Biyernes, Oktubre 7, 2016

The Meaning of Saving Faith and Repentance

Louis Berkhof
True saving faith is a faith that has its seat in the heart and is rooted in the regenerate life...In speaking of the different elements of faith we should not lose sight of the fact that faith is an activity of man as a whole, and not any part of man...In order to obtain a proper conception of faith, it is necessary to distinguish between the various elements which it comprises.
A) An intellectual element (notitia). There is an element of knowledge in faith...The knowledge of faith consists in a positive recognition of the truth, in which man accepts as true whatsoever God says in His word, and especially what He says respecting the deep depravity of man and the redemption which is in Christ Jesus. Over against Rome the position must be maintained that this sure knowledge belongs to the essence of faith; and in opposition to such theologians as Sandeman, Wardlaw, Alexander, Chalmers, and others, that a mere intellectual acceptance of the truth is not the whole of faith.
B) An emotional element (assensus). When one embraces Christ by faith, he has a deep conviction of the truth and reality of the object of faith, feels that it meets an important need in his life, and is conscious of an absorbing interest in it – and this is assent.
C) A volitional element (fiducia). This is the crowning element of faith. Faith is not merely a matter of the intellect, nor of the intellect and the emotions combined; it is also a matter of the will, determining the direction of the soul, an act of the soul going out towards its object and appropriating this. Without this activity the object of faith, which the sinner recognizes as true and real and entirely applicable to his present needs, remains outside of him. And in saving faith it is a matter of life and death that the object be appropriated. This third element consists in a personal trust in Christ as Saviour and Lord, including the surrender of the soul as guilty and defiled to Christ, and a recognition and appropriation of Christ as the source of pardon and of spiritual life 
(Louis Berkhof, Systematic Theology (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1939), pp. 503-505).
The special act of faith consists in receiving Christ and resting on Him as He is presented in the gospel...Strictly speaking, it is not the act of faith as such, but rather that which is received by faith, which justifies and therefore saves the sinner (Louis Berkhof, Systematic Theology (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1939), p 506).
The most common (Old Testament) word for conversion, means to turn, to turn about, and to return...The word clearly shows that, what the Old Testament calls conversion, is a return to Him from whom sin has separated man...True conversion is born of godly sorrow, and issues in a life of devotion to God, II Cor. 7:10...Conversion marks the conscious beginning, not only of the putting away of the old man, a fleeing from sin, but also of the putting on of the new man, a striving for holiness of life. In regeneration the sinful principle of the old life is already replaced by the holy principle of the new life. But it is only in conversion that this transition penetrates into the conscious life, turning it into a new and Godward direction. The sinner consciously forsakes the old sinful life and turns to a life in communion with and devoted to God...(Conversion is) a conscious turning from sin unto God...In the case of adults...conversion is absolutely essential (for salvation)...Conversion is necessary in the case of adults in the sense that its elements, namely, repentance and faith must be present in their lives. If we take the word conversion in its most specific sense, it denotes a change that takes place once and cannot be repeated...Conversion consists in repentance and faith, so that faith is really a part of conversion...Logically, repentance and the knowledge of sin precede the faith that yields to Christ in trusting love (Louis Berkhof, Systematic Theology (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1939), p. 492).

John Calvin
Faith
Faith of itself does not possess the power of justifying, but only in so far as it receives Christ...From this it is to be inferred that, in teaching that before his righteousness is received Christ is received in faith, we do not take the power of justifying away from Christ (John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion. Found in The Library of Christian Classics (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1960), Book III, Ch. XI.7, p. 733.

Christ was given to us by God’s generosity, to be grasped and possessed by us in faith. By partaking of him, we principally receive a double grace 
(John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion. Found in The Library of Christian Classics (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1960), Book III, Ch. XI.1, p. 725).

Faith embraces Christ, as offered to us by the Father (John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion. Found in The Library of Christian Classics (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1960), Book III, Ch. II.8, p. 552).
That very assent itself—as I have already partially suggested, and will reiterate more fully—is more of the heart than of the brain, and more of the disposition than of the understanding. For this reason it is called ‘obedience of faith’ (Rom. 1:5), and the Lord prefers no other obedience to it—and justly, since nothing is more precious to him than this truth...But another much clearer argument now offers itself. Since faith embraces Christ, as offered to us by the Father (cf. John 6:29)—that is, since he is offered not only for righteousness, forgiveness of sins, and peace, but also for sanctification (cf. 1 Cor. 1:30) and the fountain of the water of life (John 7:38; cf. ch. 4:14)—without a doubt, no one can truly know him without at the same time apprehending the sanctification of the Spirit. Or, if anyone desires some plainer statement, faith rests upon the knowledge of Christ. And Christ cannot be known apart from the sanctification of his Spirit. It follows that faith can in no wise be separated from a devout disposition (John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion. Found in The Library of Christian Classics (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1960), Book III, Ch. II.8, pp. 552-553).
Repentance
The Hebrew word for repentance is derived from conversion or return; the Greek word from change of mind or of intention. And the thing itself corresponds closely to the etymology of both words. The meaning is that, departing from ourselves we are to turn to God, and having taken off our former mind, we put on a new. On this account, in my judgment, repentance can thus be well defined: it is the true turning of our life to God, a turning that arises from a pure and earnest fear of Him, and it consists in the mortification of our flesh and of the old man, and in the vivification of the spirit.
When we call repentance a turning of the life to God we require a transformation, not only in outward works, but in the soul itself. Only when it puts off its old nature does it bring forth the fruits of works in harmony with its renewal...Repentance consists of two parts: namely, mortification of the flesh and vivification of the spirit. The prophets express it clearly although simply and rudely in accordance with the capacity of the carnal folk when they say ‘Cease to do evil and do good’ (Ps. 36:8,3,27).
For when they call men from evil they demand the destruction of the whole flesh which is full of evil and perversity. It is a very hard and difficult thing to put off ourselves and to depart from our inborn disposition. Nor can we think of the flesh as completely destroyed unless we have wiped out whatever we have from ourselves. But since all emotions of the flesh are hostility against God (Rom. 8:7), the first step toward obeying His law is to deny ourselves our own nature. Surely, as we are naturally turned away from God, unless self denial precedes, we shall never approach that which is right. Therefore, we are very often enjoined to put off the old man, to denounce the world and the flesh, to bid our evil desires farewell, to be renewed in the spirit of our mind. (Eph. 4:22,23)
From mortification we infer that we are not conformed to the fear of God and do not learn the rudiments of piety, unless we are violently slain by the sword of the Spirit and brought to nought. As if God had declared that for us to be reckoned among His children our common nature must die (John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, John McNeil, Ed., (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1960), Vol. I, Book III, Chapter III. 5-8, pp. 597-600).
Even though we have taught in part how to possess Christ, and how through it we enjoy his benefits, this would still remain obscure if we did not add an explanation of the effects we feel. With good reason, the sum of the gospel is held to consist in repentance and the forgiveness of sins (Luke 24:47; Acts 5:31). Any discussion of faith, therefore, that omitted these two topics would be barren and mutilated and well–nigh useless...Surely no one can embrace the grace of the gospel without betaking himself from the errors of his past life into the right way, and applying his whole effort to the practice of repentance. Can true repentance stand apart from faith? Not at all. But even though they cannot be separated, they ought to be distinguished (John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion. Found in The Library of Christian Classics (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1960), Volume XIX, Book III, Chapters 1, 5, pp. 592-593, 597.

