Mentoring the New Believer - Lesson 3

Any questions on the stuff we covered yesterday? I know we went pretty slowly, but I was just spending this morning walking around Tacoma and thinking about it. And I mean, the fact that you’re here means that you’re interested in the topic. So maybe a bit preaching to the choir, but I wanted to make sure that you understood at least my passion for this and why it’s so important, and how when it comes to issues in conversion, there’s so much clarification. I keep thinking about altar calls. I know it’s a fascinating discussion we had yesterday. I lived in Kentucky for six years. So, that’s the most exposure I’ve had to, in my case, Southern Baptist circles. I never heard altar call used for anything else other than evangelism, and for being saved over and over and over again. It is interesting, such a great illustration of we have to be really aware for the new believer’s sake, what do they understand the words to mean? 

Okay, we’re going to look at two things I’ve already touched on these yesterday, actually three things. I just want to make sure it’s clear. And then we’re going to do chapter 2 tonight, which talks about the change that starts to happen in the new believer’s life. And then we’re going to talk about chapter 3, stumbling, what happens when they start to sin; they realize that the path is a difficult path. It’s not a bed of roses. If we have any time, we’re going to get into chapter 4.

And this is mostly issues of inspiration, inerrancy, if you want to talk about that, canonicity, those kinds of issues. And I’m just going to have to wait and see. One of the questions I needed to ask you was, is Systematics a required class here at Faith? 

Student: Yeah

Dr. Mounce: So all of you have to go through something like this? Okay. All right. Because I don’t want to teach that. Well, maybe I do, but today I don’t want to teach that class, so I can assume that. Okay, the stuff you're going to have to wrestle with that is in greater detail in another class. Okay, well, let’s pray and we can get started. 

Father, we recognize that as leaders in our churches, that you have put us in positions not only of authority, but of responsibility. And you’ve called and gifted and trained us, which only increases our responsibility, but increases the joy because we get to do things that a lot of people never get to do. And Father, I pray as we continue to work through these chapters, that you will stir up in our hearts a joy for this, a joy for training mentors, a joy to see your new brothers and sisters walking correctly first. And I just pray, Father, that as we go through the discussions, that you…and if there are issues that need to be discussed that I haven’t anticipated, that you will prompt our thoughts and lead us in discussions that are genuinely helpful as we prepare to do this task. In Jesus’ name, Amen. 

Okay. I want to talk about repentance. We were talking about the language of conversion. What’s the biblical language? And one of you said there is repentance. And that certainly is one of the major terms that is used.

Repentance is handled in Grudem’s book, chapter 35. And there’s a lot of stuff in here. But there’s a couple of things that I really, really wanted to stress. On page 713, under his heading, Faith and Repentance Must Come Together; let me just read just a little bit of this. I don’t know if you know this about Wayne, but he’s always defining things. It’s really a nice writing habit that he has. He will define something. Then he’ll spend pages talking about it. He says, “We may define repentance as follows: repentance is a heartfelt sorrow for sin and a renunciation of it, and a sincere commitment to forsake it and walk obedience to Christ. This definition indicates that repentance is something that can occur at a specific point in time. And this is not equivalent to a demonstration of change in a person’s pattern of life. While we continue to repent of sins as we walk along the path.” (That’s not what he’s primarily concerned with here.) 

He says “Repentance on faith is an intellectual understanding” (and he limits that to saying that sin is wrong, and I’m going to come back, and I want to enlarge that one part of it), “that sin is wrong. It’s an emotional approval of the teachings of Scripture regarding for sin.” In other words, repentance isn’t it “Yeah, you’re right. I was wrong.” But there is something to the deep emotion and the sorrow for having violated the character of God. So it has an intellectual component, has an emotional component, and it’s a personal decision to turn from it, a renouncing of sin, and a decision of the will to forsake it, and it’s a decision to lead a life of obedience to Christinstead.” This goes on for several chapters, but he goes on and talks about mere sorrow for one’s actions, and even deep remorse doesn’t constitute genuine repentance.

