Salvation and Repentance

SALVATION AND REPENTANCE

https://www.gty.org/library/questions/QA163/what-is-repentance-and-how-does-it-relate-to-salvation

John MacArthur

The meaning of the word repentance has been twisted in recent years to the point that its biblical meaning is now obscured in the minds of many. The idea that genuine repentance could result in anything but a change of life is completely foreign to Scripture.

First, the Bible teaches that repentance is essential to salvation. One cannot truly believe unless he repents, and one cannot truly repent unless he believes. Repentance and faith are two sides of the same coin (but they are not synonymous terms). and are two of the many verses that teach that repentance is necessary for salvation. Perhaps best sums up the relationship between repentance and saving faith when it speaks of "repentance to the acknowledging of the truth" (see also ).

Second, the Greek word for repentance (metanoia) means "to have another mind," but it cannot properly be defined to exclude a sense of hatred of and penitence for sin. The biblical concept of repentance involves far more than merely a casual change of thinking. Biblically, a person who repents does not continue willfully in sin. Repentance is a turning from sin, and it always results in changed behavior (). Sorrow from sin is not equivalent to repentance, it is certainly an element of scriptural repentance ().

Affirming that repentance and acknowledgement of Jesus' lordship are necessary to salvation does not "add" anything to the requirement of faith for salvation. It is not "faith plus repentance" that saves, but rather a repentant faith. The notion that salvation is possible apart from a genuine, heartfelt repentance, which includes a deep hatred of sin, is a relatively new one, neither believed nor taught by the people of God until the twentieth century.

https://www.ligonier.org/learn/devotionals/faith-and-repentance/

Faith and Repentance

“I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other” ().

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You may remember that opponents of the doctrine of justification by faith alone have accused its proponents of encouraging people to think that they can merely assent to the Gospel, live a life of sin, and still be justified. We will see, however, that such is a false characterization of the doctrine.

There are many places in the New Testament where repentance and faith are both enumerated as necessary for salvation (for example, ).

If faith is the utter reliance upon Christ alone for salvation one cannot have true faith unless he turns away from sin in heartfelt sorrow. Without repentance, a person really hopes in his own “goodness” and in the fleeting pleasures of sin instead of God’s provision in Christ.

https://www.ligonier.org/learn/articles/faith-and-repentance/

Faith and Repentance

by Sinclair Ferguson

When the gospel is proclaimed, it seems at first sight that two different, even alternative, responses are called for. Sometimes the summons is, “Repent!” Thus, “John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, ‘Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand’” (). Again, Peter urged the hearers whose consciences had been ripped open on the day of Pentecost, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ” (). Later, Paul urged the Athenians to “repent” in response to the message of the risen Christ ().

Yet, on other occasions, the appropriate response to the gospel is, “Believe!” When the Philippian jailer asked Paul what he must do to be saved, the Apostle told him, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved” ().

But there is no mystery or contradiction here. Further on in , we discover that precisely where the response of repentance was required, those who were converted are described as believing (, ).

Any confusion is surely resolved by the fact that when Jesus preached “the gospel of God” in Galilee, He urged His hearers, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel” (). Here repentance and faith belong together. They denote two aspects in conversion that are equally essential to it. Thus, either term implies the presence of the other because each reality (repentance or faith) is the sine qua non of the other.

Repentance implies faith and faith implies repentance. One cannot exist without the other.

First, W. G. T. Shedd insisted that faith must precede repentance in the order of nature: “Though faith and repentance are inseparable and simultaneous, yet in the order of nature, faith precedes repentance” (Dogmatic Theology, 2.536). For repentance lies in faith’s grasp of the mercy of God. If repentance were to precede faith, both repentance and faith would be legal in character, and they would become prerequisites for grace.

Second, Louis Berkhof appears to have taken the reverse position: “There is no doubt that, logically, repentance and the knowledge of sin precede the faith that yields to Christ in trusting love” (Systematic Theology, p. 492).

Third, John Murray insisted that this issue raises

“an unnecessary question and the insistence that one is prior to the other is futile. There is no priority. The faith that is unto salvation is a penitent faith and the repentance that is unto life is a believing repentance … saving faith is permeated with repentance and repentance is permeated with saving faith” (Redemption—Accomplished and Applied, p. 113).

This is, surely, the more biblical perspective. We cannot separate turning from sin in repentance and coming to Christ in faith. They describe the same person in the same action, but from different perspectives. In one instance (repentance), the person is viewed in relation to sin; in the other (faith), the person is viewed in relation to the Lord Jesus. But the individual who trusts in Christ simultaneously turns away from sin. In believing he repents and in repenting believes.