R.L. Dabney
Faith
Faith embraces Christ substantially in all His offices. This must be urged as of prime practical importance. Dr. Owen has in one place very incautiously said, that saving faith in its first movement embraces Christ only in His priestly, or propitiatory work. This teaching is far too common, at least by implication, in our pulpits. Its result is ‘temporary’ faith, which embraces Christ for impunity only, instead of deliverance from sin. Our Catechism defines faith, as embracing Christ ‘as He is offered in the gospel.’ Our Confession (chap. xiv.2), says: ‘the principal acts of saving faith are accepting, receiving, and resting upon Christ alone for justification, sanctification and eternal life.’ How Christ is offered us in the gospel, may be seen in Matt. 1:21; 1 Cor. 1:30; Eph. 5:25-27; Titus 1:14. The tendency of human selfishness is ever to degrade Christ’s sacrifice into a mere expedient for bestowing impunity. The pastor can never be too explicit in teaching that this is a travesty of the gospel; and that no one rises above the faith of the stony–ground hearer, until he desires and embraces Christ as deliverer from the depravity of sin, as well as hell.
Godly sorrow for sin must be presupposed or implied in the first actings of faith, because faith embraces Christ as a Saviour from sin...Surely the Scriptures do not present Christ to our faith only, or even mainly, as a way of impunity. See Matt. i:21; Acts iii:26; Titus ii:14. As we have pointed out, the most characteristic defect of a dead faith, is, that it would quite heartily embrace Christ as God’s provision for immunity from sin: but God offers Him to faith for a very different purpose, viz: for restoration to holiness, including immunity from wrath as one of the secondary consequences thereof.
The first and most urgent want of the soul, convicted of its guilt and danger, is impunity. Hence, the undue prevalence, even in preaching, of that view of Christ which holds Him up as expiation only. We have seen that even an Owen could be guilty of what I regard as the dangerous statement, that the true believer, in embracing Christ, first receives Him only in His priestly office! The faith which does no more than this, is but partial, and can bear but spurious fruits. Is not this the explanation of much of that defective and spurious religion with which the Church is cursed? The man who is savingly wrought upon by the Holy Ghost, is made to feel that his bondage under corruption is an evil as inexorable and dreadful as the penal curse of the law. He needs and desires Christ in His prophetic and kingly offices, as much as in His priestly. His faith ‘receives Him as He is offered to us in the gospel’; that is, as a ‘Saviour of His people from their sins’ (R.L. Dabney,Systematic Theology (Edinburgh: Banner, 1871) p. 601, 658, 664).
The manner in which faith and repentance are coupled together in Scripture plainly shows that, as faith is implicitly present in repentance, so repentance is implicitly in faith...True faith is obediential: it involves the will: it has moral quality: but its receptive nature is what fits it to be the organ of our justification (R.L. Dabney, Systematic Theology (Edinburgh: Banner, 1871) p. 606-607).
Saving faith versus temporary faith: The efficient cause of saving faith is effectual calling, proceeding from God’s immutable election...That of temporary faith is the common call. The subject of saving faith is a ‘good heart;’ a regenerate soul: that of temporary faith is a stony soul...Their objects are different: saving faith embracing Christ as He is offered in the gospel, a Saviour from sin to holiness: and temporary faith embracing only the impunity and enjoyments of the Christian (R.L. Dabney, Systematic Theology (Edinburgh: Banner, 1871) p. 600).
True faith is obediential: it involves the will (R.L. Dabney, Systematic Theology (Edinburgh: Banner, 1871) p. 607).
Repentance

