WHAT IS THE RELATIONSHIP  BETWEEN FAITH AND REPENTANCE IN SALVATION?

When the Philippian jailer asked Paul, “What must I do to be saved?” (Acts 16:30), Paul’s response was clear: “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved” (Acts 16:31). On the other hand, Peter’s message after healing the lame man at the temple called for his hearers to “repent and return, so that your sins may be wiped away” (Acts 3:19). So, what is required for salvation: faith or repentance? Or are both required? Let’s examine the relationship between faith and repentance.

THE MEANING OF SAVING FAITH

The Definition of Faith

The English word “believe,” used in Acts 16:31, is in the same Greek word group as faith. The noun pistis means “faith” or “belief” and the verb pisteuo means “to have faith,’ “to trust” or “to believe.” So, when an English Bible reads “believe” it could also be translated as “have faith.” In New Testament Greek, it is the same word. Probably the most important verse about the role of faith in salvation is Ephesians 2:8, “For by grace you have been saved through faith.” God’s gracious gift of salvation is secured when we believe. But what must we believe? Paul makes the contents of faith clear in 1 Corinthians 15:1-8. We are saved by trusting in the message of the gospel, that the Messiah Jesus died for us and rose again.

The Components of Faith

The problem with this simple explanation arises when we see people who seem to believe and then abandon the faith. Did they really have saving faith and lose their salvation, or is there something else at work here? The answer is found in James 2, which distinguishes between faith as mere intellectual assent and the full and true faith that leads to behavioral change or good works. James asks, “What use is it, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but he has no works? Can that faith save him?” (James 2:14).

The second question should be translated as “Can that kind of faith” or “such faith” save him? That kind of faith, James is saying, is mere intellectual assent and not genuine saving faith. This is evident when James goes on to point out that “The demons also believe and shudder” (James 2:19). Demons don't have saving faith- they merely know about God but have not trusted in Him.

So, what exactly is saving faith? This faith encompasses the whole person: mind, heart, and will. The mind indicates an intellectual knowledge of the facts of the gospel, that Jesus died for our sins and was raised again, proving He is God.

The heart experiences an emotional conviction of the truth of the gospel. The will refers to our volitional acceptance of the gospel. Based on these three components of faith, here's my personal definition of saving faith: Saving faith is to have an intellectual understanding of the Messiah Jesus’ saving work, an emotional conviction of the truth of the gospel, and a willing reliance on Jesus as Savior.

THE ILLUSTRATION OF SAVING FAITH

I’ve heard these three components (mind, heart, will) compared to the way people responded to the life boats on the Titanic. Some people on the Titanic didn’t even know that there were life boats—so they lacked the information (mind), and they perished. Others knew there were life boats, but lacked the emotional conviction (heart) that they were truly in mortal danger or if they were, that the boats could actually save them in the wild waters of the Atlantic. They didn’t get in the boat and were lost at sea. Still others knew they were in danger of drowning and were convinced that the life boats could save them but didn’t want to get in the boat and leave a spouse to drown on the ship. So, they made the choice (will) to stay on the ship and they were drowned. To be saved on the Titanic required all three components of faith: people knew of the life boats, had the conviction that they were in mortal danger and the boats could save them, and they chose to get into the life boats.

Saving faith not only acknowledges the facts of the gospel, it means we are convinced of our sinfulness and the truth of the gospel, and then we decide to trust in Jesus alone. This makes sense, but where does repentance fit? Many people maintain that we are living in an age of “easy believism” and have forgotten about the need to repent of our sins in order to be saved. They cite verses like Acts 2:38 and 3:19 that call on people to repent in order to be saved. They argue that faith in Jesus is not enough; we also need to repent of sin. Is this true? Have we lost our understanding of true biblical repentance?

THE MEANING OF REPENTANCE

A Change of Mind

The basic Greek New Testament word for repentance is metanoia which literally means “a change of mind.” The command form of the verb directs the hearer to change his or her mind. Surprisingly, the word doesn’t address turning from sin but having a change of thought about some issue. The issue to which it refers is determined by the context of the passage. So, let’s look at some of these repentance passages in context to help determine their meaning.

