SALVATION AND REPENTANCE

SALVATION AND REPENTANCE.

On the day of Pentecost Peter the son of Jonah preached a memorable sermon which has been read again and again for over 2000 years so far. The sermon was so touching and one critical part of that sermon was, “Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord; And he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you: Whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began.” Act 2:38. Following this sermon the word repent featured in two other key scriptures during the formative years of the Christian church. The following are the keys instances the word featured:

• Acts 11:18.          When they heard these things, they held their peace, and glorified God, saying, then hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life.
• 2Ti 2:25.               In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth;

The word translated repent has the connotation of changing one's mind for better with the abhorrence of one's past sins. To repent is therefore to change your mind regarding something or someone better. In our case, it is a movement from sin to faith in Christ. On the day of Pentecost Peter concluded his sermon with a call for the people to repent. On the day of Peter’s famous sermon, he called on the people who had previously rejected Jesus to repent or in other words to change their minds about the very same Yeshua and recognize that He is indeed “Lord and Christ.”

About 40 days before this sermon the people of Israel had accused Jesus of blasphemy and teaching unacceptable doctrine. They had sought the help of the Roman governor in having him executed. Their religious leaders, after seeing Jesus’ influence and irrefutable miracles, convened a council meeting to discuss the situation. They had said among themselves, “What are we going to do? For this man certainly does miracles.  If we let him alone the whole nation will follow him—and then the Roman army will come and kill us and take over the governance from us.” They thus had resolved that it was advantageous for them, that one man should die for the people, rather than that the whole nation should perish considering that Christ was teaching a doctrine they suspected to be blasphemous. John 11:47-50. Peter was therefore calling the people to change their minds from the rejection of Christ as the Messiah to faith in Him as both Messiah and Saviour.

Peter’s sermon was so heart rending such that out of the conviction of their sin, the people cried, “what shall we do?” to which Peter replied, “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.” Acts 2:38. This response therefore demonstrates that repentance and faith can be understood as two sides of the same coin because it is impossible to place your faith in Jesus Christ as the Saviour without first changing your mind about who He is and what He has done. This response thus makes it plain that repentance is not a work but a necessity in the plan of salvation. Whether it is repentance from deliberate rejection or remorse from ignorance and/or indifference, it remains a change of mind in the manner we perceive Christ. Biblical repentance, in relation to salvation, is changing your mind from rejection of Christ to faith and trust in Christ alone.

It is crucially imperative that we comprehend that repentance is not a work we do to earn salvation. Ironically the Bible teaches that there is a relationship between salvation and repentance which cannot be broken. Primarily, repentance is essential to salvation because no one can truly believe unless he repents first in as much as no one can truly repent unless he believes in Jesus Christ and his saving grace. Repentance and faith are therefore two sides of the same coin yet they are not synonymous terms. 2 Peter 3:9 reads, “The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance” hence Acts 11:18 and 2 Peter 3:9 are two examples of scriptures that validate that repentance is essential for salvation. The words, In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth; And that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will,” in 2 Timothy 2:25 superlatively summarise the relationship between repentance and faith which results in salvation in the same manner that Acts 20:21 reveals. This is the set position because no one can repent and come to God unless God pulls that person to Himself. See John 6:44.

It is important to note that repentance is not a work that earns salvation but repentance unto salvation does result in works. When Zacchaeus the Tax Collector repented, he performed restitution and as a result the Lord said, “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.” Luke 19:1-10. Almost always when someone truly and fully changes his mind or repents that act of repentance always causes a change in action or behaviour. John the Baptist believed in the fact that true repentance always results in a change of behaviour hence he demanded that people who repented must “produce fruit in keeping with repentance.” See Matthew 3:8. Paul in 2^nd Corinthians 5:17 makes it crustal clear that a person who truly repents from the rejection of Christ to faith in Christ will produce evidence of a changed life. Repentance, properly defined, is necessary for salvation because Christ himself preached repentance as it is documented in Mark 1:14-15 that "…. after …. John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel"

Someone once wrote on the internet, “the Greek word for repentance (metanoia) means "to have another mind," but it cannot properly be defined to exclude a sense of hatred of and penitence for sin. The biblical concept of repentance involves far more than merely a casual change of thinking. Biblically, a person who repents does not continue willfully in sin. Repentance is a turning from sin, and it always results in changed behavior (Luke 3:8). While sorrow from sin is not equivalent to repentance, it is certainly an element of scriptural repentance (2 Corinthians 7:10).

Finally, despite what is being widely taught today, affirming that repentance and acknowledgement of Jesus' lordship are necessary to salvation does not "add" anything to the requirement of faith for salvation. It is not "faith plus repentance" that saves, but rather a repentant faith. The notion that salvation is possible apart from a genuine, heartfelt repentance, which includes a deep hatred of sin, is a relatively new one, neither believed nor taught by the people of God until the twentieth century.”

In Acts 3:11-19 following the healing of the lame man Peter once again preached another sermon which concluded with the words "Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out ..." Here we yet again see the link between repentance and conversion. This is also the reason why the apostle Paul once wrote, “be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.” Romans 12:2. There is absolutely no repentance which does not end with total transformation of the total person. When a thief repents, he will not remain a thief because “if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” 2 Corinthians 5:17. When Paul was converted he did not continue to persecute the church but he immediately started to preach the Jesus for whom he used to persecute the church. Repentance must therefore result in a radical transformation of person’s character and thought process.