God’s salvation
can be experienced by a man through repentance and faith in the Gospel,
that’s why Jesus said to the Jews: “Repent ye, and
believe the gospel” (Mark |
To repent
means to be sorry and grieved for one’s sins; therefore when a man repents of
his sins he recognizes that he is a sinner in the sight of God and he is
sorry for the sins he has committed because he recognizes that he has broken
the commandments of God, who is Holy and Right. Besides this, he decides not
to sin any longer and to bear fruits worthy of repentance. In other words, he
decides to turn to the Lord from his evil ways to live a holy and right life.
In the Gospel according to Matthew there is this parable, which Jesus spoke
to the chief priests and the elders of |
However,
repentance is not enough, because a man must also believe in the Gospel, that
is to say, he must believe that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, died for our
sins and rose again the third day for our justification. For the Scripture
says that to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the
ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness (Romans 4:5). Those who
believe, therefore, receive remission of sins and are reconciled to God by
their faith in the name of Jesus (Acts |
When a
sinner has repented of his sins, forsaken them and believed in the Lord Jesus
Christ, we affirm that he has turned to the Lord from his evil ways to serve
the living and true God (1 Thessalonians 1:9). He is no longer the same
person, his life has changed, he has a new mind, a
new heart, new desires and purposes. In other words, he is born again. |
In
conclusion, I want to say that both repentance and faith are granted by God,
for it is written with regard to repentance: “Then God has also granted to
the Gentiles repentance to life” (Acts 11:18 – NKJV) and: “Him God has
exalted to His right hand to be Prince and Saviour, to give repentance to
Israel and forgiveness of sins” (Acts 5:31 - NKJV); while with regard to
faith it is written that “it is the gift of God” (Ephesians 2:8). Shall we
say then that a man’s conversion is determined by God? Yes, because Peter
said to the Jews: “Unto you first God, having raised up his Son Jesus, sent
him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from his iniquities” (Acts
3:26). That does not mean that man does not possess a will, but rather that
God uses the will of man to fulfil what He purposed before the foundation of
the world. Obviously, when a person turns to the Lord he does not know that
God predestined him to repent and to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ; this is
unknown to him. But we will come back to this subject later. |