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Repentance and faith are the necessary responses you must make 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.
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.
This is the human side of salvation—called conversion—where you change your thinking about sin with a decisive turn from sin and to God in order to restore your relationship with Him, and place your faith and trust in Jesus Christ for who He is and what He has done for you through His death and resurrection which results in righteous living. (1 Thessalonians 1:9).
This turning leads to the divine side of salvation called justification and regeneration (spiritual rebirth).
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.
It requires total surrender as you repent and confess your faith in Jesus.
What Is Repentance?
Repentance is one of the definite marks of a believer. It is the grace of God applied by the Holy Spirit, where a sinner is inwardly humbled and visibly changed.
It begins in the heart—a change of thinking about sin and results in action—a turning from sin and to God. It pursues righteousness inwardly, because everything you say and do flows from the heart. It’s like ‘I used to think this, saying this and doing that, was okay, but I don’t anymore.’
“Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you (say and) do flows from it.”
— (Proverbs 4:23); emphasis added.
The Exegetical Dictionary defines repentance as:
“A change of mind that includes a decisive turning from sin to God.”
Repentance is:
- A desire to forsake sin completely
- A heartfelt sorrow for sin—not just for the act, but for the separation it caused from God
- A genuine, Spirit-confirmed change that is eternal and life-transforming
Genuine repentance knows that the evil of sin must be forsaken and the person and work of Christ must be totally and singularly embraced.
“The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart—These, O God, You will not despise.”
— (Psalm 51:17)
The Bible makes it clear—there is no true conversion without repentance. It is literally going from death to life, instantly.
Godly Sorrow vs. Worldly Sorrow
“Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death.”
— (2 Corinthians 7:10)
True repentance cannot occur apart from such a genuine sorrow over one’s sin.
- Worldly sorrow: Regret over consequences—embarrassment, shame, fear of punishment—but no heart change.
- Godly sorrow: Deep grief for having sinned against God, produced by the Holy Spirit, leading to true repentance.
Repentance is ongoing—a daily turning to God—because while believers are in the world, they are not of it. Jesus calls believers to a lifetime of repentance until the day He returns.
“…He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” — (Philippians 1:6)
What Is Faith?
“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”
— (Hebrews 11:1)
Faith is belief, trust, and complete confidence—with absolute certainty—in:
- Who Jesus is: The one true, sovereign God, with all authority in heaven and on earth.
- What Jesus did for you: He died on the cross to pay the penalty for your sins, and was raised from the dead to give eternal life to all who repent and put their faith and trust in Him.
Faith means turning to, trusting in, and relying on Him alone.
“Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.”
— (Proverbs 3:5–6)
Faith comes from hearing the Truth of the Gospel:
“So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”
— (Romans 10:17)
The Holy Spirit grants this faith when he deems it to be sincere. 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, “saving” faith.
It is impossible for you to deceive the Holy Spirit when it comes to Him granting faith.
Faith and Works
True saving faith is always active. It produces good works as its evidence—not as its source.
“Faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.”
— (James 2:17)
Works are the visible proof of the invisible faith within. Just as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead.
Regeneration and Justification
Just as repentance and faith together make up the “human” side of salvation, regeneration and justification make up the “divine” side. It is because of your repentance and faith in Christ, which is granted by the Holy Spirit, that you are spiritually “born again” and granted new life in Christ. God, in His great mercy and grace, declares you not guilty and you are made righteous through the righteousness of Jesus.
“He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by His grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.”
— (Titus 3:5–7)
Regeneration
Regeneration is the moment the Holy Spirit makes you alive in Christ; the first resurrection.
Jesus told Nicodemus:
“…unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
— (John 3:3)
Regeneration is when the Holy Spirit transforms you into a spiritual rebirth, where you are born again as a new creation in Christ.