‘Repentance unto life is an evangelical grace, the doctrine whereof is to be preached by every minister of the gospel, as well as that of faith in Christ’ (Conf. xv,1). The brevity, and in some cases neglect, with which this prominent subject is treated by many systems, is surprising and reprehensible...Of what should man repent? The general answer, of course, must be: Of all sin...Of the corruption of nature, of the concupiscence and inordinate desire of our hearts, it is our duty to repent, to feel blameworthy for them, to sorrow for, and to strive against them, just as of actual transgression; for this not only our guilt (imputed), but our proper sin. Again, Conf., xv.5, ‘Men ought not only to repent of their sinfulness, both of heart and life, as a general quality, but also of particular sins, so far as they are known, with a particular repentance.’
The relations of faith and repentance inter se, as to the order of production, are important to an understanding of conversion. Both these graces are the exercises of a regenerate heart alone; they presuppose the new birth. Now, Calvin, with perhaps the current of Calvinistic divines, says, that ‘repentance not only immediately follows faith, but is produced by it.’ Again: ‘When we speak of faith as the origin of repentance, we dream not of any space of time which it employs in producing it; but we intend to signify that a man cannot truly devote himself to repentance, unless he knows himself to be of God.’ And this, he adds, only becomes known by appropriating faith...Now there is a fair sense in which all this is true; and that, no doubt, the sense in which it commended itself to the minds of those great and good men. But there is also a great danger of holding it in an erroneous and mischevious sense. In what we have to say, guarding these views, let us premise that we make no priority of time in the order of repentance and faith; and no gap of duration between the birth of the one or the other. Either implies the other in that sense. Nor do we dream of the existence of such a thing as a penitent unbeliever, nor suppose that there is any other means of producing repentance than the preaching of the gospel. Repentance can exist nowhere except where God works it. In rational adults He works it only by means, and that means is the gospel revelation; none other. Nor do we retract one word of what we said as to the prime efficiency of the doctrine of the cross, and of the hope, gratitude, love, tenderness, and humiliation, which faith draws therefrom, as means for cultivating repentance.
But in our view it is erroneous to represent faith as existing irrespective of penitence, in its very first acting, and as begetting penitence through the medium of hope. On the contrary, we believe that the very first acting of faith implies some repentance, as the prompter thereof...The man begins to believe because he has also begun to repent.
Godly sorrow for sin must be presupposed or implied in the first actings of faith, because faith embraces Christ as a Saviour from sin...Surely the Scriptures do not present Christ to our faith only, or even mainly, as a way of impunity...As we have pointed out, the most characteristic defect of a dead faith, is, that it would quite heartily embrace Christ as God’s provision for immunity in sin: but God offers Him to faith for a very different purpose, viz: for restoration to holiness, including immunity from wrath as one of the secondary consequences thereof.
But now, a man does not flee from an evil, except as a consequence of feeling it an evil. Hence, there can be no embracing of Christ with the heart, as a whole present Saviour, unless sin be felt to be in itself a present evil; and there be a genuine desire to avoid it as well as its penalty...Some passages of Scripture imply the order I have assigned; and I am not aware of any which contradict it. See Mark i.15; Acts ii.38, v.31, xx.21; 2 Tim ii.25.
Repentance and Faith are twin graces, both implicitly contained in the gift of the new heart; and they cannot but co-exist. Repentance is the right sense and volition which the renewed heart has of its sin; faith is the turning of that heart from its sin to Christ. Repentance feels the disease, faith embraces the remedy...The exercise of repentance, while absolutely necessary in all who are saved, creates no atoning merit; and constitutes no ground whatever in justice, why the penitent should have remission of his sins...Repentance is as much a gift of God (Acts v.31), as the remission which it is supposed to purchase...While, therefore, the impenitent cannot be justified, yet the sole ground of justification is the righteousness of Christ imputed to us, and received by faith alone(72 R.L. Dabney, Systematic Theology (Edinburgh: Banner, 1871), pp. 651, 654, 656-659).

Jonathan Edwards
The apostasy of man summarily consists in departing from the true God, to idols; forsaking his Creator, and setting up other things in his room. When God at first created man, he was united to his Creator; the God that made him was his God. The true God was the object of his highest respect, and had the possession of his heart. Love to God was the principle in his heart, that ruled over all other principles; and everything in the soul was wholly in subjection to it. But when man fell, he departed from the true God, and the union that was between his heart and his Creator was broken: he wholly lost his principle of love to God. And henceforth man clave to other gods. He gave that respect to the creature, which is due to the Creator. When God ceased to be the object of his supreme love and respect, other things of course became the objects of it.
The gods which a natural man worships, instead of the God that made him, are himself and the world. He has withdrawn his esteem and honour from God, and proudly exalts himself. As Satan was not willing to be in subjection; and therefore rebelled, and set up himself; so a natural man, in the proud and high thoughts he has of himself, sets up himself upon God’s throne. He gives his heart to the world, worldly riches, worldly pleasures, and worldly honours: they have the possession of that regard which is due to God 
(Jonathan Edwards, The Works of Jonathan Edwards (Edinburgh: Banner, 1974), Volume 2, Men Naturally Are God’s Enemies, Sect. III, pp. 132-133).

