- SINNERS MUST REPENT IN ORDER TO BE SAVED.
There is no doubt that sinners are called to repent, and that
their repentance is required for their salvation. Jesus said,
“I came not to call the
righteous, but sinners to repentance," (Luke 5:32).
Jesus called sinners to repentance. Had Tyre and Sidon seen the
mighty works done in their cities in their day that were done by Jesus in
Chorazin and Bethsaida, these wicked cities would have “repented” and avoided
judgment, said the Lord (Matthew 11:21 and Luke 10:13-14). “Except ye repent,
ye shall all likewise perish,” Jesus said on another occasion (Luke 13:3).
Sinners who don’t repent will perish. And He told us that there is joy in
Heaven over “one sinner that repenteth” (Luke 15:7). The salvation of the
sinner occurs when he repents. The risen Christ stated that the remission of
sins results from the repentance of sinners (Look up Luke 24:46-47). The words
of Jesus remove any doubt about the requirement of repentance for salvation.
“All men every where,” according to God’s requirement (Acts 17:30), are
commanded “to repent.” “The riches of his goodness and forbearance and
longsuffering” represent (in Romans 2:4) “the goodness of God” which “leadeth
thee to repentance.” God is “not willing that any should perish, but that all
should come to repentance” (Second Peter 3:9b). Sinners who want to be saved
will have to repent! So the Bible teaches.
2.
REPENTANCE IS A CHANGE OF
MIND.
The Greek word for repentance used in the New Testament is metanoia.
Without question it means “a change of mind.” Unfortunately, in all the
flurry of discussion on this subject, some have ventured to argue that
repentance is not a change of the mind. But by its etymology the word clearly
refers to action fundamentally in the mind. The root of the word is based on a word
that means “mind” (nous, mind; noieo, to exercise the mind). Our
word “paranoia” identifies a disease of the mind. The Greek word “anoia” adds
the negative prefix to “-noia,” and means “unreason.” It is used in Luke
6:11 in the phrase translated “filled with madness.” Dianoia is an
intensive word for “thought” and is used in Mark 12:30 in the phrase “with all
thy mind”. Eunoia means “good mind,” and is used in Ephesians 6:7, “with
good will doing service, as to the Lord, and not to men.” Metanoia fundamentally
means a change of mind, and that’s what repentance is. In Luke 16, the Lord
Jesus tells a story of a man who died and went to Heaven, and another man who
died and went to Hell (verses 19-31). In the telling of the story it is said
that sinful men must “repent” (verse 30) “lest they also come into this place
of torment” (verse 28). Then it says that to repent in this way is to “be
persuaded” (see verse 31), using a word in the Greek that indicates the winning
over of the mind. Certainly genuine repentance can be expected to affect other
aspects of a life, but essentially it is the changing of the mind.
3.
MEN MUST CHANGE THEIR MIND
ABOUT SEVERAL THINGS IN ORDER TO BE SAVED.
Often men are told in the New Testament to “repent” (change their
minds) in order to be saved. However, it is not only of sin that sinners are to
repent. Scripture makes it clear that they are to change their minds about more
than one thing. Matthew 3:1-6 indicates that sinners must change their mind
about sin. Mark 1:15 says that men must change their minds about the gospel and
about their unbelief. Hebrews 6:1 speaks of “repentance from dead works.”
Sinners must repent of their good works as well as of sin and unbelief in order
to be saved. This is illustrated in the words of Philippians 3, where Paul
testifies that he had to count whatever was “gain” to him as loss, in order to
have Christ as His Savior (read verses 4-9). To trust Christ as Savior requires
a decision. That’s why the word “repent” or “repentance” is sometimes used in
connection with it. The sinner must change his mind. To offer salvation on the
basis of accepting a creed, or praying a prayer, or agreeing to a set of facts,
is to miss the point. The sinner must decide about the gospel. He must change
his mind about sin, about believing, and about depending on his own religion or
good works. He must decide to look to Christ alone for his salvation.
4.
REPENTANCE AND FAITH ARE
TWO SIDES OF THE ONE SALVATION DECISION.
Does the book of John ever address the question of eternal life?
