The word “repent” or “repentance” is used 106 times in KJV, 42 in the Old Testament and 64 in the New Testament. It is the most significant aspect of receiving salvation. It’s an essential transformative process and it involves realization of previous behavior, genuine willingness to change your behavior and profound change of mind, heart and actions. Without repentance, you cannot be saved!
What is repentance? According to Wikipedia – Repentance is reviewing one’s actions and feeling contrition or regret for past or present wrongdoings, which is accompanied by commitment to and actual actions that show and prove a change for the better.
Throughout the Bible we see number of calls to repentance through prophets, often speaking during the times of crisis and reminding people that it’s all due to their disobedience towards God. It was usually an act of desperation and plead for change, a desperate call to review one’s behavior. Of course, as it always is with people, people are creatures of habit and stubborn to change. It is difficult to realize that you are living in sin, if everyone around you lives that way. God knows that and that is why we have a reminder that:
“The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!” Matthew 6 22-24
What you expose yourself to see, to experience, will have a fundamental impact on your thought process, and then your decisions. Living in a free minded, sexually liberated society where everyone is talking about their sexual experiences and you see sexual scenes in every movie, it is hard to stay away and remain pure. It will tempt you at some point. The more you see, then more you think about it, then more likely you are then act in the way as everyone around you. That is just a design of our brain. And the enemy knows that… that is why our culture is now oozing sexiness…
Going back to the Old Testament, God separated his people, his chosen nation – Israel and gave them His law, otherwise known as the Law of Moses. He wanted them to be “set apart” from other nations and to not mix with their festivals, traditions and habitual behaviors. He knew that this would lead to slipping away, compromising and eventually becoming as the environment.
God is our Maker and who better to know how human brain works than his designer?
Our brain is designed to get into habits very quickly, our daily rituals and routines. Babies need routine and they get very unsettled when they are out of their routines, we know that as adults. That is why, the day is designed to give them food at the similar time, play time at the similar time and nap time during the day. Routine makes them happy. This is the case with adults too, although we don’t see it in the same way. We all have our daily routines that help us function during the day. In fact, our brain has to go into an auto pilot mode to save energy, otherwise we would be tired all the time. I am sure you don’t think about having a morning shower, brushing your teeth or using a toilet. You do this automatically. And therefore those little routines and rituals are very important. If you leave your country and decide to live abroad, you will quickly adapt to the environment of that place and perhaps adapt to new routines.
God knowing how influential the environment can be, reminded us to not mix with unbelievers as we could quickly adapt their ways: “For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness?” (2 Corinthians 6:14). People with different believes will be able to influence you to some extent and relax your ways of thinking. It is important to highlight the word “lawlessness” – without the law. Any nation that did not have God’s law was a nation of lawlessness.
And why law was so important to God?
Well, the Law was a moral code, it was a reminder of how to behave and what sin actually was in God’s eyes, which Paul tells us in Romans 7 : 7 “I would not have known sin except through the law. For I would not have known covetousness unless the law had said, “You shall not covet.”
Therefore the law helps us to know how to act and behave in the society and how to please God. Imagine not having any rules in the society and everyone acting according to their own moral code and understanding. It would be a complete mess. What I view as acceptable might not be the same to you. Not to mention about the level of crime and accidents that would bring. So we all have to agree that some rules and regulations are essential to our existence. But after reading the set of rules, do you remember them straight away? Do you act as if they were embedded in you? Of course not. It takes time and practice for those rules to be adapted for you so that you don’t think about them just like it is while learning to drive. You first have to memorize all those signs and rules, when you first start driving it’s all confusing, and after some time you just don’t think about you, you just drive on auto pilot and it drives you crazy when someone breaks any rule in front of you. God knows that very well, and that is why He asked Israelites to:
“And you must commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these commands that I am giving you today. Repeat them again and again to your children. Talk about them when you are at home and when you are on the road, when you are going to bed and when you are getting up. Tie them to your hands and wear them on your forehead as reminders.” Deuteronomy 6:6-8
“Therefore you shall lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.” Deuteronomy 11:18
Which essentially is saying – write them somewhere, practice and memorize because out of sight, out of mind – you will forget them quickly. If we don’t read them, look at them, speak about them, do them – we will not get them into our daily habits.