We talked about that yesterday. There’s no such thing as justification by sorrow. And so just because someone’s sorrowful doesn’t mean they’re a follower of Christ; just means they’re sorrowful. But it has to be the sorrow plus the commitment to Christ. I want to expand his definition. I want to challenge you to expand his definition just a little. You have a question, Victor? 

Student: Yeah. People have different emotions, some more profound than others. And if one of the aspects of this three aspects of repentance is just like emotionalism, would we consider this genuine repentance? 

Dr. Mounce: Well, I think what Wayne’s point is that you have to have it… You’ve got to understand what’s going on. You can’t just be fleeing from the fires of Hell. I mean, that’s not what’s going on. 

Student: Some people are just weeping on their knees, and some just…and they might feel, “Well, am I doing something wrong? Is God not receiving my repentance because I’m not repenting as dramatic as that other person next to me?” I don’t know. 

Dr. Mounce: He’s got a very good discussion of that and how people’s experiences are all just different. I mean, the most famous one is C.S. Lewis’; you know that, in his story Surprised by Joy. He talks about being driven somewhere. And he said “When I left, I didn’t believe, and when I got there, I believed.” The point is, his experience of conversion was really different. But there are many people that have this kind of experience. One of my friends back in Spokane, it was a very slow, gradual process over two years. For some people it’s a very long process.

And yet what Wayne’s going to point out is that there is a single point in time in which you’ve gone from not believing to believing. For other people, it’s almost violent. And that’s what we kind of associate that weepiness stuff with. And so it’s wrong to say everyone has to go through it a certain way. I’ve always been a tad suspicious, if that’s the right word. You know, someone talks about, you know, about a two year process. I go, “Really?” But again, I’ve known really good people that had a two year conversion process, and they’re clearly followers of Jesus Christ, but they can’t pinpoint it. We’re actually going to talk more about that. 

So we can’t all expect to have the same response. But I think Wayne’s point is that there’s an intellectual element you’ve got to know. This is my problem with altar calls, using the word my way, that if there’s no content, there can’t be anything going on intellectually, in that “I understand that this is what I thought of Jesus, and this is what I thought of His commandments. And now I’m repenting of that, and I’m over here, and I’m now a follower of Christ.” Well, if you don’t know that, there’s nothing to repent of. Repentance is certainly to change your mind, right? I mean, we all understand that. The Greek word’s ‘metanoia’ – to repent. 

The third place we’re going is Lordship Salvation, but I’m going to start it up now. There are people that will tell you that this Greek word is made up of two words. ‘Meta’ means to change, and ‘noia’ means your mind. And so repentance is changing your mind, but not necessarily changing your behavior.

These are people who preach that conversion is an issue of accepting Jesus as Savior, but not necessarily Lord. I’m assuming you’ve all had to come across this stuff. First church I ever got kicked out of was over this issue. I just could not fathom anyone thinking that Jesus could be your Savior, couldn’t be your Lord. I’m going back to my old Systematics or my Biblical Theology prof at seminary and said “I simply can’t figure what this pastor said.” I’ve since figured out. This is in your Hermeneutics class, you’re going to learn about something called ‘etymological errors.’ You come across that word yet? The etymological error is an error that is frequently made in defining what words mean, and what it does is that you look at the word’s etymology, and you look at the pieces that go together to make up a word. And somehow if you look at the pieces, that you can define the word. 

And so there are people that will say repentance, ‘metanoia’ is to change your mind, but not necessarily change your behavior. So there’s a famous pastor down in the Texas area who says if you have a moment of positive volition, it’s this phrase. If you, in thinking about the cross, have even the slightest possible inclination towards it, you’re eternally saved, no matter how you live, because you changed your mind. I think it’s heresy. And I use the word heresy very, very carefully. But I have incredibly strong feelings about this. I think Paul and Jesus did, too. This is an absolute fallacy when it comes to defining words. Otherwise, butterflies or dairy products with wings, and pineapples are fruit that grow on pine trees. We just know that whatever the etymology, the original beginning of pineapple and butterfly, that you can’t look at the pieces of a word and define the word.

