Grace for Española
 
Now after John was put in prison, Jesus came to Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God and saying, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel" (Mark 1:14-15, NKJV).

Repentance and Faith Must Always Be Joined
Jesus preached both repentance and faith. Repentance and faith are two sides of the same coin: Tails, we turn tail on the corrupt fruits of sin and unbelief; heads—we head straight for Jesus and trust His promises. Repentance is not optional anymore than faith is optional. Repentance and Faith are both commanded by Christ. The gospel is both an invitation and a command.

What is repentance? Repentance is a turning from sin and to God (Acts 3:19). In true repentance, one cannot turn to God without turning from sin and one cannot turn from sin without turning to God. Two Greek words are translated "repent" in the New Testament. First, metanoia means literally "a change of mind." This word is used in Acts 17:30, "God . . . now commands all men everywhere to repent." The other word is epistrophei which means "to turn to, to cause to return, to bring back." It is used in 1 Thess 1:9, "you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God." Both words are used in Acts 26:20, "repent, turn to God, and do works befitting repentance."

What is faith? Faith is unwavering trust in the promises of God. Saving faith is not mere mental assent, but an active response to God in trust and obedience. The Reformers identified three aspects of biblical faith: (1) I understand with my mind – notitia, (2) I accept with my emotions – assensus, (3) I trust with my will – fiducia. Peter put it this way, "He indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you who through Him believe in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God" (1 Pet 1:20-21).

We must not think that we can be saved by reforming our lives without trusting in the righteousness of Christ. We must us also not think we can be saved by trusting in Christ without having a change of life. Christ preached both repentance and faith and what Christ has joined together let no man separate!

We create hideous and monstrous distortions of the gospel when we separate repentance and faith. Imagine what you would have with repentance without faith:

 • Repentance without faith leads a man to despair by not hearing or believing the promises of God in the gospel (God’s love, forgiveness, acceptance, security). He is left with bitter regret, no hope, no assurance.
 • Repentance without faith leads a man to pride in thinking he can "pull himself up by his own bootstraps." He doesn’t need a Savior. He’s a self-made man or woman.
 • Repentance without faith makes God a liar: "he who does not believe God has made Him a liar" (1 John 5:10).
 • It’s impossible to repent without faith: "But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him" (Heb 11:6).
 • Repentance without faith cannot save. Two examples in the Bible of those who had repentance without faith are Esau and Judas Iscariot. Neither is a positive role model!

Imagine what you would have with faith without repentance: 

 • Faith without repentance presumes on the grace of God.
 • Faith without repentance is not real faith because it doesn’t actually believe God’s Word (ignores the command to repent).
 • Faith without repentance is nothing more than the faith of demons: "You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe—and tremble! But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead?" (Jas 2:19). 
 • Faith without repentance cannot save: "Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven" (Matt 7:21).
 • Those who never repent of their sin will never inherit the kingdom of God: "Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God" (1 Cor 6:9-10).
 • Those who refuse to repent will end up in hell: "But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death" (Rev 21: 8).

What we need is to proclaim both and practice both. We need repentance that causes us to deny ourselves and follow Christ because He has redeemed us through faith in His shed blood. We need to be stripped of our pride and our sin in repentance, and clothed with grace and righteousness in faith.

Repentance ejects sin from the heart and faith enthrones Christ as Lord. Repentance purges the soul from dead works and faith fills the soul with living works. Repentance tears down the fortress of hostility to God and faith builds a temple for the habitation of the Spirit of God. Repentance is the time to weep and mourn over sin and faith is the time to rejoice in the grace and salvation of God.

The Problem of False Converts
The greatest hindrance to the purity of the church and the spread of the gospel is not the existence of unbelievers in the world. Rather, it’s the existence of unrepentant and unbelieving people in the church. Nominal Christianity is the greatest obstacle to real Christianity.

There are many who profess faith in our churches, but never manifest the fruit of repentance and faith—a heart that loves to obey God. You’d think I was nuts if I tried to explain to you a sun that never did shine or a fire that never did give heat. That would be no kind of sun or no kind of fire. If you saw a body lying still with no signs of life you’d say it was dead.

If you see a professing believer who does not love God, does not obey God, does not produce any evidence of being born again, then we must conclude we are dealing with someone who does not know God.

He who says, "I know Him," and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him (1 John 2:4).

The Greatest Need We Have
What is the greatest goal of salvation? To escape the consequences of Sin? To go to heaven when you die? To make your grandmother happy?

No! The greatest goal of salvation is to have every obstacle that interferes with your enjoyment of God removed, namely, the eradication of your sinful nature in exchange for a new, Holy Spirit-wrought nature that is able to truly love God and delight in God. Your greatest need is not to escape judgment, or go to Heaven, or experience forgiveness for past sins. Your greatest need is for conversion, for transformation, for regeneration! Prior to conversion, your sin nature dominates your heart (emotions), mind, and will. You need to be liberated from the bondage of sin so you can: (1) Understand and believe the truth of God in your mind, (2) Obey God with your will, (3) Love God from the heart (affections).

