REPENTANCE: From the Koine-Greek word, “Metanoeo.” To change the mind, the seat of moral reflection. To change behavior for the better. Always used in the New Testament, except Luke 17:3,4, always used as repentance from sin.
A fundamental assertion made by the Progressive Christian Church, is the idea that Jesus never told anyone to repent of their sins, or turn from them, before He would grant eternal life. When we examine the actual texts of the New Testament, we find just the opposite.
In my response at my Twitter Feed, to the statement made by, “JFilla1200,” above, I said the following:
The KJV says that Jesus began His ministry with the imperative to repent from sin, before He grants salvation:
- KJV: “From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” ~Matthew 4:17
- KJV: “Now after that John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel.” ~Mark:1: 14-15
- KJV: Jesus said: “I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.” ~Luke 13:3
- KJV: Jesus said: “I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.” ~Luke 13:5
Peter repeats Jesus’ command to first repent from all sin, then believe the Gospel:
- KJV: “Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.” ~Acts 2:38
Peter again, “Repent,” repeating Jesus’ command to repent:
- KJV: “Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord.” Act 3:19
- There are 22 citations in the New Testament, KJV, for “Repent,” the Koine-Greek word, μετανοέω metanoeō. This is the original language the New Testament was written in.
- Whenever the word, “repent,” is used in the New Testament, it is always intended as, “repent from sin.” This is the meaning of the Koine-Greek word, “Metanoeo.”
Repentance from sin is not a New Testament idea; it is firmly established in the Old Testament
When David sinned with Bathsheba and had her husband, Uriah killed, David later came to deep repentance over his actions. His words are recorded for us in Psalms 51, and held up today as the classic example of what constitutes genuine repentance that brings true salvation:
“Have mercy on me, O God, because of your unfailing love. Because of your great compassion, blot out the stain of my sins. Wash me clean from my guilt. Purify me from my sin. For I recognize my rebellion; it haunts me day and night. Against you, and you alone, have I sinned; I have done what is evil in your sight. You will be proved right in what you say, and your judgment against me is just.
For I was born a sinner—yes, from the moment my mother conceived me. But you desire honesty from the womb, teaching me wisdom even there. Purify me from my sins, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow. Oh, give me back my joy again; you have broken me—now let me rejoice. Don’t keep looking at my sins.
Remove the stain of my guilt.
Create in me a clean heart, O God. Renew a loyal spirit within me. Do not banish me from your presence, and don’t take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and make me willing to obey you. Then I will teach your ways to rebels, and they will return to you. Forgive me for shedding blood, O God who saves; then I will joyfully sing of your forgiveness. Unseal my lips, O Lord, that my mouth may praise you. You do not desire a sacrifice, or I would offer one. You do not want a burnt offering. The sacrifice you desire is a broken spirit. You will not reject a broken and repentant heart, O God.” ~Psalms 51:1-17
David’s pattern of genuine sorrow for sin, and action in repentance to cease the sins that caused his grief, are today, the prime example of the kind of repentance from sin that God requires of anyone seeking salvation in Christ. It is the only action in personal salvation that God will hear, accept, and grant salvation for.
Modern day false teaching is the cause of confusion over repentance in salvation
It was clear that this person has been taught incorrectly. There is no salvation in Christ unless we feel genuine sorrow for our sins, and are willing to end our sins, in order to receive the salvation Jesus died to give us.
Jesus did not suffer and die for our sins, so that we would continue in them:
Hebrew scholar, Paul, said this:
KJV: “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?” ~Romans 6:1-3
When Paul wrote to the churches at Galatia, it was in response to their turning away from the simple Gospel He had taught them during the time he was there:
“I am shocked that you are turning away so soon from God, who called you to himself through the loving mercy of Christ. You are following a different way that pretends to be the Good News but is not the Good News at all. You are being fooled by those who deliberately twist the truth concerning Christ. Let God’s curse fall on anyone, including us or even an angel from heaven, who preaches a different kind of Good News than the one we preached to you. I say again what we have said before: If anyone preaches any other Good News than the one you welcomed, let that person be cursed.” ~Galatians 1:6-9
The Subtle Deception of Progressive Christianity: You don’t have to repent from sin to be saved:
The churches at Galatia quickly departed from the salvation in Christ that Paul taught them. They returned to the law and taught that a person must keep the law of Moses in order to be saved.
