What Did Saint Paul Really Say?

1. I just thought I'd use NT Wright's book title at this point. But what did Paul say about Conversion?

a. Was Repentance a prerequisite to justification/salvation?

b. Is the statement that Repentance is the negative side of biblical faith scriptural?

c. When Paul mentions just faith in a passage, does he want us to also understand Repentance?

2. I'm of the firm belief that faith alone is a shorthand for Repentance and Faith as prerequisites to Justification/Salvation.

3. In Eph. 2:8 faith alone is mentioned, but when Paul was addressing the elders of Ephesus a few years earlier, we read, "διαμαρτυρόμενος Ἰουδαίοις τε καὶ Ἕλλησιν τὴν εἰς θεὸν μετάνοιαν καὶ πίστιν εἰς τὸν κύριον ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦν Χριστόν," "Solemnly testifying to both Jews and Greeks, repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ."

4. Unless, I am misreading Paul, it seems to me that this is what he preached before a person can be justified. Remember this is what he went around preaching among them (v.20).

5. Shouldn't Acts 20:20, 21 be taken into consideration as we read Eph.2:8?

 

1. By referring to Repentance as the negative side of biblical faith, I am addressing the fact that it means saying NO to a life of sin that was against God. Yes, it is produced by the working of the Spirit, but it has a negative aspect to it. At least, the is how I always understood the negation element.

2. Wouldn't Peter-Cornelius encounter correspnd to the faith/repentance that is involved in conversion? Peter preached that "Everyone who believes in HIm receives forgiveness of sins" (Acts 10:43), and then those in Jerusalem, upon hearing the conversion of the Gentiles, Cornelius and his, "they had no further objections and praised God, saying, 'So then, even to Gentiles God has granted repentance that leads to life'" (11:18, TNIV).