Entwined within any theology of conversion lies a psychology of conversion. In any particular individual, at the level of consciousness, a sense of either repentance or trust may predominate. What is unified theologically may be diverse psychologically. Thus, an individual deeply convicted of the guilt and bondage of sin may experience turning from it (repentance) as the dominant note in his or her conversion. Others (whose experience of conviction deepens after their conversion) may have a dominant sense of the wonder of Christ’s love, with less agony of soul at the psychological level. Here the individual is more conscious of trusting in Christ than of repentance from sin. But in true conversion, neither can exist without the other.

The psychological accompaniments of conversion thus vary, sometimes depending on the dominant gospel emphasis that is set before the sinner (the sinfulness of sin or the greatness of grace).

Does the necessity of repentance in conversion constitute a kind of work that detracts from the empty-handedness of faith? Does it compromise grace? In a word, no. Sinners must always come empty-handed. But this is precisely the point. By nature, my hands are full (of sin, self, and my own “good deeds”). However, hands that are full cannot hold on to Christ in faith. Instead, as they take hold of Him, they are emptied. That which has prevented us from trusting Him falls inevitably to the ground. The old way of life cannot be retained in hands that are taking hold of the Savior.

https://www.christianity.com/jesus/following-jesus/repentance-faith-and-salvation/what-does-it-mean-to-repent.html

What Does it Mean to “Repent”?

Jack Graham

You may be surprised to learn the word repent in the Greek New Testament simply means to turn around. It was a military term that described a soldier marching in one direction and then doing an about-face. And when it’s used in a spiritual sense, it means to change your mind.

You no longer reject Christ, but now you believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of the living God. You do a spiritual about-face, which in turn changes everything.

And not only do you change your mind about Christ, but you change your mind about sin as well as you discover what it really means to honor God. You realize that it’s no longer about performance. It’s about a heart attitude that confesses Christ and seeks to honor Him in every aspect of life!

https://scottrossonline.com/the-relationship-between-repentance-salvation/

The Relationship Between Repentance & Salvation

By Scott Ross

Nowhere does Scripture tell you that you should ask Jesus “into your heart,” “receive Jesus, “or come forth publicly to be saved. Jesus being in your heart (when speaking of the heart as the seat of emotion) is a good thing. “Receiving” Jesus, as in letting Him into your life, is a good thing. Acknowledging Christ before men is a good thing. But none of them are the trigger for salvation.

What must a man do to be saved? Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. (📷)

Salvation is offered to man as a free gift. There is nothing we can do to earn or deserve salvation. There is, however, a condition. The condition of salvation is faith. What must I do to be saved? Believe. Place your faith in Christ. Belief, which is also called faith, is the condition.

Now what does that mean exactly? Even the devil “believes” that Jesus is God. (📷) This means that the “faith” in question must be more than an intellectual assent to the facts. Saving faith also involves something known in Scripture as “repentance.”

First, it is undeniable that the Scripture teaches repentance as playing a role in salvation.

📷,5📷 says, “‘No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish… No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.’”

📷 says, “The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent.”

📷 says, “The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.”

There are also many passages that only list faith as the requirement for salvation. 📷;2📷16�:246:420: 16s 1om. Rom. 1 C�; 📷; Galand Eph. 2:8-9📷 just to name a few. So which is it? Is repentance an additional condition? No. Repentance and Faith are two sides of the same coin.

The word that we translate as “repent” in our English Bibles is the Greek word transliterated metanoia. It combines two greek words:

• Meta – Change

• Noia – Mind

In other words, metanoia means literally to change our minds.

First, we are changing our minds about God. To the pagan who has denied that there is a God, or who has had some radically incorrect notion of God such as the worship of many false gods or the concept that god is an impersonal “higher power” or other such notions, there is the need to change your mind and recognize that the God of Scripture is who He says He is.

Second, we are changing our minds about the need for a savior. (ESV)📷 The Pharisees believed themselves to be righteous. They believed that because they followed the Law and because they were descended from Abraham that they were assured of a place in God’s eternal kingdom. Jesus is saying in this passage that if you don’t think you’re sick you will never look to a physician. We are changing our minds about the need to be saved.

But last, and perhaps most importantly, we are changing our minds about the object of our trust.

