Salvation Is By Repentance 
We come to the third installment in our series of five articles dealing with what the Bible teaches regarding our salvation, and how we obtain it. So far, we have seen that the Bible teaches that one is not saved by any one thing alone, but rather a series of things that God sets into motion when the gospel is preached, and someone hears it.
Vital are the roles played by our hearing the gospel message and heeding that message through the actions involved with believing it. After all, we must remember that without faith it is impossible to be well pleasing unto Him. Please allow that word to dwell in your mind for a moment Impossible. Impossible! Believe the Gospel or lose your soul. But what are we to believe? Out of all the texts of the Bible, what passages or portions must we believe and act upon to be saved? What portions may we overlook? If we may overlook any, why did God give it to us? There is a difference between John 8:32 with reference to sin (ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free), and Psalm 119:160 with reference to the whole Bible (the sum of Thy word is truth). The gospel can refer to all of the Bible or that message and response to it that refers just to remission of sins. We can distinguish between them, and therefore know what part needs our immediate attention in order to have our sins forgiven. For example, we need not know all the genealogies of Genesis 11 or the book of Numbers in order to be saved. How can we know this? Simply by looking at what men were told in the New Testament in order to be saved. This we are doing in this series of articles. When Jesus preached that all need to repent and believe the gospel (Mk. 1:14,15), and when He taught that the truth would make us free (Jn. 8.32), the contexts refer to that gospel message or good news that we can be set free from sin and its punishment. We have already studied that salvation is by hearing that message of salvation, and by believing that that message is for all including ourselves (the thrust of our two articles thus far). Having heard that Christ died for our sins, and that we need to believe God (take Him at His word, Hebrews 11:6) and believe what God has said (all have sinned and the wages of that sin is death, Romans 3:23; 6:23), we ask what must I do? in order to be saved. I know all sin, I have sinned, and Jesus died for my sins to set me free. Now how do I respond? The Bible teaches that I need to make a change. This change is away from what I have been to what I must be. It is a decision, thus a change of mind and attitude which will change my actions. The Bible calls this change repentance. Now what has repentance to do with our salvation? Perhaps the simplest statement in all the Bible regarding the necessity of repentance is found in what Jesus taught in Luke 13:3, when He said "I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all in like manner perish." Now that is pretty clear! Without repentance I will die in my sins. Except I make some kind of change in thinking and acting, I will lose my soul. Salvation therefore is by repenting! Not repentance alone, for we have already seen other things are involved and necessary. But I must repent or be lost forever. This repentance is described in various ways in other passages of the New Testament. For example, Paul would tell the Christians in Rome that part of being acceptable to God is by not being fashioned according to this world: "but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, and ye may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God" (Rom. 12:1). He told the Ephesian brethren the same thing when he wrote: "and that ye be renewed in the spirit of your mind" (Eph. 4:23). Of necessity, repentance involves at least these two frames of mind: Sorrow and Change. Read how Paul explains it to the saints in Corinth: "I now rejoice, not that ye were made sorry, but that ye were made sorry unto repentance; for ye were made sorry after a godly sort, that ye might suffer loss by us in nothing. For godly sorrow worketh repentance unto salvation, [a repentance] which bringeth no regret: but the sorrow of the world worketh death" (2 Cor. 7.9,10). Simply being sorry for sin or for getting caught in sin is not sufficient. One must feel regret to the point of ceasing that sin, and changing from it changing the actions which caused it. Yes friends, we are saved by repenting. Not by repenting only, for I am saved by nothing only, but I am saved by hearing the gospel message of salvation in Christ, believing that message applies to me, and making the necessary changes in my mind and in my life to cease from behavior that God finds unacceptable, and practicing the behavior He demands. This takes a lifetime of study and application. But it begins by repenting! Thanks for reading. God bless you in your study of His word! Robin W. Haley | | |
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