Repentance is the marriage partner of faith. They are the bride and groom of genuine salvation.
Repentance and faith walk the same line, lead to the same destination, and will never be separated. In fact, there will not be a single person in heaven who had not repented of their sin and turned to Christ while in this life.
Did you ever think about that? Actually, it really is the beginning of God’s will for your life today!
What Is Repentance?
Repentance means you are turning away from the yoke of idolatrous sin and rebellion and are turning to God by faith in His Son Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. God saves sinners according to His matchless grace and He does this through the means of repentant faith. Repentance is not a works-based righteousness anymore than merely believing is.
One of the most pertinent greatest passages in Scripture teaching this fundamental doctrine is found in Mark 1:14-15, which says, “Now after John had been taken into custody, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel”” (italics mine).
Notice that the text says Jesus was preaching the gospel of God and what Jesus declared needs to be done is repent and believe.
Jesus was not teaching a works-based pathway to salvation, but simply exhorting people to submit themselves to a new Lord by turning away from sin and believing in God. This miraculous recipe for salvation is found throughout the New Testament Scripture.
Scriptural Proof
For example, in Matthew 3:2 John the Baptist cried out in the wilderness, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
When Jesus began His public ministry soon thereafter, the first words He expressed were no different in substance or brevity, for our Lord pronounced, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matthew 4:17).
As Jesus traveled from city to city, He was constantly running into people who enjoyed the fringe benefits of His ministry but were unwilling to surrender to Him as Lord of their life. “Then He began to denounce the cities in which most of His miracles were done, because they did not repent. ‘Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you,Bethsaida! For if the miracles had occurred in Tyre and Sidon which occurred in you, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes” (Matthew 11:20-21).
In Matthew 12:41 Jesus said that during the final judgment, the people in heaven who repented will point the finger and condemn those who didn’t repent. “The men of Ninevah will stand up with this generation at the judgment, and will condemn it because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and behold, something greater than Jonah is here.”
When Jesus sent out his disciples ahead of Him in pairs to all the cities He was planning to enter, He gave them a particular message to preach and it had nothing to do with, “Just believe!” Mark 6:12 tell us, “They went out and preached that men should repent.”
There was a time when people approached Jesus and told him about some recent events regarding some Jews who had been slaughtered will offering their animal sacrifices. Rather than condemning the incident, Jesus used it as a picture for what needed to be done. He said, “I tell you no, but that unless you repent, you will all likewise perish” (Luke 13:3).
Immediately after that statement, Jesus then asked those same people what they thought about a certain tower that came crashing down and killed eighteen people in the vicinity. He asked them if they thought those people were worse sinners than all the rest. Rather than waiting for a reply He simply stated, “I tell you no, but that unless you repent, you will all likewise perish” (Luke 13:5).
Jesus issued an identical confession regarding people who were murdered during religious worship and those who were killed during seemingly random mishaps of nature. But what is interesting is that, although Jesus used the same word for “repent” in both cases, He altered the tense of the verb.
In verse three, Jesus used “repent” in the present imperative mood (which means continuous force), but in verse five he used an aorist, which means that “repent” is a one time, single and decisive action. In other words, in verse three Jesus was telling the people that they needed to keep on repenting, over and over and over again. In verse five He said that there needed to be a one time, decisive act of repentance. We see, then, that Jesus was teaching about the need for the critical act of repenting for salvation once and for all, as well as the daily, ongoing repenting of sin throughout our lifetime.
Jesus also taught that God Himself experiences great joy when people repent of their sin. He said, “there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents” (Luke 15:10). God is the only one in the presence of the angels, and so it is the Father’s joy that Jesus spoke of.
When the church was born on the Day of Pentecost in the second chapter of Acts, Peter preached a sermon in which his listeners were pierced in their hearts, crying out and asking what they should do. Rather than respond with “Just believe” or “Have faith,” Peter immediately told them, “Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins” (Acts 2:38). Here Peter was essentially saying the same thing that Jesus gave to us in the Great Commission passage. Repentance is necessary for the forgiveness of sins. If there is no repentance then there is no forgiveness of sin.
Contemporary proponents of an easy-believism gospel will likely have a major problem with the content of Peter’s sermon. After all, never once does he even mention the word “faith,” and the reason he didn’t feel the need to separate out faith from repentance is because they are really the opposite sides of the same coin. There is no repenting without also having true faith.
