Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent,
Acts 17:30

Yesterday we put forth the fact that repentance is not an optional element in salvation. We demonstrated that the God commands repentance (Acts 17:30), and that key men in the New Testament preached repentance.

Today, we want to consider what repentance is and why it is not a “meritorious work” performed by people to earn salvation.

Literally, repentance is a “changing of the mind.” The change is not deciding whether to eat burgers or burritos. It is about life and death, Heaven and Hell, and whether Jesus is Lord or not! Lost people who are dead in sin (Ephesians 2:4-5) have no capacity to make this mind change. This change of mind happens when a person is born again by the Spirit of God.

The new life one receives upon being born again is always accompanied by a new heart and mind. The new heart and mind wants more than to go to Heaven rather than Hell when he dies. When we are born again by the Spirit of God, we want to turn from sin and to follow Christ as Lord and Master of our lives.

When we are born again, we not only want to turn from sin to follow Jesus, we actually do turn from sin to follow Jesus. None of us does this perfectly, and we are all maturing at differing speeds, but fundamentally, when we are born again we receive the gifts of both faith and repentance.

And since they are gifts from God, we can take no credit either for believing or repenting.

This is what repentance is and why it is not a “meritorious work” performed by us to earn salvation.