Repentance and Faith

"Testifying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ." Acts 20:21

Paul was telling these folks that this was his main message, repentance toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, as it should be with all Ministers today. These two words (repentance and faith) are two words that confuse a lot of folks in our time. We must understand repentance toward God is not salvation in itself, in other words repentance never saved one single soul, it is faith toward Jesus Christ that delivers salvation to the unworthy soul. The word repentance simply means “a turning around or a reversal” and there is nothing about a turning around or reversal that delivers salvation. Faith toward Jesus Christ is the point of salvation because it is faith in Him that can save; it is faith that His blood is strong enough to wash away all our sins. Since repentance is not the same as saving faith therefore it is not a saving factor. However when we look at the word repentance we do see a great significance to it. When Paul said “repentance toward God” we see that it is God who we owe repentance toward, it is God that we have so greatly sinned against and it is God that we must turn from the wickedness of this world and began to follow and worship. We have all offended God all of our life by living in iniquity and are guilty of crimes against Him. We repent toward God because it is He who can give a pardon for sin, since it is He who we have sinned against it is Him who we owe our repentance too. True repentance can only exist once we have an understanding of our sins against God, just to acknowledge repentance is not repentance in itself. We must ask why is there repentance, and the answer must be “because I have sinned against God and want forgiveness”. The Lord tells us that a true worship of Him is a spiritual thing between God’s Spirit and your heart, John 4:24 and therefore repentance must be a spiritual thing between you and God whom you have sinned against. A simply acknowledgement of repentance in your mind or through your mouth is not enough, just as a simple acknowledgement of saving faith is not enough. It must be from the heart or it is not real to God and therefore there is no pardon of sin.

Repentance is not real unless there is a true turning from sin, Job 36:10 “He openeth also their ear to discipline, and commandeth that they return from iniquity.” What good is there in repentance if there is no turning from sin? Doesn’t the word by definition mean a turning around? It is our faith in Jesus Christ that makes repentance possible. The sinner on his own will never repent to God because the sinner has nothing inside of him to cause this repentance.