Is Biblical Repentance Works-Based Salvation? “And how I kept back nothing that was profitable unto you, but have shewed you, and have taught you publickly, and from house to house, Testifying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.” (Acts 20:20-21) It is not uncommon when dealing with proponents of easy believism to hear them describe biblical repentance as “works-based salvation” or “trusting in the flesh,” and to see them accuse those who preach biblical repentance of “preaching a false gospel” or of being “Lordship salvationists.” As our verse above points out, if biblical repentance is “works-based salvation,” then Paul the Apostle, the apostle of grace to the Gentiles and Jews alike, was guilty of preaching “works-based salvation,” for he taught that repentance and faith were the same thing when it comes to receiving the gift of salvation. Of course, we know that Paul did not teach “works-based salvation,” but rather simply taught the Scriptures as God intended it to be taught – just as do those who teach biblical repentance unto salvation today. Paul was addressing the elders of the Ephesian church while he was travelling back to Jerusalem. He was recounting his ministry to them, as one of the major churches of the Gentiles, and his own faithfulness in teaching and preaching the Word of God to them. In the course of doing this, he made the statement recorded above. In it, he says a number of important things that bear on the discussion of biblical repentance versus easy believism that I have been developing over the course of the last few posts. First of all, he says that the teaching of repentance was “profitable” for them, one of the many things needful for salvation and mature Christian faith that he had not kept back from them. But unlike what is taught by many in the Hyles/Schaap circle of easy believism, this repentance was not merely “for the Christian” nor was it only limited to “sins committed by those who were already Christians.” No – this repentance was for the lost person to make if they hoped to be saved, to be born again. In v. 21, Paul provides us with a type of Hebrew parallelism in his thinking and argument-building (while the New Testament was written in Greek, Paul was a Jew who was steeped in the Hebrew scriptures, so it is natural that he would think in the patterns found therein). He says that he had taught them, “…repentance towards God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.” This, in essence, is salvation. Without faith, there is no salvation of the lost soul. But equally so, without genuine repentance of sin, there is no salvation either. Both of these are mentioned here in this verse as being equivalent. They are responses of the same impulse, involving two different Persons of the Trinity, the Godhead. God the Father is in view here when he says, “repentance toward God.” God the Father is the One to Whom we must be reconciled. It is against Him that our sin has been committed and from Whom we must receive forgiveness of that sin. God the Son is the One toward Whom we must place faith and trust in the sacrifice which He made for us on the cross of Calvary. We come TO the Father THROUGH the Son. For this to happen, we must respond in faith and repentance to God’s dealings with man as per His Godhead. Repentance – that choice on the part of the lost sinner to turn from sin and to God, loving God instead of sin – is made towards the One from Whom we are separated because of that sin, the Father. Faith - that decision on the part of the sinner to believe God, to simply take Him at His Word and respond to Him as He says we should – believes on and responds to the fact of Jesus Christ’s vicarious sacrifice in the sinner’s place and the shedding of His blood for the lost sinner’s atonement. Faith and repentance are two aspects of the same believing response on the part of a lost sinner who turns to God for salvation. If you don’t have repentance of sin, you don’t have faith in Christ, and you don’t have genuine biblical salvation. Now, many easy believists will try to say that calling repentance “a change of mind that leads to a change in direction” is “teaching works for salvation.” But let’s observe that they miss a very salient point about this, which is that the change of mind LEADS to a change in direction. The change of mind is not, itself, the change in direction. Rather, what is being said is that when someone repents, they are willing for God to change them, make them a new creature, and to alter the whole direction of their life. When a person repents, they no longer want to keep going in the same direction they were before, they no longer love their sin and want to hang onto it, they are willing for God to make “old things pass away” and “all things become new” (c.f. II Corinthians 5:17). It is not that the repentant sinner is doing these things his or herself, but rather that they have chosen God over sin, chosen love for God over love for their sin. They want God instead of their sin – not just in word, but in their heart of hearts. The putting away of sin will come later as they grow in grace and knowledge, but there must first be the decision to turn to God and away from sin before that sanctification process can begin. Again, we can see the example from Paul’s preaching, “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.” (Acts 26:20) Notice here that Paul’s preaching everywhere he went was that people should “repent and turn to God” first. Once they had done this, then they could “do works meet for repentance.” After they had trusted on Christ by faith in repentance, then they were to live for Him, their lives being filled and manifesting to the world at large good works that were fit and proper in the life of a Christian believer. But it all begins with that decision to turn to God and from sin. Simply “realising they need Jesus in their lives” is not enough. Unless the love for sin is dealt with – which is what separates us from God – salvation cannot be had. Now, many will accuse this of being “Lordship salvation.” Frankly, I’m not really interested in getting into a discussion about whether it really is or not, because there are about a dozen different definitions of that term that I have seen floating around the internet, in books, and so forth. Basically, it seems like the term is used more as a perjorative – if someone doesn’t like a teaching, they’ll accuse it of being “Lordship salvation,” and let that suffice in place of making a genuinely reasoned argument against what they don’t like. The “Lordship salvation” canard is just