Peter didn’t alter the content of his gospel message during his next public preaching opportunity, either. While preaching to a large group of people in the Temple’s Court of the Women, Peter exhorted his listeners with, “Therefore, repent and return, so that your sins may be wiped away.” If a person does not repent of their sin then their sin will not be wiped away. They are still dead in their trespasses and sin.
Repentance is absolutely necessary and the Bible repeats this same theme time and time again.
While rebuking Simon the Sorcerer in Acts 8:21-23, Peter told him, “You have no part or portion in this matter, for your heart is not right before God. Therefore repent of this wickedness of yours, and pray the Lord that, if possible, the intention of your heart may be forgiven you.” Peter said that a heart not right before God is a heart that has never repented of its sin. Furthermore, and once again, Peter correlated the necessity of repentance in order to receive forgiveness.
But don’t assume for a moment that repentance is a work or effort or achievement that we accomplish in order to right ourselves with God. On the contrary, repentance is an unmerited gift from God in the same way that faith is. It is God’s grace that saves people, not human effort.
After explaining to the Jewish Christians back in Jerusalem about what God did among through Cornelius and his entire Gentile household, the apostles and other circumcised believers then confessed, “Well then, God has granted to the Gentiles also the repentance that leads to life” (Acts 11:18). God showers people with His grace by granting them repentant faith to believe, leading to eternal life.
Furthermore, while instructing Timothy about the qualifications of church leadership, the apostle Paul wrote, “The Lord’s bondservant must not be quarrelsome, but be kind to all, able to teach, patient when wronged, with gentleness correcting those who are in opposition, if perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, having been held captive by him to do his will” (2 Timothy 2:24-25). Repentance, Paul says, is granted by God and is not exercised through the efforts of ensnared and enslaved humanity.
While preaching to the philosophers and other intellectuals on Mars Hill in Athens, the apostle Paul shouted, “Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent” (Acts 17:30). Repentance is a requirement that God demands of all people everywhere, whether they are Jew or Gentile.
After assembling the Ephesian elders in order to express his final farewell, the apostle Paul urged the other pastors to consider the ministry he had with them for a period of three years as their pastor. And what did Paul preach on and teach about over the course of those three years? “I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable, and teaching you publicly and from house to house, solemnly testifying to both Jews and Greeks of repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ” (Acts 20:20-21). Paul said that it didn’t matter what the venue was, what environment he found himself teaching in, he was determined only to relay anything that was profitable, which to Paul meant repentance and faith.
While being handcuffed and summoned to appear before King Agrippa, the apostle Paul was given the opportunity to share his personal testimony in Acts 26:19-20. He said, “So, King Agrippa, I did not prove disobedient to the heavenly vision, but kept declaring both to those of Damascus first, and also at Jerusalem and then throughout all the region of Judea, and even to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, performing deeds appropriate to repentance.”
Writing in his first epistle about the patience of our heavenly Father and His desire for the elect to be saved, Peter wrote, “The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance” (1 Peter 3:9).
Repentance Requires Immediate Action—Today!
Ultimately, although repentance may not be a popular topic in many contemporary American churches, it remains the only biblical one. Repentance is required for the forgiveness of sin. A person is never saved by God and then allowed to repent at a later date when they feel a need to “rededicate” their faith, or never at all.
Repentance assumes the fact that something is terrible wrong it and it needs to be corrected immediately. Our sin is separating us from the God who made us. Without the turning from sin to God, there is no hope of ever receiving forgiveness of sins and escaping the wrath that is to come.
To know the revealed will of God is to understand your need to repent of sin. God’s revealed will for all people everywhere is that they repent of their sin and turn to God by faith alone in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of their sins. The gospel of Jesus Christ really is that simple.
QUESTION: Have you repented of your sin and turned to God by faith in Jesus Christ? Please do so, before it is too late.
So many Christians are so confused about God’s calling on their lives these days thanks to all the misinformation out there from mega-churchs.
I’d say the calling is simple. Repent, Believe, and GO SHARE THE GOSPEL.
Mike, I totally agree. Too often mega churches are mega blessings-oriented rather than gospel-centered. The gospel is repent of sin and trust in Jesus as the Lord of your life. Period. Thanks for the comment, brother!