I would like to make a few comments about repentance, Repentance absolutely is necessary, there are many who will not get saved because they know that getting saved will change them, and many of them do not want to be saved out of sin, I have met people who told me they believed Christ died for them, they believed they were a sinner, but they would not trust in Christ, because they love their sin too much. So in this situation, this person must repent of their sin and have a changed of mind and heart about sin in general, usually the king pin sins in their lives.
I believe the Lord has really given me clarity on this issue of repentance.
When I got saved, There were a lot of things in my life that I did not even know were sinful, so when I got saved it wasn't like I made a conscious decision to turn away from all my sins, it was more of like I just knew I was wicked and I "believed on the Lord Jesus Christ"
Lordship Salvation is heretical, because every day I realize more and more just how wicked I truly am and God shows me every day areas where he is in fact not Lord in my life, and any honest believing Christian who takes any time to evaluate themselves will agree with this.
In Acts 17:31 Paul talks about how God commands all men everywhere to repent, this is in the context of him speaking to idol worshipers, This is because in order to truly trust in Jesus Christ and him alone, you must turn from your idols that you are trusting in, this is also the same thing I believe Paul is talking about in 1 Th 1:9.
Peter says in Acts 2 to repent, but he's talking in context to the Jews who have rejected Jesus, so I believe he's commanding them to repent of their unbelief of the Messiah and their rejection of him, a almost identical event takes place in Acts 3 with another command to repent.
Then of course you have the example in Luke 13:3 to repent, if you look at the context, it's very obvious that what Jesus is commanding to repent of is self righteousness, which prevents a person from truly believing on Christ.
So then we come to the question, must a person repent of sin to be saved? well it all comes down to what you mean repent of sin, if you mean that in order to be saved a person must be willing to go home, and pour out all their alcohol, throw away their pornography, and stop sinning, and this is what you mean when you say "turn from your sins" than you are preaching heresy and you have placed the focus on a self works. I believe repenting of sin is simply that if your love of sin is preventing you from placing your faith in Christ, because you know he will changed you and you don't want to be changed, than yes you must repent of your sin because it is preventing you from trusting in Christ.
For example, Jesus said it is better to pluck your eye out, then to be cast into hell with both, Jesus is simply teaching that you need to turn from anything that is preventing you from receiving salvation,
4Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. 25For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. 26For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?
If someone loves their life to much to turn to Christ, then they will die and go to hell, so repenting of sin, really is turning from the love of sin which is preventing one to receiving and trust on Christ.
The problem is many people never study out the context of when the word repent is used, and they often reference something they have heard from someone else like a parrot and they will simply quote something like Luke 13:3 and say "look it says to repent, so you must turn from your sins to be saved". This is dangerous especially to people who go around telling people that they have to turn from their sin to be saved, a lost person cannot stop sinning if they do not have the spirit of God, and when you tell people this you are placing a huge stumbling block in the way of them being saved, and it can often turn into works salvation.
The word repent, carries the idea of a change of mind, heart, and attitude. The question you must always ask is, when the bible uses the word repent, what is it saying there must be a change of mind, heart, and attitude about?I challenge you people who hold such strong views about repentance to actually go and look at the context of how the word is used and do a biblical study on it., if you will go to these passages I have mentioned, and look at the context of where repenting is being commanded I know that the Lord will give you clarity if you seek it. Stop reading books on repentance, stop listening to preacher, go straight to the texts and passages that use the word, and it will help you understand the doctrine of repentance greatly.
