Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent, because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead." Acts 17:30-31
Why are faith and repentance important? Because all people will be judged by God. First let us be reminded by what standards we shall not be judged.
The standard is not that we committed more good deeds than bad.
The standard is not that we did better than others, most people, or bad people.
What is the standard by which all shall be judged? That we be perfectly holy as our heavenly Father is perfectly holy. (Matthew 5:48; Leviticus 21:8; Exodus 19:6; 1 Peter 1:16; 1 Thessalonians 4:7.) God is also perfectly just so He must judge righteously (justly). The bad news for we who are not perfectly holy is that no one can escape God’s judgment and the inevitability of a guilty verdict.
The good news is that in addition to being a just Judge, God is also a merciful Father. In His mercy, He has provided forgiveness for our sins by sending His perfectly holy Son, Jesus, to live righteously for us and to die, paying the penalty for our guilt for us—followed by His resurrection from the dead.
What God requires of the guilty who would be forgiven is faith in Jesus instead of in our own supposed goodness. And necessarily related to saving faith in Jesus is a change of heart toward sin, once forgiven. That change of heart is the heart of repentance, which is seen not in sinlessness, but in progressively sinning less as we grow in our understanding and appreciation of God’s grace.
The appointed day of God’s judgment is coming. Let that day find us living lives of trust in Christ and repentance concerning sin.