Believe and Repent?
One of the things you will often hear pastors and teachers say is that you need to believe and repent to be saved. A lot of times it is in response to someone who is living a life of sin after saying they believed the gospel for salvation. They’ll say, “That person didn’t really repent from their sin, so they aren’t really saved.”
Or in a gospel presentation to unbelievers, they’ll say, “In order to be saved, you need to repent from your sins and believe in Jesus for salvation.”
But is it true? Do you have to repent from your sins to become a true Christian?
IS REPENTANCE NECESSARY FOR SALVATION?
If by “repentance” one means “stop sinning,” then no it is not necessary for salvation. Let’s think about this. . . If you are an unbeliever who is hearing the gospel for the first time, how could you possibly even know all the sins you are supposed to stop doing?
At that point, you don’t even know what the Bible defines as being a sin. If you don’t even know what all is considered a sin, then how could you be making a commitment to not do those things?
The only way this is possible is to first read the entire Bible, make a list of everything that is a sin, and then stop doing them. And if this was possible to do, then why did Jesus have to come and die on the cross? He wouldn’t have had to die for sins if repentance of sins (meaning to stop doing them) was possible.
In other words, this is a works-based salvation and not a grace-based salvation. Having to stop sinning is adding to the gospel. The gospel is, “receive what Jesus has accomplished for you,” and to require someone to stop sinning means that you are working to earn something, not receiving the gift Jesus has already earned for them.
REPENTANCE MEANS CHANGE OF MIND
The Greek word that is translated repent in English is defined this way in the Strongs Concise Dictionary of the Words in the Greek Testament and The Hebrew Bible…
3340. μετανοέω mĕtanŏĕō, met-an-ŏ-eh´-o; from 3326 and 3539; to think differently or afterwards, i.e. reconsider.
To repent means to change one’s mind. After hearing the good news about what Jesus has done for you, you change your mind from what you were believing to be true, to what you are now seeing is in fact true.
In other words, if you didn’t believe in Jesus, but then you hear the truth about who He really is, then you change your mind (repent) and believe in Jesus.
If you believe that works are going to get you to heaven, you change your mind to believe Jesus is the way to heaven.
JOHN NEVER USES THE WORD “REPENT” IN HIS GOSPEL
When John wrote his gospel that is in the New Testament of our Bibles, he tells everyone the purpose of his writing in John 20:31…
31 But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.
John says the whole reason that he was writing this gospel account of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection was so that we would believe in Jesus and therefore have eternal life.
Notice that he doesn’t say that these were written so that you would repent from your sins and believe to have eternal life.
As a matter of fact, John never even uses the word “repent” once in the entire gospel. You would think that if repentance of sins was necessary for salvation that he would have made sure to put that in there.
Now it is true that sometimes the word “repent” was used when the gospel was being presented in the New Testament. For example, in Acts 2:37-38, it says this…
37 When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” 38 Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”
So here, we do see that Peter tells them to “repent” to be saved but notice that Peter doesn’t say “repent of your sins.” As a matter of fact, if you go back and read the entire context, Peter’s entire message to those listening was about trying to change their mind about who Jesus really was. The message was not about “not sinning.”
In other words, the words “repent” and “believe” are used synonymously. To use the word “repent” meant to change their mind from what they were believing to believing the gospel.
When this same Peter was asked by the jailer in Acts 16 what he must do to be saved, Peter and his companion, Silas, said…
31 They replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved.”
So, one time he used the word “repent,” and another time he used the word “believe.” He was saying the same thing in both places.
It is not necessary to believe and repent from your sins to be saved.
TURNING FROM SIN IS A GOOD THING BUT IT DOESN’T SAVE YOU
Now, when some people hear this message that repentance of sin is not necessary for salvation, they automatically think that it means sin is unimportant.
That couldn’t be further from the truth. Sin is extremely important, or Jesus wouldn’t have had to come and die for our sins. But the gospel is not “stop sinning.”
When we receive the gospel, our sins are forgiven, but that is only half the gospel. The other half is that Jesus gives us a new heart. He takes our old, sinful hearts and gives us new hearts with a new nature.
We are now capable of choosing not to sin because of what Jesus has given us when He put His Life in us.
So, as we begin to see this and change our mind about who we now are and what we have in Christ, then this will lead us to not choose to sin. We’ll begin to see that whatever sin provides for us is less than what we have in Jesus.
So, the gospel is not “believe and repent from sins” in order to be saved. It is simply “believe in Jesus and be saved.”
And once you are saved, there’s no reason to go on sinning because you have all that you need in Jesus and the abundant Life He came to give you in Him.