In a legal humiliation men are made sensible that they are nothing before the great and terrible God, and that they are undone, and wholly insufficient to help themselves....but they have not an answerable frame of heart, consisting in a disposition to abase themselves, and exalt God alone. This disposition is given only in evangelical humiliation, by overcoming the heart, and changing its inclination....In a legal humiliation the conscience is convinced....but because there is no spiritual understanding, the will is not bowed, nor the inclination altered....In legal humiliation, men are brought to despair of helping themselves; in evangelical, they are brought voluntarily to deny and renounce themselves: in the former they are subdued and brought to the ground; in the latter, they are brought sweetly to yield, and freely and with delight to prostrate themselves at the feet of God.
Men may be legally humbled and have no humility....they may be thoroughly convinced that they have no righteousness, but are altogether sinful, exceedingly guilty, and justly exposed to eternal damnation—and be fully sensible of their own helplessness—without the least mortification of the pride of their hearts...But the essence of evangelical humiliation consists in a mean esteem of himself, as in himself nothing, and altogether contemptible and odious....and....in denying his natural self–exaltation, and renouncing his own dignity and glory, and in being emptied of himself; so that he does freely, and from his very heart, as it were renounce, and annihilate himself. Thus the Christian doth in evangelical humiliation....This is a great and most essential thing in true religion. The whole frame of the gospel, every thing appertaining to the new covenant and all God’s dispensations towards fallen men, are calculated to bring to pass this effect. They that are destitute of this, have no true religion, whatever profession they may make, and how high soever their religious affections....God has abundantly manifested in his word, that this is what he has a peculiar respect to in his saints and that nothing is acceptable to him without it....As we would therefore make the Holy Scriptures our rule, in judging of....our own religious qualifications and state; it concerns us greatly to look at this humiliation, as one of the most essential things pertaining to true Christianity (Jonathan Edwards, A Treatise Concerning Religious Affections. Found in The Works of Jonathan Edwards (Edinburgh: Banner, 1974), Volume I, pp. 294–295).
John Flavel
No sooner is the soul quickened by the Spirit of God, but it answers, in some measure, the end of God in that work, by its active reception of Jesus Christ, in the way of believing...Nothing but unbelief bars men from Christ and his benefits. As many as (received him); the word signifies ‘to accept, take,’ or, (as we fitly render it), to receive, assume, or take to us; a word most aptly expressing the nature and office of faith, yea, the very justifying and saving act; and we are also heedfully to note its special object: The text saith not...his, but him, i.e. his person, as he is clothed with his offices, and not only his benefits and privileges. These are secondary and consequential things to our receiving him... the very essence of saving faith consists in our receiving Christ.
Christ is offered us in the gospel entirely and undividedly, as clothed with all his offices, priestly, prophetical, and regal; as Christ Jesus the Lord, Acts xv.31, and so the true believer receives him; the hypocrite, like the harlot, is for dividing, but the sincere believer finds the need he hath of every office of Christ, and knows not how to want anything that is in him. His ignorance makes him necessary and desirable to him as a prophet: His guilt makes him necessary as a priest: His strong and powerful lusts and corruptions makes him necessary as a king: and in truth he sees not anything in Christ he can spare; he needs all that is in Christ...Look, as the three offices are undivided in Christ, so they are in the believer’s acceptance; and before this trial no hypocrite can stand; for all hypocrites reject and quarrel with something in Christ; they like his pardon better than his government. They call him indeed, Lord and Master, but it is but an empty title they bestow upon him; for let them ask their own hearts if Christ be Lord over their thoughts, as well as their words; over their secret, as well as open actions; over their darling lusts, as well as others; let them ask, who will appear to be Lord and Master over them, when Christ and the world come in competition?...Surely it is the greatest affront that can be offered to the Divine Wisdom and Goodness, to separate in our acceptance, what is so united in Christ, for our salvation and happiness. As without any of these offices, the work of our salvation could not be completed, so without acceptance of Christ in them all, our union with him by faith cannot be completed.
The gospel offer of Christ includes all his offices, and gospel–faith just so receives him; to submit to him, as well as to be redeemed by him; to imitate him in the holiness of life, as well as to reap the purchases and fruits of his death. It must be an entire receiving of the Lord Jesus Christ. The gospel offers Christ orderly to sinners, first his person, then his privileges. God first gives his Son, and then with him, or as a consequent of that gift, he gives us all things, Rom viii.32. In the same order must our faith receive him. The believer doth not marry the portion first, and then the person, but to be found in him is the first and great care of a believer...It is the proper order in believing, first to accept the person of the Lord Jesus...Union with Christ is, in order of nature, antecedent to the communication of his privileges, therefore so it ought to be in the order and method of believing....Acceptance, which saith, I take Christ in all his offices to be mine, this fits exactly, and belongs to all true believers...This therefore must be the justifying and saving act of faith...That and no other is the justifying and saving act of faith, to which the properties and effects of saving faith do belong, or in which they are only found...By saving faith, Christ is said to ‘dwell in our hearts,’ Eph. iii.17, but it is neither by assent, nor assurance, but by acceptance, and receiving him that he dwells in our hearts...By faith we are justified, Rom. v.1...therefore it must be by the receiving act, and no other.
If such a receiving of Christ, as hath been described, be saving and justifying faith, then faith is a work of greater difficulty than most men understand it to be...It is no easy thing to persuade men to receive Christ as their Lord in all things, and submit their necks to his strict and holy precepts, though it be a great truth that ‘Christ’s yoke doth not gall, but grace and adorn the neck that bears it;’ that the truest and sweetest liberty is in our freedom from our lusts, not in the fulfilling them; yet who can persuade the carnal heart to believe this? And much less will men ever be prevailed withal, to forsake father, mother, wife, children, inheritance, and life itself, to follow Christ: and all this upon the account of spiritual and invisible things: and yet this must be done by all that would receive the Lord Jesus Christ upon gospel terms...Many ruin their own souls by placing the essence of saving faith in naked assent.
See that you receive all Christ, with all your heart. To receive all Christ is to receive his person, clothed with all his offices; and to receive him with all your heart, is to receive him into your understanding, will and affections, Acts viii.37. As there is nothing in Christ that may be refused, so there is nothing in you from which he must be excluded (John Flavel, John Flavel (Edinburgh: Banner, 1968), Volume 2, Sermon: The Method of Grace, pp. 102-105, 107-112, 115, 122-123, 140).

