Repentance and Faith

The First Word of the Gospel

When Jesus began to preach, His message was short: The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel (Mark 1:15). All that the Bible says about how a sinner comes to God is folded into those two words, repent and believe.

Many people hear the word repent and brace themselves. It sounds like a scolding, or a list of things to fix before God will speak to them. It is neither. What if God kept a count, and after so many failures He was finished with you? He does not. He is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9). Repentance is the door God holds open for people who have blown it, and that is all of us.

We believe every person is a sinner by nature and by choice, and that his only hope is a total change of mind about his sin and his helplessness, and a turning to Jesus Christ as the only Saviour.

The Call to Come Home

The call to repent runs from the prophets to the last book of the Bible. Under its sternest words it is always the same call: come home.

God's Heart in the Prophets

“Say unto them, As I live, saith the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel?”EZEKIEL 33:11 · KJV

Hear the heart before you hear the command. The Old Testament's great word for repentance is shub, to turn or return. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him (Isaiah 55:7). And the turning must be real: rend your heart, and not your garments (Joel 2:13).

David's Broken Heart

Psalm 51 is the great psalm of repentance, written after David's sin with Bathsheba. He makes no excuses and blames no one. For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me (Psalm 51:3). He brings no offering to balance the books, because he knows what God wants: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise (Psalm 51:17).

Jesus and the Sick

Jesus could be blunt: except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish (Luke 13:3). He could also be tender: They that are whole need not a physician; but they that are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance (Luke 5:31–32). Repentance is not the price of getting near to Jesus. It is what happens when a sick man finally admits he is sick and comes to the Physician.

The Son Who Came Home

“And when he came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my father’s have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee, And am no more worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants. And he arose, and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him.”LUKE 15:17–20 · KJV

No story shows repentance better. The younger son came to himself: his mind changed. I have sinned against heaven, and before thee: his heart changed. He arose, and came to his father: his direction changed. He had a plan to work off his shame as a hired servant, but his father never let him finish the speech (Luke 15:21–22). His father saw him, and had compassion, and ran (Luke 15:20). A son came home, and a father ran.

The Apostles' Message

Jesus sent His disciples so that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations (Luke 24:47). In Athens Paul declared that God now commandeth all men every where to repent (Acts 17:30). No one is left out of that sentence. And he summed up his whole ministry in the two things Jesus had preached: repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ (Acts 20:21).

A Change of Mind That Turns You Around

The usual Greek word for repentance is metanoia, which speaks of a change of mind. This is no small thing, like changing your mind about lunch. It reaches the heart, and it turns the life.

Three Changes of Mind

• About my sin. It is not a slip or a bad habit. It is rebellion against a holy God: Against thee, thee only, have I sinned (Psalm 51:4).
• About myself. I cannot fix this. All our righteousnesses are as filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6).
• About Christ. He is not one option among many, or an extra to add to the life I already have. Neither is there salvation in any other (Acts 4:12).

So repentance agrees with God. It says, You are right, and I am wrong. That may be the hardest sentence a proud heart ever speaks. Then it works like a row of dominoes. What you used to defend, you now grieve. You were chasing your sin, and now you stop, turn around, and follow Christ. You cannot run after your sin and run after Jesus at the same time, because they lie in opposite directions.

What Repentance Is Not

• It is not mere sorrow. For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death (2 Corinthians 7:10). The sorrow of the world is sorry it got caught and sorry for what it lost, and it leaves a person hopeless. Godly sorrow grieves that it has sinned against God, and it runs to Him.
• It is not cleaning yourself up first. People say, I need to get my life together, and then I will come. That has it backward. God justifieth the ungodly (Romans 4:5), not the tidied up. Repentance is not stopping every sin. That takes a lifetime, and the Bible calls it sanctification. Repentance is agreeing with God and wanting to change. The fear that you will never be able to stop is one of the enemy's favorite roadblocks. Do not let it keep you from Christ.
• It is not a work that earns. Repentance is necessary, and it merits nothing. A beggar who stops pretending he is rich and holds out his hand has not paid for the bread. Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace (Romans 4:16).
• It is not turning over a new leaf. A leaf that has been turned over flips back at the next wind. Repentance is not a better effort in the same direction. It is a different direction.

