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Subject 8 : The Holy Spirit
[8-14] What Is True Repentance That Enables One to Receive the Holy Spirit? (Acts 2:38)
(Acts 2:38)
“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.’”
What is the true repentance necessary to receive the Holy Spirit? |
It is to return to the beautiful gospel of water and the Spirit and to believe in the baptism of Jesus and His blood on the Cross. |
It is to return to the beautiful gospel of the water and the Spirit and to believe in the baptism of Jesus and His blood on the Cross.
The Bible, which is the Word of God, is recorded like this: it says that Peter’s sermon stirred repentance in the hearts of those who were moved.
In response to the remorse of the listeners who asked, “What shall we do?” Peter answered, “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).
Looking at Peter’s sermon recorded in the Bible, we can see that, in order to receive the Holy Spirit, faith in the beautiful gospel is absolutely necessary, and it clearly testifies what the correct repentance of faith is to receive it.
Therefore, we must know through the Word whether we receive the Holy Spirit together when we receive the removal of sins through the gospel of the water and the Spirit, or if we receive it separately.
In order to receive the indwelling of the Holy Spirit through the truth, first, one must have the correct repentance of faith.
Here, repentance must not be defined as regret.
The repentance here should be seen as faith in Jesus Christ.
In the written Word, it also says that the people who were listening to Peter’s sermon had already regretted and felt remorse.
Before Peter even told them to repent, they were already regretting and acknowledging their wrongs by saying, “What shall we do?”
From this Word, what we can know is that the repentance Peter spoke of is not simply regretting, feeling remorse for, or acknowledging one’s wrongs, but rather to receive Jesus Christ into one’s heart as their Savior and to have faith in the beautiful gospel He gave.
This is the correct repentance that Peter spoke of.
Before we have regret or remorse over our own wrongdoings in daily life, the love of Jesus Christ already came to us first.
This love means that Jesus received baptism from John and already took upon Himself all these sins, bore those sins, shed His blood on the Cross, and rose again, thereby having already removed all our unrighteousness and sins.
The faith that believes this is true repentance.
Can our sins be completely cleansed just because we regret our wrongdoings, feel remorse, and beg for forgiveness?
This is not true repentance.
True repentance is believing in the beautiful gospel of Jesus’ baptism and blood in the heart and thereby receiving the removal of sins.
Even in the Bible, it says to repent and be cleansed of sins, so if we are to receive perfect removal of sins, we must believe in the gospel of Jesus’ baptism and blood.
The baptism Peter gave to those who believed in Jesus was the baptism “in the name of Jesus Christ.”
That is, the baptism Jesus received from John was the baptism of the cleansing of sins, which bore all the sins of mankind.
The baptism Jesus received from John, as recorded in the four Gospels, along with the blood of the Cross, is the completion of the beautiful gospel, and this gospel is the powerful gospel that allows the indwelling of the Holy Spirit to those who believe in it (Matthew 3:15).
The cleansing of our sins can be done by believing in the baptism Jesus received from John and the blood on the Cross.
The indwelling of the Holy Spirit is also granted to us when we believe in the baptism and the blood that Jesus received.
In other words, the one who believes this gospel and has received the cleansing of sins is the one who has received the Holy Spirit.
Does the Holy Spirit Dwell in Us Just Because We Pray?
Even if people pray earnestly to receive the removal of sins and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit from God, they cannot receive it this way.
To receive the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, faith in the beautiful gospel that came through the baptism Jesus received from John and the blood of the Cross is necessary.
God’s Holy Spirit is given only as a gift to those who have received the remission of sins.
Faith in this gospel is the faith that truly acknowledges Jesus Christ as the Savior and is the faith that is the source of blessing.
Acts 2:38 says, “And you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” Here, the apostle Peter says that those who have received the remission of sins by faith through true repentance have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.
The remission of sins that Jesus gives and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit are closely related for those who believe in Jesus.
“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. For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call” (Acts 2:38-39).
The condition for receiving the Holy Spirit is that a person’s heart must be clean.
Only those who are completely without sin and holy can receive the Holy Spirit.
Therefore, people must believe in the gospel that Jesus Christ has given.
By believing in the beautiful gospel of the water and the Spirit—that all the sins of the world were removed when Jesus was baptized and shed His blood on the Cross—we must receive the removal of sins and become holy.
Only then can we receive the Holy Spirit.
The indwelling of the Holy Spirit in a person is God’s will.
“For this is the will of God, your sanctification” (1 Thessalonians 4:3).
The true removal of sin is not received through human effort, sacrifice, or goodness, but is a gift given by believing in the beautiful gospel that the Triune God planned, prepared John the Baptist, and accomplished through Jesus.
In this way, the Triune God allowed the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in those who have had their sins removed by believing in the beautiful gospel.
In Acts 2:37, when the people said to Peter, “What shall we do?” it means that the nation of Israel was pierced, knowing that Jesus is the Savior.
These people also received salvation through the true repentance and faith that Peter preached.
Likewise, the removal of sin given to all humanity after Pentecost is surely accomplished within the beautiful gospel of believing in the baptism Jesus received from John and the blood of the cross.