And how do we know what we need to repent of?
This is where the Law of Moses comes in.
Paul in Romans 7 :7 said “I would not have known sin except through the law. For I would not have known covetousness unless the law had said, “You shall not covet.” But sin, taking opportunity by the commandment, produced in me all manner of evil desire.”
“For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do. If, then, I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that it is good.” Romans 7:15-17
The law is the indicator of what sin actually is and therefore by breaking the Law, you are committing sin and those are the actions you need to repent of. Some people argue that since we are in our sinful bodies, God knows that we are sinners and therefore we can’t do anything about it. We are saved by grace. Well, grace is important, however we still have to put an effort to lead holy life.
“What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? ” Romans 6:1- 3
“As His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.” 2 Peter 1:3-5
The Bible is very clear what we need to do:
“If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” 2 Chronicles 7:14
“Repent and 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.” Acts 2:38
Repent therefore of this your wickedness and pray God if perhaps the thought of your heart may be forgiven you.” Acts 8:22 “
“Now I rejoice, not that you were made sorry, but that your sorrow led to repentance. For you were made sorry in a godly manner, that you might suffer loss from us in nothing. For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted; but the sorrow of the world produces death.” 2 Corinthians 7:9-10
“Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent, because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead.” Acts 17:30
These are just examples of how important repentance is. Repentance leads to salvation. It’s an act of humbling yourself before God, acknowledging your sins and breaking God’s law and with that, God will forgive you. You can’t assume to be forgiven just because we live in the sinful bodies, the act of humbling yourself before God is very important.
Repentance leads to a great transformation.
Before my salvation, I was leading a very sinful life. Very, if you compare it to Biblical standards, however quite normal and secular if you compare it to the world we live in. From my experience and my sinful past, I was absolutely amazed how not interested or even disgusted I started to be in those activities after being saved, whereas before those were my favorite activities. It was just like a supernatural surgery on my heart and mind, however the change was not instant but visible over time. I still had old habits that I had to get rid of with my conscious decisions. The only difference was that it was much easier to do than before but still required effort.
This change and transformation it’s not a one-day process but requires consistency and self-control to not go back to your previous ways. It requires changing your environment, perhaps friends, changing what you watch, what you listen to, what you eat, what you read, who you spend time with and most importantly, it requires daily prayers and reading the word of God. You are trying to break cycles and habits that were keeping you captive, therefore some work is required.
After being saved and choosing God, what I was leaving behind was life of sin and witchcraft, which I wrote about in my testimony. However the enemy didn’t want to let me go that easily. I would experience night attacks and spiritual warfare, that first was quite overwhelming to go through, but with time equipped me through prayer life and reading the Bible. The fact that I had those night attacks meant I had to spent my nights praying, I had to quickly equip myself with knowledge of how to fight. As we see in the Bible, Jesus was fighting Satan with scripture and I didn’t know scripture. I was reading the Bible and listening to various videos to find out more, then I was writing my prayers in a notebook and then praying at night…so whether I wanted to or not, this was consuming my time. After some time I got into a habit of doing it without realizing.
We have to remember that our bodies have a habitual nature, we have been created to worship and the more you do something, the more of a habit you have of doing this. Satan knows it very well, that’s why he temps us with addictions, drugs, food, alcohol, music, binge watching movies etc. Anything to take you away from the habit of praying and praising the Lord that you could form. Satan wants all the praise for himself.
Be Baptized
What about baptism?
In the New Testament we see John the Baptist calling people to baptism to prepare the way for the Messiah.
“In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!” Matthew 3:1-3
The word baptism was used 22 times in the New Testament. Does that mean it’s a concept only from the New Testament? Not really, in the Old Testament we see the word washing as a ritual of purification. Water immersion wasn’t a new concept in the New Testament, however the word baptism was. The word baptism comes from the word baptismon, which simply means a submersion in water, usually for washing. In the Jewish context, it refers to ceremonial immersion in a pool of living water for the sake of obtaining ritual purity. Therefore there were washing rituals already, like washing hands and feet before entering the tabernacle, a bath for ritual immersion or sprinkling water for purification. Ritual of washing was a way of consecration or purification so that a person could come back to a state of purity.
