True repentance
So if repentance, as described as turning from and/or forsaking sins is not essential to salvation, does that mean that repentance is not required? Of course not, else Acts 2:38 and 3:19 would be made null and void. “Then Peter said unto them, repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost” (Acts 2:38). Acts 3:19 “Repent you therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord.”
It is most interesting to note that the Apostle John in his gospel does not mention the word “repentance.” Also the Apostle Paul in the book, or epistle to the Romans, the words repent, repented, repentest, repenteth, repenting(s) is not used once. The word repentance is used on two occasions. The first is used in chapter 2:4 where it is said, ”Or despisest thou the riches of His goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness (love, forgiveness, mercy, grace) of God leadeth thee to repentance (Emphasis mine). This verse shows that true repentance used in the right context is necessary. It also shows that it is preceded by the goodness, forbearance and longsuffering of God. However it mentions nothing about sin.
The second instance of the use of the word repentance found in the book of Romans is in chapter 11 and verse 29 where we read, “For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance.” Here again no mention of sins. It is referring to either that we cannot change our minds about our gifts and calling or that God will not change His mind about them. Most of my sources believe that it is referring to the latter.
It is an arresting fact that these two books, John and Romans are the two most widely used to lead a lost soul to Christ. So, the question is, did John not tell us how one may be saved? By omitting repentance was he trying to say that repentance was not needed? Does his gospel message of salvation differ from that of Peter on the day of Pentecost? Or, might I suggest, John and Paul both incorporated repentance into the term “believe.” Let’s see if this holds up to scripture. We know that salvation is by grace through faith. Both John and Paul say it is by believing in the Lord Jesus Christ. And I might add that Peter tells us in Acts 15:7-11, that salvation comes by “believing (vs. 7) “faith” (vs.9), and “grace” (vs.11).
The Greek Word for believe, and faith, is the same. It is the word pistis, which is the noun form; pisteuo the verb form; pistos, being the adjective. Anywhere you read faith or believe you can interchange the two. Let’s now look at some well known scriptures that relate to this subject.
Since we are comparing John’s Gospel record of salvation and that of Paul’s book of Romans we will use primarily these two.
John 3:15-18 “That whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through
Him, might be saved.
He that believeth on Him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
From this we see that it is believing, or faith, or reliance on “Him, Jesus that a person “should not perish, but have everlasting life;” “saved,” “and not condemned.” It does not even mention repentance, nor forsaking or turning or giving up sins.
John 5:24 “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation: but is passed from death unto life.” The qualification here in order not to come into condemnation is “to believe on him that sent me.” That would be on God and what He says or testifies about His Son Jesus. Here again it does not mention repentance. And again believe is the same Greek word as faith. As I pointed out earlier, the word repentance is not used even once in the gospel of John.
John 6: 28-29 “Then said they unto Him, what shall we do, that we might work the works of God”? Jesus answered and said unto them; “This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.” If any works are required, then Jesus told these people what that work is; believe on him (Jesus) whom He (God) has sent. If repentance from sins, that forsaking of sins as defined by some, was then and now required, here was the perfect time and the perfect people to explain that repentance from sins was expected in order to be saved. For further study, get a good concordance and look up the word “believe” or “faith” and count the times they are used in the Gospel of John and then look up those references for context to salvation.
Let’s skip on to the book of Romans:
Romans 1:16-17 “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith.” Again we note that the words believe and faith are of the same Greek word root.
Romans 3:22 “Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference:”
Again these are a form of the same Greek root word “pisteuo”.
Romans 5:1 “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” We are justified and have peace with God by believing on Jesus. There is no mention of repentance or repentance of sins.
We go now to Romans 10:9-13: “9That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. 10For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. 11For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed [disappointed]. 12For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him. 13For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Notice that it uses the words “believe” three times. It does not use the word repentance once (and it does not even come close to teaching that turning from sins is a requirement for salvation).
Again for further study, do the same as I instructed for Romans as for the Gospel of John.