Judas and Peter

Two men failed Jesus on the same night. Judas repented himself, confessed I have sinned, gave back the silver, and hanged himself (Matthew 27:3–5). Matthew uses a word there that often means regret, though the word alone does not settle it, for he also uses it of the son who repented, and went (Matthew 21:29). The story settles it. Judas never turned to Christ. Peter went out, and wept bitterly (Luke 22:62), and the risen Lord restored him (John 21:15–17). Sorrow alone ends in despair. Sorrow that goes to Jesus ends in mercy.

Repentance or Penance?

The Roman Catholic Church teaches that sins after baptism are ordinarily forgiven in the sacrament of Penance: sorrow, confession to a priest, absolution, and an assigned penance. Rome does not say a penance buys forgiveness. It teaches that absolution takes away the sin, but that the penitent must still “make satisfaction for” his sins because of the disorder they leave behind (Catechism, §1459).

But no sinner in the New Testament is told to make satisfaction. The dying thief had no time for it, and Jesus promised him paradise that day (Luke 23:43). By one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified (Hebrews 10:14). A debt paid in full does not need installments. See Confession, Penance, and the Priesthood.

Trust in a Person

In the New Testament the words faith and believe come from one Greek word family. To believe on Christ is to have faith in Him. But not everything called faith saves.

Knowledge, Assent, and Trust

Protestant teachers have long described saving faith in three parts, which older books call notitia, assensus, and fiducia. The Heidelberg Catechism (1563) says true faith is “not only a certain knowledge” but “also an assured confidence” (Question 21). They describe one act of the heart, not three steps.

1. Knowledge. You know what you are believing: Christ died for our sins, was buried, and rose again the third day (1 Corinthians 15:3–4). Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God (Romans 10:17).
2. Assent. You agree that it is true, and true of you. You are the sinner, and He is the Saviour you need.
3. Trust. You rely on Him, with your whole weight. As many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name (John 1:12).

The Faith of Devils

“Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble.”JAMES 2:19 · KJV

Knowledge and assent are not enough. One demon cried to Jesus, I know thee who thou art, the Holy One of God (Mark 1:24). Demons know who He is. They do not trust Him. Many people stand in that same place. They may have known every right answer since childhood, and never rested their souls on Him.

You can admire a chair, explain how it was built, and agree that it would hold you. You are not trusting it until you sit down and take your feet off the floor. Saving faith says, If He cannot save me, I am lost, because I have no other plan.

Faith Is Only as Good as Its Object

Faith does not save because faith is strong. Christ saves. Sincere trust in a rotten bridge will not get you across, but a trembling faith in Christ will. A desperate father cried, Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief (Mark 9:24), and Jesus did not send him away. And saving faith cannot be divided. Christ plus my baptism, or Christ plus my good record, is not faith in Christ. He is not one more item on the list.

Faith is not a work, either. It is the empty hand that receives. Righteousness is counted to him that worketh not, but believeth (Romans 4:5).

Why They Belong Together

Sometimes the Bible names repentance alone (Luke 24:47; 2 Peter 3:9). Sometimes it names faith alone (John 3:16; Acts 16:31). Sometimes it names both (Mark 1:15; Hebrews 6:1). That is no contradiction, because they are one movement of the heart, seen from two sides.

You cannot face two directions at once. When you turn your face to Christ, you turn your back on whatever you were trusting. Faith without repentance would keep hold of what it trusts instead. Repentance without faith would turn from sin to nothing, which is only despair. So Luke says that a great number believed, and turned unto the Lord (Acts 11:21). Teachers have argued over which comes first. John Calvin wrote that repentance “not only always follows faith, but is produced by it” (Institutes 3.3.1), while others note that Jesus and Paul name repentance first. We need not choose. They are one turn of one heart.

Look at the dying thief. We receive the due reward of our deeds: he has changed his mind about his sin. This man hath done nothing amiss: he has changed his mind about Jesus. Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom: he trusts Him (Luke 23:41–42). He could not be baptized, pay anyone back, or clean up anything. Jesus said, To day shalt thou be with me in paradise (Luke 23:43).

