Repentance : God works it in us

…as He does faith, which is the gift of God.

I saw a site yesterday where a guy was denouncing the ‘false gospel’ of repentance. He was saying that to mention repentance in the gospel message is to imply that salvation is by works. He said that the gospel is only about believing, not about repenting.

I think he’s partly right in his observations. There’s a true faith and repentance as well the spurious. And some people righteously respond to the gospel message whilst others misunderstand the very same message ; even the pure, unadulterated word of God many misunderstand and stumble over. Even just preaching the Scriptures alone, the pure truth, does not ensure all conversions or responses are genuine or in truth.

Taking a look at the phenomenon  of repentance in individuals : Have you ever seen a genuine conversion, including your own, where there was no repentance? Even if repentance is not stressed in the gospel message, every true conversion does result in repentance from sin, and the fruit of the Spirit becomes evident, bcos it is the work of God in us. The working of God in us never separates faith from repentance from sin. And every false conversion is marked by non repentance, and the works of the flesh are evident.

Repentance means a change of mind toward Jesus Christ, and then subsequently toward sin. But it would be nonsense to conclude that when a person has a change of mind about sin that they are trying to be saved by their works.