Latest / Reformed Thinking / Repent, Turn, and Walk: Evangelical Repentance and Its Necessary Fruit (Acts 26:20)

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Repent, Turn, and Walk: Evangelical Repentance and Its Necessary Fruit (Acts 26:20) · Reformed Thinking

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  Welcome to Reformed Thinking, the deep dive where we try to
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  cut through the noise and get straight to the core of
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  scripture and theology. It's good to be.
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  Here today we are taking a really a really high resolution
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  look at just one verse, a single verse that is just packed with
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  the DNA of the Apostolic mission.
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  Acts 26.20. It's an incredible summary, so
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  much in so few words. It really is.
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  The sources we've been going over give such a clear, almost a
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  forensic breakdown of what Paul is saying here about his own
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  gospel message. He's zeroing in on conversion,
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  what true repentance really is, and, you know, the unavoidable
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  place of good works in the Christian life.
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  And the setting is everything you have to remember.
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  He's saying all of this while he is literally in chains before
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  King Agrippa. Right, the context just tells
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  you this is a non negotiable message.
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  There's no compromise here. None.
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  So our mission today is I think just vital.
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  We want to unpack this first to see how the Bible holds 2 truths
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  together that well, they often confuse people.
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  They really do. 1st, that our justification, how we're
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  declared righteous before God is all about Christ.
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  It's secured by him alone, received by faith alone, full
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  stop. But then second, that real
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  saving faith is never alone. It always, always produces a
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  changed life, a life of of moral action.
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  The root and the fruit. That's it exactly.
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  If justification is the root of salvation, then obedience is the
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  necessary fruit. We have to get that distinction
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  clear to protect you, the listener, from falling into one
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  of two ditches. Legalism on one side and
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  careless living on the other. Precisely.
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  And Acts 26.20 is just the perfect place to do that because
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  Paul lays out the sequence and the relationship so perfectly.
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  So let's set the scene a little more.
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  You mentioned he's before King Agrippa.
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  Yes, Paul isn't in a friendly synagogue or preaching in the
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  marketplace. He is a prisoner.
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  He's giving his legal defense before King Agrippa, Governor
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  Festus, and a whole crowd of military and political leaders.
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  It's a high stakes moment. Immensely.
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  But Paul, he turns it. He weaponizes his defense, you
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  could say, for gospel proclamation.
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  And this verse 20 is his summary, his his elevator pitch
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  for his entire life's work. It is.
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  It's what he did in immediate obedience to that heavenly
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  vision he saw on the road to Damascus.
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  He wraps up decades of ministry in a single sentence.
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  So when you. Break it down.
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  What are the key components of the verse?
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  Well, there are three critical interconnected parts.
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  First, you get the message itself.
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  Repent and turn to God. That's the core command.
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  Second, the incredible scope of his preaching.
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  He starts in Damascus and just keeps moving outward all the way
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  to the Gentiles. Expanding circle.
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  Right. And 3rd, you have the proof, the
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  evidence that the message was really received, which is
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  performing deeds in keeping with their repentance message scope
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  proof. It's a beautifully structured
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  summary of his calling. Let's start with that calling.
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  Then verse 19. Right before this, Paul declares
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  I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision.
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  So verse 20 immediately becomes the evidence for that claim.
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  It shows us the specific, actionable form his obedience
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  took. Yes.
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  It wasn't passive. It wasn't just a mental
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  agreement. His obedience was this
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  continuous, active and persistent proclamation.
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  And the sources pointed out the specific Greek grammar he uses.
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  It's not just I preach. No.
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  The text uses the present participle A pangeloon.
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  It means declaring or proclaiming.
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  And using a present participle is significant, isn't it?
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  It emphasizes that this wasn't a one off event.
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  Not at all. It points to an ongoing,
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  characteristic way of life, a sustained activity.
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  When Paul says he wasn't disobedient, he defines that
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  obedience as a ceaseless vocation of declaration.
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  And you're still doing it. He's doing it right there in
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  chains in front of the king. He doesn't see his imprisonment
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  as a failure of the mission. For him, it's just a new, maybe
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  a less convenient venue for fulfilling it.
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  His obedience was just about being faithful to that ongoing
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  task. That's it.
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  Declaring the King's message no matter the circumstances.
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  And what a trajectory that message had.
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  Paul lays out the scope of his mission in this sequence that
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  shows a deliberate expansion. It really echoes that pattern.
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  From Acts 1.8 you know Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and to
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  the ends of the earth. Right, so he's showing his work
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  aligns with the Lord's own mandate.
