other hand, wherever there is true faith, there is also real repentance. . . . The two cannot be separated;
The Call to Repentance
The Discarding of Repentance
Voices today continue to promulgate the same ideas. The Ryrie Study Bible includes a synopsis of doctrine that lists repentance as "a false addition to faith" when made a condition for salvation, except "when [repentance is] understood as a synonym for faith."7 Another influential teacher says essentially the same thing: "The Bible requires repentance for salvation, but repentance does not mean to turn from sin, nor a change in one's conduct. . . . Biblical repentance is a change of mind or attitude concerning either God, Christ, dead works or sin."8 Even a seminary professor writes, "Repentance means to change one's mind; it does not mean to change one's life."9
These writers and others have thus redefined repentance in a way that evacuates its moral ramifications. They write it off as simply a change of mind about who Christ is.10 This kind of repentance has nothing to do with turning from sin or abandoning self. It is utterly devoid of any recognition of personal guilt, any intent to obey God, or any desire for true righ teous ness.
That is not the kind of repentance Jesus preached. As we have seen repeatedly, the gospel according to Jesus is as much a call to forsake sin as it is a summons to faith. From His first message to His last, the Savior's theme was calling sinners to repentance — and this meant not only that they gained a new perspective on who He was, but also that they turned from sin and self to follow Him. The message He commands us to preach is the same: "repentance for forgiveness of sins" (Luke 24:47).11
What Is Repentance?
Repentance is a critical element of conversion,12 but do not dismiss it as simply another word for believing. The Greek word for "repentance" is metanoia, from meta, "after," and noeo m, "to understand." Literally it means
7. Charles C. Ryrie, Th e Ryrie Study Bible (Chicago: Moody, 1976), 1950. 8. G. Michael Cocoris, Lordship Salvation — Is It Biblical? (Dallas: Redención Viva, 1983), 12. 9. Th omas L. Constable, "Th e Gospel Message," Walvoord: A Tribute (Chicago: Moody, 1982), 207. 10. Charles C. Ryrie, Balancing the Chris tian Life (Chicago: Moody, 1969), 176. 11. Note that this is Luke's record of our Lord's Great Commission. Luke is the only one of the evangelists to record Jesus' words about the content of the message He was commissioning the disciples to preach. Repentance is clearly the heart of the gospel call He was commissioning His disciples to take into all the world.
12. Berkhof writes, "True repentance never exists except in conjunction with faith, while, on the other hand, wherever there is true faith, there is also real repentance. . . . Th e two cannot be separated; they are simply complementary parts of the same process." Louis Berkhof, Systematic Th eology (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1939), 487.