True repentance consists of three main constituents: regret for past sin, a realisation of the nature of sin (i.e., that it is bad), leading to a hatred of it, and a sincere commitment to leave the ways of this world and follow the way of Christ.
True faith similarly consists of three main constituents: an understanding or knowledge of the basic truth of Jesus and His saving work, an approval and acceptance of this basic truth, and an application of the knowledge of this truth in personal and sincere trust.
Faith and repentance must sincerely combine in an individual, in order that he or she may find genuine conversion to Christ. Once converted to Christ, the act of repentance and the personal trust must continue in the individual for the rest of their life.
In this study it seems most natural to introduce the issues of faith and repentance as they would come upon an individual in reality, that is: faith and repentance in conversion - the point at which an individual accepts Christ as their Lord and Saviour; and faith and repentance in the continuing Christian life.
Therefore, first repentance and faith will be discussed and defined, then commented on in connection with conversion, and then in connection with the continued Christian life.
True repentance consists of three main constituents:
So repentance is understanding that sin is wrong, dissaproving of it, and a deciding to leave it and instead follow the way of Jesus. In 2 Corinthians, Paul writes: "Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation" (7:10a), and we see that the sorrow is over a realisation of past wrong, which led to repentance and thus leads to salvation.
True faith similarly consists of three main constituents:
So faith is more than just a belief in facts, it is more than an acceptance and approval as truth of facts, it is reliance on facts. In the Christian case - the case of the Bible - it is understanding the basic truths of Jesus, approving them and personally and sincerely entrusting your life to these facts. It is a reliance on the work of Jesus as the only way of salvation.
When the authors of the various Books of the Bible discuss conversion, it is not uncommon for only faith to be mentioned, or only repentance. For example:
It can easily be assumed that in these cases, the authors listed only one of the two factors as they rightly associated one with the other; for turning away from sin is turning towards Christ, and turning towards Christ is turning away from sin.
In any case, faith and repentance are listed in conjunction as necessary for salvation: "I have declared to both Jews and Greeks that they must turn to God in repentance and have faith in our Lord Jesus" (Acts 20:21), and the Apostle Paul, known for preaching salvation by faith (e.g., Eph. 2:8-9, Rom. 5:1) also taught that repentance leads to salvation (e.g., 2 Cor. 7:10).
So we see that faith and repentance (in no particular order) must sincerely combine in an individual, in order that he or she may find genuine conversion to Christ.
Once converted to Christ, the act of repentance and the personal trust must continue in the individual for the rest of their life. The believer will struggle with sin until they reach Heaven and so must continuously acknowledge and ask forgiveness for sins, must know that sin is wrong and to be turned away from, and must be striving to live God's way. Likewise, the act of trusting Christ as Saviour must be continuous: knowing the truth of Christ's saving work, believing and approving of this saving work as the right way, and evidencing this belief with personal trust in Jesus for salvation.
Even though it is naturally assumed that these would form a continuing part of the Christian life, it is also taught in the following passages:
So we see that both faith and repentance are necessary for true conversion, and are also necessary for the continued Christian life.
1 Berkhof, Systematic Theology, p.505 (jump back to text)