Paul condemned salvation by works, and reminded the Galatians that their salvation was by grace through faith in Christ alone.
The churches in Rome quickly departed from the salvation in Christ Paul taught them; grace through faith, and continued in their old sins.
In chapter 6 of Romans, Paul asked these persons:
“Should we keep on sinning so that God can show us more of His wonderful grace? Of course not! Since we have died to sin, how can we continue to live in sin? Or have you forgotten that when we were joined with Christ in baptism, we joined Him in His death?” ~Romans 6:1-3
God requires repentance from all sin, before He grants forgiveness of sin, and eternal life
We are not saved by our works, as Paul instructed the Galatians; but we are also not saved without repentance from sin, and a denial of our old life of sin, as Paul taught the Romans.
Today people in the Progressive Christian Movement, teach salvation by grace through faith, but deny that repentance from sin is necessary. This false Gospel cannot save anyone.
Jesus suffered and died for all sins so that those who believe and are saved by grace through faith, will live holy lives separate from sin. It is ludicrous to say that Jesus suffered and died for all sins, only to permit us to continue in our sins.
“Well then, since God’s grace has set us free from the law, does that mean we can go on sinning? Of course not! Don’t you realize that you become the slave of whatever you choose to obey? You can be a slave to sin, which leads to death, or you can choose to obey God, which leads to righteous living.” ~Romans 6:15-16
Does this mean that we we no longer sin after we are saved? No, but our frequency of sin will be drastically diminished. And when we do sin, and we come to Christ in sorrow over our sins, the blood of Jesus continues to cleanse us.
“So we are lying if we say we have fellowship with God but go on living in sin; we are not practicing the truth…But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness…and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin.” ~1 John 1:5-9
Jesus never saved anyone without them first repenting from sin
When a woman caught in the act of adultery was brought to Jesus, the crowd expected Jesus to fulfill the requirements of the Old Testament law, to stone the woman to death. Jesus confirmed the law that required death for adultery, but said that He came to show mercy to the repentant. Notice what Jesus tells this woman:
“Then Jesus stood up again and said to the woman, “Where are your accusers? Didn’t even one of them condemn you?” “No, Lord,” she said. And Jesus said, “Neither do I. Go and sin no more.” ~John 8:10-11
Jesus does not condemn this woman, but He also tells her, “go and sin no more…” There is forgiveness for anyone who is truly sorry for their sins and comes to Jesus. Everyone who comes to Jesus in sorrow over their sins, He will forgive, but He also tells us all to not sin anymore. Does this mean that true believers in Jesus will never sin again. No, of course not.
The difference between our sins prior to coming to Jesus, and our life after we decide to trust in Jesus, is the frequency of our sins. Before we come to Jesus many of us are in a constant lifestyle of sin. We sin often and do not give much thought to our frequent sins. After we realize what Jesus has done to pay for our sins, and acknowledge that we are a sinner in need of salvation, God causes us to be, “born again,” by the Spirit of God (John 3:3).
With the Holy Spirit living inside us, our desires for sin are greatly diminished. When we do sin it bothers us constantly. The Spirit that now lives in us will not let us sin without regard. He witnesses to our spirit that what we said or did is wrong, and we should repent. We come to Jesus in sorrow over the sins we have committed, and He cleanses us immediately and restores our fellowship with God.
In John’s first letter he stated that we who have come to Jesus for salvation, if we continue to sin and walk in that darkness, our fellowship with God is broken. If, however, we come to Jesus and confess our sins that we commit after we are saved, our sins are forgiven, and our fellowship with God is restored (1 John 1:5-9 above).
- There is No Salvation, Without Repentance
- The End Of All Things Is At Hand: Modern Parallels To The Past
- Because You Did Not Consider The Lord Holy: Why Critics Are Wrong About God And His Judgments
Categories: Errors of the Christian Church, Forgiveness of Sin, Messianic Prophecy Bible, No one is "good", Not understanding salvation, One Way to Heaven, Repentance Necessary, Robert Clifton Robinson, Salvation, The Historical Jesus, The Importance of the Bible, We must see our need, What is required for Heaven?