We are all trusting in something for our eternal condition. We’re trusting that we’re a “good person.” We’re trusting that we did good things like serve in the children’s nursery at church or go to Africa to dig wells. We’re trusting in our religiosity. Muslims trust that because they follow the edicts of the Koran they will see paradise. Buddhists believe they’ll reach nirvana if they follow the eight-fold path. Hindus trust that they will eventually break free from the cycle of reincarnation if they can rid themselves of all bad karma. Atheists are trusting that there’s no heaven at all so it doesn’t matter. Everyone is trusting in something.

Salvation comes, by repentance and faith, when we change our minds about what we were trusting in before, and shift that trust to the Gospel; the finished work of Christ on the cross.

Does repentance involve “turning from sin” and does it involve sorrow? No. And this brings up another common confusion. People confuse the fruit of repentance with repentance itself. God’s prevenient grace enables the totally depraved sinner to accept the gift of salvation through faith/repentance. At the point that the sinner by grace through faith is saved they are “born again,” (📷;3📷) and made a new creation17📷). This is known theologically as regeneration. At that moment, the regenerate sinner is filled with the Holy Spirit and enabled to begin living in a new way that they were incapable of before.3:53:113-m 82:11-13📷) At this point it is almost universal that the Christian looks back at their life before Christ with great remorse. By the power of the Holy Spirit and because of their new nature, the Christian now turns from sin and attempts to live a life “worthy of the calling” they’ve rec(Eph 4:1📷) So the fruit of repentance is turning and sorrow, but it is not until after repentance/faith have fulfilled the condition of salvation.

Another way to think of it is this. Salvation is turning to Jesus to be forgiven of one’s sins. It is not turning from one’s sins in order to be forgiven by Jesus. The Gospel is not dependent on your willingness to never sin again. It is dependent on what Christ has already accomplished and you changing your mind and putting your trust in that finished work.

Here are some great quotes on this subject.

The Christian Apologetics & Research Ministry (CARM) has this to say. “If by asking ‘Is repentance necessary for salvation?’ the person means that the sinner must first repent, have a change of mind, and stop sinning in order to get saved, then the answer would be no.”

The website, GotQuestions.org, says, “Many understand the term repentance to mean “turning from sin.” This is not the biblical definition of repentance.”

Bible.org says, “The word “repent” has to be understood within the context in which it is being used. In fact, very often, it should not even be translated “repent” because of the wrong preconditioned theological connotations this carries. It is a matter of what some would call, “illegitimate totality transfer.” This occurs when the meaning of a word in one passage is carried over to every other place the word occurs. The Greek word for “repent” is metanoia (noun) or metanoeo (verb). It basically means a change of mind and the context must determine what is involved in that change of mind.

It is a salvation by grace alone through faith alone and not of works.”

https://www.monergism.com/thethreshold/articles/onsite/repentance.html

Is Repentance Necessary for Salvation?

By John Hendryx

"First to those in Damascus, then to those in Jerusalem and in all Judea, and to the Gentiles also, I preached that they should repent and turn to God and prove their repentance by their deeds."

"I have declared to both Jews and Greeks that they must turn to God in repentance and have faith in our Lord Jesus."

There is a divergence, the difference between the Reformed and a dispensational view of salvation.; the difference lies in each camps’ understanding of the doctrine of regeneration.

The dispensationalists will argue that to require repentance, as part of salvation, is to actually add another requirement to ‘faith alone’. In other words, to require belief in Christ’s Lordship in addition to the belief in Christ as Savior is tantamount to adding a work and confusing the simple gospel of faith alone with some action on the believers’ part. Any addition to simple faith is seen as another gospel and dangerously close to salvation by works. Such critics would thus define repentance to only mean a change of mind towards one’s previous view of Christ.

On the other hand, the Reformed understanding salvation is that God commands all persons to repent and believe the gospel. Repentance here means to turn away from all known sin and from trusting in one’s good works. A Reformed understanding sees faith and repentance as two sides of the same coin that really cannot be separated. To believe in Jesus means to recognize that one is a sinner in rebellion against God. It is not simply adding Jesus to one’s life among other interests but to consciously forsake other loves and idols. Prior to salvation one’s love for sin was more than one’s love for God. The result of grace working in one’s soul caused the repentant sinner to have a new affection for God that now desires God more than he desires sin.

Most dispensationalists teach that the atonement and grace are God’s part in salvation, while faith is our part. But the atonement and the grace they speak of is not effectual in and of itself and cannot effect the completion of salvation without the cooperation and consent of the sinner. Somehow the sinner, in his unregenerate, fallen state has the ability to turn to Christ in faith with some help from God’s grace. But in the final analysis, it is the sinner that contributes his faith as part of the requirement of salvation. Such a belief sees regeneration as the result of, rather than the cause of faith.