You must be born again because in your natural state you are spiritually dead in sin (Ephesians 2:1). At the moment of salvation, the Holy Spirit replaces your sin-hardened heart with a new heart (Ezekiel 36:26), takes residence within your heart (1 Corinthians 6:19) and transforms your desires, thinking, and behavior to be Christlike.
The gift of the “new heart” signifies the new birth, which is regeneration by the Holy Spirit (Ezekiel 11:18-20). The ‘heart” stands for the whole nature. The “spirit” indicates the governing power of the mind which directs thought and conduct. A “stony heart” is stubborn and self-willed. A “heart of flesh” is pliable and responsive. The evil inclination is removed and a new nature replaces it. This is New Covenant character. (MacArthur Bible Commentary)
Only those who are born again have their names written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.
“Justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.”
— (Romans 3:24)
Justification
Justification is your position in Christ, your legal standing before God—determined by Him alone, based entirely on the completed redemptive work of Jesus Christ, and received through repentance and faith granted by the Holy Spirit.
You are justified first by His blood (Romans 5:9) and second by His resurrection (Romans 4:25)
Through your faith in Christ, God credits the perfect righteousness of Jesus to you, acquits you of all guilt, removes your status as His enemy, and declares you to be in right standing with Him—fully pardoned and accepted.
“Justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.”
— (Romans 3:24)
It’s not earned. It’s not deserved. It’s given entirely by grace through faith—apart from works (Romans 3:28).
When God sees you in Christ, it is “just as if you had never sinned.”
God responds to true repentance and faith with regeneration (new birth by the Spirit) and justification (declaring the sinner righteous).
So yes — the promise includes repentance and faith as the human response. And when that response is genuine, the Spirit applies regeneration and justification as God’s saving act.
When we repent and believe, God responds. The Holy Spirit applies salvation, bringing regeneration (new birth, a new heart, eternal life) and justification (declared innocent, not guilty and righteous before God) and .
Both the human response and the divine work are inseparably linked. While repentance and faith are exercised by the sinner, repentance and justification are God’s sovereign acts. Yet they happen together in the mysterious moment of conversion- one of God’s greatest miracles.
The short answer is: in real time, repentance, faith, regeneration and justification all occur together in one seamless moment — but there’s a logical (theological) order that Scripture suggests, and yes, the Holy Spirit is the one orchestrating it all.
New Life in Christ
When you are regenerated and justified:
Transformed by the Holy Spirit into a spiritual rebirth, where you are born again (for a second time) as a new creation in Christ. Your old sinful self has been crucified with Christ. The old you no longer exists and everything about you is made new.
A new heart, a new mind (a new way of thinking), a new way of acting and reacting, a new attitude, a new Christlike character and identity and a new way of living your life.
Your identity is made complete and whole for the first time and for all time—from a sinner separated from God to beloved child and heir of eternal life; no longer identifying as who are and what you have done, but by whose you are in Christ and what He has done for you.
- Your old sinful self is crucified with Christ (Galatians 2:20)
- You become a new creation
- Your identity changes and is made complete—from sinner separated from God to beloved child and heir of eternal life; no longer identifying as who are and what you have done, but by whose you are in Christ and what He has done for you.
- You are reigning in Christ right now… not like you are going to when He returns, but reigning, none-the-less. This is the part of eternal life that begins the moment you are born again and continues forever more.
Your new heart is now the hub of your life—the source from which all attitudes and actions flow:
From this moment forward, your life is patterned after Christ, empowered by the Spirit, and marked by a growing love for God and other believers.
Baptism means to “be dipped or immersed” in water. Peter was obeying Christ’s command from Matthew 28:19 (The Great Commission) when he urged the people who repented and turned to Christ for salvation to identify, through the waters of baptism, with His death, burial and resurrection. You don’t get baptized to “get saved,” but because you have been saved. The reality of the forgiveness of sins precedes the rite of baptism.
Click on the link to learn who Jesus is:
You are saved by God’s grace through repentance and faith in Jesus Christ.
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