Repentance

“And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel.” (Mark 1:15)

Firstly repentance is NOT turning over a new leaf, it is not changing your behavior in order for Jesus to save you. The Gospel is not asking men to live the Christ-life. Any teaching that demands a change of conduct toward either God or man for salvation is to add works or human effort to faith, and this contradicts all Scripture.

A sinner can’t repent from sinful deeds [lifestyle] in the sense of ‘to stop sinning’ because he is by nature, a sinner, a slave to sin and a slave cannot release him or herself from what they are in bondage to – ‘sin’. Only through having received Christ can we have victory over sin in our lives where we are no longer slaves to sin.

By Nature We Are Slaves To Sin,
“But God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered. And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.” (Romans 6:17-18)

Firstly Repentance is NOT turning over a new leaf or changing your habits for Jesus to save you. Repentance is a change of attitude and action regarding sin. Hatred of sin turns the repentant person away from his or her sin to God. It is simply a change of mind, where you admit that you are a woeful sinner totally incapable of saving yourself. Thus, you Believe the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ to be saved. It is believing that Christ died on the cross to pay for your sins, was buried and rose the third day. To believe and trust in the risen saviour and His substitutionary death on the cross, as your only means of salvation.

Repentance is that thing when you come before God and see yourself as you are, and see Him as he is, and say with Isaiah “Woe is me, for I am unclean!” Repentance is simply a change of mind, where you admit that you are a woeful sinner totally incapable of saving yourself. Thus, you believe the Gospel (Good News) of the Lord Jesus Christ to be saved.

The Gospel is that Jesus Christ DIED on the cross for our sins, was BURIED, and bodily RESURRECTED three days later

“For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures” (1st Corinthians 15:3-4).

We Must Believe

For you to believe, you have to repent of unbelief. That which makes a man lost must be corrected to believe and trust in the risen saviour and His substitutionary death on the cross, as our only means of salvation.
“He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.” (John 3:18)

You don’t clean up your life to GET SAVED; but rather, God helps you clean up your life by His indwelling Holy Spirit AFTER you’re saved. I try to live right in Christ’s power because I AM SAVED (Romans 3:31; Galatians 2:20), not to BE SAVED (Ephesians 2:8-9). Notice that Ephesians 2:10 says the believer is SAVED UNTO GOOD WORKS, not by good works!!!

Remember, Salvation is NOT found in a religion or good works, but in a Person… The LORD JESUS CHRIST!
“For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” (Romans 10:13)

Simply BELIEVE the Gospel and You Are Saved!

Now, God, who sees through all deceptions, knows that there is no goodness whatever in us. He says that “there is none righteous, no not one.” He knows that “all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags,” and, therefore the Lord Jesus did not come into the world to look after goodness and righteousness with him, and to bestow them upon persons who have none of them. He comes, not because we are just, but to make us so: he justifieth the ungodly.

SOURCE: Charles Spurgeon;

We are not saved by repenting, we are saved by putting our faith in Jesus Christ! In order to turn toward God by faith in His only begotten Son to be saved, of necessity you had to turn from something, which is repentance. For example: A man cannot turn to face toward north without at the same time turning away from some other direction.

1st Thessalonians 1:9, “For they themselves shew of us what manner of entering in we had unto you, and how ye turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God.” They turned TO God FROM idols.

Whatever it is that is hindering you from coming to Christ to be saved, that is what you must change your mind about! If a man didn’t repent, he would never believe. It is impossible to believe without repenting, because without a change of mind toward God, no one would come to Christ.

the fact is, no man repents until the Holy Spirit produces repentance in his soul through the truth. No man believes the Gospel and rests in it for his own salvation until he has judged himself as a needy sinner before God. And this is repentance.”

You Don’t Have To Turn Over A New Leaf To Be Saved.

A person DOESN’T have to “turn from sin” to be saved in the sense of forsaking a sinful lifestyle or turning over a new leaf. Nor do they even have to attempt to stop sinning willfully to be saved.

“This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.” (1 Timothy 1:15)

The man who comes to Jesus by faith HAS already turned his back on sin, which is why he is coming for salvation. The very fact that they are coming to Jesus for salvation is plain evidence that there has been some degree of sincere repentance in that person’s heart.

“Repentance is the very opposite of meritorious experience. It is the confession that one is utterly without merit, and if he is ever saved at all it can only be through the merits of our Lord Jesus Christ, ‘who gave himself a ransom for all.’ Here is firm footing for the soul who realizes that all self-effort is but sinking sand. Christ alone is the Rock of our salvation.”

“Repentance is the recognition of my sinnership — the owning before God that I am as vile as He has declared me to be in His holy Word.”

SOURCE: Harry A. Ironside;

Repentance and faith are inseparable. The Gospel of John mentions the word “believe” 85-times, but the word “repent” is never mentioned even once. In genuine salvation, one who believes on Jesus Christ has repented, and one who repents has believed on the Lord Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins. The idea that one must repent first and then believe second is a false understanding. Biblically, these two parts of salvation happen simultaneously (at the same time). These are not two steps to salvation; but rather, two parts of one step. Repenting and believing are inseparable!

The Gospel DOESN’T Include Stopping Your Sinful Lifestyle

The apostle Paul proclaimed in Romans 1:16, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.” It is THE GOSPEL that is the power of God unto salvation, to him that believeth…

1st Corinthians 15:1-4, “Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures.”

This is the gospel, that is, Christ DIED, was BURIED and RESURRECTED after three days. It is believing the gospel that saves a man.

false teachers today have done, that is, they’ve ADDED the requirement that a person MUST “turn from sin” (meaning the deliberate lifestyle of sin) to be saved. That is a false plan of salvation. Forsaking sinful behavior is reformation, a work, not the gift of God. 2nd Timothy 2:25, “In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth.” Carefully notice in the preceding Scripture that “repentance” is to acknowledge THE TRUTH.. Acts 20:21 speaks of “REPENTANCE TOWARD GOD,” not forsaking of your sins.

You don’t repent first and then look to Christ; but rather, as Spurgeon correctly teaches, “You must look for repentance to Christ. The Holy Ghost, by turning us to Christ, turns us from sin.” Did you understand that? It is the Holy Spirit Who turns us from sin, because we have turned to Christ.

Repentance is not ceasing from sinful bad habits, nor forsaking the world, nor promising to do better nor to reform in the future. Repentance is changing one’s mind about our sins, and Christ, so that we’ll see our self as a guilty sinner in the sight of a holy God, and thus, believe the Gospel to be saved. If repentance were to mean anything more than this, then salvation couldn’t be a gift.