Mark 1:14-15 reports that “Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.’” According to Jesus’ statement in Mark 1, repentance and faith are essential to the gospel message that Jesus preached. Biblical repentance, however is not present in much preaching today—“the word repentance is still in our vocabulary today, it is nonetheless a tragically misunderstood and carelessly disregarded term” (Richard Owen Roberts, Repentance: The First Word of the Gospel, Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2002, 16). Thus, the question arises—how does repentance relate to salvation? Are sinners saved only by faith apart from repentance or are repentance and faith intricately connected? Proponents of what has been termed “lordship salvation” have long held that true saving faith is faith that is inseparably joined to repentance. Proponents of what may be termed the “non-Lordship” position claim that salvation is by faith alone and repentance comes after faith as a result of growing in likeness to Christ. Such divergent claims reveal the need for a thorough biblical theology of repentance and its tie to salvation.
In a series of posts to follow, I will discuss the history and the key tenants of both sides of the Lordship Salvation Controversy while revealing the Bible’s clear teaching on repentance. It will be shown that the non-lordship position fails to do justice to the biblical data, misunderstands the place of repentance in the work of redemption, and does harm to the church which Christ died to redeem.
Although the theology of “non-lordship” theologians is no longer holds the same influence it once did, its affects upon the evangelical church are widespread. In fact, I think much of today’s poor preaching on conversion is likely tied in some way, shape, or form to non-lordship teaching. I hope these posts are helpful to you and establish clearly in your mind that repentance and faith are the necessary response to the gospel!
Next Post: Brief History of the Lordship Salvation Controversy.
In my experience Lordship-salvation and non-Lordship salvation preachers both ignore repentance. Like you said, it’s misunderstood.
To God be all glory,
Lisa of Longbourn
I agree Lisa. I think most pastors today have heard something of it and would likely affirm that Jesus must be our Lord, but they also likely preach things like, “just ask Jesus into your heart and you will be saved,” i.e. things that are not explicitly biblical and make it easier for people to call themselves Christians.
So yes, I think few people would deny Lordship salvation or even the importance of repentance, but it also seems that few people really preach it. So thought I think that non-lordship theology is much less influential than it once was, I think the effects of the controversy are still widely felt in many of our churches.
[...] Repent and Believe: Repentance and the Lordship Salvation Controversy [...]
I would affirm repentance and faith salvation, but not Lordship salvation. Real faith and repentance will lead to real salvation that produces works recognizing Jesus as Lord. But I don’t believe that it is the claim of Jesus as Lord that saves you.
Jesus is Lord whether we claim Him, submit to Him, are saved, or not.
To God be all glory,
Lisa of Longbourn
Thanks for sharing your thoughts Lisa.
I agree that Jesus is Lord whether we ascent to him as such. The issue I am bringing up is that the non-lordship people leave repentance out of the gospel call, which I do not believe is biblical. The issue is regeneration. I wish I had time to say more about this, but I need to get off the internet! I will write more later. But I want to be clear. To receive Christ as savior one must respond in the way the Scriptures set forth, by repenting and believing in the Lord Jesus Christ.
I think when you have someone who says Jesus is my savior but not my Lord, I would be worried that that person may not understand the gospel call of repentance.
That the short answer to your statement. If you would like, when I have time after finals, I will explain more.
Thanks
I agree, Lisa. In my experience, most people do ignore repentance in their gospel calls – even those who believe repentance is necessary! That is so sad, but true. I’m very curious to read your thoughts, Drew. I used to never preach repentance until a short time ago when the Word changed my thoughts. I just can’t get past Jesus’ method of evangelism.
His method is so radically different than we how we evangelize today. Luke 13 is a prime example. Jesus told people they had to “strive to enter by the narrow door; for many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able.” (13:24) Later on Jesus said, “whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple.” (14:27) Those seem loud and clear to me. To be a disciple is to be saved. If you want to be saved, you must turn from sin and follow Jesus. That is repentance at its core level.
I might be wrong, but I think the reason most people don’t want to believe and/or preach this is because it turns people off from the gospel. Yet, we must realize that it is God who converts the soul, not us. And God uses the truth of the Word to do the converting work. So if we don’t preach it as God wants it preached, what do we really think the results will be? Having thought about that, maybe it’s no wonder the SBC is in decline as Lifeway is telling us!
Michael
I was reading Acts this week, and Peter preached to a congregation without telling them to repent or believe or make Jesus Lord of their life at all. There was great response to Peter just telling the state of things.
Do we just discuss these things so we can write creeds and tracts instead of being personal evangelists?
Michael,
When I was in grade school I had a pastor whose last name is Wilhite. Think you’re related?
To God be all glory,
Lisa of Longbourn
Michael,
Thanks for your feedback. I am totally with you, I think it is an essential part of the gospel call and something that God ultimately works out in the heart of an unregenerate person–you can read my thoughts on that here and here.
It is encouraging to know that you are out there preaching the true gospel–one that understands the importance of repentance.
Lisa,
Thank you again for reading and responding to my article. However, I have no idea what you are getting at in this last comment. What portion of Acts were you reading?
Though there may be portions of Peter’s preaching in Acts where repentance and faith are not clearly presented at the end of his message it does not mean that they are not present in that text. Further, is not repentance coupled with faith the overarching call of the gospel as you see it in Scripture?
I was going to wait to publish the next part of this series until Monday, but maybe I ought to go ahead and post it tonight when I get home so as to clear up any confusion.
Thanks again for your comments. I’ll try to get back on tonight and post part 3.
We don’t always have to tell people how to respond to hearing that they’re sinners and Jesus died for them. The Holy Spirit moves them to the necessary response.
That’s what I was getting at.
To God be all glory,
Lisa of Longbourn
Ok I am with you there.
We don’t always have to spell out how people ought to respond, but clearly the response called upon in the Scriptures to the gospel is repentance.
Lisa,
No relation. My dad was actually adopted when he was two. His father died in WW II a few days after D-day from a leftover bomb in the water as his boat came ashore. Dad was only 3 months old at the time. Grandma met someone else and re-married. We’re actually Tinchers for the sake of family history, though I’ve met a few Wilhite’s out there over the years that I wish I could claim as blood relatives!
One other thing to keep in mind about Peter and Acts. Sometimes in the Word, we only get a small portion of the sermon that someone preached and not the whole thing. That may be the case in your example. While there is no way to prove that this side of eternity, I think the whole counsel of the Word shows the need to preach repentance for salvation. After all, Jesus’ first words as He began His public ministry in Mark 1:15 were “repent and believe the Gospel.” True, saving faith is always coupled with repentance according to the Bible.