When the gospel is proclaimed, it seems at first glance that two different or even alternative answers are needed. Sometimes the call is “Repent!” Thus John the Baptist appeared preaching in the Judean desert and said, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near” (Mt 3:1-2). Once again, Peter exhorts listeners whose conscience opened on the day of Pentecost: “Do you repent and let each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ?(A 2. 38). Paul later urges the Athenians to repent in response. to the message of the Risen Christ (Acts 17:30).
However, at other times, the appropriate response to the gospel is, “Believe!”When the philippi jailer asked Paul what he had to do to be saved, the Apostle said to him, “Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved?(AT 16. 31).
- But there is no mystery or contradiction here.
- Later in Acts 17.
- We find that where the answer to repentance was needed.
- Those who have become described as believers (Acts 17.
- 30.
- 34).
Certainly, any confusion is resolved by the fact that when Jesus preached, the gospel of God?In Galilee he exhorted his listeners: “Time is up, and the kingdom of God is near; Do you repent and believe in the gospel?(Mk 1:15). Repentance and faith come together here, pointing to two aspects of conversion that are also essential, so each term suggests the presence of the other, for each reality (repentance or faith) is sine qua non of the other.
Grammatically, then, do words repent and believe they function as a synod?A style figure in which a part is used to designate the whole. Repentance therefore suggests faith and faith suggests repentance. One cannot exist without the other.
But, of course, who comes first?Or is there no top priority? There has been much debate in reformed thinking on this subject. Each of the three possible answers has its supporters:
First, WGTShedd insisted that faith must precede repentance according to the order of nature: “While faith and repentance are inseparable and simultaneous, yet in the order of nature, does faith precede repentance?(Dogmatic Theology, 2536). in stating that the motivating power of repentance lies in understanding faith in God’s mercy. If repentance preceded faith, repentance and faith would be legal and would become preconditions for grace.
Secondly, Louis Berkhof seems to have taken the opposite position: “There is no doubt that, of course, repentance and knowledge of sin precede the faith that is given to Christ with confident love” (Systematic Theology, p. 492).
Third, John Murray emphasized that this problem poses
an unnecessary question and the futile insistence that one precedes the other. There’s no priority. Faith that is for salvation is a penitent faith, and the repentance that is for life is a believing repentance [?] The saving faith is imbued with repentance, and repentance is imbued with saving faith (Redemption?Fulfilled and applied, p. 113) .
This is certainly the most biblical perspective. We cannot separate the fact that we turn from sin in repentance and turn to Christ in faith. Both describe the same person in the same action, but from different angles. From an angle (repent), the person is seen in relation to sin; on the other (faith), the person is seen in relation to the Lord Jesus, but the person who simultaneously trusts in Christ departs from sin, when he believes, repents, and when he repents, believes. Perhaps RLDabney best expresses this when he says that repentance and faith are thank you?(maybe we can say Siamese twins?).
But having said that, there’s no way we said everything that had to be said. A psychology of conversion is intimately linked to any theology of conversion. In any individual, at the level of consciousness, a feeling of repentance or trust can prevail. What is theologically unified can be psychologically diverse. Thus, an individual deeply convinced of the guilt and slavery of sin can experience it (repentance) as a predominant mark in his conversion. Others (whose experience of conviction deepens after conversion) may have a predominant sense of wonder for Christ’s love, with less psychological agony in the soul. Here the individual is more aware of trust in Christ than of repentance of sin. But in a true conversion, one cannot exist without the other.
The psychological points that accompany conversion therefore vary, sometimes depending on the dominant evangelical emphasis that is exposed to the sinner (the wickedness of sin or the greatness of grace). (i. e. , the individual’s sure response to the word of the gospel)?(CFW 14. 2).
Under no circumstances, however, can true conversion take place outside the presence of both repentance and faith and, therefore, joy and sadness. Conversion? In which there is no sadness for sin, which receives the word only with joy, it will be temporary.
Jesus’ parable on the sower is instructive here: in a soil type, the seed germinates quickly, but dies suddenly. Who receives the word with joy? But without the feeling of being plowed by the conviction of sin or the pain of turning away from it (M. 4. 5-6, 16-17). Instead, a conversion that is only sadness for sin. , without joy for forgiveness, will you be right?Does this cause death? (2C 7. 10). At the end of the day, it won’t lead to anything.
However, this raises the final question: is the need to repent in conversion a type of work that goes against faith without works?, does this compromise grace?
In a word, no. Sinners should always approach empty-handed, but that is precisely the point. By nature, my hands are full (sin, ego, and mine?Good deeds?). However, full hands cannot cling to Christ in faith, but when they grasp him, they empty; Which prevented us from trusting Him, inevitably falls to the ground; the old lifestyle cannot be held in the hands that grab the Savior. .
Yes, repentance and faith are two essential elements of conversion, they are twin graces that cannot be separated, as John Calvin reminds us, this is true not only at the beginning, but throughout our Christian life, we are penitent believers and penitent believers for the point of glory.