Am I saying that repentance is not needful? Of course not! As we have seen from Acts 2:38 and 3:19 repentance is necessary.
So what part does repentance have in salvation? Before we can answer that, we need to first to see who God is, who we are, what are destiny is and who Jesus is and His purpose in coming into the world we live in.
1. Who God is.
God is first the Creator of all existence. He is the self-sufficient and sovereign in that anything that was created was created by Him.
2. He is eternal, He has no beginning nor ending.
3. His character: Omnipotent; all powerful, He can do the sum total of all things.
4. Omniscience; all knowing, all knowledge, and all wisdom. He sees the beginning from the end. There is no past, nor future with God, only the present.
5. Omnipresent; He is everywhere at all times, there is nowhere in His creation that He is not present.
6. All Righteous. He is the consummate holiness of everything that is holy. He defines holiness by his being. There is no holiness outside of Him.
7. All love. All love and expressions of love find their source in Him.
8. Jehovah God is sovereign. He rules all His creation without the aid, advice or need from any other.
As such only He can qualify as the Righteous Judge. He sets the rules for His creation. Therefore only He can judge and declare just or unjust. Only God can condemn. He has set the rules, and it is He that will judge, and He will sentence the unjust. The sentence is death, the second death, an eternity in hell.
Then we see what God wants and expects: “Be ye holy, for I am holy” [Lev.11:44; 19:2; 20:7]. And only He can justify.
Next we need to see who we are:
We are all sinners in the sight of God. None of us has kept all His rules. None can pass His test.
We are all condemned.
We have already seen that from previous verses [Rom.3:10, 23; 5:8;].
We need to see who Jesus is. The only begotten Son of God, the Savior, the Messiah, the Christ of God, the Anointed One of God, the Lamb of God that takes away the sin (singular) of the world. We could go on but that is enough to make the point of who Jesus is.
We need to see what Jesus came to do, and was He successful! He said that the Son of Man came to give His life a ransom for many (Matthew.20:28). He said that He came to seek and save that which was lost (Luke 19:10). He came to do the will of His Father (Matthew12:50; Heb.10:7). Did He accomplish that? Jesus cried from His cross, “It is finished.” Everything that He came to do, He finished!
John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him, should not perish, but have everlasting life.” Fully understanding who we are as sinners and our destination is of prime importance. Our condemnation is the conviction by the Holy Spirit, using the word of God.
Fully understanding who Jesus is and why He came to the earth, and His completion of all that His Father sent Him to do, is the Gospel of Salvation. It is impressed on our hearts by the same Holy Spirit. This shows the mercy and grace and love of God and that He is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.
So, I conclude from all these verses quoted in this study that repentance is having a change of mind about who God is, what he expects and demands, who we are and that we stand condemned, and sentenced to an eternity in hell, separated from God. And a true change of mind of who Jesus is and what He did to give us the deliverance we need
true repentance for salvation having that change of mind noted above, and believing or faith, are the two sides of the same coin. You can’t have one without the other. True repentance, or change of mind, can only come when you believe, and/ or, have faith in what He did on the cross for you personally. You cannot truly believe without changing your mind, or repenting. And you cannot truly repent without out believing the Gospel of Christ. The Gospel being that of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus (1Corinthians 15:1-4 “Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye received , and wherein ye stand; By which ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain.
For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, And that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the scriptures etc.”
Please note that in the Gospel message it says that “Christ died for our sins.” What sins would that be if we had already turned and forsaken them in order to receive salvation?
Does the rightful use of the word repentance lead to a turning from sin? Yes! But not before it leads to confessing the Lord Jesus Christ; believing in ones heart that God has raised Him from the dead (Romans 10:9.); and calling upon the Lord (vs.13). Then one gets the gift of eternal life, the reception of the Holy Spirit, and forgiveness for ones sin nature, and power to forsake known sin.