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  Absolutely. The geographical flow he
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  describes proves a theological point.
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  The gospel moves outward. He started in Damascus.
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  The site of his own conversion, his Ground Zero.
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  Right, the immediate personal sphere where Christ apprehended
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  him from there. He goes to Jerusalem and all the
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  region of Judaism. The religious center, the
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  heartland of Judaism. That step was so important
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  because it meant confronting the religious establishment head on.
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  Showing that Christ fulfills the prophecies right where they were
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  most revered. Exactly.
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  It completes, it doesn't destroy the biblical story and then the
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  critical step. Outward to the Gentiles, to the
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  nations. And by following that sequence,
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  Luke is signaling to everyone, including King Agrippa, that
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  Paul's work isn't some strange local sect.
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  No, it's the fulfillment of the Lord's mandate to take the good
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  news to the whole world. It breaks through all those
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  ethnic and cultural barriers. It does.
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  One of the sources used a really helpful image for this.
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  The ripples in a pond. I like that.
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  Yeah, it's great way to picture it.
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  The stone hits one spot. That's Paul's call near
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  Damascus. And the ripples expand
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  immediately, and they just keep going until they hit the
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  farthest banks of the pond. That's the Gentile world.
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  Let's just sit with that analogy for a second, because it
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  highlights the force behind it all, the water.
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  The gospel message itself is the same whether you're at the
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  center or the very edge. The command to repent doesn't
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  change based on culture. It can't.
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  If the Jerusalem ripple had decided to prioritize its own
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  customs over the force of the Gospel, the water would have
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  starked. But the Gospel's force just
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  keeps pushing outward. And that has a huge implication
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  for you, for the listener, this scope establishes a universal
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  summons. Yes, Paul is saying no culture,
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  no ethnicity, no social classes, exempt from the obligation to
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  repent and turn to God. The message is the same for
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  everyone. The same Christ crucified and
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  risen demands the same deeds fitting repentance, whether
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  you're a king like Agrippa or a prisoner like Paul.
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  And that takes us right into the substance of that message.
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  The core command itself, it's summarize so well with those two
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  infinitives Matano in and a pistrophin epiton theon our
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  source is called as a complete portrait of conversion.
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  It really is. We should probably take them one
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  at a time. The first one, Matano in
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  repentance. A word that's so often
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  misunderstood, people think it just means feeling bad.
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  Right. Feeling sorry for a mistake.
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  But biblically it's the negative, decisive part of
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  conversion. It's not bear regret.
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  It's a radical reorientation of the mind and heart.
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  So it's more than emotion. There's an intellectual shift
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  there. There has to be.
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  It's the conscious, decisive abandonment of your old alliance
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  with sin, with self will, with the idols of the world.
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  You change your mind about who God is, what sin is, and how you
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  are saved. You change your mind and
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  therefore you change your direction.
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  Exactly. And if repent, is that turning
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  away from the self-directed life?
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  Then epistropin Pentonian, turning to God is the positive
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  side of that. It's the necessary counterpart,
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  and that little Greek preposition EPI is key.
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  It shows a direct, deliberate movement toward God as the goal.
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  So it's not enough to just stop doing bad things.
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  No, you have to be moving toward a new object of affection, a new
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  authority. So it means forsaking false
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  trusts, Money, power, your own goodness.
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  All of it, and you actively bow to God's authority.
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  It's a relational embrace. Conversion, for Paul, isn't just
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  cleaning up your life. It's turning from rebellion
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  toward God Himself as King and Father.
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  Which brings us to a crucial, crucial point in Reformed
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  theology, this idea of evangelical repentance.
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  Our tradition defines this not as something we do to earn God's
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  favor. No, it's not a human work.
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  It's a saving grace. It's a gracious gift produced in
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  us by the Holy Spirit through the Word.
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  That's a huge distinction. It's everything.
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  We are commanded to repent. That's our duty, but we're also
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  enabled to repent. That's God's sovereign grace.
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  It's like commanding a dead man to rise.
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  Exactly. Only the power that commands him
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  can also raise him. The very ability to turn from
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  sin, to feel that godly grief, to even desire holiness.
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  It's all a gift. And that distinction really
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  comes into focus when you compare godly grief and worldly
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  grief. This is where it gets very
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  personal. Yes, evangelical repentance or
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  godly grief involves a spirit worked sight of your sin as a
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  massive offense against a holy God.