Is Faith Itself a Gift?

For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God (Ephesians 2:8). What is the gift? Reformed theology teaches that saving faith is itself God's gift to the elect. The Westminster Confession speaks of “the grace of faith, whereby the elect are enabled to believe” (14.1), and the Canons of Dort say God does not merely offer faith to a man: it is “conferred upon him, breathed and infused into him” (Third and Fourth Heads, Article 14). They point to Philippians 1:29, Acts 11:18, and 2 Timothy 2:25. Their concern is right: no one may boast before God.

We believe the gift in Ephesians 2:8 is salvation, and that God calls every person to receive it by faith.

• The gift is salvation. In Ephesians 2:8 the Greek word for that is neuter, while grace and faith are feminine, so it most naturally points to the whole of being saved by grace through faith. Paul says elsewhere that the gift of God is eternal life (Romans 6:23). Even Calvin, who taught that faith comes from God, wrote that Paul's meaning here is “not that faith is the gift of God, but that salvation is given to us by God.”
• Granted means opened. The Jerusalem believers rejoiced that God had granted repentance unto life to the Gentiles (Acts 11:18): the door stood open to them. The same Greek verb is used of Israel: Christ was exalted for to give repentance to Israel (Acts 5:31), and many in Israel refused.
• Given does not mean forced. Unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake (Philippians 1:29). Both are gracious privileges, and the Philippians really did both. God did not do their suffering for them, and He does not do our believing for us. So too with those who oppose the truth: Paul hopes God will give them repentance (2 Timothy 2:25), and that they may recover themselves (2 Timothy 2:26).
• God commands it of everyone. This is his commandment, That we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ (1 John 3:23). When His hearers in John 5 stayed away, Jesus did not say faith had been withheld. He said, ye will not come to me, that ye might have life (John 5:40).
• Two other passages. The measure of faith in Romans 12:3 concerns how believers serve. The faith among the spiritual gifts in 1 Corinthians 12:9 is an unusual trust given to some believers. Neither is about how a sinner is saved.

Where does that leave grace? Everywhere. God gave His Son. He sends the Gospel, for faith cometh by hearing (Romans 10:17). He sends the Spirit to reprove the world of sin (John 16:8). The goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance (Romans 2:4). No one ever turned to God without God coming to him first. But God does not believe for you. The turning is truly the sinner's own, and it earns nothing. Where is boasting then? It is excluded (Romans 3:27). See Human Responsibility and Irresistible Grace.

Works Meet for Repentance

Paul told King Agrippa what he preached everywhere: that they should repent and turn to God, and do works meet for repentance (Acts 26:20). First the turning, then the works that fit it.

Meet means fitting. The works do not pay for the turning. They show it, the way apples show what kind of tree you are looking at. And repentance gets specific. John told tax collectors, Exact no more than that which is appointed you, and soldiers, Do violence to no man (Luke 3:13–14). Zacchaeus said, if I have taken any thing from any man by false accusation, I restore him fourfold (Luke 19:8). That was not penance. Nobody assigned it. He was a changed man acting like one.

Real and Counterfeit

The Puritan Thomas Watson, in The Doctrine of Repentance (1668), named six ingredients of true repentance. They make a good mirror.

1. Sight of sin. You call it what God calls it, and stop explaining why it is not so bad.
2. Sorrow for sin. You grieve the sin, not just the consequences. Anyone is sorry when the blue lights come on.
3. Confession of sin. You say it plainly, with no excuses attached (Proverbs 28:13).
4. Shame for sin. You are embarrassed by how you treated your Father, not proud of the story.
5. Hatred of sin. You want it gone. But hating your sin is not hating yourself. God is not asking you to despise yourself. Repentance looks away from self to Christ.
6. Turning from sin. Without this one, the other five are only feelings.

A mirror cannot wash your face. No one does these six perfectly, and none of them earns anything. Fruit can take time. A new believer is a newborn, not a finished saint. But a turning that never changes anything is a reason to examine yourselves (2 Corinthians 13:5). Evidence is not proof, and only God sees the heart, yet the Spirit who gives new life does not leave a person as He found him.

