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Genuine Repentance and Saving Faith
You are saved by grace through faith and not by anything 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, but neither is sufficient apart from the other. 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 genuine repentance and takes your genuine belief and applies it as saving faith in Christ.
Genuine 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
Genuine repentance is absolutely necessary. And while it is not a “work” that earns salvation, it is the required response of a heart that truly turns to God.
It is the Holy Spirit-produced response to God’s truth in which a person recognizes the seriousness of their sin, experiences godly sorrow over having offended a holy God, turns away from sin, and turns to Jesus Christ in faith for forgiveness and salvation. It is far more than feeling guilty, regretting consequences, or making a temporary behavioral change. It is a radical change of heart and mind that results in a changed direction of life.
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 where in Christ is revealed to us as a propitiation for sin (the act that satisfies or appeases) God’s righteous wrath, the powerful and just anger of a holy God against sin and evil, and as the only way for reconciliation to the Father.
Without faith, repentance becomes despair and without repentance, faith gives a false sense of security.
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 and mind, with a Godly sorrow for sin—not just for the act of sin, but for the separation it caused from the holy God, which leads to a decisive 180 degree turning from sin and to God” in order to reconcile your relationship to Him. This leads to saving faith and trust in Jesus Christ.
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)
The fruit is evidence, not the cause. John was not teaching that people earn salvation by good works. Rather, repentance produces fruit. Fruit does not produce repentance. Good works are the evidence of a changed heart, not the means of obtaining salvation.
Saving Faith
Faith is the belief, trust, and complete confidence—with absolute certainty— about the facts of the gospel and 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 takes your belief and when He deems it to be genuine, applies it as faith — 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. 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.
But faith does not just mean to believe the facts of the gospel. It requires a supernatural, radical change that only the Holy Spirit can do. Many people “believe,” but remain unrepentant and spiritually dead in their sin and have not been born again. Even the demons “believe” and yet tremble at God’s wrath to come because they can’t be saved.
Saving faith is required for salvation and it indicates that not only do you believe the facts of what Christ has done for you, but that you have also been born again and bear fruit as evidence of your changed life by your trust and obedience in Christ and through the righteous thoughts, attitudes and actions that are produced because of it— which are Christlike, pleasing to God and bringing Him glory.
You must be born again!
Now there was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews; this man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, “Rabbi, we know that You have come from God as a teacher; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.” Jesus answered and said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again (spiritually) he cannot see the kingdom of God.” (John 3:1-3)
This is the divine (spiritual and supernatural) side of conversion which is applied only by the Holy Spirit. You have no ability to produce spiritual rebirth yourself and therefore cannot be truly saved.
By repentance, you give glory to your Creator, God the Father, whom you have offended over and over. God purposed your salvation by His grace through His divine and perfect plan of redemption before the foundation of the world (Ephesians 1:4-5).
By faith, you give glory to your Redeemer, God the Son, Jesus Christ, who came to save you from your sins. Jesus accomplished your salvation through His sinless life, substitutional death and victorious resurrection (John 19:30).
By your salvation, you give glory to the Holy Spirit who convicted you of your sin, led you to repentance and enabled you to come to faith in Christ. The Holy Spirit applies your salvation through conviction of sin, regeneration, and sanctification (Titus 3:5).
All all three persons of the triune God are involved in your salvation; Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Salvation is a free gift of grace and not by anything you have done, “lest anyone should boast.”
“No one can say ‘Jesus is Lord’ except by the Holy Spirit.” (1 Corinthians 12:3)
“No one can come to (Christ) unless the Father who sent me (Jesus) draws him (through the Holy Spirit)…” (John 6:44; emphasis added)
None have the Holy Spirit but true Christians; true born again believers in and disciples of, the Lord Jesus Christ and have the enlightening and sanctifying graces of the Spirit.
No one can believe with his heart, or prove by a miracle, that Jesus was Christ, unless led by the Holy Spirit.
What Does It Mean to be Born Again?
The Character of Genuine Saving Faith
You are saved by God’s grace applied by the Holy Spirit, through genuine repentance and saving faith in Jesus Christ.
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