A.A. Hodge
The Scriptures make it plain that the condition of its effectual application (redemption) is an act of faith, involving real spiritual repentance and the turning from sin and the acceptance and self–appropriation of Christ and of His redemption as the only remedy...From within, the God–man reigns supreme in every Christian heart. It is impossible to accept Christ as our Sacrifice and Priest without at the same time cordially accepting Him as our Prophet, absolutely submitting our understanding to His teaching and accepting Him as our King, submitting implicitly our hearts and wills and lives to His sovereign control. Paul delights to call himself the doulos–purchased servant of Jesus Christ. Every Christian spontaneously calls Him our LORD Jesus. His will is our law, His love our motive, His glory our end. To obey His will, to work in His service, to fight His battles, to triumph in His victories, is our whole life and joy (A.A. Hodge, Evangelical Theology (Edinburgh: Banner, 1976), pp. 120, 233).
Now, every Christian who really has experienced the grace of Christ must, unless very greatly prejudiced, recognize the fact that this work of sanctification is the end and the crown of the whole process of salvation. We insist upon and put forward distinctly the great doctrine of justification as a means to an end. It is absolutely necessary as the condition of that faith which is the necessary source of regeneration and sanctification; and every person who is a Christian must recognize the fact that not only will it issue in sanctification, but it must begin in sanctification. This element must be recognized as characteristic of the Christian experience from the first to the last. And any man who thinks that he is a Christian, and that he has accepted Christ for justification when he did not at the same time accept Christ for sanctification, is miserably deluded in that very experience. He is in danger of falling under the judgment of which Paul admonishes when he speaks of the wrath of God coming down from heaven upon all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, and with special reference to those who ‘hold the truth in unrighteousness’ (A.A. Hodge, Evangelical Theology (Edinburgh: Banner, 1976), p. 297).
The essence of repentance consists...in our actual turning from all sin unto God. This is that practical turning or ‘conversion’ from sin unto God, which is the instant and necessary consequence of regeneration. It is a voluntary forsaking of sin as evil and hateful, with sincere sorrow, humiliation, and confession; and a turning unto God as our reconciled Father, in the exercise of implicit faith in the merits and assisting grace of Christ...Repentance unto life can only be exercised by a soul after, and in consequence of, its regeneration by the Holy Spirit. God regenerates; and we, in the exercise of the new gracious ability thus given, repent...If genuine, it infallibly springs from regeneration and leads to eternal life (A.A. Hodge, The Confession of Faith (Edinburgh: Banner, 1958), pp. 212–213).
Charles Hodge
Romans 10:9—‘ That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.’
The two requisites for salvation mentioned in this verse are confession and faith...The thing to be confessed is that Jesus Christ is Lord. That is we must openly recognize His authority to the full extent in which He is Lord; acknowledge that He is exalted above all principality and powers, that angels are made subject to Him, and of course that He is our Lord. This confession therefore, includes in it an acknowledgment of Christ’s universal sovereignty and a sincere recognition of His authority over us (Charles Hodge, Romans (Edinburgh: Banner, 1972), p. 341).
Kingly Office of Christ

God, as the creator and preserver of the universe, and as infinite in His being and perfections, is, in virtue of His nature, the absolute sovereign of all his creatures. This sovereignty He exercises over the material world by His wisdom and power, and over rational beings as moral ruler. From this rightful authority of God, our race revolted, and thereby became a part of the kingdom of darkness of which Satan is the head. To this kingdom the mass of mankind has ever since belonged. But God, in His grace and mercy, determined to deliver men from the consequences of their apostasy. He not only announced the coming of a Redeemer Who should destroy the power of Satan, but He at once inaugurated an antagonistic kingdom, consisting of men chosen out of the world, and through the renewing of the Holy Ghost restored in their allegiance.
The kingdom of God, therefore, as consisting of those who acknowledge, worship, love and obey Jehovah as the only living and true God, has existed in our world ever since the fall of Adam...To gather His people into this kingdom, and to carry it on to its consummation, is the end of all God’s dispensations, and the purpose for which His eternal Son assumed our nature. He was born to be a king. To this end He lived and died and rose again, that He might be Lord of all those given to Him by the Father...The Scriptures constantly speak of the Messiah as a king who was to set up a kingdom into which in the end all other kingdoms were to be merged. The most familiar designation applied to Him in the Scriptures is Lord. But Lord means proprietor and ruler; and when used of God and Christ, it means absolute proprietor and sovereign ruler...Nothing, therefore, is more certain, according to the Scriptures, than that Christ is a king; and consequently, if we would retain the truth concerning Him and His work, He must be so regarded in our theology and religion.
He is the king of every believing soul. He translates it from the kingdom of darkness. He brings it into subjection to Himself. He rules in and reigns over it. Every believer recognizes Christ as His absolute Sovereign; Lord of his inward, as well as of his outward life. He yields to Him the entire subjection of the reason, of the conscience, and of the heart. He makes Him the object of reverence, love and obedience...To acquit himself as a good soldier of Jesus Christ, to spend and be spent in His service and in the promotion of His kingdom, becomes the governing purpose of his life.
The laws of this kingdom require first and above all, faith in Jesus Christ, the sincere belief that He is the Son of God and the Saviour of the world, and cordial submission to Him and to trust in Him as our prophet, priest and king. With this faith is united supreme love. ‘He that loveth father or mother more than me, is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me...He that findeth his life, shall lose it; and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it’ (Matt. 10:37,39). ‘If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciples’ (Luke 14:26). ‘If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anathema maranatha’ (1 Cor. 16:22). With this supreme love are to be connected all the other religious affections. Christians are the worshippers of Christ.
But if we are to recognize Christ as Thomas did (John 20:28), as our Lord and our God, then of course we are bound not only to worship, but to obey him. We stand to Him in the same relation that a slave does to his master, except that our subjection to Him is voluntary and joyful. We belong to Him, not only as the Creator, being His creatures, but also as the Theanthropos, being purchased by His blood (I Cor. 6:19-20). His will, and not our own, must govern our conduct, and determine the use we make of our powers. All we gain, whether of knowledge, wealth, or influence, is His. He, and not we ourselves, is the object or end of our living. It is Christ for believers to live. His glory and the advancement of His kingdom, are the only legitimate objects to which they can devote their powers or resources; the only ends consistent with their relation to Christ, and the full enjoyment of the blessedness which membership in His kingdom secures.
The kingdom of Christ is not a democracy, nor an aristocracy, but truly a kingdom of which Christ is absolute sovereign (Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology, The Kingly Office of Christ).
Faith and repentance are graces not only alike indispensable, but they cannot exist separately. Repentance is a turning from sin unto God, through Jesus Christ, and faith is the acceptance of Christ in order to our return to God...In the ordinary religious sense of the term, it (repentance) is a turning from sin unto God...That repentance, therefore, which is unto life, is a turning; not a being driven away from sin by fear and stress of conscience, but a forsaking it as evil and hateful, with sincere sorrow, humility, and confession; and a returning unto God, because he is good and willing to forgive, with a determination to live in obedience to his commandments...Our repentance needs to be repented of, unless it leads us to confession and restitution in cases of private injury; unless it causes us to forsake not merely outward sins, which attract the notice of others, but those which lie concealed in the heart; unless it makes us choose the service of God, as that which is right and congenial, and causes us to live not for ourselves, but for Him who loved us and gave Himself for us...The salvation offered in the gospel, though it be a salvation of sinners, is also a salvation from sin...No man, therefore, can be saved who does not, by repentance, forsake his sins. This is itself a great part of salvation. The inward change of heart from the love and service of sin to the love and service of God, is the great end of the death of Christ...A salvation for sinners, therefore, without repentance, is a contradiction.

