Expert: Phillip Senn - 4/22/2009

Question
This question is very troubling to me and ultimately it can only be answered by Jesus when I am done in this world. But I was wondering what you say about being born again twice. I accepted Jesus as my lord about 1 1/2 to 2 years ago (not sure exactly when) understanding at the time only about Lutheran teachings and that you can never really repent as you will always be looked at as a sinner, and you only just have jesus come into your life. So I still continued to sin, little bits like lieing and masturbation. Before I masturbated for the last time ( was addicted to it, I did read something in my bible about sinning still when you have knowledge that you are sinning is worse than if you hadn't known. This very last week I have been trying to be extremly faithful to jesus and not masturbating, lieing, stealing, being obediant to my father etc.. Is it possible I can repent more than once? This last week when I really 'repented' in my opinion after learning more about what Jesus taught, is when I truly put my heart into it. But I feel scared still that Jesus may only grant me salvation from repentence once. Can you help?

Answer
Benjamin,

Thank you for your question. I will try to answer it in a way that is true to God's Word.

When a person trusts in Christ for their salvation. It is a matter of faith, and not a matter of performance on their part. Rather the believer trusts that Christ Jesus performed perfectly in establishing a relationship with God through His perfect sacrifice. Their confidence must be in His finished work on the cross, or they will never find the real peace that they are seeking. If their performance becomes an issue, they will always fall short of the glory of God.

The one that has trusted in Christ, as outlined above, has been BORN AGAIN. They are God's child, and He gives them the Holy Spirit to abide in them forever. They will always be His child because they have eternal life. The Holy Spirit teaches the believer all things about Christ, as they yield themselves to Him. As He teaches about Christ, He also teaches about the believer's responsibility to live accordingly, as he hath been "taught Christ".

Repentance of sin is something that a believer does, when he/she turns from things that are not in keeping with the teachings of the Scripture.

Repentance toward God takes place when the unbeliever changes his/her mind about God, and places faith (becomes a beiever) in the risen Saviour, who gave Himself a ransom for us. Paul spoke of this as repentance unto salvation.

Lastly, the Scriptures make it clear that every believer has a hope in them concerning the return of Christ. And it further states that those that have this hope purify themselves. I am grateful that you see a need to purify yourself.

Bottom line, we have hope in Christ, as believers, because He perfectly atoned for our sins. We purify ourselves, as believers, because He is coming again to claim His bride, the church.

I hope this has helped to encourage you, as well as to strengthen you in your walk with our wonderful Saviour.

With Love In Christ,
Phillip Senn