But that’s what happens here a lot. Now, when I was embroiled in all this discussion, what they wanted to say was all that repentance is changing your mind about who Jesus is. It doesn’t require you to be sorrowful for your sins. And I reacted against it and I didn’t want to hear anything they had to say until one day I was reading Acts 2. This was the assignment I asked you to do if you had time. And what I wanted you to see is, you know, when we have repentance, we have an idea. We have a picture in our mind, right? And so when you get to the Acts 2, you get to verse 37, “Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart” (in Peter’s sermon, Pentecost sermon). “They said to Peter and the rest of the Apostles, ‘Brothers, what shall we do?’ And Peter said, ‘Repent to be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.’” 

And the interesting challenge was, if you just sit in Acts 2:1 and read to 2:37, we hit the word ‘repentance.’ It’s really natural to say, repent of what? See, that’s the most natural answer, isn’t it? But has he talked about sin at all in the first 37 verses? Hasn’t come up. What’s the whole Pentecost sermon about? 

Student: What was it? Was it repenting that they didn’t accept the Messiah?

Student: They didn’t believe in it back there in the resurrection. 

Dr. Mounce: They had a misunderstanding of who Jesus was, right? And so that’s what this whole thing is about; it’s retelling the story of Jesus of Nazareth, “a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in the midst,” as you know. Remember the first step of the kerygma? The kerygma is the life of Christ. Okay. “This Jesus delivered up.” In verse 23, “This Jesus delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God. You killed, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.” (There’s point two of the kerygma: the Crucifixion.) 

Verse 24: “God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death because it was not possible for him to be held by it.” (Point three of the kerygma: Jesus was raised from the dead, right?) So they’ve covered the first three pieces of content that goes all the way through all the sermons in Acts. And he goes through and he quotes David, and talks about his exaltation. Verse 36: “Let all the houses of Israel, therefore, know for certain that God has made them both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.” It’s the first three wonderful points of the kerygma, the first time it’s stated. And it’s like they interrupted and say, “What do we have to do?” And Peter says, “Well, the fourth point of the kerygma is this: repent.” 

So you get this wonderful exposure to this preaching of the church. When he says, ‘repent’, the only thing he’s talked about is who they thought Jesus was. I finally realized I had overreacted against all this stuff up here. And I realized that repentance is more than sorrow for your sins, that the repentance that Peter’s calling for in Acts 2 is, I would say, first and foremost, a repentance over your misunderstanding of who Jesus was and what his death and resurrection were all about.

And so he’s calling them to repent of their understanding of Jesus. And then as the story goes on, you realize that there has been, there’s obviously going to be sin that’s been talked about it…where’s that verse? Oh, verse 40, “and with many other words, he bore witness and continued to exhort them, saying, ‘save yourself from this crooked generation.’ And those who received his word were baptized, and they were added that day, about 3000 souls.” I’m reading out of the ESV and I realize I want to read out of the NIV…sorry, change that. So I have no doubt that repentance includes a sorrow for sins. But first and foremost, what the preaching in Acts is about is who is Jesus? And that’s what everything is, right? And the whole point of Matthew is to show that Jesus is the Messiah. The whole point of Mark is that Jesus is the Son of God. The whole point of John is “here (are) the things, that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, and that by believing, you may have life in his name.” I mean, the question in the Bible is who’s Jesus? And so this repentance is not just, as Wayne says it, ‘repentance for sins.’ And I guess you could—well, a misunderstanding or refusal to believe what the Bible says about Jesus could be said. But this is one reason I feel so strongly that when we make, (I) forget your expression yesterday, when we announced that we’re going to call people to make a commitment. There better be something that they are being asked to commit to, content-wise. 

Student: Ok, yesterday the word was used, invitation. I agree with that word because invitation, you’re inviting people to come; you’re not really inviting them—I guess you are inviting them to salvation also, conversion. But when you invite them, you invite them to follow Jesus, which entails learn about him; see what we’re talking about here. And during that part of the learning, that’s why you don’t just take him; somebody come and you baptize them. 

Dr. Mounce: Right. And that’s that third point in Wayne’s thing, that personal decision. 

Student: …what you were talking about; yeah, let them know what it’s all about. 