Of course it does. More than a dozen times the terms “eternal life” or
“everlasting life” are used in John. This could be said to be the theme of the
book, which often tells us how individuals may receive eternal life. Yet never
once does the book of John use the word “repent.” Since repentance is required
for salvation, isn’t it strange that the book in the Bible that has eternal
life as its theme would never use the words “repent” or “repentance”? John says
that we are saved by faith in Jesus Christ, through believing in Him or coming
to Him. Very many times the word “believe” is used in reference to the way to
eternal life. Yet the decision for salvation is never called “repentance.”
The book of Luke also shows us the way to salvation, but strangely
says little about faith in Christ in this connection. The term most used to
describe the decision for salvation in Luke is some form of “repent.” We see
this, for example, in Luke 5:32. But then, in Luke 7:50, Jesus tells a woman
who had committed many sins, but had come to Him for forgiveness, “Thy faith
hath saved thee; go in peace.” It is really the only place in Luke where faith
is mentioned in connection with the salvation of a sinner. In chapter 5, Jesus
calls sinners “to repentance,” and in chapter 7 He tells a sinner that her
“faith” had “saved” her. Which is it then, repentance or faith, which brings
salvation? The answer to that question obviously is “Yes.” Either one brings
salvation. People who repent are saved, and people who believe are saved.
Repentance and faith are two sides of the same coin when scripture uses them to
describe the salvation decision. This is why Luke can tell us to repent and not
perish, and John can tell us to believe and have eternal life. When a sinner
believes on Christ for his salvation, he has repented. When a person repents of
sin, unbelief, and dead works, and it is real repentance, he has believed on
the Lord Jesus Christ. “Repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus
Christ” (Acts 20:21) are not two steps to salvation; they are the one step
described in Acts 16 as “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be
saved” (verse 31) viewed from its two sides. Salvation repentance is the change
of mind necessary for a sinner to trust in Christ for deliverance from sin. If
a man says that he has turned from his sin but has not turned to the Remedy for
sin, the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, he has not really repented, no matter how
many tears he may have shed or how may changes he has promised to make in his
behavior. Salvation repentance is turning from darkness to light, and unless a
sinner has turned to the Light of the World, he hasn’t really turned from the
darkness. To believe on Christ for salvation includes wanting to be saved. It
involves renouncing good works for salvation and deciding to place one’s full
trust in Jesus to do the saving. It isn’t faith for salvation unless the sinner
wants salvation from his sins, and trusts Christ alone to save him. So Luke
says, “Repent,” and John says, “Believe.” Both books are telling us to do the
same thing.
5.
MEN MAY BE CALLED TO
SALVATION REPENTANCE WITHOUT USING THE WORD “REPENT.”
Many times in the Bible, men are called to repent without using
the word. In Acts 3 where one of Peter’s sermons to Jews in Jerusalem is
recorded, in verse 19 we find him telling them, “Repent ye therefore, and be
converted.” Then in Acts 4:4, where the response of thousands of those who had
been called to repent is recorded, we read, “Many of them which heard the word
believed.” In other words, they were told to repent and in response they
believed. Nowadays some sermons, and some public invitations, and some gospel
tracts include language that suggests that the writer or speaker feels
compelled to use the word “repent.” If people understand the gospel, and the
meaning of the salvation decision, it certainly would not be wrong to say
“repent,” but it is not always necessary to include the word because repentance
and faith are two ways of looking at the same choice. Jesus offered His
salvation with words such as, “Come unto Me” (Matthew 11:28 and 19:14), “eat of
this Bread” (John 6:51), “come unto Me and drink” (John 7:37), “Dost thou
believe on the Son of God?” (John 9:35), and “believe in the Light” (John
12:36). The decision to turn to Him for eternal salvation can be described in
different ways.