The Reformed understanding of repentance and faith is that both of these are not something that the sinner contributes to the price of his or her salvation. They are, rather, the supernatural result of God working new affections in their soul. Therefore, repentance is not something that the sinner is adding in addition to faith as a work, but both repentance and faith are seen as the infallible result of the new birth that is applied to sinners by the Holy Spirit. A biblical understanding sees faith and repentance not as something we create or perform or supply, apart from regenerative grace. The unregenerate are truly incapable of creating a right thought, generating a right affection, or originating a right volition, so God, in His mercy, gives to His people freely, that which He demands from us. God disarms the opposition of the human heart, subduing the hostility of the carnal mind, and with irresistible power () draws His chosen ones to repentance and faith in Christ. The gospel confesses, "We love Him because He first loved us."

When admonishing us to teach the gospel to unbelievers the Scripture says do so, "with gentleness correcting those who are in opposition, if perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth." (emphasis mine). It couldn't be more clear that the apostles viewed repentance as something God enables us to do, since the unsaved are being held captive by the devil to do his will and unable and unwilling to loose their chains on their own.

The Scriptures teach that the very desire for faith itself is a gift of God’s mercy. The idea that it is something that we ourselves generate in our fallen nature is the cause of great confusion in our day. All evangelicals will agree that faith is our responsibility but a deficient view of man’s depravity has led to erroneous doctrines that make faith itself something we have to contribute to our salvation and therefore it is perilously close to trusting in something we do in order to win God’s approval for salvation. If you don’t see this, ask yourself how a fallen sinner who hates God suddenly was able to generate affections for God.

Even if you believe that God initiates with grace (as a synergist), we still have to respond by drawing from something within our unregenerate nature. The Scriptures testify that the: “… natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised. And “…the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so.”

The very beginning and desire for faith, by which we believe in Him who justifies the ungodly and comes to us through regeneration: does this belong to us by nature or is it a gift of grace itself, the inspiration of the Holy Spirit amending our will and turning it from unbelief to faith and from godlessness to godliness? If not then you have missed the point of the Scripture which declares, "And I am sure that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ" (). And again, " For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; (). Grace does not depend on the humility or obedience of man but it is a gift of grace itself that we are obedient and humble, for the Scriptures testify "What have you that you did not receive?" (), and, "But by the grace of God I am what I am" ().

So the requirement for repentance and to believe that Christ is Lord is plainly taught in the Scripture. God works new affections in us. When spoken in the power of the Holy Spirit, the word of God has the power to graciously open people's eyes, change the disposition of their hearts, and bring them to faith and repentance (, , ). Anything less is to misapprehend what God does when he raises us from spiritual death. Faith and repentance are not something we get the glory for: God gets all the glory.

Does God have mercy upon us, apart from His regenerative grace, so that we believe, will, desire, strive and labor? Shouldn’t we all confess that it is by the efficacious working and inspiration of the Holy Spirit within us that we even have the faith, the will, or the desire to do all these things as we ought to? Repentance or yielding to the Lordship of Christ at the time of salvation is just a simple product of our new nature in Christ, not something we do to earn a new nature. I would argue that many dispensationalists who uphold no-Lordship are actually teaching that salvation is by grace plus faith rather than this historic Christian teaching of salvation by grace alone through faith alone. That even faith itself is not of ourselves but a divine gift to the soul, for what do we have that we did not receive?. (, , , , , ; ; , ) Do you see the difference? One makes faith something we contribute to complete the work of salvation while the other views salvation as a work of God alone.

This issue is so critical that the church in America must reclaim a right understanding this doctrine if it has any hope of continuing usefulness to God in the world. God deals with us personally, not as abstractions, as those who have transgressed His law, who are hostile and engaged in obstinate rebellion against His legitimate authority in our lives. The seriousness of man's fallen condition has often been put aside in modern churches due to, what I believe, are erroneous views of repentance. The casualness of our message to merely "accept Jesus" without helping people to understand our wretched condition, allows many to remain stubbornly unyielding in their pride and sin. This large-scale "user-friendly" message in today's evangelical churches have given rise to a Christianity that gives hollow worship to Christ but creates a heart that remains unrenewed and still delights in sin. Many are unwilling to give the Lord their allegiance because they have not been born again. They are told, however, that because they "accepted Jesus into their heart" at some moment in the past that it doesn't matter that they now live in rebellion against God. The continuing spirit of defiant, willful rebellion to Christ's authority as an unbroken pattern of our churches are a direct result of a lack of understanding among church leaders of the doctrine of regeneration.

Repent is found 46 times NT

Salvation 48 times NT