Repentance..... Now there is a word that we don't hear very much any more. It seems the most common teachings that are going around these days are: God wants you healthy, wealthy, and happy. Just come to Christ and all of your problems will go away. Do you want a new car, job, or a problem free life? Just name it and claim it! We don't hear words like sin, hell, and repentance. It reminds me of 2 Timothy 4:3-4. It says, "For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance with their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths." If that is not an accurate description of the modern church, I don't know what is. This ear tickling has also seaped into teachings on salvation. Just repeat this prayer, come to the altar and pray, and raise your hand are a few that come to mind. How does this line up with what Scripture teaches about salvation? Is that all we have to do? Do we just repeat a prayer or raise our hand during an invitation? In the words of the Philippian jailer, "What must I do to be saved?". I want us to take a look at the role of faith and repentance in salvation.
Is repentance really that important? Is it necessary for salvation? We are going to see that repentance and faith are different sides of the same coin. They are inseparable when it comes to salvation. Throughout all of the New Testament, repentance is taught as being essential for salvation. Don't believe me? John the Baptist taught it. Matthew 3:2 says, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." Jesus taught it. Luke 13:3 says, "I tell you, no, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish." The disciples taught it. Mark 6:12 says, "They went out and preached that men should repent." Peter preached it at Pentecost (Acts 2:38) and Paul taught it as well (Acts 17:30-31). It sounds like repentance is vital to the Gospel. That is why Jesus told His disciples in Luke 24:47 that we are supposed to preach repentance to all the nations. Jesus said if you don't repent you will perish. If repentance is that important, I think we need to understand exactly what it is.
2 Corinthians 7:10 says, "For the sorrow that is according to the will of God produces a repentance without regret, leading to salvation, but the sorrow of the world produces death." What exactly do we feel sorrow for? What is this sorrow that leads to repentance? We feel sorrow because of our sin. We come to understand our condition. We realize that we have sinned (Romans 3:23). We realize that the best we have to offer is filthy in God's sight (Isaiah 64:6). We realize that we have no hope of pleasing God on our own. We are sinners (Rom. 5:8), enemies (Rom. 5:10), helpless (Rom. 5:6), alienated (Col. 1:21), blind (2 Cor. 4:4), fools (Rom. 1:22) depraved (Rom. 1:28), children of wrath (Eph. 2:3), and dead in trespasses and sins (Eph 2:1). Because of our sin, we are worthy of death (Romans 6:23) and eternal punishment (2 Thess. 1:9). When we really understand our condition, it should produce a disgust for our sin. It should produce a desire to get rid of the filth in our life. It should produce a terror that we have offended a holy God. Notice I said it SHOULD. Before we come to Christ, we are spiritually dead, though (Eph. 2:1). Left to our own, nobody would ever seek God's forgiveness. Romans 3:11 tells us that nobody seeks after God. God seeks us (Luke 19:10). God Himself must convict us and open our eyes to our true condition. Romans 2:4 tells us that, "the kindness of God leads us to repentance." 2 Timothy 2:25-26 tell us that God is the One who grants repentance. So, repentance is loathing our sin. You go from loving and being okay with your sin to being disgusted by it. We can't stand our sin and we want to be rid of it. That is the part repentance plays in salvation. Repentance strips away all of our pride and self-righteousness. Then it creates a hunger for the true righteousness that can only come from God. Where does faith come into all of this, though. If you were to stop with repentance, you would have an incomplete Gospel. Let's see how faith plays it's part in salvation.
Ephesians 2:8-9 says, "For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast." We simply cannot earn our salvation. We have nothing to offer. It is only by God's grace (undeserved favor) that we can be saved. It is a gift. You don't earn a gift. It is freely given. Romans 5:8 says, "But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." Christ paid the price for our sin when He died on the cross. Romans 3:25 says, "He who was delivered over because of our transgressions, and was raised because our justification." He died for our sins and arose three days later so we can be declared innocent. 2 Corinthians 5:21 tells us, "He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him." When we believe in Christ, He takes our sin and gives us His righteousness. It must be repentant faith, though. Simply believing Christ exists, or even that he died for our sins is not enough. James 2:19 says that even the demons believe and they tremble. Remember the people in Matthew 7? Verses 21-23 say, "Not everyone who says to Me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. Many will say to Me on that day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophecy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles? And then I will declare to them, I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness." Those people believed Christ was real and even did great works in His name. Their faith was in their works, though. It wasn't a repentant faith. Many, many people are in that same situation today. They believe Christ is real, but they aren't trusting in Him as their only hope of salvation. They believe in Christ, but trust in their own works. Somebody who has truly repented knows that they have nothing to offer. They are spiritually bankrupt and have no hope of paying the debt themselves. Repentance takes all of the confidence out of yourself and faith puts it in Christ. That is why I said that they were two sides of the same coin.
Leaving repentance out of our teaching on salvation has had disastrous results. It is no wonder that most people who claim to be Christians show no evidence of it. They have repeated a prayer, walked an isle, or raised their hand, but they have never repented. Repentant faith produces a change. That is why John the Baptist said in Matthew 3:8, "Therefore bear fruit, in keeping with repentance." James 2:14,17-18 says, "What use is it, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but he has no works? Can that faith save him? Even so faith, if it has now works, is dead, being by itself. But someone may well say, "You have faith and I have works": show me your faith without works, and I will show you my faith by my works." Works do not save us, but they are the product of true faith. Matthew 7:20 says you will know a tree by it's fruit. In the words of Paul in Romans 6:2, "How shall we who died to sin still live in it?" True believers can't live the same way they used to. 2 Corinthians 5:17 says, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come." If we will start teaching repentance and faith, we will see transformed lives; lives that are transformed by the power of the Gospel. My prayer is that you have repentant faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. I pray that God will grant you repentance to make you loathe your sin and to strip you of all confidence in yourself. Then I pray you will trust Christ as your only hope of salvation. Until next time.......
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