Testimony

Hello brothers and sisters in christ.I have one doubt.After accepting Jesus as Lord and saviour,Do we feel something inside us?Is accepting Jesus as Lord and saviour a process?Can we accept God in just 5 minutes by just believing in him or do we need to think about all the sins we committed and then ask Lord for forgiveness one by one?Also is restitution required?If someone is a liar,after he accepts Jesus as Lord and saviour do he need to go back and correct every lie he told?And if someone is a gossiper,after he accepting Jesus as Lord and saviour do he need to go and confess to every gossip?And if someone is a habitual cheater in exams(cheats in even slip tests also),do he need to go and confess to every teacher about it?Someone can pls reply and also it would be encouragement for me if you share your testimony.

From my experience, yes, I felt something. I my case it was peace.
If you ask God to forgive you for your sins, he will forgive them all. There is nothing you can do otherwise to make restitution.
What happens though, is when you sin from now on, your conscience will prompt you and to repent and ask forgiveness from God is the right thing to do, though he will still forgive if you're saved. I'm sure I've committed sins in my blindness that I've failed to ask forgiveness for.

In some cases he may prompt you to go and correct certain wrongs, but to go and correct every lie and piece of gossip isn't required. What then becomes important is your new life and the way you live it for the glory of God.

In your life,did you gossip or lie?so if you lied and still you remember those lies,did you go back and correct them?(white lies also).if you remember the gossips you talked,did you go back and corrected them also?or you just confessed to the Lord?

Hello Nav,

Your struggles and questions are common amongst Christians who lack clarity in their gospel understanding. I remember going through similar struggles during my younger days, and my heart went out to you as I read your post. But do use better punctuation next time :P

1. Salvation is not about our feelings, but it is about us putting out faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ, that His death on the cross is sufficient to save you completely.

This may or may not be accompanied by strong feelings. In general, feelings may not always correlate with our believing the truth.

Repentance is not about stopping all our sins, or confessing each and every sin. To repent means "to change our mind" concerning the gospel ”“ it's about recognizing that you are a sinner, there is nothing you can do to save yourself ”“ and the only thing you can do is to believe that Jesus Christ's death is sufficient to save you. That's in Ephesians 2:8-10.

If you believe that Jesus Christ's death is sufficient to save you, you are saved. You are now a born-again Christian with a new heart and new mind. You can only be born again once ”“ so this is a one-time thing, and not a process.

2. Some of your questions are handled well by Andrew Farley in these videos:

(i) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qewE3VsIrA

(ii) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_RJjykKZhSs

Andrew Farley is generally excellent on gospel matters ”“justification, sanctification, renewing of the mind, living in union with God.

(however, he's a cessationist who believes miracles and spiritual gifts have largely ceased; he talks nonsense on those topics, so watch out for that)

3. On the topic of apologizing or making restitution ”“ if you have received Jesus and He dwells in you, allow Him to guide you in those decisions.

My personal opinion (and I should stress, it is only an opinion):

(i) It's not realistically possible to make restitution for every sin or lie you committed in the past ”“ e.g. you cannot make restitution for the candy you stole 50 years ago, or the lie you told to a stranger 10 years ago.

Keep in mind that we are kept saved by the blood of Jesus, not by our attempts at apologizing or making restitution. As William Tyndale reminded his readers, "It is faith in Christ’s blood is counted right­eousness and a purging of all sin before God."

(ii) If you feel that apology or restitution for a particular sin is within your capacity (especially if it is important to the aggrieved party), then that should be something that you prayerfully consider with God.

To be honest, you can never make full restitution for a past sin (the wronged party would have gone through physical, emotional and mental duress as well ”“ these are things you cannot compensate for). But sometimes just an acknowledgement of wrongdoing and an apology is meaningful enough to the wronged party, and that might suffice.

4. As a born again Christian, of course you should stop your habitual sins ”“ and that's in fact what you truly want, i.e. your new heart (given by God, c.f. Ezekiel 36:26-27) does not want to sin.

To live aligned with your new creation identity and new heart ”“ that's called "walking in the Spirit". I think Andrew Farley has some good material on that (look up his Youtube clips); I've found "Lifetime Guarantee" (Bill Gillham) to be pretty useful as well.

It's all about learning how to live under God's love and unmerited favour for you. There's definitely a growth process to that. But your growth can be quicker if you develop a proper understanding of the gospel, and thus know how to rightfully renew your mind (Romans 12:2).

May you know of God's delight in you, and that He has utterly saved you (Hebrews 10:10, Hebrews 7:25). God bless your Christian journey with Him.

I would like to agree with essentially all (Not sure about links) that the commentors have said. Also to add that lingering around here, especially with questions like these should be priceless as newly birthed can be sabotaged in ill environments. Peace is a good sign of salvation I would like to believe. Especially if you were first truly worked out by your sudden realisation to be an enemy of God worthy of his fiece wrath. Salvation should then come with peace of being in safeguard.

Dear brother Nav

Welcome to the house of the Lord! may you be mightily blessed by Him.

That longing inside for pureness, is put there by the Lord, and the best time to seek for a pure heart is now while you are still new and utterly devoted to our Lord and Master.

I would advise you to start reading here:

https://www.sermonindex.net/modules/articles/index.php?view=article&aid=48331

and the rest of the writings by the author Dougan Clark. You cannot go far wrong with him as I have discovered only today.

There are many who will lead you astray and you need a good grounding.

Brenda

Nav,

Are you a liar or a gossiper or a habitual cheater?

If you are these things, then yes, the gospel should change you and if you do these things, the Holy Spirit should convict you to pray and seek change.

If you are speaking about what you see in others, then you have to trust the Holy Spirit to work IN THEIR LIVES while you work on your own issues. It's a distraction of the enemy to constantly see the failures in other people and not our own failures.

If you were a liar, repent and honestly tell God, "I'm a liar and I'm guilty, have mercy on me to never be a liar again" and go forward relying on the Holy Spirit to convict you. You do not have to go to each individual you have ever lied to unless the Holy Spirit leads you too.

Move forward being a new creature in Christ Jesus and your new ways will speak for themselves and be a testimony.

Thank you sister.Im not seeing faults in others,I myself was a great sinner,how can I judge others.I was an habitual liar and gossiper.I confessed to Lord all my sins and lies and gossips.I even confessed those lies or gossips by which I damaged/effected others.But I am not sure what to do deal with those lies which didn't effect for example:lying to my friends fake stories or exaggerating a story to impress them,lying to avoid embarrasement,lying to avoid others(I don't generally mingle with others as I'm an introvert,my relatives ask me why I don't come out of my room,I told I had some college work)etc.I think many of us had told these type of lies in our lives.How did you guys deal with these lies?Did you went and confessed to them?

Sorry,I'm from India and my english is not good.I know sermonindex is genuine website and many Godly people are there here.So I can get good conselling also.

Earlier I thought that I had committed unforgivable sin.Later I read a testimony of someone in sermonindex.I was greatly encouraged and that doubt has flied away from me.So I want to get some of your life e xperiences/testimonies on how you guys dealt with these type of lies/gossips,so I can get some wisdom from you.Im 21 and I was in one state which is against christianity.I stay in my room and get encouragement from youtube sermons and sermonindex.
I'm young and I'm sure I will unwisely may take decisions which I may regret in future.So I want you to help me by your life experiences by helping me tell how you deal with those situations.

Making restitution is indeed only for when you are led. If we could make restitution for all sins, there would be no need for forgiveness as all sins would be undone - which equals sinlessness. But it is not practical in all cases as you may for example have despised a stranger in heart - whom you cannot now track down.