Father grants His grace to each believer upon repentance of sins and baptism by immersion, which is the outward manifestation of repentance. Through grace, the believer's sins are forgiven and the righteousness of Jesus Christ is imputed to him or her.

Grace establishes a new spiritual relationship between the believer and God the Fa­ther and Jesus Christ. Through the unearned and unmerited gift of grace, the believer is not only chosen, called, forgiven and accepted by God the Father through His Beloved but is also begotten with the Holy Spirit, making him or her a child of God and an heir of eternal life. From this point, the spiritually begotten believer begins a new life under grace. Grace does not grant a license to practice sin by ignoring or rejecting the commandments of God. Only those who keep His commandments can abide in His love and remain under His grace. Every believer who receives the grace of God has a personal obligation to God the Father and Jesus Christ to forsake his or her old, sinful thoughts and practices and to live a new life, daily growing in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ. For every believer who lives un­der grace, Jesus Christ acts as Redeemer, High Priest and Advocate. If the believer commits a sin, He intercedes to propitiate the Father and to obtain His mercy and grace. The grace of God, which comes through Jesus Christ, keeps the repentant believer in a continual state of blamelessness and sinlessness.

Scriptural References

Eph. 2:4-10, 4:7               I John 3:6-8                            Rom. 5:1-11,15-18

Rom. 3:22-25; 2:4             Gal. 2:20                  Rom. 4:1-13

Psa. 103:2-4                   Gal. 1:15                  Gal. 5:1-4

Is. 55:6-7                       Jude 4, 21                               Gen. 6:8

II Tim. 1:9                      I Cor. 15:10                             Rom. 11:5-6

Eph. 1:3-9                           Eph. 3:1-21                             I Pet. 5:10

IX. Repentance

Repentance is complete remorse and sorrow for one's sins, which are the transgres­sions of the laws and commandments of God. Repentance is the first step in the sinner's rec­onciliation with God the Father and Jesus Christ. True repentance begins when God the Fa­ther opens a person's mind to understand that he or she is a sinner against God the Father, and that his or her own sins had a part in crucifying Jesus Christ. The graciousness of God the Father leads each sinner to repentance. Repentance moves each one to confess his or her sins to God the Father and to ask forgiveness, remission and pardon for those sins through the blood of Jesus Christ. True, deep, godly repentance will produce a profound change in a person's mind and attitude, called conversion, which will result in a continuing desire to live by every word of God. The truly repentant person will turn from evil thoughts and ungodly practices and will seek to conform his or her life to the will of God as revealed in the Holy Bible and as led by the Holy Spirit. Confession and repentance of sins is an ongoing process in a Christian's spiritual growth toward the perfection of Jesus Christ.

Scriptural References

Rom. 2:4                                  Acts 2:37-38                                 Luke 24:47

II Cor. 5:17                               Rom. 8:5-9                                   II Cor. 7:9-11

Acts 3:19                                 Jer. 17:5-9                                    Mark 1:15

Luke 13:3, 5                             II Tim. 2:25                                   Psa. 51

Acts 11:18                                I John 1:6-2:2                                John 6:44-45