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  You're sorry because you've broken fellowship with your
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  Creator. Whereas worldly grief is all
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  self focused. Completely.
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  It's regret that your sin was inconvenient, that you got
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  caught, or that it led to painful consequences for you.
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  The sources brought up the case of Judas is the classic example
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  of. This the ultimate illustration
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  of worldly grief. Judas felt immense remorse, deep
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  emotional turmoil. He even made restitution.
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  He returned the silver. By human standards, that was
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  like repentance. It does, but it was totally
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  separated from a true turning to God and faith in Christ.
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  His sorrow was isolated. It was despair.
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  He grieved the consequence, but he didn't throw himself on
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  Christ, the only source of mercy.
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  So his grief, being worldly, just focused inward on his own
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  misery and LED to death. And you contrast that with
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  Peter. Peter also sinned horribly,
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  denying Christ three times. But his was a godly grief.
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  It was his sorrow wasn't about losing face, it was about
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  offending the Lord he loved. And what did that grief do?
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  It drove him back to Christ seeking restoration.
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  The direction of the sorrow is everything.
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  Worldly grief pushes a Sinner away from God.
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  Godly grief drives a Sinner to him, and that's why repentance
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  and faith are inseparable. Right.
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  They're described as distinct but inseparable graces.
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  Like two sides of one coin, you just can't have one without the
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  other. Faith is embracing Christ.
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  And repentance is the turning from sin that has to accompany
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  that embrace. You can't run toward the rescue
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  boat while you're still clinging to the wreckage of your old
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  life. It's impossible you.
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  Can't turn toward the light without turning away from the
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  darkness. It's a logical necessity.
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  The breathing analogy is probably the most helpful way
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  I've heard this put. I like that one too.
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  Repentance is the exhale. You're expelling the stale,
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  polluted air of sin and self will from your spiritual lungs.
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  And faith is the inhale you're drawing in the fresh life,
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  giving oxygen of Christ's righteousness and forgiveness.
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  And you need both to live spiritually.
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  You do. You can tell them apart, but you
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  can't live by only doing one. If you cling to your sin, if you
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  refuse to exhale, there's no room to inhale Christ.
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  And one last thing on this from the grammar, the use of the
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  present tense. Right.
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  For both Metanoan and a Pistrefin.
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  This is so important. It shows that repentance isn't
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  just a single event in the past. It's not something you did once
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  at a camp or an altar call and then checked off a list.
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  No, it becomes a new characteristic posture, an
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  ongoing reorientation of the believers entire life.
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  The initial turning is decisive, of course, but the Christian
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  grows deeper into repentance every day.
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  We're always repenting because we're always falling short.
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  Always turning from remaining sin and resting fresh in Christ.
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  The conversion sets the trajectory, but the Christian
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  life is about the daily maintenance of that turning.
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  Which takes us right to that third part of Paul's summary,
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  the external, visible evidence of this internal change,
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  performing deeds in keeping with their repentance.
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  Ah yes, the clause that guards the whole thing.
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  It guards against easy believe ISM, but first we need to make
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  sure we don't let it lead us into legalism.
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  That's the Theological High Wire Act.
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  We have to be so careful to guard against legalism, which is
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  any attempt to smuggle our works into the ground of our
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  justification. The deeds are necessary, but
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  they aren't justifying. They absolutely are not.
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  They do not earn merit. They don't purchase grace from
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  God. Our justification is based only
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  on Christ. It's perfect righteousness
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  imputed to us. It's His finished work received
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  by faith alone. That's what makes us acceptable.
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  And the key to holding this together is in that Greek term
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  Paul uses axia. It's translated as worthy of or
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  fitting. He's not saying deeds that merit
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  repentance as if they have some economic value, no.
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  The core meaning of axia here is about correspondence fitting
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  this. So the deeds are congruent with
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  repentance. They match its character.
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  A changed heart just looks a certain way in the world.
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  They demonstrate the reality of the internal change, but they
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  don't 'cause it or secure it. So to be crystal clear on the
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  doctrine here, believers are justified for Christ's sake
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  alone. Period.
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  By faith alone, works display our acceptance.
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  They testify to the world and to ourselves that we are in fact
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  accepted, but they don't secure it.
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  They're the result of the relationship, not the
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  precondition for it. The analogies here are really
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  helpful. Works are like a mirror
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  reflecting the life God has given.
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  Right, not a ladder you use to climb to acceptance.
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  Legalism is trying to climb the ladder.
