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we have temporally suspended our ‘Free Print Book service’.
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Pray that this pandemic will end soon and the resumption of the postal service.
Pray that this pandemic will end soon and the resumption of the postal service.
Subject 8 : The Holy Spirit
[8-14] What Is True Repentance That Leads Us 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 needed to receive the Holy Spirit?
It is to return to the beautiful gospel of the water and the Spirit and to believe in Jesus’ baptism and His blood on the Cross.
The Bible says in Acts 2 that Peter’s sermon moved people deeply and caused them to repent for their sins. They were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “What shall we do?” (Acts 2:37) Then 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).
Peter’s sermon clearly shows us that faith in the beautiful gospel of the water and the Spirit is indispensable to receiving the Holy Spirit and it also shows us what true repentance is. We should know that we can receive the Holy Spirit along with the remission of sins by looking closely at the Scriptures and believing in the beautiful gospel of the water and the Spirit.
The first thing we need to have in order to receive the indwelling of the Holy Spirit is the belief in biblical repentance. However, we should be careful not to define this repentance as regret. Repentance here means faith in Jesus Christ. We can see in the Bible that the people already regretted crucifying the Lord. They regretted, asking Peter what they should do and admitted their sins even before Peter told them to repent. We can see by this that the repentance Peter was talking about was not regretting sin or admitting it, but taking Jesus Christ into one’s heart as his Savior and having faith in the beautiful gospel He gave us. This is the true nature of repentance.
The love of Jesus Christ came to us before there was any self-regret for the sins in our hearts. This means that Jesus took away our sins when He was baptized in the Jordan River, died on the Cross, and then rose again from the dead. In this way, He cleansed us of all our sins and iniquities.
True repentance means believing in this truth. Do you think our sins will be gone forever, simply if we regret our sins and beg for pardon? This is not true repentance. True repentance means receiving the remission of our sins by believing in the beautiful gospel of Jesus’ baptism and His blood. The Bible says that we should be forgiven for our sins by repentance. Likewise, we have to believe in the gospel of Jesus’ baptism and His blood in order to receive complete remission of our sins.
Peter administered baptism “in the name of Jesus Christ” to those who believed in Jesus. Jesus was baptized to take on the sins of all mankind. His baptism and death on the Cross was the completion of the beautiful gospel that enables believers to receive the indwelling of the Holy Spirit (Matthew 3:15-17). Mankind can be sanctified by believing in Jesus’ baptism and His blood on the Cross. In short, those who have received the remission of sins by believing in the gospel have received the Holy Spirit.
Can prayer bring the indwelling of the Holy Spirit?
People can’t receive the forgiveness of sins and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit no matter how hard they pray to receive it. In order to have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, it is necessary to believe in the beautiful gospel accomplished by Jesus’ baptism and His blood on the Cross. God’s Holy Spirit is granted only to those whose sins have been completely washed away.
Faith in the gospel means acknowledging Jesus Christ as the true Savior. Acts 2:38 says, “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.” The apostle Peter said that the indwelling of the Holy Spirit is given to those who are forgiven for their sins through faith by correct repentance. The forgiveness of sins and receiving the indwelling of the Holy Spirit are intertwined.
The Bible says, “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. 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).
One can receive the Holy Spirit only on condition that his heart is sanctified and without sin. Therefore, we should believe in the gospel that Jesus Christ gave us. We must become sanctified after obtaining forgiveness for our sins by believing in the wonderful gospel that says all the sins of the world were washed away when Jesus Christ was baptized. Only then can we receive the Holy Spirit. It is the will of God that the Holy Spirit dwells in humanity. “For this is the will of God, your sanctification” (1 Thessalonians 4:3).
True forgiveness is given not through people’s efforts, sacrifices or inherent goodness, but only by believing in the beautiful gospel of what God, the Holy Trinity, accomplished through John the Baptist. God, the Holy Trinity, grants the indwelling of the Holy Spirit to those who are forgiven by believing in the beautiful gospel.