Hence it is that repentance is the burden of evangelical preaching. Our Saviour himself, when he began to preach, said, ‘Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ And when he came into Galilee preaching the gospel, he said, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel.’ The commission which he gave his apostles was, ‘That repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations.’ In the execution of this commission his disciples went forth and preached, ‘Repent ye, and be converted, that your sins May be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord. Paul, in the account which he gave Agrippa of his preaching, said that he showed first unto them of Damascus, and at Jerusalem, and throughout all the coasts of Judea, and then to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, and do works meet for repentance. And he called upon the elders at Ephesus to bear witness that he had taught ‘publically, 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.’
Repentance, then, is the great, immediate, and pressing duty of all who hear the gospel. They are called upon to forsake their sins, and return unto God through Jesus Christ. The neglect of this duty is the rejection of salvation. For, as we have seen, unless we repent we must perish...Though repentance is a duty, it is no less the gift of God (Charles Hodge, The Way of Life (Edinburgh: Banner, 1959), pp. 153, 166-169).

D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones
What is the kingdom (of God)? It means in its essence, Christ’s rule or the sphere and realm in which He is reigning...Wherever the reign of Christ is being manifested the kingdom of God is there...the kingdom of God is present at this moment in all who are true believers. The kingdom of God is only present in the Church in the hearts of true believers, in the hearts of those who have submitted to Christ and in whom and among whom He reigns. We who recognize Christ as our Lord, and in whose lives He is reigning and ruling at this moment are in the kingdom of heaven and the kingdom of heaven is in us. Do we belong to this kingdom? Are we ruled by Christ? Is He our King and Lord?...The kingdom of God means ‘the reign of God,’ ‘the reign of Christ,’ and Christ is reigning today in every true Christian...Whenever Christ is enthroned as King, the kingdom of God is come, so that while we cannot say that He is ruling over all in the world at the present time, He is certainly ruling in that way in the hearts and lives of all His people.
Matthew 7:13,14 - Strait Gate and Narrow Way
The first thing we notice is that the Christian life is narrow or strait at the very beginning. Immediately it is narrow. It is not a life which at first is fairly broad...the gate itself, the very way of entering into this life, is a narrow one. We are told at the very outset of this way of life, before we start on it that if we would walk along it there are certain things which must be left outside, behind us. There is no room for them because we have to start by passing through a strait and narrow gate. The first thing we leave behind us is what is called worldliness. We leave behind the crowd and the way of the world...Our Lord is warning us against the danger of an easy salvation, against the tendency to say, Just come to Christ as you are and all is going to be well. No, the gospel tells us at the outset that it is going to be difficult. It means a radical break with the world.
Yes, but still narrower and still straiter, if we really want to come into this way of life, we have to leave our ‘self’ outside. And it is there of course that we come to the greatest stumbling–block of all. It is one thing to leave the world, and the way of the world, but the most important thing in a sense is to leave our self outside. Have no illusion about this...for he who would enter by this gate must say goodbye to self. It is a life of self abasement, self humiliation. ‘If any man will come after Me’—what happens? ‘Let him deny himself (the first thing always), and take up his cross and follow Me.’
But self denial, denial of self, does not mean refraining from various pleasures and things that we may like. It means to deny our very right to ourself. We leave our self outside and go in through the gate saying, ‘Yet not I but Christ liveth in me.’
Repentance
In the same way it (the false prophet’s teaching), does not emphasize repentance in any real sense. It has a very wide gate leading to salvation and a very broad way leading to heaven. You need not feel much of your own sinfulness; you need not be aware of the blackness of your own heart. You just decide for Christ and you rush in with the crowd and your name is put down and is one of the large number of decisions reported by the press.
Repentance means that you realize that you are a guilty vile sinner in the presence of God; that you deserve the wrath and punishment of God, that you are hell-bound. It means that you begin to realize that this thing called sin is in you; that you long to get rid of it, and that you turn your back on it in every shape and form. You renounce the world whatever the cost, the world in its mind and outlook as well as its practice, and you deny yourself, and take up the cross and go after Christ. Your nearest and dearest and the whole world may call you a fool, or say you have religious mania. You may have to suffer financially, but it makes no difference. That is repentance.
The false prophet does not put it like that. He heals ‘the hurt of the daughter of My people slightly,’ simply saying that it is all right and that you have but to come to Christ, ‘follow Jesus,’ or ‘become a Christian’ (D. Martyn Lloyd–Jones, Studies in the Sermon on the Mount (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1971), pp. 16, 40, 220, 221, 224, 225, 247, 248).

John Murray
The Nature (of faith)—its Constituitive Elements:
A) Notitia. Faith respects an object and in this case Christ. But there can be no trust without knowledge of the person in whom trust is reposed. We do not trust any person unless we know something about him and, more particularly, things pertaining to that in respect of which we have confidence. So it is with Christ.
B) Assensus. This has two aspects: a) Intellective...The information conveyed is recognized by us to be true...b) Emotive...It is truth believed as applicable to ourselves, as supremely vital and important for us. Saving faith cannot be in exercise unless there is a recognition of correspondence between our needs and the provision of the gospel. Knowledge passes into conviction.
C) Fiducia. Saving faith is not simply assent to propositions of truth respecting Christ, and defining the person that he is, nor simply assent to a proposition respecting his sufficiency to meet and satisfy our deepest needs. Faith must rise to trust, and trust that consists in entrustment to him. In faith there is the engagement of person to person in the inner movement of the whole man to receive and rest upon Christ alone for salvation. It means the abandonment of confidence in our own or any human resources in a totality act of self–commitment to Christ.

