Which Came First?

QUESTION

Do you have any details on REPENTANCE, how that we don't repent to become children of God but rather, we repent because we are children of God?

ANSWER

The assertion that “God’s people repent, not in order to obtain eternal life, but because they already have eternal life” is based on a few basic observations from the scripture. Consider…

  1. Faith is a Fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22). One must have the indwelling holy spirit to possess the spiritual capacity of faith.

  2. All Men Have Not Faith (II Thessalonians 5:21). The common assertion that “everyone has a little faith” is not biblical.

  3. Repentance is an Act of Faith. Indeed, who repents of something as a result of hearing a message they do not believe? It is clear that all sincere repentance must be born of a belief of the truth (Acts 2:37).

  4. Without Faith it is Impossible to Please God (Hebrews 11:6). Jesus Christ preached “Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matthew 4:17). Sincerely obeying that command would undoubtedly be pleasing to God, and if that is true then it must be done in faith.

We must accommodate these four biblical principles when we answer the question: Which came first, regeneration or repentance? To suggest that men repent in order to obtain eternal life contradicts these precepts in several ways:

  • If repentance occurred before regeneration then it was not done in faith because the unregenerate have no faith.

  • If repentance occurred before regeneration then it was not pleasing to God since it was done without faith.

  • If repentance occurred before regeneration then it was insincere, being devoid of faith.

  • If repentance occurred before regeneration then it is sin, being devoid of faith (Romans 14:23).

The bible plainly teaches that one must have faith in order to receive gospel truth:

”For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith:” (Romans 1:16-17a)

Apart from having faith, born of regeneration, man is incapable of both hearing the gospel and experiencing the sincere, spiritual conviction that logically attends it. This is precisely why we say, “God’s people repent, not in order to obtain eternal life, but because they already have eternal life” - because these biblical principles require that temporal order. While this principle is easy to demonstrate, it is little understood and often violently rejected by professing evangelicals who have been marinated in sinner’s prayer eternal salvation and other forms of quid-pro-quo religion for decades.

- Elder Daniel Samons

Daniel Samons