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  It is. It treats works as rungs to get
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  up to God, believing that if you do enough, God will have to
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  reward you. But the biblical view is that
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  God in Christ already came down the ladder and saved us.
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  Yes, and the works just reflect that reality.
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  The reflection of life in the mirror proves the person is
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  alive in the room of grace. The reflection doesn't create
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  the person. OK, so that guards US against
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  legalism. Now we have to swing to the
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  other side and address the danger of easy believism,
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  antinomianism. Which is the attempt to minimize
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  or just dismiss the necessity of obedience after conversion.
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  And the message here is simple. The faith that justifies is
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  never alone. Never if someone claims to have
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  faith, if they say they've repented and turned to God but
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  there is 0 change in their life. Paul is clear.
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  That is not the faith Paul preached, no.
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  Deeds are the unavoidable partners of true conversion.
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  Wherever real repentance happens, it's impossible for it
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  not to be accompanied by a settled pattern of deeds that
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  fit it. If the root is healthy, fruit
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  has to appear eventually. Scripture is very plain about
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  this. A faith without a new obedience
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  is a dead faith. It shows that the person is
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  still functionally in bondage to self and rebellion.
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  And the sources pointed out another subtle but powerful
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  grammatical choice Paul makes here.
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  With the verb for performing yes.
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  He uses prasha, which means to practice instead of the more
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  general word Paul. Yeah, which just means to do.
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  That is such a key distinction. Poya can refer to isolated
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  single acts. You know the occasional good
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  deed may be done for show or out of a temporary feeling.
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  But Prassia implies a settled pattern, an ongoing way of life.
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  It's habitual. The repentant life isn't
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  characterized by random acts of charity.
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  It's a continuing practice that reflects the decisive internal
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  reorientation of the whole person.
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  I think we can use an analogy here to make it clear it's the
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  difference between cooking a meal once and being a chef.
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  That's a great one. Anyone can pollo do a meal once
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  you help out at Thanksgiving. Yeah, but a chef is defined by
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  the prasa, the settled pattern of cooking.
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  It's a vocation, a daily practice.
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  So Paul is saying the Christian life isn't about a single moment
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  of goodness. It's a life where righteousness,
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  even though it's imperfectly practiced, becomes the daily
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  characteristic pattern. And that helps us tell the
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  difference between a hypocrite and a struggling St.
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  Well, the hypocrite performs an act of poya goodness to mask a
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  lifestyle, a process of rebellion.
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  Ah, I see. And the true St.
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  Even when they stumble and commit a sin, a poya is still
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  characterized by a prevailing life pattern, a pressure of
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  pursuing God and hating sin. Exactly.
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  So what does this ethical fruit actually look like in practice?
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  It has a definite shape. First there's the negative
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  command. Turning from specific sins.
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  Paul's letters are full of these lists.
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  Idolatry. Sexual immorality, Greed.
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  Slander. Unforgiveness and so on.
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  Repentance means you are actively walking out of that old
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  way of life. And then there's the positive
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  command, actively embracing virtues.
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  Yes, holiness, generosity, speaking truth, sexual purity,
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  acting with justice, showing mercy, and above all, love for
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  the. Brethren, and these deeds often
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  involve taking up the cross. They could be costly.
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  They often are sacrificing comfort, losing your reputation,
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  standing against the values of the world if your profession of
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  faith consistently aligns with the world's values.
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  Wealth, comfort, self advancement over the self
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  sacrificial love of Christ. Then your food doesn't match the
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  claim of repentance. That's the hard truth.
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  But we have to be so careful here not to crush the believer
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  with an expectation of perfection.
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  Absolutely not. The sources are clear.
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  Evangelical repentance does not mean sinless perfection.
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  In this life, even our best works are mingled with weakness
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  and imperfection. We have to repent of our
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  repentance. So for the struggling St., the
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  evidence looks a little different.
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  It does the most profound deed. Fitting repentance is not
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  achieving perfection. It's the genuine war against sin
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  itself. So the struggle is actually
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  evidence. It is profound evidence, the
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  fact that you grieve your remaining corruption, that you
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  keep fighting temptation, that you continually return to Christ
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  for cleansing that struggle shows that a turn heart is
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  there. The inner conflict proves the
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  Spirit has taken up residence and is at war with the flesh.
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  That's right. Let's go back to the scope for a
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  minute. Paul's message went to all men
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  everywhere. This is a universal
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  proclamation. Yes, it's preached
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  indiscriminately to all. This is the universal summons,
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  the outward expression of the gospel offer.
