Does the question of repenting unto life or unto death sound like a contradiction? Are we, as Christians, not called to repent of sin and are we not saved by this repentance? So you might then ask – how can there be repentance unto death?

To understand repentance from God’s perspective, we first need to understand what sin is from God’s perspective.

If we look up the definition of sin in the EVA Terms Glossary (which everyone who signs up for the IDCCST Course has access to), we read the following:

Sin: Sin is the system of contrariness to God that Satan promotes and governs and inspires by seducing spirits to express his own darkness, ‘sins’ is the fruit of that kingdom, which God identifies as iniquitous, born of Satan.

Sin is to live contrary to God and His commandments, as it pertains to in His new covenant, using that which is of the carnal dimension to build for self; sins are the fruits born in the soul of man from his contact with the kingdom of darkness before entering into covenant. All people are born into the system of sin, which is darkness, and therefore all have sinned, and bear the fruits of iniquity within.

Romans 5:12
Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.

When God issues grace for salvation, it is to convict man of his sinful nature and deep need for God. Outside of the sanctification of God’s covenant environment, the soul longs to return to God. The illumination of grace directs man to the need to be born again, dying to the inclination of the natural man to seek God according to his own wants, needs and codes and, instead, enter into covenant with Him.

This is where the soul is reconciled to God for believers to daily partake of Him through the sanctified service of Jesus’ spiritual priesthood. Entering into covenant with God means to abide by His new covenant commandments, not according to the aspirations and principles of man, but according to His will.

God awakens in man the desire to know and seek Him. This happens by the power of His grace, which believers experience as a moment of illumination which draws faith from the heart to follow after His call. When this call from God is received, you have one of two choices. You can either repent of sin (walking contrary to God’s plan for salvation), and take on the yoke of His covenant and burden of His priesthood (daily laboring with His knowledge to increase according to His pattern), or you can choose to continue as before.

Without that transition to covenant, believers ignorantly follow after the impulse of their natural inclinations, pursuing their own aspirations and principles for increase, and even doing so within a religious construct. Jesus warned of this in Matthew 7:21-23 “…And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.” To repent of sin unto life is to yield to His grace in faith and enter into agreement with Him by His knowledge; serving Him by His standard according to the terms of His covenant.

We read the following in 2 Corinthians 7:10 “For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death.”

There are two types of repentance, a worldly repentance and a godly repentance. In the above paragraph, I explained that godly repentance is to acknowledge your sinful nature and take on God’s covenant yoke. When this repentance happens, there is a turning away from what went before and unto God’s revealed path for salvation whereby God is just and remembers our sins no more (the fruits of iniquity born in the soul).

By the activity faith is given in the covenant, the conscience is purged. Though Satan as the accuser of the brethren still continues to visit with temptation and accusation, you now stand before the Lord justified; clothed in the robes of Christ’s righteousness, to receive of Him the divine increase of His greatness without condemnation. This is because you grow in Christ’s likeness, daily touching Him with His sanctified tools of the new covenant through an active, holy priesthood. This priesthood follows the pattern of faith set by Christ, not the pattern of man’s own traditions.

In contrast to this, certain Christian traditions require that believers continue to repent of their sins, whereas others want to claim the washing away of sins apart from God’s due order of covenant contact. These are examples of false doctrines steeped in Satan’s lies to keep the conscience defiled and absent of the power of Christ, which in turn keeps man removed from God.

God can only be approached on the level of His own holiness – with a purged conscience. Aside from this process of sanctification, believers are deceived to stand in agreement with the wrong testimony; laboring with the fruits of darkness, which means that their repentance is unto death and their salvation is not sealed. Repentance unto death means that it falls short of the process God designed for divine increase in the life of Christ to be gained within.

When entering into covenant with God, according to His commandments restored to the bride through apostolic stewardship, our conscience is purged by the power of Christ. Because we do not stand contrary to God, bearing Christ’s robes of righteousness through faith, our sins are removed from us as far as the east is from the west. We stand in agreement with this testimony of God through the activity of our daily priesthood.

When a believer makes the transition to covenant faith, their repentance is sealed in Christ, there is no value in the remembrance of these sins through continued repentance unto death. You are thus justified in Him to live holy as He is holy, daily working out your own salvation in a holy and sanctified priesthood according to Christ’s pattern for faith. This is the pattern the apostles taught from the start.

Philippians 2:12
Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.