The baptism Jesus received from John was for Jesus to bear sin, and it is an essential condition for the Holy Spirit to come down.
“When He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him” (Matthew 3:16).
Upon the faith that believes in this gospel of truth, God has allowed the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.
The coming of the Holy Spirit upon the disciples on the day of Pentecost has a special relationship with the faith of the disciples—believing the beautiful gospel that Jesus received baptism from John, died on the cross, and resurrected as their own salvation.
In the Book of Acts, it is said that people were baptized in the name of Jesus and the Holy Spirit came upon them, but we must believe that receiving the indwelling of the Holy Spirit through the beautiful gospel is a special gift from God.
In this way, for us also to receive the Holy Spirit, which is God’s special gift, it is by faith that Jesus, through His baptism, took away all our sins and, through the punishment of the cross, paid the price for all our sins, that the Holy Spirit is given to us.
According to what is recorded in Acts, many who heard Peter’s sermon responded to his exhortation —“Be saved from this perverse generation” (Acts 2:40)— by being baptized, as Peter testified and urged.
From seeing this written word, what we can know is that in the early church, the faith upon which the Holy Spirit came was the faith in the baptism of Jesus Christ and the blood of the cross, and this gospel was the essential condition for receiving the Holy Spirit.
We can see that after the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, the baptism Jesus received and the blood of the cross, which make people receive the Holy Spirit, are the true truth by which humanity, believing in Jesus as Savior, can receive the Holy Spirit and even more.
This is because the baptism Jesus received from John and the blood of the cross were the necessary method and process for humanity to believe in Jesus and receive the removal of sin.
The Faith That Enables One to Receive the Holy Spirit through True Repentance
Let us look at Acts 3:19. “Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord.”
How should we rightly define repentance? Let us consider this.
In the Bible, repentance means turning from a wrong faith to a faith that receives the washing away of sins.
All people were each going their own way, serving the things of the world that the Lord made as their own gods.
However, when they came to know that Jesus Christ saved them from their sins by water and blood, they turned away from their wrong faith.
This is the repentance spoken of in the Bible. Faith that returns to the beautiful gospel of water and the Spirit—this is true repentance.
What is the true repentance that enables a person to receive the Holy Spirit?
It is believing in the baptism Jesus received from John and the blood of the cross.
“Times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord.” If one has this kind of faith, it becomes the faith that receives the removal of sins and the Holy Spirit, so the Holy Spirit comes into that person’s heart, making the heart refreshed.
Because Jesus has taken away all the sins of every sinner in this world through the baptism He received from John and the blood of the Cross, we must believe this beautiful gospel to be saved from sin and receive the Holy Spirit.
To believe in Jesus and receive the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, one’s own sins must be transferred onto Jesus’ body through His baptism and die on the cross.
One must have the faith that Jesus took responsibility for one’s sins and died on the cross, receiving all judgment on one’s behalf.
This faith is the right faith, the faith of true repentance, and the faith in which the indwelling of the Holy Spirit is accomplished.
It is said that the Holy Spirit comes upon the soul that has received the blotting out of sins.
Why does God give the Holy Spirit as a gift to those who have received the blotting out of sins?
Because the Holy Spirit of God is the Holy Spirit, He comes to dwell in those who have had their sins blotted out by the beautiful gospel, in order to seal them as God’s people.
The Holy Spirit is God.
The Son, the Father, and the Holy Spirit are all the same one God.
Although the persons are different, to us who believe in Jesus, He is the same one God.
The Triune God, as the same one God to us, God the Father made the plan to save us from the sins of the world, Jesus was sent to this earth, was baptized by John, took on the sins of the world, shed His blood on the cross, died, rose again on the third day, and ascended, thus fulfilling the Father’s plan.
The Holy Spirit testifies to the baptism Jesus received from John and the blood of the cross, helping us to believe in this beautiful gospel, so that we are saved from all sin.
Also, those who have been saved from sin are sealed with the Holy Spirit.
God has caused the Holy Spirit to dwell in the hearts of those who believe in the gospel that Jesus has taken away the sins of the world.
This means that, in order to make those who have received the removal of sins by believing the gospel into God’s people, He gave them the Holy Spirit in their hearts as a sure seal.
The Holy Spirit is the final and certain evidence that the people of the world, having believed in the beautiful gospel of Jesus, have been saved from sin.
Those who have the Holy Spirit are God’s children.
The heart of a person in whom the Holy Spirit dwells becomes joyful.
In their hearts is the Word of God, believing in the baptism Jesus received from John and the blood of the cross.
Therefore, their hearts are glad.
A person who has made true repentance has no sin in their heart, and the Holy Spirit is in that heart.
The Bible says there is repentance that brings the removal of sins.
Have you also made the repentance that brings the removal of sins? If you have made the repentance that brings the Holy Spirit, you have surely received the beautiful gospel.
But if you have only made repentance of daily life, your soul will still be bound to the sins of the world.
I urge you to make the repentance that brings the Holy Spirit.
Will you not also make true repentance by believing in the beautiful gospel that brings the Holy Spirit?
This sermon is also available in ebook format. Click on the book cover below.
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