In the New Testament we see John the Baptist immersing everyone (Jews and Gentiles) in the Jordan river, including Jesus, as a sign of their membership to the Yeshua’s Kingdom. This was a sign that someone decided to belong to the particular faith and by immersing in the water, not only they were cleansed but also submitting themselves and symbolically leaving their old life. The symbol of water was used on few occasions in the Old Testament. First we see it with the Noah’s ark, where the earth was immersed in water for 150 days and had a rebirth after being filled with sin and immorality. Second we see Israelites crossing the Red Sea which was a symbol of leaving the slavery and their old life behind. And now, in real life, we see it by simply being born and your mother’s water’s breaking as a signal of going to labour. It’s a symbol of a new life.
Why baptism was important?
Baptism was a symbol of initiation and representation to one religion. For Jesus it meant a transition into a new life. If you wanted to belong to Jesus’ Kingdom, you had to be baptized, it was a ritual in a form of a membership card. Baptism was going hand in hand with repentance. It was necessary to first repent and then be baptized, therefore first cleanse your heart, followed by cleansing your consciousness with water.
“John came baptizing in the wilderness and preaching a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins. Then all the land of Judea, and those from Jerusalem, went out to him and were all baptized by him in the Jordan River, confessing their sins.” Mark 1:4-6
“There is also an antitype which now saves us—baptism (not the removal of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God), through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. ” 1 Peter 3:21
“Then Peter said to them, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” Acts 2:38
Baptism therefore symbolizes repentance that is leading to forgiveness of sins and water symbolizes cleansing of one’s consciousness and official representation to Jesus’ Kingdom. It’s like sweeping everything all unnecessary dirty to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
“I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.” Matthew 3:11
We also see two types of baptism in the New Testament
“And it happened, while Apollos was at Corinth, that Paul, having passed through the upper regions, came to Ephesus. And finding some disciples he said to them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” So they said to him, “We have not so much as heard whether there is a Holy Spirit.” And he said to them, “Into what then were you baptized?” So they said, “Into John’s baptism.” Then Paul said, “John indeed baptized with a baptism of repentance, saying to the people that they should believe on Him who would come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus.” When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. And when Paul had laid hands on them, the Holy Spirit came upon them, and they spoke with tongues and prophesied. ” Acts 19 : 1-6
Here we see that first baptism was a form of cleansing, physical act using water, however second baptism was a spiritual act and receiving Holy Spirit. We don’t know if they went into the water again as it is not clear, however we can assume that this was just a spiritual baptism that required of laying hands and prayer. When this happened, they received one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit which was speaking in tongues and prophesying.
“For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free—and have all been made to drink into one Spirit.” 1 Corinthians 12:13
“Then I remembered the word of the Lord, how He said, ‘John indeed baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’ ” Acts 11:16
All of this was prophesied in the Old Testament for as we know, everything that happened in the New Testament has already been established in the Old Testament.
“Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them.” Ezekiel 36:25-28
Does that mean baptism is necessary for the salvation?
Some Christian dominations proclaim that baptism is required for salvation. It is important to see what the Bible says about the requirements for salvation
“For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.” Ephesians 2:8-9
Therefore we see that through faith we are being saved, not through a ritual. God is a spirit and that is why God doesn’t require rituals or physical aspects for the salvation. He knows that this would quickly turn into an idol or worship of that particular ritual. It’s a symbol of being cleansed from sins, therefore repentance and faith is more important to God than a ritual. But it is safe to say it helps with the overall process of becoming a Christian and transforming life.
However, in my opinion it is still very important ritual to have, as even Jesus was baptized and we were told to follow His steps.
“Jesus answered, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.” John 3:5
Can we be baptized many times?
When I left Catholic church, it was important for me to be baptized again as a form of transitioning from what I thought was a fake religion into a Christian faith. As I approached pastor and asked if I could be baptized, I was shocked to be rejected. That led me into researching if that is just once in a lifetime occurrence or if that can happen again.
