In evangelistic circles there are those who insist on repentance or the word repent be a part of the gospel message. Those who take their theology from the book of Acts insists that repentance is a necessary part of salvation. Unfortunately, the same people who make these claims do not define what they mean by repentance. In the New Testament the word repent is translated from a Greek word meaning to change one’s course or to change one’s mind. It appears a total of 23 times in the New Testament; of these, 9 appear in the Synoptic Gospels, 5 appear in the book of Acts, 1 time in II Corinthians, 1 time in Hebrews and 7 times in the Revelation. In the Synoptic Gospels 1 of those was of John the Baptist. The word repentance is found 25 times in the New Testament, with 10 in the Synoptic Gospels, 6 in the book of Acts, 2 in II Corinthians, 1 in II Timothy, 3 in Hebrews, and 1 in II Peter.
Neither the word repent or the word repentance appear in the gospel of John, which is interesting in that the gospel is presented more often in that Gospel than in any of the Synoptic Gospels and the evangelist in that Gospel is the Lord Himself. One would think that if anyone knew how to present the Gospel it would be the Lord. John 3:16 is probably the most popular of all gospel verses and it does not say that whosoever repents and believes shall be saved. Our Lord will speak of both repent and repentance 12 times in the Synoptic Gospels, keeping in mind that some of these are repetitious of other parallel texts. The use of these words in II Corinthians all appear in chapter 7 and have to do with an erroring brother changing his ways and getting right with the Lord and the Church. Only once in Romans does it refer to unbelievers coming to repentance (2:4), which is worthy of note, inasmuch, as Romans is the book that defines our great salvation. In the great gospel texts of Romans 5 and 10 there is no mention of repentance. Again, in the defining of the gospel in I Corinthians 15:1-11, there is no mention of repentance, why is that? In Ephesians chapter 2 we have the gospel spelled out once again, including verses 8 and 9 where we are saved by grace through faith and not of any works of our own, as it is a free gift. The text does not say that it is by grace through repentance and faith. The 7 times the word is used in the Revelation are all in chapters 2 and 3 which have to do with the letters to the 7 Churches and are warnings to Christians, not the gospel to unbelievers. In Hebrews 6 repentance in salvation is inferred in that a person who falls away cannot be renewed to repentance, and in II Peter 3:9 the Lord is not willing that any should perish but all should come to repentance.
This leaves us with the book of Acts where the words are used a total of 11 times. Of these 8 have to do with salvation. Most of these are in the context of the Gospel to the Jews, as the Jew understood repentance and it was wording that was very familiar to them. The use of these words by our Lord in the Gospels was to the Jews. The Gospel was to go to the Jew first and then to the Gentiles. The verse used most often to defend repentance as a part of salvation is found in Peter’s sermon on the day of Pentecost, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” (Acts 2:38). This verse is used to attach repentance to the gospel and is also used to attach baptism to salvation. In 3 other texts in Acts, speaking in tongues is also attached to salvation and the receiving of the Holy Spirit. Taking your theology from the book of Acts will invariably make you a Pentecostal. Repentance and the Gentiles is seen in Acts 17:30 “but now commands all men everywhere to repent,” and Acts 26:20 “that they should repent, turn to God, and do works befitting repentance.”
We are then left with the question of how do we reconcile what the Apostles stated in the Acts with what we read in the Epistles that salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, which is apart from any works of man including repentance, baptism and speaking in tongues? I submit the following:
1. We must keep Scripture within its context. The book of Acts is not one of doctrine, though doctrine may be found in it, Acts is a history of the early days of the Church, that is why it is called the Acts of the Apostles or very well could be called the history of the Apostles. This book tells us what they did, not what we are to do. Inasmuch as all Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is for our learning, we can learn a great deal from our history and the examples set by the Apostles. A great deal of false doctrine has come from those who take their theology from Acts and this has done great harm to the ministry of the Gospel and to the Church.
2. The key to proper exegesis of Scripture is to allow Scripture to interpret Scripture. We do not take one or even two verses in the same context and run with them as doctrine. This is especially true of the Acts, where we must compare what is said there and compare with our actual doctrine passages in the Epistles. The inspiration of the Holy Spirit has made it possible to do this in bringing together all 66 books into one magnificent whole.
3. None of this precludes the work of the Holy Spirit in changing the minds and direction of those who are dead in trespasses and sins. One example that we can find is in our history book, Acts 16 where we have the story of the Philippian jailer who was about to fall on his sword and then asked “Sirs what must I do to be saved?” and the answer, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved, you and your household” (Vs 30-31). There was no call for repentance here because it was obvious that the jailer was well beyond that, it was time to believe. When I used to go door to door with the gospel, a person would answer the door and I would tell them that I was in the neighborhood to tell them how they could know for sure that they are going to heaven. When they slammed the door in my face, sometimes with expletives, they were doing what came naturally, that was the direction of all those who are dead in trespasses and sins. But, on occasion, a person would pause and then give me permission to continue, they just changed direction and changed their mind, in other words, they repented according to the true definition of the word. I knew, not only that they had changed their mind but the reason why, was because they were made alive by the Holy Spirit (see Ephesians 2:1-5). I would then confirm this thru a series of questions.
4. The message of the Gospel is clearly defined in I Corinthians 15:3-5 that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures and was buried; that He rose from the dead according to the Scriptures and was seen. It is just that simple and there is no need to muck it up by shifting the view from our risen Lord to all the filth of the sinner from which they must repent.