Do I have to Repent of Sin To Be Saved?
In your quest to seek the truth on spiritual salvation you will probably encounter conflicting messages on the gospel. Sometimes you will hear a preacher say things like salvation is a gift, it is believe only, and Jesus paid it all. There is a chance you will hear that same preacher say on the other side of his mouth you must also repent of sin to be saved.
At this point you begin to worry and wonder “wait…which is it” and “that sounds pretty hard”. That then leads to wondering how we can know if we are repenting enough, and what if I died right now?
Before you know it, you find yourself extremely concerned. You believe the bible’s warning on Hell but are now both confused and depressed about the thought of the impossible task of no longer sinning.
You came to the right place. Are you ready for a tremendous burden about to be lifted? You DO NOT have to repent of sin to be saved!! Read that again and breathe a sigh of relief. It gets even better because it is also impossible to lose your salvation, but that is for a later blog. If interested, I did touch on that in a past blog titled “How You Can Know for Sure You are Going To Heaven When You Die”.
If you really want to get technical there is only one sin we must repent from to be saved. You must repent from believing wrong and start believing right. What do I mean? Stop trusting in anything outside of Jesus for your salvation. Just believe Jesus took care of it all.
More on this coming but the bible teaches faith in Christ is what saves us. If you believe you personally have to do anything in order to get into Heaven, that becomes faith in self. It also means you would be trusting in works instead of Jesus which we will also get into. That is not salvation. We will fall short of Heaven even if we believe Jesus paid 99% but 1% is up to me. It must be Jesus + nothing – nothing.
3 reasons you do not have to repent of sin to be saved.
The bible doesn’t teach we must repent of sin to be saved
The bible teaches salvation comes from faith alone, not works
The bible defines the act of repenting as works.
The Bible Does NOT Teach We Must Repent of Sin to Be Saved!!
You may be surprised to hear the phrase “repent of sin” is not found one time in the bible. How can this be when preachers so commonly teach it? After all, it is a core foundational doctrine for many of them. Understand, I say this from a King James Only position but just did a search in the NIV and that phrase didn’t come up there either. This should be very telling. Salvation is an important topic, and it isn’t in the entire bible even once?
You will find the word repent a lot, but not “repent of sin”. The reason there is so much confusion on this is because people will point to a verse that has the word repent in it and arbitrarily tack on the words “of sin”. Here is an example with Jesus commanding us to repent.
Mark 1:15 – The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel.
Those who believe in the repent of sin for salvation doctrine would point to this verse and say “I told you”. The problem is that is not what this is saying. We don’t have to go through all the salvation verses with the word repent in it because people use the same tactic. It is that simple. This is how they got that doctrine. They twist the bible to make it say something it never said.
When you come across the word repent in the bible you have to consider the context and ask “repent of what” and “is this even talking about salvation”? In our Mark 1:15 example it is referring to salvation. What is it really teaching then? In my own words, Jesus is saying to stop trusting in anything outside of me to get you to Heaven and put your faith on what I did for you “known as the gospel”.
What exactly is the gospel?
1 Corinthians 15:1-4 Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; 2 By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. 3 For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; 4 And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:
The gospel is the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ for the purpose of washing away our past, present, and future sins. That is what we must believe in to be saved. We must repent from believing in whatever else we trusted in and believe in this instead. Make sense??
What does Paul mean when he talks about believing in vain? This is slightly off topic, but I do not want to ignore the verse especially because without context it could raise questions.
1 Corinthians 15:12 – 14
12 Now if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead? 13 But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen: 14 And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain.
If the resurrection were not true, our faith would be in vain. That is what Paul means. It is not saying someone believed in the truth at one point but then lost their salvation. This refers to someone who confessed to believe which would be pointless and vain if the resurrection were not true.
The Bible Teaches Salvation Comes From Faith Alone and NOT Works
Ephesians 2:8-9 – 8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.
Could this verse be any clearer? In six different ways it explains going to Heaven isn’t about what we do. The reason is we have already sinned so even if we live perfectly here on out, we are still guilty of sin.
By Grace – Something we do not deserve
Through Faith – Doesn’t take work to have faith
Not of yourselves – Nothing we have to do
Gift – Free with no strings attached
Not of Works – Nothing we can earn
Lest any man should boast – We didn’t do anything Nothing to brag about
You might think “wait”….What about James 2:21 – 26??
21 Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar? 22 Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect? 23 And the scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness: and he was called the Friend of God. 24 Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only. 25 Likewise also was not Rahab the harlot justified by works, when she had received the messengers, and had sent them out another way? 26 For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.
Here is the thing. It can’t be referring to being justified in the sight of God according to Romans 4:2-3
2 For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory; but not before God. 3 For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness.
This is a blog so I am not going to paste in the entire James 2 chapter but would ask that you read it all in context with the understanding that the justification being talked about refers to being justified in the sight of man.
Somebody can be saved but have zero works. If someone else found out they were a believer, it would be a surprise. It would like “that person is of Christ”?
On the contrary someone that is known to go to church and help out others in need, might give their testimony on salvation, and it would be like “of course”, I see their works. That person is justified in their works. Their faith is not dead.
Bible Defines the Act of Repenting as Works
Jonah 3:10 – And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way;
To understand the bible we must always let it define itself. It clearly defines the turning action as works. We just saw it also say in Ephesians 2:8-9 we are not saved by works.
In closing this makes perfect sense when you also apply logic. No Christian would argue we are saved through believing on Christ and his work. The problem is they always try to add to the gospel. One of those things is we must repent of sin. I would argue if they believe that they are not saved (because who are they trusting in at that point then)? They would be trusting in themselves to keep Gods commandments. Salvation is trusting in Christ, not self.
Galations 2:16 16 Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.