Sadly, many of those who insist that we must actually tell the
sinner to “repent” somewhere in our gospel presentation have accepted the false
idea that there are two steps to salvation. I have heard it explained in such a
way that it seemed as though the explainer thought that the converts of John
the Baptist were only half-saved (although he actually preached both sides of
the coin according to Acts 19:4 and John 3:26-36). He told men to repent, some
imply, and then Jesus told them to believe. It is a false teaching that one
must repent first in order to be prepared to believe. It connects somehow back
to the wrong ideas related to the old “mourners’ bench” where sinners were
expected to weep and agonize over their sins for a period of time before they
could be saved. Men are saved in one step, and not in two, as illustrated by
incidents in the Bible like the conversion of the Philippian jailor in Acts 16.
In response to his question, “What must I do to be saved?” the apostle told
him, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.”
6.
THE REPENTANCE OF
CHRISTIANS IS REQUIRED FOR REVIVAL.
Christian churches are the ones addressed in Revelation 2 and 3,
seven congregations to be exact. They are given direct messages suited to their
situations from the risen Christ, and five of the seven are called upon to
repent (the Ephesian church in 2:5, the church in Pergamos in 2:16, some in the
church of Thyatira in 2:21, the church in Sardis in 3:3, and the church of the
Laodiceans in 3:19). In these significant cases, the issue is the revival of
saints, and not the salvation of sinners. Repentance is definitely not exclusively
a salvation issue. In any dealing between God and man, sinner or saint,
repentance in man will be a necessary step in setting things right. The prophet
Zechariah spoke the words of the Lord when he said,
“Turn ye unto Me, saith the
LORD of hosts, and I will turn unto you, saith the LORD of hosts,” (Zechariah 1:3).
The call to revival under both the Old Covenant and the New is
always a call to God’s people. It is not the call to personal salvation. Revival
is the work of God in which He brings His people back (Psalm 85:1-6) and lifts
them up (James 4:8-10) to the level of faith and submission where He can bless
them. The issue is a need for His people to come back to God. And in revival,
God’s people always have to repent. When Job the servant of the Lord saw the
error of his self-justification in the time of his awful trials, he cried, “I
abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes” (Job 42:6). But Job wasn’t getting
saved when he prayed with these words. He was already a believer with a deep
and genuine devotion to His God. What he experienced on that day was revival.
The phrase, “the LORD turned the captivity of Job,” used in verse 10 of Job 42
is a term describing an Old Testament revival that is used in several other
revival scriptures (such as in Psalms 14, 85, and 126). The repentance required
in the salvation decision does not necessarily involve self-abhorrence.
Probably an unregenerate man is incapable of having such a deep awareness of
the implications of sin. Most Old Testament references to men repenting speak
of revival, not salvation, and cannot be used properly to illustrate salvation
repentance. Interestingly, the One spoken of most often in the Old Testament as
repenting, with the word being used, is God. From this fact it is clear that to
repent does not necessarily mean to turn in grief and anguish from wicked ways
and deeds. God never has to do that. It means to change one’s mind, or, in the
case of God, to appear to change One’s mind from the perspective of human
observance.
7.
SORROW FOR SIN IS NOT
ACTUALLY PART OF TRUE REPENTANCE.
Sometimes sorrow, tears, and mourning are associated in the Bible
with repentance. However it is clear that the weeping is not the repenting.
Second Corinthians 7:10 tells us that “godly sorrow worketh repentance.” It can
lead to repentance (as we see in verses 8 through 11 of the chapter) but sorrow
for sin is not part of repentance. Repentance is the change of mind that the
sorrow for sin has generated.
Surely we must face the facts about repentance. It is time for
Christians to get back to calling sinners to repentance. When the gospel is
preached in the power of the Spirit, sinners will be brought to salvation
repentance. We have fussed about the details of the matter enough, and have the
duty now to spread the light of the gospel of the grace of God. Making sinners
jump through more hoops to come to Christ does not make the salvation they
receive from Him more effective. Regeneration happens whenever a sinner comes
to the Savior, and believers ought to get back to inviting them to come.
Dr. Rick Flanders
Revival Ministries
Related Reading:
See Dr. Flanders prior article, Isn't Repentance a Decision?
Terms of Salvation, by Ps. George Zeller
Lordship Salvation: A Misuse of Scripture
Related Reading:
See Dr. Flanders prior article, Isn't Repentance a Decision?
Terms of Salvation, by Ps. George Zeller
Lordship Salvation: A Misuse of Scripture