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  It establishes human responsibility.
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  Every single Sinner has a moral duty to repent and believe.
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  No one can say this message isn't for me.
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  The command is laid on every person.
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  But this is where that great tension comes in, especially in
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  a Reform circles. If the command is universal, how
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  does that fit with our belief that true repentance is a gift
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  of grace? We have to clarify that this
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  universal call doesn't somehow minimize the particularity of
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  God's saving grace. We hold 2 truths together, God's
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  sovereignty and human accountability.
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  The command to repent is universal, that's our duty.
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  But the ability to repent is a gift of God's grace.
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  That's his sovereign election and effective call.
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  The universal call is the setting where God's particular
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  grace operates. Our sources say that God's
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  particular grace performs the inward effectual work that
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  actually secures repentance and faith in His own people.
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  The outward call is indiscriminate, but the inward
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  call is always effective. There's an analogy that might
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  help with this. The shepherd at the gate of the
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  sheep pen. Yes, he calls out.
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  Come in, all sheep, repent and enter.
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  That's the universal call. Every sheep is commanded to come
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  in. But only his sheep, the ones who
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  have been given ears to hear by the Spirit, actually respond and
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  walk through the gate. The call is for all who are
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  present, but only Christ's own sheep are granted the ability to
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  obey. And this keeps us from two big
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  mistakes. It does.
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  We reject hyper Calvinism, which would minimize the duty of all
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  people to respond to the gospel. And we reject Arminianism, which
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  would minimize God's sovereignty in granting the ability to
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  repent. The command is genuine for all,
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  but the power to obey is a gift. And that command to repent isn't
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  just floating out there. It's not just general moral
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  advice. It is anchored entirely in the
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  person and work of Christ. Paul says that just a few verses
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  later in Acts 26.23, the call is grounded in the finished
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  historical accomplishment of Christ's death and resurrection.
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  This is so crucial. Paul's gospel is not Clean up
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  your act and then God might accept you, no.
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  It's Christ died and rose again to secure your pardon and
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  purchase your obedience. Therefore, repent and turn to
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  the God who has done this for you.
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  Exactly. The call to repent flows
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  directly from the resurrection. The judge of all the earth has
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  died, risen, and is now Lord, and he commands all men
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  everywhere to repent, because he has appointed a day of
• 20:05
  judgement. Repentance is the only sane
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  response to the resurrection. It is which brings us back to
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  the source of the obedience, the ability to perform these deeds.
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  Fitting repentance doesn't come from our willpower or
• 20:18
  discipline. It flows entirely from union
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  with Christ and the indwelling Spirit.
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  The Spirit who turned us from darkness to light at conversion
• 20:25
  continues to live in US and empower the obedience that
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  follows. The Spirit grants both the
• 20:30
  turning and the obedience. The new life in Christ produces
• 20:34
  the new conduct. If Acts 26.20 really is the
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  Apostolic blueprint, then this has huge implications for how
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  the Church does ministry today. Vast implications.
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  First, it requires a sharp rejection of what we might call
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  decisionism, which is decisionism is the practice of
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  reducing the gospel to a momentary response, walking an
• 20:51
  aisle, signing a card, a quick prayer, without insisting on the
• 20:54
  necessary evidence of moral transformation that must follow.
• 20:57
  It's pragmatic really. It focuses on numbers, on
• 21:00
  decisions made, rather than on the reality of genuine
• 21:03
  conversion. A real conversion is a
• 21:05
  fundamental God word, change of mind and life with the deeds to
• 21:09
  match. Ministers just have to refuse to
• 21:11
  soften those demands to keep numbers high.
• 21:14
  Paul preached the message. They got him put in chains.
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  He insisted on a transformation that was visible.
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  We have to maintain that standard.
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  Which demands balanced preaching.
• 21:24
  You have to preach. Christ is the only ground of our
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  acceptance, justification by faith alone.
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  With absolute clarity. But at the same time you have to
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  insist that true faith always issues in a changed life.
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  Preach works as evidence, never as the cause.
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  If you only preach justification, you risk creating
• 21:43
  careless Christians. Antinomianism.
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  And if you only preach deeds, you risk creating legalists.
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  Who are trying to earn their salvation.
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  Acts 26.12 holds it together perfectly.
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  They repent and turn to God. That's justification by faith,
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  and they perform deeds feeding repentance.
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  That's the evidence. This also demands rigorous self
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  examination from every one of us.
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  This is where it gets personal, yes.
