Repentance Is Included In Believing

Acts 16:27-31, “And the keeper of the prison awaking out of his sleep, and seeing the prison doors open, he drew out his sword, and would have killed himself, supposing that the prisoners had been fled. But Paul cried with a loud voice, saying, Do thyself no harm: for we are all here. Then he called for a light, and sprang in, and came trembling, and fell down before Paul and Silas, And brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.”

QUESTION? - I have heard many preachers from different churches say that in order to be saved a person MUST repent of their sins. Is that true???

ANSWER - NO!!! It is true that you MUST REPENT. Yes in order for a person to be saved the individual has to repent. One thing a person needs to understand is that repentance and believing are one of the same coin. So, therefore, when a person trusts Christ as their only payment for their sins (i.e. believes the Gospel), that individual has repented.

TO CLARIFY what was said above The word REPENT (when it is in reference to salvation) is the Greek word MENTANOIA, which simply means A CHANGE OF MIND.

THE TRUTH... At the moment that a person TRUSTS CHRIST by placing their faith in JESUS' Death on a cross for our sins, Burial and bodily Resurrection (as the ONLY PAYMENT for their sins), that person has REPENTED; or in other words, they CHANGED THEIR MIND from what they once thought or believed it took them to get to Heaven, to believing God's way of going to Heaven.

THE CONFUSION begins when churches, preachers or missionaries place a FALSE DEFINITION (such as: “Turn from sin,” or “Be sorry for your sins,” or do XYZ to get saved. If anything more than childlike faith were required to get to Heaven, then the Apostle Paul and Silas would have said so in Acts 16:30-31, but they didn't, they just told the Roman jailor to BELIEVE ON THE LORD JESUS CHRIST.

When Cain and Abel brought their offerings to the Lord, God accepted Abel's blood sacrifice, but He rejected Cain's grain sacrifice. 

God NEVER makes a person to do anything, nor places any conditions upon them, in order to get saved except to BELIEVE THE GOSPEL. That is, believe the GOOD NEWS of Christ crucified, buried and risen three days later (1st Corinthians 15:1-4; John chapters 19 and 20).

TO PUT IT SIMPLE... 

1. God LOVES us (John 3:16)
2. We are GUILTY SINNERS (Romans 3:19-23)
3. Burning in HELL is the eternal penalty for our sins (Revelation 20:12-15)
4. Jesus Christ DIED on a cross to pay down our massive DEBT of sin (Romans 5:6-9)
5. Jesus was BURIED and RESURRECTED three days later (1st Corinthians 15:1-4)
6. Simply BELIEVE (put your confidence in) these FACTS to be saved (Acts 16:30-31)

The Holy Bible plainly and clearly defines THE GOSPEL for us:

1st 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; By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures.”

The person who BELIEVES has also REPENTED. That is, they have CHANGED THEIR MIND from unbelief to belief. You DON'T need to repent of your sin to be saved. You DON'T need to forsake the world or a lifestyle of sinning. That would be WORKS!!!

The way to be saved is to CEASE from your own labors (works), and just REST in the finished redemptive work of Jesus Christ. Hebrews 4:10-11, “For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his. Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.” Don't miss that! Please don't miss that! Carefully notice that the issue here is UNBELIEF. The Bible is using the Jews who wandered in the Wilderness for 40 years as an EXAMPLE of their UNBELIEF, for which they perished in their sins and went to Hell. Hebrews 4:1-2, “Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it. For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it.” There are millions of people in the churches today, who have heard the Gospel preached all their life, but they don't believe it.

You get saved dear friend, by ceasing from your own DEAD WORKS (Hebrews 6:1), and just BELIEVE that Jesus did it all for you through Calvary's cross. Salvation is not a reward for the righteous, it is a gift for the guilty!

Salvation is not doing your best, it is having Christ's best put to your account through receiving Him by faith.

Turning away from sinful ways would be a work. Faith puts all of the merit where it belongs, on the object of our faith, Jesus and His work.

If to “repent” means to forsake our sinful ways TO BE SAVED, but Jesus already paid for our sins by dying on the cross, then what are we repenting from?

The true Gospel always points you to CHRIST; a false gospel always points to YOU.