The phrase "repent of your sins," is so embedded in Christian culture that it is hard to hear the word "repent" without mentally adding on the three words "from your sins." And since the word "repent" is often associated with eternal salvation, this leads to further adding on, either mentally, or verbally from the pulpit, the words "to be saved" to the end of the sentence. Together, they form the greatest myth in the history of Christianity . . . "You must repent of your sins to be saved."
This belief is not only wrong, it is an error that threatens the eternal destiny of every man, woman and child on the planet. For it reduces the gospel of grace to a gospel of works. Scripture teaches with unmistakable clarity that a man is justified by faith apart from the works of the law, (Romans 3:28) and that to entrust one's eternal salvation to one's own obedience to God's laws is to frustrate God's offer of the gift of forgiveness of sins and eternal life, and make void the promise (Romans 4:4-5, 24; 11:6-7, Galatians 5:1-4).
The command "repent from your sins to be saved" is wrong on any level, but because there is so much confusion surrounding the word "repentance," multiple distinct errors surround the concept of repentance.
1) Some believe one must have some transcendent experience of emotional remorse over one's sins to be saved.
2) Others believe that a sinner must actually begin living in obedience to the laws of God before they can be saved.
3) Most frequently, however, the phrase "repent of your sins" is understood to mean that a lost sinner resolve (determine, internally promise, commit) to "turn from his sins" in order to be saved from hell.
This first view necessarily means that one is beyond redemption simply because he suffers from autism, a schizotypal disorder, or some other medical disorder that suppresses personal emotion.
The second view requires the actual works of the law to be saved. It is seldom taught to its logical conclusion simply because most people are not in the middle of some overtly sinful act at any one time. Although, by Biblical standards, it is doubtful that any of us have perfectly pure motives at any moment, few of us are engaged in an overtly sinful act very often. A drug dealer is not dealing drugs between deals.
Because of this, the third view is the most pervasive form of confusion over repentance, and has truly become the staple of confused Christendom. It is a cancer on the Christian community. In this view, eternal salvation is not dependent on the performance of a work, but only the promise of future works. In the minds of those determined to adhere to salvation by works, this distinction supposedly allows the works of the law to be somehow added to the equation of salvation without annulling the doctrine of grace. Paul's Epistle to the Romans would disagree. "For if they which are of the law be heirs, faith is made void, and the promise is of none effect."
At law, an exchange of promises is known as a bilateral contract. If you have already read the previous section on "Bilateral Contract Salvation" (also know as "Lordship Salvation), you will recognize that the third expression of "saving repentance" is nothing more than a specific form or expression of Bilateral Contract Salvation . . . "a promise for a promise." The lost sinner "promises" future obedience in exchange for God's "promise" of eternal life. This errant understanding of the term "repentance" is the most common and pervasive form of "Lordship Salvation" taught within Christendom throughout the world.
