True repentance is granted to men by God because of His mercy.
1. “God...to give repentance” (Acts 5:31; see also 2 Tim. 2:25).
Because God wants man to receive His salvation, He enlightens man’s mind by His Spirit so that man will see his condition of being far from God and realize his need to turn back to God. Then He touches man’s feelings and gives him a repentant heart so that he will turn from everything apart from God back to God. Initially, people love sin, covet the world, and desire many things. One day, however, God, by the Holy Spirit, has mercy on them, causing their thinking to turn from sin, the world, and other things back to God.
2. “God has given repentance unto life” (Acts 11:18).
Many people, who never had a desire for God or even considered God were graced by God at a certain point in time through His mercy; God arranged their environment in order to give them a heart to repent and wholeheartedly turn back to God.
3. “God’s kindness is leading you to repentance” (Rom. 2:4).
Because man forsakes God, commits sin and evil in rejecting God, and offends God, he should be punished and destroyed by God. Yet God exercises forbearance and patience because of His kindness. His patient and forbearing kindness leads man to repentance so that man may turn to Him. The reason that so many have survived terminal illness, calamities, wars, bombings, plane crashes, and disasters at sea is because God’s kindness patiently bore with them, giving them the opportunity to be led to repentance so that they might turn back to God and obtain salvation.
Every genuine act of believing is preceded by repentance. Every true act of repentance is followed by believing. Believing is the proof of repentance. Where there is repentance, there is also believing. These two acts are closely related and cannot exist without each other.
1. “Repent and believe in the gospel” (Mark 1:15).
One must repent in order to believe in the gospel. There is no believing without repentance. Believing without repentance is not genuine. Real faith comes from believing, which follows repentance. How can a person receive the gospel without an inward change? Without an inward turn, an outward confession of the gospel is useless.
2. “Repentance unto God and faith in our Lord Jesus” (Acts 20:21; see also 19:4).
There must first be repentance unto God before there can be faith in the Lord Jesus. In order for the heart to believe in the Lord Jesus, the mind must first turn to God. Only those whose minds are turned to God can receive the Lord Jesus as their Savior. Those whose minds are not turned to God cannot sense their need of the Lord Jesus and therefore will not have faith in Him. When a person acknowledges his own sinfulness and corruption, including the fact that he has turned away from God and rejected God, he will grieve and become remorseful. Then he will turn to God and be able to believe in his heart in the Lord Jesus as his Savior. To believe in the Lord Jesus, he must first repent to God.
God specifically sent John the Baptist to preach repentance so that men might turn and believe in the Savior whom He would send and to prepare their hearts to receive His salvation. After John the Baptist came to preach repentance, the Lord Jesus followed to tell people to believe. Repentance is for believing and ushers in believing.
There is a definite relationship between repentance and salvation. One must repent in order to be saved, and in order to obtain salvation, one must pass through repentance.
1. “Repent, for the kingdom of the heavens has drawn near” (Matt. 3:2).
The kingdom of the heavens is the ruling of the heavens. This heavenly kingdom, this heavenly reign, is expressed first as a reality in man today and will then be practically manifested in the millennial kingdom. To share in this heavenly kingdom and rule, man must repent. When man is turned away from God, he is not restricted by God and does not submit to God’s rule. He is wild and unrestrained, doing whatever he wants, however he wants, and thus commits unimaginable acts. His sinful and evil deeds are not under God’s rule, but even his charitable and just deeds are not under God’s rule. Whatever he does is not subject to God’s authority. In order for the kingdom of the heavens to reign in him, he must repent; he must have a change in his mind. He must turn from everything that is not restricted by God and not subject to His rule, submitting himself to the heavenly reign to be under the rule from above. Moreover, if he wishes to participate in the manifestation of the kingdom of the heavens in the future, he must live in the reality of the kingdom today, allowing heaven to rule in him. For this he must repent. Only those who repent and turn from everything that is not subject to God and who submit to the heavenly authority may partake of the kingdom of the heavens. Only these will live in the reality of the heavenly kingdom today and enter into its manifestation in the future.
God’s salvation not only causes us to escape perdition and obtain eternal life, but it also saves us under God’s authority, allowing heaven to rule in us and us to be subject to the heavenly reign. To share in such a salvation of God, we must repent from all that refuses the rule of God and submit ourselves under God’s heavenly government. There is a crucial relationship between repentance and our participation in the heavenly kingdom.
2. “Prepare the way of the Lord; make straight His paths...all flesh shall see the salvation of God” (Luke 3:4-6).
God’s salvation is the entrance of the Lord into man to be his salvation. For man to obtain God’s salvation, he must first allow the Lord to enter into him. Repentance prepares the way for the Lord to enter. Before God sent the Lord Jesus to bring salvation to men, He first sent John the Baptist to preach repentance so that a straight and smooth way might be prepared in men’s hearts for the Lord to enter. If one does not repent and have a change in his mind, turning his whole being to the Lord, the Lord has no way to enter into him to bring in God’s salvation, even if He so desires. Yet when a man’s mind turns to God to make a way for Him, the Lord immediately enters into him to be his salvation.
3. “Repentance for forgiveness of sins” (Luke 24:47; see also 3:3; Acts 5:31).
The Lord’s gospel causes man to repent and to receive forgiveness of sins. To forgive sins, God must first grant man repentance. If man does not regret his sin of turning away from God and return to God in his heart, he will not believe in the Lord Jesus. Thus, he will not be able to obtain God’s forgiveness. To be forgiven, man must repent and regret his dead works to turn back to God (Heb. 6:1).
4. “Repentance unto life” (Acts 11:18).
The Lord’s gospel causes man to be forgiven so that he may obtain the Lord’s life (Col. 2:13). Hence, for man to obtain the Lord’s life, he must repent, realizing that his life is corrupt and that his living, which is outside of God, is evil. He will then rebuke himself, loathe himself, repent, and turn to God. In this way his sins will be forgiven, and he will receive the Lord’s life.
5. “Repent and...be baptized” (Acts 2:38).
Baptism issues from a person’s believing in the Lord Jesus and receiving His salvation. Before a person believes, he must repent. One must first repent, then believe and be baptized. Baptism is related to repentance, and it is also related to salvation because baptism is a step that should be taken after receiving salvation.