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A.
Repentance then of itself does not necessarily mean a change of life.
B. Not necessarily, but in the Scriptures it is usually presented as one
half of an action, a change of mind, the other half of which consists in the
change of conduct and life. For example, you will find metanoia or metanoeo
joined with epistrepho, to turn:
Acts 3:19, 'Repent and be converted'. 'Change your mind and turn you'.
Acts 26:20, 'They should repent and turn to God'.
While men are exhorted to repent, Scripture also tells us that it is
God Who gives or grants this change of mind, and into that problem we will
not at this point enter.
A. Thank you for this opening of the subject, I must give it a fuller
consideration.
B. You must remember that there is another word translated repent, namely
metamelomai, which means 'to be concerned about something after something has
been said or done', and ametameletos, which is the same word with a negative.
Faith as a Fruit, a Gift, and Inwrought
A. May I reopen the question of faith? There seems to be a phase of the
subject that does not conform to the presentation you made when last we spoke
on the subject.
B. By all means; one point of view rarely gives a full presentation of any
Scripture.
A.
My new problem arose out of Galatians 5:22,23, where we read:
'The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering,
gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance'.
B. Your point is that this hardly conforms to the idea that faith is the
reception of accredited testimony.
A. That is so; it is said to be part of the fruit of the Spirit, which
cannot be produced before the person producing it has believed on the Lord
Jesus. Besides, it is classed with longsuffering, meekness, temperance and
the like, which removes it still further from that idea.
B. If you turn to Romans 12:3 -6 you will find faith used in a somewhat
similar way.
A. I notice that the apostle addresses the believer and tells him not to
think more highly of himself than he ought, 'but to think soberly, according
as God has dealt to every man the measure of faith' (3).
B. You notice also in verses 4 and 5 references to the body and its members,
and then verse 6 returns to the subject saying:
'Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to
us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of
faith' (Rom. 12:6).