In part 1, we learned that all people are naturally sinners, that God commands everyone to repent, but that our very sinfulness prevents us to repent of our sins. In this final part, we’ll find out what repentance is, what God commands us to repent of, and what the relationship is between repentance and faith.
We Have Brought Our Sufferings on Ourselves
We, as a race, are the direct cause of many of our own miseries. Ever since the Fall of man in the Garden of Eden, we are sinful by nature, and this causes us to be greedy, covetous, murderous, adulterous, warlike, and generally lawless. I am not saying that we all have all of these tendencies to the fullest degree possible. But we all naturally have them to one degree or another, and, of course, we affect each other. I may never have stolen anything, but if someone steals my car, I am affected by someone else’s sin. And other people are affected by my sins.
Before Adam sinned, there was no death (Romans 5:12; 6:23). Life was idyllic. Suffering and death started only after Adam sinned. God had warned Adam what would happen if he disobeyed (Genesis 2:16-17), but Adam chose to disobey anyway.
After Adam sinned, not only did man’s nature change—from innocence to sinful depravity, but the nature of the entire Creation changed. In Genesis 3, we read that Adam would have to sweat to grow food because the soil became difficult to work, tending to bear weeds. In Romans 8:20-22, we read that the Creation was made subject to vanity. This word “vanity” means an emptiness of purpose or futility. But God, who subjected it to this vanity, did so “in hope, that the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of decay into the liberty of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and travails in pain together until now.” The Creation has become corrupt. It is no longer “very good” as it was when God originally made it (Genesis 1:31). Things happen that cause people to suffer.
So, we see that some suffering comes directly from sinful man’s actions—wars, acts of terrorism, murders, and thefts are obvious examples, but there are many others. And, some suffering is a result of the corruption or brokenness of the Creation. And, some is directly from God because of man’s sin, such as the Flood of Noah’s time. These were all caused by sin entering the world through Adam.
God Doesn’t Have to Save Anyone, but in Love, He Graciously Saves Those Who Believe on His Son
God has no obligation whatsoever to save us from the physical and spiritual destruction we’ve brought on ourselves. But the Bible says, in John 3:16, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.” Yes, God has no obligation to save anyone. But He is a God of love, and He saves those who believe on His Son whom He sent to die for sinners.
Perhaps you are not the worst of sinners. But that does not get you out of peril. You are still a sinner. And the Bible clearly says in Romans 6:23, “the wages of sin is death.” And that death referred to is both physical and spiritual or eternal death. But the verse goes on to say, “the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Yes, just as sin results in eternal death, so God can give you the gift of eternal life through Jesus Christ! But how?
What Is Repentance?
Remember, Paul said that God “commands that all people everywhere should repent.” What does it mean to repent? What is repentance?
If this article has seemed like it has taken a long time to get to the point, it’s because I wanted to show you humanity’s helpless condition. I wanted you to understand the human race’s sinfulness and our inability to deal with it ourselves. I wanted you to see that the prevalent teaching that the Gospel call to repent is a call to repent of our sins is wrong.
Repentance is translated from the Greek word metanoeō. It literally means “a change of mind.” What do we change our mind about?
In Acts 20:20-21, Paul writes of how he taught publicly and from house to house, “testifying both to Jews and to Greeks repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus” (Acts 20:21). This speaks of a change of mind toward God and faith or belief toward Jesus. The answer, then, is that the repentance God commands is a change of mind from our rebellious unbelief to believing in the Gospel or Good News. A core precept of the Good News is that we are to believe in Jesus Christ as our Savior.
Don’t be fooled by those who teach that repentance is turning from your sins and turning to a better life or obedience to the law. Don’t fall for preachers who turn the Gospel into a self-help message of making promises, covenanting obedience, pledging resolutions, or overcoming sins. When Paul and Silas were jailed in Philippi, and their jailer asked them “’Sirs, what must I do to be saved?’ They said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household’” (Acts 16:30-31).
Many ministers even recommend what amounts to taking stock of your sins, setting your will against them, using a 12-step program or some form of psychology, and, perhaps with prayer and fasting and asking for God’s strength, putting sin out of your life. The problem with this is that sin is not just external. You are sinful to your very core. How can you put yourself out of your life? You can’t!
Jesus Christ Alone is the Answer
The kind of repentance God wants is not a turning from our sins to a human resolve to not sin. It is not a turning from lawlessness to keeping the law. It is not a turning from immorality to morality. It is not a covenant, a promise, a pledge, a resolution, or a heartfelt desire to turn from sin. No, true repentance is a turning from unbelief to belief in Jesus Christ as your Savior, a turning from human efforts to establish our own righteousness through the works of the law to trusting in Jesus Christ alone. The kind of repentance God wants is the kind in which we recognize our helplessness and the worthlessness of our promises of obedience and simply trust in the completed work of Jesus Christ as our Savior. True repentance is, in fact, an essential element of the gift of God that is faith (Acts 11:18; Ephesians 2:8).