This fiducial character, consisting in entrustment to Christ for salvation, serves to correct misapprehensions. Faith is not belief that we have been saved, nor belief that Christ has saved us, nor even belief that Christ died for us. It is necessary to appreciate the point of distinction. Faith is in its essence commitment to Christ that we may be saved. The premise of that commitment is that we are unsaved and we believe on Christ in order that we may be saved...It is to lost sinners that Christ is offered, and the demand of that overture is simply and solely that we commit ourselves to him in order that we may be saved.
Faith is a whole–souled movement of intelligent, consenting, and confiding self–commitment, and all these elements or ingredients coalesce to make faith what it is. Intellect, feeling and will converge upon Christ in those exercises which belong properly to these distinct though inseparable aspects of psychial activity (Collected Writings of John Murray (Edinburgh: Banner, 1977), Volume 2, pp.257-260).
Justification is by faith and therefore can never be separated from it. What is this faith? It is trust in Christ for salvation from sin. It is to contradict the very nature of faith to regard it as anything else than a sin–hating, sin–condemning, and sin–renouncing principle. Since faith is a whole–souled movement of trust in Christ its very spring and motive is salvation from sin...As regeneration is the fountain of faith and faith is the logical pre-condition of justification, we can never think of justification apart from regeneration. And, again, the faith that justifies is faith conjoined with repentance (Collected Writings of John Murray (Edinburgh: Banner, 1977), Volume 2, pp. 220-221).
All along the line of obligations, overtures and priviledges of the divine call, there is an utter incongruity between the condition of the called and the calling. The response to the call is a whole–souled movement of loving subjection and trust in God. It is a totality of a man’s soul...It is a turning to God with the whole heart and soul and strength and mind (Collected Writings of John Murray(Edinburgh: Banner, 1977), Volume 2, pp. 169-170).
According to the more classic Protestant position faith is simply the instrument whereby justification is appropriated. The faith in view is not faith in justification but faith in Christ, the faith directed to him and commitment to him for salvation (cf. Westminster Confession XI, iv)...Faith has as its specific quality the receiving and resting of self-abandonment and totality of self-commitment (Collected Writings of John Murray (Edinburgh: Banner, 1977), Volume 2, pp. 216-217).
Faith is always joined with repentance, love and hope. A faith severed from these is not the faith of the contrite and therefore it is not the faith that justifies. But it is faith alone that justifies because its specific quality is to find our all in Christ and his righteousness (Collected Writings of John Murray (Edinburgh: Banner, 1977), Volume 2, p. 217).

Faith is not regeneration, for it is the person who believes. But it is by the washing and renewal of regeneration that the person is enabled to believe. Faith is of God, but faith itself is the whole–souled movement of the person in entrustment to Christ...It is at this point of faith that our responsibility enters...It is truly our responsibility to be what regeneration effects, namely, new creatures, trusting, loving, and obeying God with all our heart and soul and mind...Faith is the activity of the person and him alone. And every Godward response is, of course, our responsibility. This needs to be pressed home with the utmost emphasis (John Murray, Collected Writings of John Murray (Edinburgh: Banner, 1977), Volume 2, pp. 262-263).
The response to the call is a whole–souled movement of loving subjection and trust in God. It is a totality act of man’s soul...It is a turning to God with the whole heart and soul and strength and mind...This change of heart manifests itself in faith and repentance, which are the responses of our whole inner man to the revelation of the gospel, away from sin and towards God (John Murray, Collected Writings of John Murray (Edinburgh: Banner, 1977), Volume 2, pp. 170, 202).

A.W. Pink
The word of God teaches plainly that in this dispensation, equally with preceding ones, God requires a sincere and deep repentance before He pardons any sinner. Repentance is absolutely necessary for salvation, just as necessary as is faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. ‘Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish’ (Luke 13:3). ‘Then hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life’ (Acts 11: 18). ‘For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of’ (2 Car. 7: 10). It is impossible to frame language more explicit than that. Therefore in view of these verses and others, we cannot but sorrowfully regard those who are now affirming that repentance is not in this dispensation, essential unto salvation, as being deceivers of souls, blind leaders of the blind. In repentance sin is the thing to be repented of and sin is a transgression of the law (I John 3:4). And the first and chief thing required by the law is supreme love to God. Therefore, the lack of supreme love to God, the heart’s disaffection for His character and rebellion against Him (Rom. 8:7) is our great wickedness, of which we have to repent.
What is sin? Sin is saying...I disallow His (God’s) right to govern me. I am going to be lord of myself. Sin is rebellion against the Majesty of heaven...The language of every sinner’s heart is, I care not what God requires, I am going to have my own way. I care not what be God’s claims upon me, I refuse to submit to His authority. The Lord Jesus taught and constantly pressed the same truth. His call was ‘Repent ye and believe the gospel’ (Mark 1:15). The gospel cannot be savingly believed until there is genuine repentance.
When the gospel first comes to the sinner it finds him in a state of apostacy from God, both as sovereign Ruler and as our supreme good, neither obeying and glorifying Him, nor enjoying and finding satisfaction in Him. Hence the demand for ‘repentance toward God’ before ‘faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ’ (Acts 20:21). True repentance toward God removes this dissatisfaction of our minds and hearts toward Him, under both these characters. In saving repentance the whole soul turns to Him and says: I have been a disloyal and rebellious creature. I have scorned Thy high authority and most rightful law. I will live no longer thus. I desire and determine with all my might to serve and obey Thee as my only Lord. I subject myself unto Thee, to submit to Thy will...Repentance...is the perception that God has the right to rule and govern me, and of my refusal to submit unto Him...As the Holy Spirit sets before me the loveliness of the divine character, as I am enabled to discern the exalted excellency of God, then I begin to perceive that to which He is justly entitled, namely, the homage of my heart, the unrestricted love of my soul, the complete surrender of my whole being to Him.
Many are the scriptures which set forth this truth, that there must be a forsaking of sin before God will pardon offenders. He must be crowned Lord of all or He will not be Lord at all. There must be the complete heart–renunciation of all that stands in competition with Him. He will brook no rival.
Thus repentance is the negative side of conversion. Conversion is a whole–hearted turning unto God, but there cannot be a turning unto, without a turning from. Sin must be forsaken ere we can draw nigh unto the Holy One. As it is written, ‘Ye turned to God from idols to serve (live for) the living and true God’ (I Thess. 1:9). Make no mistake upon the point...it is turn or burn; turn from your course of self will and self pleasing, turn in brokenheartedness to God, seeking His mercy in Christ, turn with full purpose to please and serve Him, or be tormented day and night forever and ever in the lake of fire (A.W. Pink, The Doctrine of Salvation (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1979), pp. 45, 49-53, 56, 58, 60, 79).
J. C. Ryle
I doubt, indeed, whether we have any warrant for saying that a man can possibly be converted without being consecrated to God!...If he was not consecrated to God in the very day that he was converted and born again, I do not know what conversion means. Are not men in danger of undervaluing and underrating the immense blessedness of conversion? Are they not, when they urge on believers the ‘higher life’ as a second conversion, underrating the length, and breadth, and depth, and height, of that great first chapter which Scripture calls the new birth, the new creation, the spiritual resurrection? I may be mistaken. But I have sometimes thought, while reading the strong language used by many about ‘consecration,’ in the last few years, that those who use it must have had previously a singularly low and inadequate view of ‘conversions’ if indeed they knew anything about conversion at all. In short, I have almost suspected that when they were consecrated, they were in reality converted for the first time! (J.C. Ryle, Holiness (Cambridge: James Clark), p. 57).
Charles Spurgeon
Matthew 4:17—‘From that time Jesus began to preach and to say Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.’
Luke 24:47—‘And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name among all nations
beginning at Jerusalem.’