A crowd of people were pierced to the heart when they heard what Peter said on the Day of Pentecost. They cried out, “What shall we do?” (Acts 2:37) This indicates that they had changed their minds and now believed in Jesus as their Savior. They were also saved from their sins by believing in the true repentance preached by Peter. The forgiveness of sins was given to all of humanity depending on their faith in the beautiful Gospel of Jesus’ baptism and His blood on the Cross.
The purpose of Jesus’ baptism was to permit Him to bear the sins of the world. Belief in this is the essential condition for receiving the Holy Spirit. God grants the indwelling of the Holy Spirit to those who believe in the gospel of the truth based on Jesus’ baptism. “Then He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the havens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him” (Matthew 3:16). The coming of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost has a special relationship with the apostles’ faith in the beautiful gospel: Jesus’ baptism, His death on the Cross and resurrection.
Acts says that people were baptized in the name of Jesus and received the Holy Spirit. We should believe that receiving the indwelling of the Holy Spirit is a special gift from God. In order to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, all our sins have to be washed away through faith in Jesus’ baptism and death on the Cross.
According to Acts, all those who heard Peter’s sermon, in which he said, “Be saved from this perverse generation” (Acts 2:40), heeded his advice and were baptized. What we learn from the Bible is that the apostles in the days of the early church received the Holy Spirit on the basis of their faith in Jesus Christ’s baptism and His blood on the Cross. This is the essential condition for receiving the Holy Spirit. Belief in the baptism of Jesus and His blood on the Cross are indispensable if one seeks the forgiveness of sin.
The belief that leads us to receive the Holy Spirit through true repentance
Let’s 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 define repentance? Let’s think about it again.
In the Bible, repentance means returning to a belief in redemption. In those days, people behaved as they wished and worshipped things that God had created. But after they realized that Jesus Christ saved them from their sins with the water and His blood, they were converted. This is biblical repentance. True repentance is to return to the beautiful gospel of the water and the Spirit.
What is the true repentance needed to receive the Holy Spirit? It is to believe in Jesus’ baptism and His blood on the Cross. “Times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord.” If people have this belief, they are forgiven for their sins and receive the Holy Spirit. Because Jesus sanctified all the sinners in the world through His baptism and blood on the Cross, we must believe in this beautiful Gospel, obtain redemption and receive the Holy Spirit.
In order to believe in Jesus and receive the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, one’s sin must be passed on to Jesus through faith in His baptism and death on the Cross. We should believe that Jesus took away all our sins and died on the Cross in order to be judged for our sins. This is correct faith and true repentance, which enables us to have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit comes upon those who have the forgiveness of all their sins. Why does God give the Holy Spirit as a gift to those who have redemption? Because the Holy Spirit, being holy, wants to dwell within them and to seal them as His children.
The Holy Spirit is God. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are one God. They are three Persons, but they are the same God to those who believe in Jesus. The Father had a plan to save us from our sins and so Jesus the Son came into this world, was baptized by John in order to take away the sins of the world, died on the Cross, rose again from the dead on the third day and was taken up to heaven. The Holy Spirit leads us to believe in this beautiful gospel by testifying to Jesus’ baptism and His blood on the Cross.
God seals those who have been saved through the Holy Spirit. The Lord grants the Holy Spirit to those who believe in the gospel that Jesus took away the sins of the world. God gives them the Holy Spirit as a pledge to seal them as His children. The Holy Spirit is the final evidence of salvation from sin to those who believe in the beautiful gospel.
Those who have the Holy Spirit are children of the Lord. Those who have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit always feel refreshed. They have a firm belief in the words of God, in Jesus’ baptism and the blood on the Cross. They are truly happy. Those who repent in the proper way have no sin in their hearts and have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.
The Bible says that there is repentance which brings the forgiveness of sins. Have you gone through such repentance? If you repent and adopt the true beliefs, you too can receive the beautiful gospel. I advise you to repent for your sins and receive the Holy Spirit. Are you ready to repent and believe in the beautiful gospel that leads to the indwelling of the Holy Spirit?
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