Personally, I have a strong believe that infant baptism or christening is wrong. I researched the Bible and I could not find any reference saying that this is what we should do. My believe got stronger after reading that we first have to repent of sins and correct me if I’m wrong, but a 4-month-old baby is not able to sin or be aware of any sins. Of course, Catholic church argues that christening removes the original sin of Adam & Eve and it’s an integral part of being accepted into Christian life. Infant baptism is compared to the circumcision of babies in the Old Testament. However, there is no reference in the Bible that this is the case but just an interpretation or assumption of priests from the Catholic church. I think if this was very important to God to do this, that this would have been mentioned at least once. Christening in Catholic church turned into this materialistic ritual where people are more concerned about the gifts the baby will receive than the actual act.
As I grew up in the Catholic Church, I was of course christened when I was around 4 months old, so it is safe to say that I do not remember anything. I really wanted to be baptized in my adult life after being fully aware of my sins, repenting and cleansing my heart. This was a natural “cleansing” ritual of my conscience. However, the pastor told me that baptism is only done once and besides, I would be baptized into the church family of that particular church.
Correcting me if I’m wrong, but the Bible tells us to “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” Matthew 28:19. There is nowhere there that we have to be baptized into a church. Why then this requirement? Well because it’s an additional doctrine of the Catholic church which then was adopted by all other Christian dominations.
Moreover, I believe the change from adult baptism which was the case in early Christianity into an infant baptism was done on purpose to desensitize people and take them away from true repentance. This would give them a false thinking that through this ritual they have received the gift of the Holy Spirit, which we see in Acts 2 that only through repentance the Holy Spirit can come upon you. This was the case with me and my family as all my life I was living and thinking that I have the gift of the Holy Spirit because I was christened when I was 4 months old. To think that so many people are living thinking they have the gift of the Holy Spirit through infant ritual is actually scary.
“Then Peter said to them, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” Acts 2:38
Nowhere in the Bible it suggest that baptism can only be performed once, in fact the act of washing or baptism was done on number of occasions as an act of purification, therefore we can say that it acceptable to do it again. We can be baptized again as a way of renewing our faith and our vows to God and this doesn’t have to be baptism into a particular church. And this is what I have done…
In a way, I am glad the church refused to baptize me again, as this led me to this research, I was hurt and I was also annoyed. I really needed to declare my faith again and to cleanse my consciousness and I thought this was the only way. I was devastated that I can’t do this and I have to live with this attachment or “membership card” to a false religion of Catholicism. After researching I discovered in the Old Testament, that the ritual of washing was repeated quite often and performed as a “self dunking” act that only required self emersion into the water with maybe some assistance if needed. That was also the case in the first century of Christianity, where it was a supervised self emersion ritual into water.
And this has led me to do my self baptism
Here are the steps I followed to have a home baptism:
- I fasted for 5 days
- On a 5th day I repented again to make sure I have a clean heart
- Next day on a Sabbath, I prepared bath
- I lit some candles and put some worship music
- I filled my bath with water and jumped in my t-shirt and leggings
- I had some witness that helped me and baptized me (another believer) in the Name of the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit, I had a prayer prepared too
- I prayed straight after to be filled with a Holy Spirit
- I jumped out of the bath happy and born again! 😊
It was a beautiful process, intimate and between me and Jesus, no church gatherings. I cried, I was so happy that I did it and that this was a final touch to my repentance. I needed it whether the church agrees with their rules or not. The Bible is very clear IT IS IMPORTANT and I do not understand why people are finding excuses and interpreting it differently. In the Old Testament the washing ritual or self dunking was performed on many occasions and so baptism can also be repeated, especially if it was done many years ago and you need to rededicate yourself to God and renew your vows.
If you feel this is what you would like to do, I really encourage you to do so. Don’t listen to church people, it’s not about the church and institution or religious rules but between you and Jesus. And if you are worried that this wouldn’t count, trust me it would. If Satan uses bath in a music video or in movies to baptize and initiate people into his kingdom, a home baptism counts too.
The Bible does not say we have to do it at the church and this can only be performed by pastors or priests, we only have to have a witnesses. When you think about time of critical illness where there is no way of going to the church to have a baptism, or maybe during lockdowns, does that mean those people are not able to be baptized? Absolutely not, you need to know that you can do this yourself! Trust me, this will be registered in heaven as we are surrounded by so many spirits. Anything we do in secret will be known to God, let alone baptism after repentance in order to be born again.
By Dagmara Z.