that – a canard – and doesn’t merit a whole lot of discussion unless it is being specifically defined, which it usually isn’t. I would note, however, that when Paul was confronted with the Lord Jesus Christ in all His glory there on the Damascus road, he went from hating that name to calling Him “Lord” (Acts 9:5), indicating a definite change in his heart attitude towards Jesus Christ. Also, I would note that Jesus Himself said, “And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?” (Luke 6:46) Which could encompass the earlier call in the Gospels to “repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” So there does seem to be an element of recognising that Jesus Christ is Lord of the one’s life, in that if one is truly willing to turn from sin, then one will be willing to yield their life to Him completely. However, I can also concede that a lost sinner probably will not understand the totality of all the changes that will have to be made in his or her life for Jesus to be the Lord of their life – this will come as they are being sanctified and are faced, again and again, with either yielding another area of life to Him or withholding it in disobedience. It is the consistent tenor of the choices they make that will determine if their profession of faith is genuine or not. To the extent that we can discuss “Lordship salvation” biblically, it would be in the area of sanctification and our responses to the choices we are called to make – are we bringing for fruits meet for repentance as people who have already professed faith in the Lord? Anywise, back to the main issue of biblical repentance and the accusations against it. One charge often leveled is that biblical repentance is “proud,” “boastful,” or “trusting in the flesh.” Frankly, I have to say that if someone actually understands what is being taught about biblical repentance, these charges are simply foolishness. How is it “trusting in the flesh” to be willing to turn away from sin as God says we must? As noted before, sin is what separates us from God, “But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear.” (Isaiah 59:2) How can a lost sinner be restored to Him except that this sin problem first be dealt with? The answer is that he or she cannot. But this is where the charges made by the easy believists fall apart completely – there is absolutely NOTHING “proud,” “boastful,” or “fleshly” about repenting of sin. Indeed, repenting of sin is exactly the OPPOSITE of what the flesh wants to do, “Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind: for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin.” (I Peter 4:1) The flesh loves sin. Sin pleases the flesh. Sin “feels good.” Conversely, the flesh hates to turn away or abstain from sin. Being willing to leave your sin and turn to God, believing that He will take away your sin and give you victory over it – this is exactly the opposite of what the flesh naturally wants. Calling biblical repentance “fleshly” is like calling the air “a vacuum” – it is completely and totally untrue at its very foundational definition. Further, we should note that the easy believist calumnity against biblical repentance as being a “work” is shown to be false by the fact that repentance is said to be something that God Himself *gives*, “In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth.” (II Timothy 2:25) Clearly, repentance (like faith and grace, take note, Eph 2:8) is something that is given by God, as He works in the heart of the lost sinner whom He is calling to Himself. And just as with faith, the lost sinner must make the choice to respond or reject, so with repentance, the lost sinner must make the choice to respond or reject. Repenting of sin is a positive response TO the grace of God that is being extended to the one with whom God is dealing. Repentance is no more a “work” than faith is – once again, they are both two sides of the believing coin. But this leads me now to a point where the easy believists trap themselves into a biblically untenable yet entirely logical conclusion of their arguments. Let’s take the arguments in the opposite direction. If repentance is a “work,” then so is “faith.” After all, they say that it is a “work” for a lost sinner to choose to turn away from sin and to God. Making a choice is a work, they say. But that’s exactly the same kind of choice that someone makes when they choose to put faith in God through His Son Jesus Christ. They make a choice – which per the logic of the easy believists…is a work. If the one is a work, then the other must be. Both involve making a choice for or against God, believing or refusing to believe what He has said. By their own arguments against biblical repentance, easy believists are trapped into essentially arguing that they themselves believe in “works-based salvation.” It gets even worse for their arguments, however, when we note that the only escape for them from this quandary, if they refuse to simply accept the biblical truth about biblical repentance, is to go full on Calvinist and say that the lost sinner has no part in repentance and faith – these are completely and utterly acts of God for which the sinner makes no response, does absolutely nothing his or herself, that the sinner is a totally passive character in the business of salvation. Hard core Calvinists would have no problem with that – they already think that God has picked out certain people to be saved while everyone else is lost, and that these people predestined to be saved have no say in the matter themselves. They WILL be saved, like it or not. I’ve even heard of some extreme Calvinists whose testimonies of salvation are essentially that they woke up one morning and just realised that they were part of the elect, and were therefore saved. In almost all cases, this is not what the easy believists actually believe – but it is the logical conclusion of the arguments they make, if these arguments are carried to their end point. If repentance is a “work,” then so is faith, so if we wish to avoid works-based salvation, then neither faith nor repentance are decisions that the lost sinner makes for himself. Of course, the other way to escape this quandary is to simply accept that BOTH faith and repentance are two sides of the same coin, and simply involve believing on the Lord and trusting Him, and that NEITHER of them are “works.” But this, of course, means jettisoning the false gospel of easy believism for the genuine Gospel taught by the Lord Jesus and His apostles.
Posted on: Sun, 06 Jul 2014 00:46:37 +0000
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