Which is prior, faith or repentance? It is an unnecessary question, and the insistence that one is prior to the other [is] futile. There is no priority. The faith that is unto salvation is a penitent faith and the repentance that is unto life is a believing repentance…The interdependence of faith and repentance can be readily seen when we remember that faith is faith in Christ for salvation from sin. But if faith is directed to salvation from sin, there must be hatred of sin and the desire to be saved from it. Such hatred of sin involves repentance, which essentially consists in turning from sin unto God. Again, if we remember that repentance is turning from sin unto God, the turning to God implies faith in the mercy of God as revealed in Christ. It is impossible to disentangle faith and repentance. Saving faith is permeated with repentance and repentance is permeated with faith. Regeneration becomes vocal in our minds in the exercises of faith and repentance.
Repentance consists essentially in change of heart and mind and will. The change of heart and mind and will principally respects four things: it is a change of mind respecting God, respecting ourselves, respecting sin, and respecting righteousness. Apart from regeneration, our thought of God, of ourselves, of sin, and of righteousness is radically perverted. Regeneration changes our hearts and minds. It radically renews them. Hence, there is a radical change in our thinking and feeling. Old things have passed away and all things have become new. It is very important to observe that the faith that is unto salvation is the faith that is accompanied by that change of thought and attitude. Too frequently in evangelical circles, and particularly in popular evangelism, the momentousness of the change that faith signalizes is not understood or appreciated. There are two fallacies. The one is to put faith out of the context that alone gives it significance. The other is to think of faith in terms simply of decision and rather cheap decision at that. These fallacies are closely related and condition each other. The emphasis upon repentance and upon the deep-seated change of thought and feeling that it involves is precisely what is necessary to correct this impoverished and soul-destroying conception of faith. The nature of repentance serves to accentuate the urgency of the issues at stake in the demand of the gospel, the cleavage with sin that the acceptance of the gospel entails, and the totally new outlook that the faith of the gospel imparts.
Repentance we must not think of as consisting merely in a change of mind in general. It is very particular and concrete. And since it is a change of mind with reference to sin, it is a change of mind with reference to particular sins, sins in all the particularity and individuality that belong to our sins. It is very easy for us to speak of sin, to be very denunciatory375 respecting sin, and denunciatory respecting the particular sins of other people, and yet not be penitent regarding our own particular sins. The test of repentance is the genuineness and resoluteness of our repentance in respect of our own sins, sins characterized by the aggravations that are peculiar to our own selves. Repentance, in the case of the Thessalonians, manifested itself in the fact that they turned from idols to serve the living God. It was their idolatry that peculiarly evidenced their alienation from God, and it was repentance regarding that which proved the genuineness of their faith and of their hope (1Th 1:9-10).
The gospel is not only that by grace are we saved through faith, but it is also the gospel of repentance. When Jesus, after His resurrection, opened the understanding of the disciples that they might understand the Scriptures, He said unto them, “Thus it is written, and thus it behoved376 Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day: And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations” (Luk 24:46-47). When Peter preached to the multitude on the occasion of Pentecost, they were constrained to say, “Men and brethren what shall we do?” Peter replied, “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ unto the remission of your sins” (Act 2:37-38). Later on, in like manner, Peter interpreted the exaltation of Christ as exaltation in the capacity of “Prince and Saviour to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins” (Act 5:31). Could anything certify more clearly that the gospel is the gospel of repentance than the fact that Jesus’ heavenly ministry as Savior is one of dispensing repentance unto the forgiveness of sins? Hence, Paul, when he gave an account of his own ministry to the elders from Ephesus, said that he testified “both to the Jews and also to the Greeks repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus” (Act 20:21). And the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews indicates that “repentance from dead works” is one of the first principles of the doctrine of Christ (Heb 6:1). It could not be otherwise. The new life in Christ Jesus means that the bands that bind us to the dominion of sin are broken. The believer is dead to sin by the body of Christ, the old man has been crucified that the body of sin might be destroyed, and henceforth he does not serve sin (Rom 6:2, 6). This breach with the past registers itself in his consciousness in turning from sin unto God “with full purpose of, and endeavor after new obedience”…
Repentance is that which describes the response of turning from sin unto God. This is its specific character just as the specific character of faith is to receive and rest upon Christ alone for salvation. Repentance reminds us that if the faith we profess is a faith that allows us to walk in the ways of this present evil world, in the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, in the fellowship of the works of darkness, then our faith is but mockery and deception. True faith is suffused377 with penitence. And just as faith is not only a momentary act but an abiding attitude of trust and confidence directed to the Savior, so repentance results in constant contrition. The broken spirit and the contrite heart are abiding marks of the believing soul…Christ’s blood is the laver378 of initial cleansing, but it is also the fountain to which the believer must continuously repair. It is at the cross of Christ that repentance has its beginning; it is at the cross of Christ that it must continue to pour out its heart in the tears of confession and contrition.
From Redemption: Accomplished and Applied
375 denunciatory – publicly accusative or condemning.
376 behoved – was necessary for.
377 suffused – spread throughout.
378 laver – basin or vessel used for washing.
How many are there in our day, since the gospel is grown so common, that catch up a notion of good things and from that notion make a profession of the name of Christ, get into churches, and obtain the title of a brother, a saint, a member of a gospel congregation, that have clean escaped repentance.—John Bunyan
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