It seems from these two texts that repentance was the first subject upon which the Redeemer dwelt, and that it was the last, which, with His departing breath, He commended to the earnestness of His disciples. Jesus Christ opens His commission by preaching repentance. What then? Did He not by this act teach us how important repentance was—so important that the very first time He opens His mouth He shall begin with ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand’? Did He not feel that repentance was necessary to be preached before He preached faith in Himself because the soul must first repent of sin before it will seek a Savior.
It seems to me that nothing could set forth Jesus Christ’s idea of the high value of repentance more fully and effectually than the fact that He begins with it, and that He concludes with it – that He should say ‘Repent’, as the key note of His ministry. There must be a true and actual abandonment of sin and a turning unto righteousness in real act and deed in every–day life.
Repentance to be sure must be entire. How many will say ‘sir I will renounce this sin and the other; but there are certain darling lusts which I must keep and hold.’ 0 sirs, in God’s name let me tell you; it is not the giving up of one sin, nor fifty sins, which is true repentance, it is the solemn renunciation of every sin. If thou dost harbour one of those accursed vipers in thy heart, and does give up every other, that one lust, like one leak in a ship, will sink thy soul. Think it not sufficient to give up thy outward vices, fancy it not enough to cut off the more corrupt sins of thy life; it is all or none which God demands.
Repent says He and when He bids you repent, He means repent of all thy sins, otherwise He can never accept thy repentance as real and genuine.
All sin must be given up or else you shall never have Christ: all transgression must be renounced, or else the gates of heaven must be barred against you. Let us remember then that for repentance to be sincere, it must be entire repentance. True repentance is a turning of the heart as well as of the life; it is the giving up of the whole soul to God to be His forever and ever; it is the renunciation of the sins of the heart as well as the crimes of the life 
(C. H. Spurgeon, New Park Street Pulpit, Vol. 5 and 6, pp. 342-346; Sermon #106, pages 418, 419).
It is not possible for us to accept Christ as our Saviour unless He also becomes our King, for a very large part of salvation consists in our being saved from sin’s dominion over us, and the only way in which we can be delivered from the mastery of Satan is by becoming subject to the mastery of Christ (C.H. Spurgeon, The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Vol. 56 (reprint, Pasadena: Pilgrim, 1979), p. 617. Cited by John MacArthur, Faith Works (Dallas: Word, 1993), p. 245-246).

Thomas Watson
Repentance is of such importance that there is no being saved without it...It is a great duty incumbent upon Christians solemnly to repent and turn unto God...That religion which is not built upon this foundation must needs fall to the ground. Repentance is a grace required under the gospel. Some think it legal; but the first sermon that Christ preached, indeed, the first word of his sermon, was ‘Repent’ (Matt. 4.17). And his farewell that he left when he was going to ascend was that ‘repentance should be preached in his name’ (Luke 22.47)...Repentance is not arbitrary. It is not left to our choice whether or not we will repent, but it is an indispensable command. God has enacted a law in the High Court of heaven that no sinner shall be saved except the repenting sinner, and he will not break his own law.
Some bless themselves that they have a stock of knowledge, but what is knowledge good for without repentance? It is better to mortify one sin than to understand all mysteries. Impure speculatists do but resemble Satan transformed into an angel of light. Learning and a bad heart is like a fair face with a cancer in the breast. Knowledge without repentance will be but a torch to light men to hell (Thomas Watson, The Doctrine of Repentance (Edinburgh: Banner, 1987), pp. 12–13, 59, 77).
How shall I know that I am making a right application of Christ? A hypocrite may think he applies when he does not. Balaam, though a sorcerer, still said, ‘my God (Numb. 22:18). Answer: He who rightly applies Christ puts these two together, Jesus and Lord: ‘Christ Jesus my Lord’ (Phil. 3:8). Many take Christ as Jesus, but refuse him as Lord. Do you join ‘Prince and Saviour’ (Acts 5:31)? Would you as well be ruled by Christ’s laws as saved by his blood? Christ is ‘a priest upon his throne’ (Zech. 6:13). He will never be a priest to intercede unless your heart is the throne where he sways his sceptre. A true applying of Christ is when we take him as a husband that we give ourselves to him as Lord (Thomas Watson, The Godly Man’s Picture (Edinburgh: Banner, 1992), p. 22).

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