Featured More on Repentance

Having Faith in Jesus requires us to NOT PLACE OUR FAITH in other things. We have to place all our faith in Jesus as Lord. Part of placing our Faith in Him is believing that he will give us a fulfilled life. If we believe we must trust in ANY THING ELSE to have a fulfilled life, we are NOT placing all our Faith in our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

See the parable of the rich, young ruler. The recorders of the Gospels recorded this account for all of us. Jesus did not tell him to sell everything to do a work that would make him worthy of eternal life. He told him to sell everything because Jesus knew he was placing all his (the ruler's) faith in his riches, his youth (probably good looks etc.) and his position. Jesus was telling him to place all his Faith in Him (Jesus.) The sell everything command was telling him that to fully trust in Jesus, he had to also NOT TRUST IN HIS OWN ABILITIES AND POSSESSIONS.

That parable is for all of us. At one time in life we all have been tempted to believe we had to be rich, better looking, or have a better job to have a life worth living. That parable is telling us, we need to have Faith in Jesus to have eternal life that is worth living, both in Heaven and now on here on Earth. We too should not have faith in worldly things.

 

A couple of questions, if you don't mind. How would you interpret the "faith alone" passages that I referred to earlier? How do you see the role of repentance in the role of salvation? That is, I don't quite understand your view of how one is saved.

 

"When the gospel is proclaimed, it seems at first sight that two different, even alternative, responses are called for. Sometimes the summons is, ‘Repent!’ Thus, #John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, “Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand”‘ (Matt. 3:1-2). Again, Peter urged the hearers whose consciences had been ripped open on the day of Pentecost, ‘Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ’ (Acts 2:38). Later, Paul urged the Athenians to ‘repent’ in response to the message of the risen Christ (Acts 17:30).

Yet, on other occasions, the appropriate response to the gospel is, ‘Believe!’ When the Philippian jailer asked Paul what he must do to be saved, the Apostle told him, ‘Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved’ (Acts 16:31).

But there is no mystery or contradiction here. Further on in Acts 17, we discover that precisely where the response of repentance was required, those who were converted are described as believing (Acts 17:30, 34).

Any confusion is surely resolved by the fact that when Jesus preached ‘the gospel of God’ in Galilee, he urged his hearers, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel’ (Mark 1:14-15). Here repentance and faith belong together. They denote two aspects in conversion that are equally essential to it. Thus, either term implies the presence of the other because each reality (repentance or faith) is the sine qua non of the other.

In grammatical terms, then the words repent and believe both function as a synecdoche — the figure of speech in which a part is used for the hole. Thus, repentance implies faith and faith implies repentance. One cannot exist without the other."

- Sinclair Ferguson

 

But it is clear that Reformed do believe in repentance, and your understanding of what faith alone means is wrong.

 

You say he's wrong but did not explain how. Can you explain the difference between repentance and faith? Can someone have faith and not repent, or repent but not have faith?

 

Certainly. I believe I referenced Romans 3:19-28, Romans chapter 4, Romans 10:9-13, Galatians 2:11-21, Galatians 3:6-4:11, Ephesians 2:8-9 and Titus 3:5-7. I was making the point that each of these passages speaks of salvation by faith vs works or the Law. I'm sure you don't believe in a "works" salvation, since you know the Bible well. It's clear that we must repent when we are saved.

@Mikey made a good point - Is it possible to have faith and not repentance?

 

It seems that we may be saying the same thing after all, just coming from different angles. That is the way I understand it, Brother.

 

@Mikey gave a great quote by Sinclair Ferguson (# 25).

As Ferguson explained, this is not contradictory. I hold to the view that we are saved by faith alone. The Reformers said that we are saved by faith alone, but not by a faith that is alone. It's clear that we are saved by grace alone and we must repent when we are saved.

In # 26, even you said

I agree that repentance and faith are not the same thing. To repeat Mikey's question, is it possible to have faith and not repent? Of course, the answer is "no". This is largely a matter of semantics. We essentially believe the same things regarding faith and repentance, but you don't like the phrase "faith alone". It doesn't change anything, as it amounts to the same thing.

 

The dead in sins will not repent while they are dead. They will repent when God makes them alive.

Somehow you cannot accept this truth. You demand that dead people repent BEFORE they are made alive.

You imagine that those who were dead in trespasses and sins, during the time Jesus walked on earth, had the capacity to repent. When Jesus spoke to all, only those who the Father had given him and made alive ever responded in repentance. Those who were not made alive never responded in repentance. They had no capacity to respond. Why? Because they were spiritually dead in their trespasses and sins.

Can you acknowledge that God must make us alive first or is that passage meaningless to you?

You demand that dead people MUST repent BEFORE God can react in making them alive.

 

The main point of "faith alone" is that we are saved by faith alone without any works or following the Law. This doesn't remove the need for repentance.

 

Ephesians 2:4-9
But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.