Dr. Mounce: Paul, you were the one who said that, right? I believe you did. So part of repentance is changing your understanding of who Jesus is and you’re repenting of your misunderstanding. And it’s also repenting of your sins that ensued from you not knowing who Jesus was. That’s why this first chapter is so important in the curriculum, because we have to make sure that the people that we’re starting to walk with on their spiritual journey, that they really know enough about Jesus to have repented of their misunderstanding of who he is, and have to accept the biblical view, who are sorry for their sins. And then the second half of this is not just a change of mind. It’s a commitment to change your behavior. It’s not changing your behavior. That’s sanctification, right? We don’t withhold our joy at their conversion until they start living a better life, or however we want to say it. It’s the commitment to follow Christ. It’s the commitment to change. That’s a fuller or better understanding of repentance. 

I just will encourage you to think through that. And as you are talking with your new believers, decide before what do they have to know? What do they have to understand? They have to understand the incarnation. Do they have to understand the full Deity of Christ? Do they have to understand the justifications by faith? What is it that they need to know about Jesus? And you can’t say everything because then no one’s ever going to become a Christian. 

Student: Yesterday at the beginning of class you asked if we should include ‘consider the cost in that.’ Is that something you’re going to… 

Dr. Mounce: Actually yes, that’s the third point I wanted to make today. It’s on Lordship Salvation. This is, I mean, all these chapters are good, but I thought that Wayne’s chapter on this was especially good. 

By the way, one of the things that makes the fuller version of this Systematic a good thing to use is that it’s got, he calls them questions for personal application in every chapter. And I was trying to figure out…anyone here know how to raise up elders in your church, or deacons? I think it’s one of the hardest things there is to do. And that’s what we’re doing at Biblical Training. I mean, that’s the heart of Biblical Training to provide resources and tools to help identify those who are called to leadership in your church, and to train them up. But for a long time I was just going and asking people, “What do you do? What do you do? What do you do?” 

I got to talk to John Piper once on this. And I said, “How do you raise up elders?” 

And he goes, “I don’t know.” 

And I go, “Oh, you’re John Piper, you’re going to have an answer for this.” 

“It’s hard.” 

I said, “Well, what did you do?” 

Because Piper was trained in highly academic circles. His PhD is in German, PhD which in academic circles is the top of the pecking order. He went to Bethel College, and he came the one year I was there. But I needed to take a class for a moment, so I was always disappointed. But then after teaching at Bethel for a while, he went to Bethlehem Baptist, which was a small, dying Baptist General Conference church downtown Minneapolis. And I said, “What did you do? How did you…” because he’s got some amazing elders. I got to meet them. And he said, “Well, what I did was I handpicked 12 guys. We met every Saturday. We read through Wayne’s Systematic, and then after a year, they were my elders.” 

“Well, that sure sounds like elder development to me, John.” I mean, now I’ve got seminars, but one of the things that makes it possible is they’ve got these good reflection questions, or what Wayne calls ‘questions for personal application.’ I’m not sure, but I don’t think those questions are in the middle sized version of this book. I think it’s the full size. So, but it’s this good to get together. And, you know, you’d have to maybe, depending upon your church, go slowly at first. But it’s…anybody can understand this, and if you’re an elder (Titus 1) they have to be committed to the truth; they have to be able to teach it and they have to be able to refute error. If someone can’t do that, then you are in violation of the church’s, I should say, the church is in violation of the clear teaching of Scripture as to the qualifications for elders. That’s really important. But you hear that, right? We went through an elder positional paper of our church, trying to interpret all these different things for elders. And when we were all done, one guy said, “Well, I just think we’re being legalistic.”

And I said, “What do you mean?” And here’s a good guy. I mean one of my better friends. 

And he said, “Well, I just think we just get people that can make good decisions and that’s all that matters.” 

I go, “The Bible says it is necessary that an elder be able to be devoted to the truth, to teach the truth and to refute error. And you think all you really need are people who can make decisions. I’m going to go with God on this one. I’m going to go with God on this one.” 

So, you know, life is a journey. You can’t just flip a switch, and all have trained elders in all of our churches. But you need a process. And that’s part of what this is about. So, and that’s what BT’s about. And as we keep building more resources, hopefully we’ll have more classes for you to use in your churches to help raise up your leadership. So anyway, clear understanding of repentance. All right. It’s a repenting of a misunderstanding who Jesus is and now accepting who the Bible says he is, and a repentance for the sins that came out of your misunderstanding, and a commitment to follow him. 