The first is found in Acts 2:36-38, the culmination of Peter’s sermon at Pentecost. In that message, Peter declared that the house of Israel had rejected Jesus as the Messiah, leading to His death at the hands of sinful people, including both Jews and Gentiles. The Lord reversed this tragic death through the resurrection of Jesus. “Therefore,” Peter declared, “let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made Him [Jesus] both Lord and Christ” (Acts 2:36)! Peter’s listeners “came under deep conviction and said... ‘Brothers, what must we do?’ (Acts 2:37). Peter’s response is clear—“Repent” (Acts 2:38)! He did not want them merely to feel badly about their sins, but to change their minds about who Jesus really was. They were to leave their rejection of Him behind and turn to Him as both their Lord (God) and Messiah. This passage in context isn't about forsaking sin or even feeling bad about sin, but about changing one’s mind, moving from rejecting Jesus to recognizing Him as both Lord and Messiah.

A second passage similar to this one is Acts 3:19. Here Peter tells his listeners to “repent and return, so that your sins may be wiped away.’ In context, Peter had proclaimed that Israel had rejected Jesus as the Messiah but that Jesus’ suffering was in fulfillment of the messianic predictions of the Hebrew Prophets (some examples not specifically cited but certainly what Peter had in mind were Isaiah 52:13-53:12 and Psalm 22).

Therefore, according to the context, the audience was called upon to change their minds about rejecting Jesus as the Messiah and instead, believe in Him. In Acts 20:21, Paul tells the Ephesian elders that in his ministry he had taught them faithfully, “solemnly testifying to both Jews and Greeks of repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.” Paul’s point was that his message always called upon people to change their minds about God and to place their trust in Jesus.

A Change in Direction

The second New Testament word related to repentance is epistrepho and it is often the translation for the Hebrew word shuv. They both mean “to turn” or “to return.” A good defi-nition of epistrepho is “to change one’s belief or conduct; to change one’s mind.” In most repentance passages, epistrepho indicates turning away from something (repentance) and in-stead turning to God (faith). A good example is Acts 14:15, where Paul challenged some pagans in Lystra to repent. He called on them to repent of their idolatry (“turn from these vain things”) and put their faith in the one, true God (“to a living God, who made the heaven and the earth”). Once again, this exhortation was not for these people to feel bad about paganism but a call to exchange their false gods for the One true God.

Sorrow vs. Repentance

Sometimes we feel that those who trust in Jesus can sit and weep and wail for their sins, promising to forsake every wrong behavior, in order to be saved. But even those passages that do teach about experiencing sorrow for our sins (James 4:8-9) don't teach that sorrow is a part of repentance.

Rather, Paul says that “godly grief produces a repentance not to be regretted and leading to salvation, but worldly grief produces death” (2 Cor. 7:10). Ungodly grief and sorrow for sin lead to remorse, not to repentance. Consider Judas Iscariot, who regretted his betrayal of the Lord Jesus but never turned in faith to Him for forgiveness. Instead, Judas sought to pay for his own sin by returning the money he had earned by be-traying Jesus and then hanging himself (Matt. 27:3-5).

THE RELATIONSHIP OF REPENTANCE AND FAITH

The relationship of repentance and faith are best understood as two sides of the same coin. Repentance occurs when we change our minds and forsake that which we trusted in before. Faith is when we trust in Jesus to forgive our sins.

The strongest example of repentance and faith is found in 1 Thessalonians 1:8-10, even though Paul only uses the word “turn” (epistrepho) there. In verse 8, Paul tells the Thessalonians that “in every place your faith toward God has gone forth.” Then He celebrates that they “turned to God from idols” (v. 9), a phrase that includes both concepts. First, they had exercised faith by turning to God through trusting in Jesus. Second, they had repented by forsaking the idols in which they had previously trusted. As a result of their trust and repentance, they now “wait for [God’s] Son from heaven’ (v. 10).

FINAL THOUGHTS

Once we understand the relationship of faith and repentance, we need to ask, “Now what?” One step we can take is to follow Paul’s admonition to the Corinthians when he told them, “Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves!” (2 Cor. 13:5).

Every person should ask: Have I turned from any false dependency for salvation (my good deeds, my religiosity, my good character) and instead trusted in the Lord Jesus alone with my entire being, mind, heart, and will? If the answer is no, now is the time to turn in faith to the Lord Jesus.

A second action we can take is always to be clear when we present the good news of Jesus and invite someone to respond. We need to call people to turn from whatever they are trusting and put their trust in Jesus alone. Part of this includes explaining what we mean by the word faith or trust. We must be clear that it involves all of our being, not just intellectual agreement, not just an emotional experience, and not just a desire to follow Jesus. Faith has to include all three components of a person: mind, heart, and will.

Then, read Ephesians 2:8-9 a loud, “For by grace you have been saved through faith.’