As a Christian, you will continue to need to practice repentance and faith because not one of us does these perfectly (believe God, obey God, love God).

If you’ve never been converted, allow me to summarize the main issue for you. (1) Your sins are an offense to God and have separated you from God. (2) You are totally unable to remedy your situation. (3) Only Christ, as He is offered to you in the gospel, can save you. If you agree with and believe these three truths, seek God for salvation. Plead with Him for deliverance from the bondage to sin. Appeal to His grace to grant you repentance and faith. Ask Him for the gift of the Holy Spirit to give you a new heart and to bring you to a sound and thorough conversion.

Why must we keep faith and repentance joined?

 • You cannot dirty your hands and expect to be clean.
 • You cannot run from God and expect to be reconciled to Him.
 • You cannot be ignoring Him and be believing Him.
 • You cannot be saved by faith without repentance.
 
 
19 Now we know that whatever the law says speaks to those who are subject to the law, so that every mouth may be shut and the whole world may become subject to God's judgment. 20 For no flesh will be justified in His sight by the works of the law, for through the law comes the knowledge of sin. 21 But now, apart from the law, God's righteousness has been revealed—attested by the Law and the Prophets 22 —that is, God's righteousness through faith in Jesus Christ, to all who believe, since there is no distinction. 23 For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. 24 They are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. 25 God presented Him as a propitiation through faith in His blood, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His restraint God passed over the sins previously committed. 26 He presented Him to demonstrate His righteousness at the present time, so that He would be righteous and declare righteous the one who has faith in Jesus. 27 Where then is boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By one of works? No, on the contrary, by a law of faith. 28 For we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from works of law (HCSB).

Here we find the clearest explanation of the gospel in all of the Scripture. In seminary, I was required to memorize this passage of God’s Word through to the end of the chapter (along with many other passages). I immediately saw the wisdom of my professor’s choice in selecting Romans 3.

Too often, we as Christians are easily led away from the simplicity and purity of the gospel of grace into an unbiblical extreme. Some Christians may have a careless and low view of God’s holiness and righteous law and live as though it doesn’t matter how one lives. Or on the other hand, we over-shadow God’s grace by emphasizing God’s standards for righteousness and live in constant dread and shame because we fail to keep God’s law. Then there are those miserable souls who make everybody else miserable because they wrongly believe that they actually do keep God’s law, unlike everybody around them.

So we have those who err by emphasizing God’s grace to the neglect of His law, and those who emphasize God’s law to the neglect of His grace. The biblical balance is placing the proper emphasis on both God’s law and His grace. The apostle Paul understood and vigorously defended this balance.

In the opening chapters of the Epistle to the Romans, the apostle Paul writes as God’s prosecutor with the entire human race on trial in the court room of Almighty God. In 1:18-2:16, Paul demonstrates the sinfulness and guilt of the Gentiles. In 2:17-3:8, Paul condemns the Jews. In 3:9-20, Paul brings the case against humanity to a head with a series of references to the Old Testament showing how sinful mankind is. The law stops every mouth and holds all the world guilty before God (3:19). The law cannot justify, only condemn (3:20).

But in 3:21 we find one of my favorite phrases in the Bible—“But now.” I love the “buts”of the Bible. Paul has just pushed us all below the line of despair up to 3:21 where he introduces the saving grace of God in Jesus Christ. Here Paul declares that though we are all unrighteous in God’s sight due to our violation of the law of God, there is a rightouesness apart from the law which is available to those who exercise faith in Christ.

Jesus Christ bore the wrath of God against our sin (3:25), satisfying the righteousness of God so that God could show mercy and justify “the one who has faith in Jesus” (3:26). God has demonstrated infinite wisdom in the way He chose to save us. It is profoundly significant that God chose to save us by the death of His Son on the cross. God maintained His justice against our sin by punishing sin in Jesus. God can also show grace to us and declare us righteous becuase our sin has been taken out of the way.

What effect does this amazing reality have on the believer? For one, it excludes boasting (3:27). A proud Christian is as much an oxymoron as trying to imagine dry water. Left to ourselves, we are guilty sinners deserving of God’s eternal wrath. “But God…,” praise His name, God has intervened and redeemed us from our sin by the cross of Christ.

“We conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from works of law” (3:28). In relating to God, we must be careful to avoid unbiblical thinking. We must avoid emphasizing God’s law to the exclusion of God’s grace and vice versa. When we embrace the gospel of grace we find ourselves responding to God out of pure love and devotion rather than legalistic pride, shame, or carefree indifference. God has removed every barrier to Himself in the gospel. Because of His grace, the child of God has His favor, acceptance, and right standing. The believer has been reconciled to God, adopted as His child, declared righteous, and purified from sin. Now all that remains for us to do is live like we believe it!