The second point I wanted to make, and we’ve already made it a bit, and that is…well, I think we’ve talked about it enough. I was going to talk more about what is belief. Remember working on John 3:16, “that whoever believes in him…” believe is not intellectual assent, although it includes it. Belief is not deism, the belief that God created the world and wound it up and let it go, like what Benjamin Franklin believed. In a deist view God doesn’t intervene in the course of human events.

Just starts it up and lets it go. Belief is not being spiritual. Belief is not devoid of understanding of who Jesus is. I mean, these are all things that you got to make sure the new believer did. When they say, “I believe in Jesus,” what does that mean? I make the point in the sermon, Wayne makes the point in the book, that the Greek is not believe in; the Greek in John is believed into. And what John does a lot (the number 93 is in my head, but I wouldn’t want to bank on it), what John does is that he violates Greek. He uses terrible Greek grammar. In fact, it’s such bad grammar that we can’t find the same grammatical mistake made anywhere else in all of Greek literature, that in you always either believe, or you believe in; but in the Greek that John uses, you believe into. That’s the violation of the grammar. 

To a native speaker they look at it and go… I was going to call him a Jew and they were going to call him a Palestinian. I’m not sure what word to use, but they would look at him in disgust and go, “You know, this isn’t your language. Don’t try to write in it.” It’s that bad of a mistake. John’s making a really, really important point isn’t he? And this is why Wayne prefers the word ‘trust.’ That whoever believes in him; whoever stops trusting in his own ability to gain access to God; whoever stops trusting in his own ability to do something about his sin; whoever stops in his own ability to barter with God (and you should save me); that is, you stop trusting in yourself, and the belief of John 3:16 is that you transfer that trust out of yourself and you transfer into Jesus.

So believing ‘in’ in John is a transfer of trust out of yourself, into the person, into the work of Jesus. Believing in him means that you believe that Jesus did on the cross, which you could not do for yourself. That was my little ditty, just the way I used to say it. When we believe in Jesus, it means that we believe that he did on the cross for us what we could not do for ourselves. It is because of his obedience that he earned the right to grant us access into relationship with the Father. So that’s what biblical faith is. Anything short of that is not biblical faith. Wayne has the chapter, the chapter on 35 is on conversion, and it’s a very good chapter to make sure you’ve read carefully. Okay? 

Let me check a note here to myself. Wayne says, “Here’s the elements of the Gospel call, (page 694). You explain the facts concerning Salvation. Alright. Two, an invitation to respond personally, and you respond personally to Jesus in both repentance and faith. And then you should be explaining the promise of forgiveness and eternal life.” So that’s his discussion of kind of the content of what belief is. 

Alright. Final thing I want to say about all this, that we’re actually going to be done with this first of the 12 lessons, and that’s the whole issue that Victor raised again of ‘count the cost.’ The phrase that is used today in the discussion is Lordship Salvation. And I’ve kind of gathered from discussions over the last couple of years here that this is not really an ongoing debate in your churches, that you understand that Jesus is not only Savior, but he’s also Lord. I’ve not had anyone come back and want to argue the point.

Let me say just a couple of things about it, because again, people will…when people come into your church, they may have been exposed to this. There is, as far as I know, no word for the other position. I wish they came up with a word. But if you want to read a couple of fascinating books, you can read the book by Hodge. It’s not the old Charles Hodge that was a theologian. This Hodge is a professor at Dallas Theological Seminary, and I think the book is called Grace (or it’s a brown cover; I can see it on my shelf). Anyway, it’s Hodge on Grace. The rebuttal volume is by John MacArthur, and he wrote one called The Gospel According to Jesus. And then he wrote a sequel called The Gospel According to Paul. The Gospel According to Paul’s, one of the best books I’ve ever read. He does a very good job of defending Lordship Salvation. 

