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Repentance and Faith
You are saved by grace through faith and not by anything else you do.
“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” (Hebrews 11:1)
“Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” — (Romans 10:17)
Jesus first preached the gospel of God, in Galilee, saying: “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel” (Mark 1:15); repentance and faith.
Repentance and faith are the necessary responses you must make to God’s gracious offer of salvation. They are inseparable, two sides of the same coin and linked in scripture, yet distinct acts that work hand-in-hand. Both are gifts of God’s grace and neither is possible without the work of the Holy Spirit who convicts you of sin and leads you to repentance and grants you faith in Christ.
Repentance
No message that eliminates repentance can properly be called the gospel, for sinners cannot come to Jesus Christ apart from a radical change of heart, mind, and will. — John MacArthur
You are not saved because you repent. You are saved by putting your faith and trust in Jesus because of what He did for you. Christ’s death on the cross is the only basis for anyone’s salvation.
However, repentance is still absolutely necessary. While it is not work that earns salvation, it is the required response of a heart that truly turns to God.
Repentance of itself is not sufficient—it makes no satisfaction for the Law which we have broken and hence, over and above repentance, there is required from us faith in the Gospel wherein Christ is revealed to us as a propitiation for sin (the act by which God’s righteous wrath, His powerful and just anger against sin, is satisfied or appeased) and as the only way for reconciliation to the Father.
Without faith, repentance becomes despair and without repentance, faith becomes only presumption. Join the two together and the faithful soul is born outwards like a well balanced vessel.
Repentance and faith are the conditions of admission into Christian covenant. Repentance has a special reference to God the Father, and faith, to Jesus Christ, the eternal son.
This is the human side of salvation—called conversion—where in the sense Jesus used it, repentance calls for a “repudiation of the old life in sin and a turning to God for salvation.”
You have a change of heart, with a Godly sorrow for sin—not just for the act of sin, but for the separation it caused from God, which leads to “a change of mind that includes a decisive 180 degree turning from sin to God” in order to reconcile your relationship to Him. This leads to saving faith and trust in Jesus Christ for who He is and what He has done for you.
John the Baptist describes repentance as “no mere academic change of mind, nor mere regret or remorse.” He spoke of repentance as a radical turning from sin that inevitably became manifest in the fruit of righteousness. (from Matthew 3:2)
Faith
Faith is the belief, trust, and complete confidence—with absolute certainty— who Jesus is: the one true, sovereign God, with all authority in heaven and on earth and what Jesus has done: He died on the cross to pay the penalty for sin and was raised from the dead to give eternal life to all who repent and put their faith and trust in Him.
Faith is turning to, trusting in, and relying on Christ alone.
The Holy Spirit grants this faith when He deems it to be genuine — not temporary faith, where you believe for a while and then fall away, or intellectual faith, where your faith in Christ is in your head, but not in your heart or dead faith, where there are no actions to show the evidence of your faith — but real, “genuine” repentance and “saving” faith.
It is impossible for you to deceive the Holy Spirit when it comes to Him granting your faith.
It requires a total surrender as you repent and put your faith and trust in Jesus.
Your conversion by faith leads to the divine side of salvation called regeneration and justification, where the Holy Spirit transforms you into a spiritual rebirth, where you are ‘born again’ as a new creation in Christ and God declares you righteous, not by anything you have done, but through the righteousness of Jesus and what He has done for you.
By repentance, you give glory to your Creator, God the Father, whom you have offended over and over. By faith, you give glory to your Redeemer, God the Son, Jesus Christ, who came to save you from your sins. By your salvation, you give glory to the Holy Spirit who convicted you of your sin, led you to repentance and enables you to come to faith in Christ; all three persons of God, by the way.
“No one can say ‘Jesus is Lord’ except by the Holy Spirit.” (1 Corinthians 12:3) and “No one can come to (Christ) unless the Father who sent me (Jesus) draws him (through the Holy Spirit)…” (John 6:44)
None have the Holy Spirit but true Christians; true believers in, and disciples of, the Lord Jesus Christ and all have the spirit, at least in his enlightening and sanctifying graces.
No one can believe with his heart, or prove by a miracle, that Jesus was Christ, unless led by the Holy Spirit.
The Character of Genuine Saving Faith
You are saved by God’s grace through repentance and faith in Jesus Christ.
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