Don't Emphasize Repentance When Presenting The Gospel

Acts 16:30-31, “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.”

We shouldn't be focusing on repentance when presenting the Gospel. Don't emphasize repentance because a lot of people are confused about it.

Furthermore, there is no need to bring the subject up because repentance is an automatic thing. If a husband says he is going to watch a ballgame, but his wife wants him to take out the trash first, she wouldn't say: “Would you please change your mind and take out the trash?” No, she would say: “Would you please take out the trash?” If her husband takes out the garbage it is because he changed his mind. Likewise, the man who believes on Christ has repented.

To lead people to Jesus Christ all we need to do is share THE GOSPEL. I found a helpful article and sermon by Pastor David O'Steen of the Hope Bible Church in Jackson, Georgia, titled: 'Is Repentance Necessary For Salvation?' I encourage you to examine these wonderful resources. It is rare to find a Bible preacher who gets repentance 100% correct, which Pastor O'Steen does thankfully. Amen and amen!

Everybody who gets saved repents, whether they are conscious of it or not. Repentance is essential for salvation, but it is not a work. The English verb “repent” (Greek: metanoeo) means “to think differently.” The noun “repent” (Greek: metanoia) means a change of mind.  Many preachers embellish the meaning of repentance to add more to it, but to do so is to sinfully wrest the Scripture (2nd Peter 3:16-17). If it wasn't the Lord's Holy Spirit working in your soul through the Gospel, you wouldn't change your mind to be saved. He works on your heart first through the Gospel. We repent (change our mind) from unbelief to belief to be saved. It's that simple to go to Heaven and nothing more is required or allowed.

I love this tremendous quote from Pastor Harry A. Ironside (1876-1951):

“Which comes first, repentance or faith? In Scripture we read, 'Repent ye, and believe the gospel.' Yet we find true believers exhorted to 'repent, and do the first works.' So intimately are the two related that you cannot have one without the other. The man who believes God repents; the repentant soul puts his trust in the Lord when the Gospel is revealed to him. Theologians may wrangle over this, but the fact is, no man repents until the Holy Spirit produces repentance in his soul through the truth. No man believes the Gospel and rests in it for his own salvation until he has judged himself as a needy sinner before God. And this is repentance.” ('Except Ye Repent,' p. 16)

In the following passage from the book of Acts, repentance and faith happen simultaneously at the same time. You don't repent first and then believe. Repentance is “a change of mind,” and you turn to God by putting your faith in His only begotten Son. Acts 26:20, “But shewed first unto them of Damascus, and at Jerusalem, and throughout all the coasts of Judaea, and then to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, and do works meet for repentance.”

Repentance doesn't save you, faith in Jesus Christ saves you; but repentance facilitates (makes possible) believing. To turn from one's sins is reformation, not Bible repentance. Certainly God wants every believer to repent of our sins, but this has nothing to do with the new birth, which is by faith alone in the Gospel. Today's clergy who combine and confuse service with salvation do great harm to the cause of Christ. Evangelist Billy Graham (1918-2018) was one of the worst offenders, perverting God's simple plan of salvation.

The Gospel message is not “Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” (Matthew 4:17b). The Gospel message is that you're a lost sinner, Christ died for your sins, and if you want to be saved trust the Lord and He will save you, and that is repentance. So, it's the goodness of God that leadeth to repentance. Whenever the Lord went forth to Israel commanding them to repent, most of them didn't. It was the grace, love and mercy of God that causes Saul to repent to be saved under the grace of God.

As we faithfully preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ, some sinners will repent; not because we demanded it of them or even exhorted them to do it with fear, but because, as we preached Christ’s finished redemptive work the Holy Spirit opened their eyes to see the truth, and their hearts to receive it. 2nd Timothy 2:25b, “if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth.”

When sharing the plan of salvation with lost sinners, just give them the plain facts of Jesus' death on the cross, burial and bodily resurrection from the dead the third day. Remember, it is the Gospel itself that is THE POWER OF GOD unto salvation to all who believe it. Romans 1:16, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.” It's not our words of wisdom or eloquent oratory skills that will lead men to Jesus Christ; but rather, it's the saving knowledge of the Gospel (the Good News of Jesus crucified, buried and risen) itself that saves. You just need to believe that Jesus did it all for you.