MacArthur’s point is, is that the only way to truly be saved, the only way to be born again, is to submit yourself to Christ, not only as your Savior that he’s forgiving you your sins, but the only way that that happens is if you also submit to His Lordship, that he’s the boss. This is not a discussion that happens in most places of the world. I think in India they understand. When I was there I didn’t have to once say, “Hey, you need to make sure your people know that Jesus is not only Savior, but Lord.” I mean, you don’t have to say it. In fact, in any persecuted culture, you don’t have to say this. When I go to China next year, I’m not going to have to make this point at all to the underground pastors. I’m not going to have to do it because they already understand it. It’s only in a culture like in America where there’s virtually no persecution that this kind of silliness gets taught. 

Student: Would you say the same kind of problem happens due to religion, or tradition? My thought is I have a lot of family members that are Catholic, and they believe that, you know, “Okay, I’m saved, and the worship is pretty dichotomizing…” and their Salvation is based on tradition or church. 

Dr. Mounce: Yeah. And it’d be another good cultural example of this kind of thing happening that if you are taught that if you’re simply part of a certain culture, that’s all that it takes, then there’s no reason to deny yourself and pick up your cross and follow Jesus, because that’s just kind of icing on the cake. It’s unnecessary; “I’ll just go to Mass.” 

Student: Except only to me. 

Dr. Mounce: Except maybe I’m…yeah. To be fair, what Hodge’s position is, is that they’re trying to protect grace; that Salvation is not what we do. It is only what God does. And the idea that we not only change our minds about who Jesus was, but then be sorry for our sins and commit to following him; the people who follow Hodge will all argue that that’s works, and it’s not appropriate to talk about those kinds of things in the context of Salvation. It’s really interesting. This whole debate is not an issue of Dispensationalism, but it’s about the only place you hear this discussion. And MacArthur, in one of his books in the last 40 pages, goes into the discussion of what Dispensationalsim is, and he’s trying to separate Dispensationalism as a theological system from Hodge kind of teaching that on grace.

You can call it cheap grace, that’s what Bonhoeffer would call it anyway. But the only place you really hear this stuff are students of this teacher. Every place I’ve heard that anyone holding to a non-Lordship Salvation are people that have a connection back to this teacher. You know, I’m sure there’s other people that have taught it, but in today’s culture, that’s what’s going on. So you need to make sure that people, I think, understand what all of this is. Now here’s the problem, and I don’t want you to raise hands, but how do you feel about John MacArthur? 

When our church was just starting, I used the word Lordship Salvation in a Bible study, and a man that I known for quite some time (I knew his son really well), he just went ashen white, just white. You could see all these relational barriers that were up between him and me. And I thought, boy, what happened there? I’m not overly, you know, I mean, I don’t see that stuff automatically. My wife does, and she pokes me and says, “Hey, there’s a problem.” But even I could see that this man was really upset with me. What had happened was his church that he had loved and been in for years and years had been split. And whoever was right or wrong, the pastor was, it came out of MacArthur’s school. So the very mention of Lordship Salvation reminded him of his beloved church now destroyed. This was a church that was 1400 people and it split, and the next day 110 people showed up at the church; and the others went off and started a new church. I’m not saying one’s right or one’s wrong, but there tends to be a lot of emotion wrapped up around John MacArthur.

I think it’s a fair way to say it. And so be careful when you use the word because you may be dealing with someone that is struggling because of that connection. I personally have enjoyed everything of MacArthur’s I’ve ever read, but I do know that there is some emotion connected with the phrase; so be careful. That’s all I’m saying, okay? 

This is a decision you have for your flock, alright? And that is when you present the gospel, are you going to encourage people to count the cost? Do you think that that’s a valid thing to talk about? When you walk with a new believer, are you going to tell him now, “Do you understand that he is Savior and Lord? And Lord doesn’t mean just that he’s God; it means that he’s boss, and that he’s the one at work in your heart; and he’s the one that’s giving you new desires. But he’s going to call you to start changing slowly but surely, because that’s his right now. He made you. He bought you with a price. You’re his.” And you just have to decide whether you want to make that part of your Salvation offer or not. That’s all I wanted to say on that. All I wanted to say took me three hours to say, but that’s all I have to say. Okay. Any comments or questions on the first chapter? 

Student: I think it’s not that much to ask for if you’re talking about having eternal life. 