Repentance After Salvation

You are saved once. You go on repenting for the rest of your life, not to be saved again, but to walk with your Father.

Martin Luther opened his Ninety-five Theses in 1517 by saying that when Christ said Repent (Matthew 4:17), He willed “the entire life of believers to be one of repentance.” David was a believer when he wrote Psalm 51. And Jesus told His own, As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent (Revelation 3:19).

A believer's standing is settled: There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1). See Eternal Security. But fellowship can be disturbed. A son who fails does not stop being a son, but he cannot sit easily at his father's table while he is hiding something. When God feels distant, ask whether something has come between you. Repentance closes that gap.

“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”1 JOHN 1:9 · KJV

John writes this to believers, My little children (1 John 2:1). Some teachers say that since the cross forgave every sin, a Christian never needs to confess. They are right about the cross. But the apostle who calls Christ the propitiation for our sins (1 John 2:2) also tells God's children to confess. We do not confess to be saved. We confess because we are His. See Fighting Sin.

Four Honest Sentences

Repentance has a voice, with God and with one another. I am sorry. I was wrong. Please forgive me. I will change. Most of us stop after the first one. When you have sinned, read Psalm 51 slowly and pray it.

When You Keep Falling

You have confessed the same sin more times than you can count, and you wonder whether any of it was real. There are two people to tell apart. One is at peace with his sin. He says sorry to feel better and has no wish to leave it. That is managing guilt, not repentance, and the Father's discipline will find him (Hebrews 12:6). The other is at war with his sin. He hates it, he fights it, he falls, and he comes back. That is a believer in a battle. Keep coming. And change something: tell someone, and cut off the access.

Listen to which voice is speaking. Worldly sorrow says, This is just who you are. Stop trying. That is the accuser of our brethren (Revelation 12:10). Godly sorrow says, You should grieve this, and there is hope, and His name is Jesus. If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous (1 John 2:1).

Turn to Him Today

Repentance and faith are not a subject to finish. They are a door to walk through. Three questions keep people standing outside it.

• Have I been sorry enough? The measure of repentance is not the number of your tears. Do not trust your repentance. Trust Christ. It is the blood of Jesus Christ his Son that cleanseth us from all sin (1 John 1:7), not the depth of your feeling about it.
• Have I gone too far? David was an adulterer and a murderer. Peter denied the Lord. Paul called himself the chief of sinners (1 Timothy 1:15). Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow (Isaiah 1:18). If your sin troubles you tonight, you have not gone too far.
• Do I have to quit everything first? No. You do not have to win the battle before you come. You have to stop defending your sin, and come to Christ wanting Him to change you. He does the changing, and He will spend the rest of your life doing it (Philippians 1:6).

If You Have Never Turned to Christ

This part is for you. God is not waiting for you to get your life together. He is waiting for you to come.

Here is the Gospel. God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life (John 3:16). You have sinned against Him, and so have I, and the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23). You cannot pay that debt. But Jesus Christ, the Son of God, paid it for you. He died for our sins, was buried, and rose again the third day (1 Corinthians 15:3–4). He is alive today, and He is the only Saviour. And salvation is free: by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast (Ephesians 2:8–9). You do not earn a gift. You receive it.

So turn to Him. Agree with God that your sin is wrong. Admit that you cannot save yourself. Put your whole trust in Jesus, and in nothing else. Then call on Him, for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved (Romans 10:13).

No words have power in themselves. Christ saves, not a prayer. But if this is the honest cry of your heart, tell Him so, right where you are. You might say something like this: “Lord Jesus, I know that I am a sinner, and I have sinned against You. I cannot save myself. I believe You died for my sins and rose again. I turn from my sin and from trusting myself, and I trust You alone to save me. Thank You for loving me.”

If you have done that, He has heard you. He gave His word: him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out (John 6:37). Tell someone what has happened. Find a church that teaches the Bible, talk to the pastor, and follow the Lord in baptism. Start reading the Gospel of John. You have a Father now, and He ran to meet you.

If you are not ready, do not walk away from this quietly. Tomorrow is promised to no one. Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation (2 Corinthians 6:2).