If we then take the verses in Acts 2:38 and 3:19 in context, it would show that Peter was speaking to Jews that did not accept Jesus as their Messiah. They had rejected Him as the true Son of God and Savior of their nation and of their souls. The instruction to them was to “repent, change their minds about who Jesus is. They already believed in one God, they already believed in a time of judgment. It was Jesus they rejected. If you will notice that in both instances, Peter preached Jesus to them. To get the context of Acts 2:38 you must go back to verse 14 and read the entire thing, and take careful note of verses 21-36. It was hearing this message about Jesus that pricked their heart (conviction), and caused them to say “Men and brethren what shall we do?” It wasn’t their sins per se, it was the knowledge, that conviction that they had crucified the one that God had made both Lord and Christ, Messiah (vs.36). It was the conviction that they had rejected the very one that they had been praying to come for centuries, and I might add are still looking and praying for. Peter then told them to repent, change their minds about who Jesus was and is, and then upon that change of mind, that turning from unbelief to belief brings remission of sins, then upon the forgiveness of sins, they were to be baptized, be identified with Jesus to show their new life and loyalty to their new Lord.
Here is an interesting question, “do those pious Jews living in Jerusalem and going to the wailing wall everyday to offer prayers to God to send their Messiah to deliver them, need to forsake their sins or change their minds about the man that was “despised, rejected of men, who had borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, who was wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities, and had the iniquity of us all laid upon Him (Is.53:3-6)?
Acts 3:19, here we find the same thing in this verse. Peter was again talking to Jewish people. To get the context of this verse we need to go back to verses 12 -18. Again Peter was preaching Jesus to them. They had denied the Holy One (Jesus, vs14).
They were guilty of killing the Prince of Life (vs.15). They had done it in ignorance of who was Jesus (vs.17). All these things had been prophesied by the prophets of the Old Testament (vs. 18). Now he told them to change their minds and believe in Jesus as their Savior and have their sins blotted out (vs.19).
You see it is not our sins (plural) that condemns us directly, only indirectly. As we have seen from scripture, we were born with a sin nature. We received it from our parents and that is traced back to Adam. “Wherefore, as by one man sin (singular) entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.”
Adam as representative head of the human race rebelled against God, therefore all people represented by him, all those born after his kind, humans, became the same. We were made in his, Adam’s, likeness. And because of this we have a sin nature the human race desires to sin. We have a desire to rebel against the very God that created us. This is what Jesus came to take care of and forgive. When we change our minds about God, who we are, who Jesus is and believe solely on what He did or accomplished on the cross for our forgiveness and salvation and then call on Him for our salvation, then God forgives us our sin nature, that inner desire to rebel against Him. That is the real problem. It is the heart that rebels against God and His authority. Do we sin because we are sinners or are we sinners because we sin? We are sinners by nature and by choice, and any attempt to get around the cross of Jesus is not to accept Him as Savior. Repentance of sins for salvation is such an attempt. It is trying to make ourselves good enough to be accepted by God.
We need to get to the heart of the matter. We need for God to get to the heart of the matter, the sin nature. When that is done, then the sins (plural) question is taken care of. God forgives us our sins because He forgives us the root cause of it, our natural inborn rebellion against Him. But the one condition for that is not our turning away from our sins, but turning in faith and trusting, believing in His Son who came and paid the price of our rebellion. The moment we call upon Him in faith and believing, we have repented for salvation. Then the entire sin[s] issue is taken care of. Then and then only do we have “remission of sins” (pl.).
I earlier asked the question “does God hate sin” and answered it with a big, positive yes.
However there is one thing that God hates more than our sin. He hates our rejection of the one solution that He provided for sin, His Son’s death on the cross and the shedding of His blood for the atonement that He required. This is His Son. This is the very best that heaven has to offer. It is God in the flesh (1Tim.3:16), revealed in these last times for us (1Pet.1:20). If we reject that or we neglect so great a salvation there is nothing left. We have no other hope. I have to quote Heb.2:1-3 “Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip. For if the word spoken by angels was steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense of reward; How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed to us by them that heard Him” (emphasis mine).