Dr. Mounce: I don’t think so. You see, I would be… If I said to someone, you know, “Do you believe that Jesus is your Savior, do you believe that what he did on the cross, paid the penalty of your sins, and made it possible for you to move in a relationship with God,” and they say “Yes.”

And then I’ll say, “Do you understand that he’s now Lord?” And if someone said ‘No.’ I’d say, “Let’s go back to the first step, because I’m not sure you really understood what it means to say Jesus is Savior, because if he’s dying on the cross, you think he would just automatically understand, that if he’s going to pay the price for your sin, it’s free, but it comes with a cost.” So yeah. 

Student: When you talk about John 3:16, about the ‘into,’ how come none of the versions… 

Dr. Mounce: No version translates it ‘into.’ I don’t even think I translated it ‘into.’ 

Student: I guess that’s the question… 

Dr. Mounce: …because it’s such horrible English that whenever you translate, you want to make it in… It’s just an issue of English. I wanted to show you, well, I’ll give it a break. My translation’s going up on Bible Gateway, and it’s in what’s called the staging area right now. But in a couple of days, it’s going to be up, which is going to be a lot of fun. So it’s called the Mounce Reverse Interlinear New Testament, so you may go to Bible Gateway and see my translation. It's more my dad’s translation than mine. Well, I’ll look at break. I don’t think we said ‘into’; I think we said ‘in.’ Translations are always a trade off, and you see, everybody knows what the Greek means. I mean, translators aren’t stupid. They know what John’s doing. But the question is, what do you want the English to look like? And even the ESV, which is pretty wooden in a lot of places, weren’t willing to break English grammar the same way that the Greek grammar was being broken. I would say I was disappointed, but I’m thinking I said ‘believe in’ our translation as well, and that maybe something we change.

So the first lesson is this lesson on their conversion. The second lesson that we’re going to walk through with a new believer is, I’ve entitled it Things are About to Change. This will be the second most difficult chapter, as I said, and after that it starts getting quite a bit easier. But this is a difficult chapter because as soon as you start talking about your life is going to start changing, all of the new believer’s baggage can come into play, can’t it? Because, for example, let’s say they think of Christianity… All their life they thought of Christianity as a bunch of do’s and don’ts. And let’s say their view of God is some angry person who is terribly afraid that someone, somewhere is having a good time. 

You ever heard that description of God? I mean, some people, that’s what they think of God as. I mean, when we were little kids and hearing missionaries, I can still remember being terrified of that. “Oh, I don’t want to respond because God might send me somewhere else, and I may have to missionary somewhere,” and I don’t want to be miserable on some other continent, right? And so we all have these ideas, these images. J.P. Moreland, in one of his books on spiritual formation, talks about the power of images. And his contention is that images are the most basic thing that we have. (I’m putting words in his mouth.) I think that’s basically what he was getting at. We have images that control us. You know, we’d like to think, “Well, no, I believe this or I don’t believe that.” And that’s what controls me. Really, what controls us are images. 

For example, if a person is sexually abused as a child, they have an image of what a father is, that defies logic and common sense. But they feel shame because they were abused. You know, you all had to deal with this, haven’t you in your ministries? I remember when I was first learning about this, I actually went to a friend of mine who is a counselor and said, “Explain this to me. I don’t understand why a person has been the object of abuse would feel shame because they obviously didn’t deserve it. I mean, there’s no way; it was a sin done against them.” And my friend kind of tried to walk me through the process. But I understood in that process that that person has an image of what a father is or what an authority is, and they’ll fight it the rest of their life. Right? They just will, unless God just intervenes and changes the image. So we all have images. We all have pictures. And those pictures control huge amounts of who we are as people. 

And so the minute you start talking about, okay, “Now your life’s going to change,” you’ve got to be so cautious of what are those images that pop up, and what does that mean to the person? And here’s the basic gist of chapter 2. You’re going to want to change, alright? You’re going to want to change. Christianity is not a list of do’s and don’ts. It is the story about how God initiated the reconciliation, the establishment of a relationship, and how he changes your heart, and he starts giving you new desires, and then he gives you the ability to start changing. But the whole idea is that changed people are going to live changed lives, not because we have a new set of rules, but because we’re going to want to change. That’s the gist of what chapter 2 is all about.

