Expert: Pastor Don Carpenter - 6/17/2005

Question
Dear Pastor Carpenter!

You gave a fantastic explanation of what "Repentence" really means. Your point about how God can't sin, but repented (changed his mind) is an excellent point that I never thought of!!!

Wow! So many pastors are so confused over repentence and are telling people they must turn from all of their sins or they can't be saved! The tragedy is they haven't the power on their own to turn from all of their sins. However, they can have a change of mind or heart change like you say.

If you could get your message across to more pastors, perhaps we could see a real revival of people getting saved!!! What do you think? Since you are a pastor you can speak up and make this misunderstanding known! You can warn many pastors they are doing a big diservice to God by not understanding what "repenetence" really means. And because they misunderstand repentence they are keeping people from being saved!!!

You should stand up and tell people what you just told me and stop this misunderstanding. You should have no problem convincing pastors because you proved using the Bible that you are right!

I really appreciate your wise counsel pastor!!!

Take care!          

-------------------------
Followup To
Question -
Hi,

I'm really confused about how “repentance” fits into a person getting saved. I hear pastors say people need to repent first before they can accept Jesus and  become saved.  However, if people are slaves to sin, then where do they find the strength to repent in order to get saved? In other words, say some one is an alcoholic. ns ey don't have the strength in themselves to turn from alcohol in order to get saved! So how do they find the strength to repent of their alcoholism? How do they even have the strength to want to repent of alcoholism? For this reason I'm wondering perhaps instead I should not mention repentance at all and instead just ask unsaved people to accept Jesus as their personal savior. Inotherwords, don't mention the alcoholism and instead ask them if they would like Jesus to be their savior. Then once the Holy Spirit comes into their heart, then the Holy Spirit will give the alcoholic the strength to over come the alcohol. What do you think?

Answer -
Hi Brison,

You have asked a wonderful question.  I will warn you...you have stumbled into a hotly debated point in theology today.  The first thing that we must understand is the definition of repentance.  Repentance is a change of mind that results in a change of action.  It does not always mean repenting from sin.  We know that God does not sin...yet the Bible says that He repented.

Genesis 6:6
6 And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.
The King James Version, (Cambridge: Cambridge) 1769.

Exodus 32:14
14 And the LORD repented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people.

The King James Version, (Cambridge: Cambridge) 1769.

Psalm 106:45
45 And he remembered for them his covenant, and repented according to the multitude of his mercies.
The King James Version, (Cambridge: Cambridge) 1769.

This is a change of mind.  You are right...one cannot repent of sins until he receives Jesus as his Savior, then the Holy Spirit is there to give him the ability to repent of sins...   But clearly the Bible teaches that repentance is a part of salvation...so how does that work.  Repentance that leads to salvation is a change of mind about what you are trusting in in order to get to heaven.  Notice the foundation of our doctrine:

Hebrews 6:1

Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God,  
The King James Version, (Cambridge: Cambridge) 1769.

The repentance is a change of mind FROM trusting in works TO trusting in Christ alone.... this is repentance that leads to salvation.  Now make no mistake...true salvation produces instant repentance from sin to some degree or another.

2 Corinthians 5:17
17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.  
The King James Version, (Cambridge: Cambridge) 1769.

Repentance from sin is a sign of salvation, not a prerequisite, therefore I do not need to tell a person to repent from sin in order to merit salvation any more than I need to tell a new born baby to breath and to cry....  if they are truely alive...then they will do those things naturally.

The problem with requiring someone to repent before salvation is that then they are trusting in their sincere repentance (works) not the blood of Jesus  (faith).  This is a subtile tactic of the devil...but it is very effective to get folks to miss the true story of salvation.  

To sum it up ... One does have to repent in order to be saved...he needs to change his mind about his dead works and trust in Jesus to save him because he recognizes the fact that his sin is condeming him to hell.

I hope that this helps you.

In Christ,
Pastor Don

Answer
Hi Brother,

Thanks for your kind words.  Like I said earlier, this is a hot topic of debate.  THere are pastors who believe like I do, and try to explain it...but there are far too many who have not studied out this doctrine and condemn folks like me for "taking repentance out of the Bible".  They assume that every repentance is repentance from sin....use verses on prepentance for proof text...and inject their meaning of repentance from sin.  THe problem is that many people get confused.  Is it Jesus or is it my efforts of repentance that saves me.  Now, these preachers claim to preach salvation by grace...and believe that they are preaching salvation by grace....but they are unknowingly teaching some kind of works.  We are trying to get the teaching out there...people need to be Bereans and simply search the scripture and they will discover the real meaning and role of repentance in salvation.

In Christ

Pastor Don