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  The question you have to ask yourself is, is there an
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  observable prevailing pattern of deeds in my life that fits this
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  repentance? It's protection against a false
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  assurance that's just based on a memory of something that
• 22:16
  happened 20 years ago. It's not about whether you
• 22:18
  prayed a prayer once, It's about today.
• 22:21
  Is there a new hatred of sin, a new love for holiness, a new
• 22:25
  desire to obey that characterizes your life now?
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  You look at the fruit to verify the root.
• 22:31
  That's it. But on the other side of that
• 22:33
  coin, this truth provides real consolation for the struggling
• 22:36
  St. This is maybe the most
• 22:38
  pastorally sensitive application.
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  So many people with tender consciences hear about deeds
• 22:44
  fitting repentance, and they just despair.
• 22:46
  They feel they aren't truly converted because they still
• 22:49
  struggle so much with sin. So how do we apply the gospel to
• 22:51
  them? With grace and precision, the
• 22:53
  question for the struggling believer is not do you still
• 22:55
  sin? The question is, is there a
• 22:57
  genuine war against sin in your heart?
• 23:00
  Do you grieve your sin as an offense against God?
• 23:03
  And do you perseveringly return to Christ for cleansing and
• 23:06
  strength? So the struggle itself, plus
• 23:09
  that reliance on Christ is the evidence.
• 23:12
  It's powerful evidence that God has granted true repentance.
• 23:16
  The unregenerate heart feels no real grief over sin, just
• 23:20
  annoyance at the consequences. The believer who laments their
• 23:24
  sin and flees to Christ again and again is displaying the
• 23:28
  fruit. They're on the right path, even
• 23:29
  if they stumble. The deeds in that context are
• 23:33
  like a compass on a journey. I love that analogy.
• 23:36
  The journey is hard, the terrain is rough and you're going to
• 23:39
  fall. The good deeds aren't the energy
• 23:41
  that moves you forward. But they're the needle of the
• 23:44
  compass that assures the struggling hiker who keeps
• 23:47
  looking N who keeps returning to Christ, that they are still
• 23:50
  headed in the right direction. If that needle were permanently
• 23:53
  stuck pointing S, that would be a problem.
• 23:55
  A fundamental malfunction. Lastly, this message has to
• 23:59
  shape the Church's structure, especially membership and
• 24:02
  discipline. It has to if true repentance
• 24:05
  produces visible fruit, the Church must take those visible
• 24:08
  marks seriously. We can't afford to operate on
• 24:10
  the basis of nominal Christianity.
• 24:12
  No, when a professing believers life persistently and openly
• 24:17
  contradicts their profession, when their deeds don't fit their
• 24:20
  claims, repentance, love for that person, and faithfulness to
• 24:23
  Christ demand that the church gets involved.
• 24:26
  Following the biblical pattern to admonish and call them back
• 24:28
  to true repentance. Acts 26.20 is a call for the
• 24:32
  Church to embody a genuine, visible holiness in its
• 24:36
  membership. So to wrap this all up, what we
• 24:39
  have seen in Acts 26.20 is Paul's Apostolic summary and it
• 24:43
  perfectly binds together the essence of salvation.
• 24:46
  Just review the takeaways. Repentance and faith are
• 24:49
  inseparable graces. They function like the necessary
• 24:52
  exhale and inhale of the spiritual life.
• 24:54
  And deeds fitting repentance are the congruent fruit.
• 24:57
  They are the necessary evidence that the turning has really
• 24:59
  happened. But they are never, ever the
• 25:01
  meritorious root of our acceptance.
• 25:03
  This one verse guards us from both legalism on one side and
• 25:06
  easy believism on the other by insisting on a settled pattern
• 25:09
  of life that matches the internal reorientation secured
• 25:12
  by Christ. We are saved by faith alone.
• 25:15
  But the faith it saves is never for a single moment alone.
• 25:18
  We started by noting that the grammar, the present tense,
• 25:22
  indicates that repentance is not a one time event, but a new
• 25:25
  characteristic posture, an ongoing daily act of churning.
• 25:29
  Which means the command to repent is always current for all
• 25:33
  of us. So we want to leave you with
• 25:35
  this final thought. Since the Christian life is a
• 25:37
  daily reorientation, what specific area of your life?
• 25:42
  Maybe a relationship you handle carelessly, A habitual thought
• 25:44
  pattern you indulge, or a resource you ward?
• 25:47
  What specific area might you need to reorient this week as
• 25:50
  part of your ongoing act of turning to God?