Conversion means you convert…on (reading on page 23 of the workbook). “Conversion means that you’re converted from one thing to another. In your case, you change from not being a disciple of Jesus to being one. It also means that God is now at work in your life, starting to make you more like Jesus. Does this surprise you? What actually happened when you became a Christian? What does a new life of a follower of Jesus look like? Does my life change automatically?” These are some of the questions that are natural to come up in this chapter. Let me just quickly summarize the workbook. I use Philippians 2 a lot: “for God is at work in you, giving you the desire and then the ability to change.” Galatians 5: “and the fruits of the Spirit.” Again, not to discourage him. I don’t want to discourage the new believer, but I also don’t want the new believer to be caught unawares. I think that’s the problem in this chapter. “Hey, I became a Christian. I walked down and I believe that Jesus is the Messiah. I believe he was raised from the dead. I believe that He’s given me access to the Father.” (I probably wouldn’t use those words.) “I now have a relationship with God. He loves me. I love him. My sins are forgiven. I’m going to live with him forever.” And then they go home, and next week bad things start to happen; or they realize that they still have anger issues. “You know, wait a minute. I didn’t think this was going to be an issue. I’m now a follower of Christ.” And I think we just need to alert them that things are going to change. But it’s not automatic. But you’re going to want to change. Okay? That’s the whole point. 

So what I did was I went to 1 Thessalonians 1:9. I love that phrase where Paul tells the Thessalonians “you’ve turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God and to wait for his Son from Heaven.” In other words, Paul is rejoicing with this young Thessalonian church and saying, “Look at the changes that have already happened. Isn’t it great?” I mean he’s celebrating with a new… “You turned, you changed, and instead of serving idols you’re worshiping, you’re waiting for Jesus.” And what the workbook does is basically, you say, “You know, what do you see in here? What are the kinds of changes that they were experiencing?” 

Day two was fruits of the Spirit. And again, not in any way of saying, “Hey, you need to be a person of love, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithful, gentle, self-control. And you’re a bad person if you’re not.” It’s like, “Hey, this is part of what the path looks like. This is where you’re headed, that where you never had love before, you’re going to start finding love; and where there was not joy, you’re going to start experiencing joy where you had no peace. You’re going to start experiencing peace. This is the nature of the path. Sure, it’s a difficult path. It’s a hard path. We’ll talk about that some other time. But it is a path… Well, of the fruits of the Spirit is what we use.” 

What day three does is my number one concern in this chapter, and that is don’t get discouraged. And I’m so concerned that as we walk with new believers and talk about what’s going to be happening in their life, that they get discouraged.

“Oh, man. You mean really? I’m going to have to keep dealing with my anger.” Or, you know, whatever be the case. We need to encourage our mentors to listen very carefully to the new believers at this stage that they don’t get discouraged. “Okay, God’s changed your heart. He’s given you supernatural ability, and he’s going to start changing you. And that’s really cool. Don’t get discouraged. This is…when these things happen, it’s a good sign. It’s not a bad sign.” At 1 and 2 Timothy, I’m going to use it in this chapter, “but everyone who seeks to live a godly life will be persecuted.” Now, persecution is not a bad sign. Persecution is a great sign. Persecution is a great sign that you’re actually assuming you’re being persecuted for being a Christian, and being persecuted for righteousness sake, and not being persecuted because you’re a jerk. Okay? Persecution for being a jerk is something else. Okay? But, you know, Jesus says, you know,”You are blessed when you are persecuted for my namesake. These are all good things because it means that your life is getting off the broad, easy highway to perdition, but rather you’re moving off that path, and you’re going down the path of discipleship, and your life’s starting to change, and it brings you in conflict. That’s a good thing, not a bad thing. Okay? That’s what I think. We just got to be so careful not to discourage new believers. 

Yeah, the memory verse is Philippians 2:12 and 13. Okay. When we come back, I’m going to summarize the sermon, and then we’ll get into a few theological issues like regeneration, justification and adoption; just a few things that might come up. Okay. 

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