Robert Clifton Robinson 
My question is, does a person have to audibly say, or at least consciously think the words, “I repent of my sin”? I have lead many people to Christ. The manner that I have gone about to do this is, at the end of a conversation where I have shared the gospel, for example, the Romans Road, I ask the person if he would like to accept Jesus as his Savior. If he says yes, then I ask him if he realizes he is a sinner. If he says yes, I ask him if he believes that Jesus is the Son of God and that He died on the cross to pay for sin, and that He rose from the dead (And all of those might have been asked and answered separately). If he says yes to these, then I usually do not lead him in a prayer. I ususally tell him that he needs to pray and tell God I know that I am a sinner. I believe you died on the cross to pay for my sin, and that you rose again. Please forgive me of my sin and give me eternal life and a home in heaven. It might be slightly different each time, but at least these aspects are included. I then ask him if he died today where would he spend eternity. He will usually say in heaven, and when I ask him how he knows that, he will say becasue he has Jesus in his heart or that Jesus has forgien his sin. Then I show him, among a few other passages 1 John 1:9. I say that he cannot lose his salvation, but when he sins, to ask God to forgive him of his sin. This does not save him, because he cannot lose his salvation. But it does restore a right relationship between him and God. From here, the conversation goes in one of many directions, to restitution or asking forgiveness of others, etc. My point is, at no time did I ever say to him that he must audibly tell God that he repents of his sin in order to be saved. My understanding of repentance has always been that a man admitting he is a sinner and asking Jesus to forgive him of that sin is., in effect, repentance from sin. A person can say,”I repent of my sin”, and not mean it, So repentance must come from the heart. If someone is all alone somewhere, and they say, in all sincerity, “Jesus, I know I am a sinner, please forgive me and come into my heart and save me”, without saying the words “I repent of my sin”, are they not born again?
I have led many nursing home residents to Christ, and I have always felt that, in my conversation with them following praying with them, that they are genuinely saved. They are happy and laughing or crying or they want to share with someone what has happened. But they are obviously not the same.
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Great post, Ron!
It sounds to me, based on what you wrote, that you have done everything necessary to lead people to Jesus for salvation.
It’s not as much the words that people say out loud, as it is the attitude of their heart in acknowledging they are a sinner, and they want the salvation Jesus died to give us.
When we read the words of the thief on the cross next to Jesus, we don’t see words that would lead us to believe that he was sorry for his sins, or wanted to be saved (“Lord remember me…”). Jesus was able to see into the heart of this man, and He saw enough sincerity to save Him: “today you will be with me in paradise.”
David wrote that the Lord, “sees our thoughts afar off…” meaning that God can see what our thoughts will be, even before we think them. There are places in the Old Testament where an angel comes to one praying and says that God dispatched him as soon as this person began to pray.
Psalms 139:2 “You know my sitting down and my rising up; You understand my thought afar off.”
Daniel 9:21-23 “As I was praying, Gabriel, whom I had seen in the earlier vision, came swiftly to me at the time of the evening sacrifice. 22 He explained to me, “Daniel, I have come here to give you insight and understanding. 23 The moment you began praying, a command was given. And now I am here to tell you what it was, for you are very precious to God.”
I think that the persons you are talking to, about Jesus, either have a sincere heart of repentance and genuinely want to be saved, or they don’t. It’s not your responsibility to know this or be concerned about it. The Lord has asked us to be His witnesses and tell people that if they are sorry for their sin, and turn to Jesus for salvation, God is ready to save them.
It sounds to me like you have done this. You explained repentance and salvation, and left it to the person to decide.
Sometime we can ask the person to pray with us and lead them through the sinner’s prayer. For some people this is helpful, but it is not a requirement. If the Lord leads you to pray the sinner’s prayer with a person, this is something you will have to ask the Lord about.
According to what the scriptures say, it seems to me you have done what Jesus asked.
We will not know who we really brought to the Lord and whether they obtained salvation, until we are all home in heaven with Jesus. John wrote that if we confess Jesus as Lord and Savior, we can know that we have salvation, according to our faith.
1 John 5:13 “These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God.”
I believe these persons are born again, if their sincerity is genuine. Of course we can’t know these things. It is also important that we tell people they must continue to trust in Jesus for all of their life. Everyone has doubts about their salvation at some point in their life, but we must always remain with Jesus and trust in the salvation He gave us, if we will be saved.
I agree with you, Ron. Their reaction does sound like genuine salvation has taken place and they have been born again. We pray that this is true, and hope that everyone we lead to Jesus, remains with Jesus for all of their lives.
Thank you for sharing you experience with all of us in this forum.
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Brother Robinson, thank you so much for your timely response. I really do appreciate it. God bless you with joy, peace, and love as you minister to others.
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