Think of a coin that has repentance on one side and faith—otherwise known as trust or belief—on the other. There is no true repentance without belief. In fact, another way of thinking of repentance is to say that it is a change of mind from unbelief to belief. It is a turning from rejection and distrust of Jesus Christ to entrusting Him entirely with our salvation. When we repent, we are to make an about face from whatever we had been trusting and turn toward Jesus Christ who has been crucified to pay the penalty for all our wretched sinfulness. In Romans 6:6, Paul writes, “knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be in bondage to sin.”
Do you see that the message of “repent of your sin” is a worthless, anti-Gospel “bad news” that obscures the Good News that Jesus Christ has completely taken care of our sin for us? Salvation is not a cooperative effort in which Jesus does some and we do some. Jesus has done it all for us. That’s true Good News!
Jesus Christ Himself said, “The time is fulfilled, and the Kingdom of God is at hand! Repent, and believe in the Good News” (Mark 1:15). Paul explains why we should believe the Gospel, “For I am not ashamed of the Good News of Christ, for it is the power of God for salvation for everyone who believes; for the Jew first, and also for the Greek” (Romans 1:16).
When we are faced with our sinfulness, we must turn to believe that Jesus Christ the Righteous, the Son of God, was made flesh, lived a sinless life, took upon Him our sins, and died for them on the Cross; shedding His blood to satisfy God’s wrath against us and to pay the penalty that we would otherwise have had to pay in hell for our sins. Not only that, but God credits Jesus’ righteousness to us, so that, as Paul wrote, “But of him, you are in Christ Jesus, who was made to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption: that, according as it is written, ‘He who boasts, let him boast in the Lord'” (1 Corinthians 1:30-31).
Faith
Repentance and faith are inseparable. When we put our trust in Jesus Christ, we have obviously changed our mind from sinful unbelief. Or, rather, God has changed our minds. He gives us the gift that enables us to turn and trust. I have quoted Ephesians 2:8-9 many times, and will likely do so again many times because these verses are so clear: “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, that no one would boast.” The Jews, on the whole, did not seek righteousness by faith. Paul explains, “But Israel, following after a law of righteousness, didn’t arrive at the law of righteousness. Why? Because they didn’t seek it by faith, but as it were by works of the law. They stumbled over the stumbling stone; even as it is written, ‘Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and a rock of offense; and no one who believes in him will be disappointed'” (Romans 9:31-33). That stumbling stone and rock is, of course, Jesus Christ.
Self-righteousness and self-dependence are so deeply rooted in human nature that it is impossible to turn to Jesus Christ without God’s gift of faith. Repentance is from God. When the Gentiles turned to God, the Jewish Christians who heard of it said, “Then God has also granted to the Gentiles repentance to life!” (Acts 11:18b). Psalm 80, verse 3, says, “Turn us again, God. Cause your face to shine, and we will be saved.” And Jeremiah 31:18-19 says, “I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself thus, You have chastised me, and I was chastised, as a calf unaccustomed to the yoke: turn you me, and I shall be turned; for you are the LORD my God. Surely after that I was turned, I repented; and after that I was instructed, I struck on my thigh: I was ashamed, yes, even confounded, because I did bear the reproach of my youth.”
Yes, God commands all men everywhere to repent. And there is no doubt that those whom He has given to Jesus Christ will do so. In Psalm 110:1-3, we read of the coronation of Jesus Christ after He had accomplished our salvation: “The LORD says to my Lord, ‘Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool for your feet.’ The LORD will send forth the rod of your strength out of Zion. Rule in the midst of your enemies. Your people offer themselves willingly in the day of your power, in holy array. Out of the womb of the morning, you have the dew of your youth.” We can come to Him only on the basis of His perfect righteousness, nothing of our own.
We turn in repentance from ourselves or anything else we have been relying on to rest faithfully and completely in Jesus Christ. Paul explains in Galatians 2:16: “Yet knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, even we believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ, and not by the works of the law, because no flesh will be justified by the works of the law.” And in Romans 3:23-28, we read,
For all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God; being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus; whom God set forth to be an atoning sacrifice, through faith in his blood, for a demonstration of his righteousness through the passing over of prior sins, in God’s forbearance; to demonstrate his righteousness at this present time; that he might himself be just, and the justifier of him who has faith in Jesus. Where then is the boasting? It is excluded. By what manner of law? Of works? No, but by a law of faith. We maintain therefore that a man is justified by faith apart from the works of the law.
This is justification through the redemption that Jesus Christ earned for us on the Cross, and we receive that justification by faith alone. To those who turn and exercise faith in Jesus Christ alone as Savior, God pronounces the verdict, Not guilty!
Where will you stand on the Day of Judgment? Will you be found guilty of your sins? Will you be condemned for trusting in your promises, your works of obedience, your repentance from sin? Or will you be found repentant of trusting in yourself; washed clean of all of your sins by the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ; and, with a new, sinless nature, resting in Jesus Christ alone for your salvation?
But God commends his own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we will be saved from God’s wrath through him.
Romans 5:8-9
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