Repentance Unto Life

"When they heard these things, they held their peace, and glorified God, saying, Then hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life" (Acts 11:18).

This unique expression, "repentance unto life," teaches us that there must be repentance on the part of the sinner before eternal life is received. This may seem to contradict many Scriptures (such as John 3:16) which clearly reveal that eternal life is received by FAITH, but in reality the two must accompany one another. Paul preached, "repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ" (Acts 20:21). And the Lord Jesus Himself declared, "Repent ye, and believe the gospel" (Mark 1:15).

The necessity of repentance becomes clearer when we consider its meaning. Repentance means "a change of mind." In the Biblical sense it means for one to "change his mind" about sin. God has said in His Word that we are all sinners by nature (Psa. 51:5; Romans 5:19a) and sinners by practice (Romans 3:23). When a sinner repents, he takes God's side against himself, owning up to the fact that he is guilty before a holy God (see Romans 3:10-19). Until this occurs, the sinner will not see his need of the salvation God has provided. But when this vital "change of mind" takes place, the sinner will then be ready to avail himself of God's wonderful salvation and it will only be a matter of time before faith in Christ crucified and risen is exercised. It was so with the Gentile company that Peter preached to (Acts 10), and it has been the experience of every truly penitent sinner.

"Which comes first, repentance or faith? The two are so intimately related that you cannot have one without the other. The fact is, no man believes the gospel until he has judged himself as a needy sinner before God, and this is repentance." --H.A.Ironside

Before going on, may I ask the reader, "Has this been your experience?" That is, "Have you taken your place as the sinner you are before a holy God, and by faith received the free gift of eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord?" If not, I would implore you to do so.

For the readers who are believers, let us take to heart the truth we have been considering and be sure to give repentance its proper place in our witnessing to the lost souls around us. The tendency today is to speak very briefly (if at all) about man's totally depraved condition and of how he is utterly lost and unable to save himself. The love of God in providing His Son to be the Saviour of the world is the focus, and this only serves to "sugar-coat" the gospel. We must be faithful in first presenting to the sinner his need of salvation before we rush into the good news of how God has provided for that need. And let us not shy away from using the word repent or repentance in our entreaties to the lost. With all solemnity Jesus said twice to the sinners of His day, "Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish (Luke 13:3,5). Peter's word to the conscience-stricken crowd on the day of Pentecost was, "repent" (Acts 2:38). Later the apostle Paul declared that God "now commandeth all men every where to repent" (Acts 17:30).

Many have mistakenly thought that by employing such language (the very language of Scripture!) they would give their hearers to think that there was some merit in the act of repenting. But we must remember that repentance is but the owning of one's true condition before God and there is surely no merit in that. If one discovers and admits that he has some terrible disease, does that discovery and admittance heal him? Certainly not! But then he is in a position where he is able to seek out help. And just so with the one who repents. Upon the discovery and admittance of his malady of sin, he is then in a position to seek the One who can heal him. And we can rest assured that if God has "granted him repentance," it will be "unto life." That is, he will find in Christ's death and resurrection the divine remedy for his loathsome condition, and will be made to see that "with His stripes we are healed" (Isaiah 53:5).

In closing, let us reflect on God's grace in relation to repentance. It has been almost 2,000 years since Jesus commissioned His disciples "that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His Name among all nations" (Luke 24:47). God has, in grace, withheld His judgment that will eventually fall upon this ungodly, Christ-rejecting world. We read of the certainty of that judgment, and of why He withholds it, in 2 Peter 3:9, "The Lord is not slack concerning His promise [of judgment], as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance." How precious to realize that the same "goodness of God" that leads men to repentance (Romans 2:4), also causes God to wait for men to repent. And when one is brought to own his sinful condition before God, how sweet it is to know that all heaven rejoices "over one sinner that repenteth" (Luke 15:7,10).

--Dennis J. Oberg