You must repent before you can be truly saved! Part 2

You must repent before you can be truly saved!  Part 2        

Author:  Johnson and Pearl , 
Pure Gospel and Revival website
www.repent-pray-revival.org
2021/10/7

 *In order to avoid any misunderstanding, please read Part 1 first: 

You must repent before you can be truly saved!  Part 1
https://repent-pray-revival.org/2021/09/14/you-must-repent-before-you-can-be-truly-saved/

In Part 1 of this teaching, we mentioned that the Bible says one must repent before he can be truly saved.  In other words, you must repent before you can be justified by faith!  One must first fully repent before he can be baptized in water and become a true Christian.  One must first fully repent and take up his cross daily to follow Jesus BEFORE he can be truly saved and become a born-again Christian!  

(Matt 3:2; Matt 3:8; Matt 3:11, Matt 4:17; Matt 9:13; Matt 11:20; Matt 11:21; Matt 12:41; Mark 1:4; Mark 1:15; Mark 2:17; Mark 6:12; Luke 3:3; Luke 3:8; Luke 5:32, Luke 9:23; Luke 9:23;; Luke 10:13; Luke 11:32; Luke 13:3; Luke 13:5; Luke 15:7; Luke 16:30; Luke 24:47; Acts 2:38; Acts 3:19; Acts 5:31; Acts 11:18; Acts 13:24; Acts 17:30; Acts 19:4; Acts 20:21; Acts 26:20; Rom 2:4; Rom 2:5; 2 Peter 3:9)

These 35 New Testament scriptures prove that: everyone has to repent before he/she can be truly saved.  You have to repent before you can be justified by faith. The Bible never said that “you don’t need to repent, just believe in God and Jesus, and you can be saved.” 

In today’s age of water-down false gospels and cowardly pastors, there are plenty of pastors that go around diluting the gospel in order to please sinners, get more people to come to their carnal churches, and get more offerings.

There are lots of cowards in the pulpits that purposely leave out “the necessity of repentance before salvation”, and the message of the cross of Jesus Christ our Lord. Some carnal and crafty pastors would be so chicken that they failed to even mention the word “repentance”, let alone explain to the people what “repentance and carrying the cross” means.

They would quote Romans 10:9-10 and say something like, “just come to Jesus and believe in your heart that Jesus is your Savior, and you will saved, have eternal life, and go to heaven.”

Romans 10:9-10 NIV 

“If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.” 

Don’t pull the Bible out of context, and purposely bypass the necessity of repentance 

So by pulling the Bible out of context, and purposely leaving out the necessity of repentance, these cowardly pastors or preachers will say “repentance is not necessary for salvation, see, Roman 10:10 says all you have to do is to just say you believe in Jesus!” 

My reply is: “Well, pastors and preachers that preach this surely don’t love God and hate sin (Psalm 97:10).  

In fact, they really love sin and they drink iniquity like water (Job 15:16).  They are monsters of iniquity!  They don’t mind sinning against a holy and Almighty God who “is able to destroy both the soul and the body in hell.” (Matthew 10:28) That’s why they have no fear of the Lord.  They are selfish, evil, self-centered, foolish, and polluted with humanism.  Such people only to want to use Jesus as a ticket to heaven, but they do not really want God, nor do they want to repent and depart from their iniquities.

Correct interpretation of Romans 10:10 

Now, let’s correctly interpret Romans 10:10.  Notice that Romans 10:10 says, “For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”

From the surface of this verse, it seemed that admitting one’s sins and repentance are not mentioned. 

However, according to Vine’s Dictionary of Old and New Testaments words, page 120, “confession” came from the Greek “homologeo”, which means:

 “to confess by way of admitting oneself guilty of what one is accused of, the result of inward conviction.  It also means to confess allegiance to Christ as one’s Master and Lord, and acknowledging to be a worshipper, servant, and loyal follower”

to confess = admitting you are guilty

 In other words, one must believe in his heart and confess that he is guilty (representing repentance), and one has to confess allegiance to Christ as Master and Lord before he can be saved. 

In fact, the word “confession” in Romans 10:10 came from the same Greek word as the word “confess” in First John 1:9.

“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”  (1 John 1:9)

Therefore, we cannot use Romans 10:10 to say: “one does not need to repent in order to be saved.”  This is completely wrong!  

Paul already mentioned repentance in Romans chapter 2 

Besides, Paul already mentioned repentance in Romans chapter 2, which came before Romans 10:10.  Paul said: ““Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?  But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God; Who will render to every man according to his deeds.” 

The Apostle Paul mentioned in Acts: “And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent.” (Acts 17:30) Paul also testified “both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.” (Acts 20:21)   

Correct interpretation of Acts 16:31

There are some pastors or preachers today that would, well, Acts 16:31 says: “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.”  

So, the Bible did not mention that one must repent before he is saved.

My reply is: “Yes, I know there will be preachers that say that.  The reason is because they want more people and more offerings coming into their church.  Thus, they intentionally leave out man’s sin problem and the necessity for “repentance”, and they do it on purpose or by ignorance.  That’s why they don’t want to offend people and tell people about the s word (sin) and the r word (repentance). 

Such preachers are either ignorant or selfish, because they really don’t care whether people are truly saved or not, they are just seeking to build their own kingdoms.  They are lovers of money, not lovers of souls.   

Now, let’s correctly interpret Acts 16:31-32.  Please read these verse carefully with us. 

“And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house. And they spake unto him the word of the Lord, and to all that were in his house. ”

On the face of it, it seemed as though these two scriptures did not mention confession or repentance.  However, notice verse 32.  It says that they (Paul and Silas) spoke unto the keeper of the prison and all that were in his house.  What did they speak on?  The word of the Lord (Acts 16:32) of course!  

So what is the “word of the Lord”?  Of course, it is in accordance with Jesus’ command to the disciples after He arose from the dead. 

Jesus commanded His disciples “that repentance [necessary] for forgiveness of sins would be preached in His name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem.” (Luke 24:47 Amplified Bible)

Here, I like how the Amplified bible accurately emphasized that “repentance is necessary for the forgiveness of sin."   

Furthermore, when Paul preached to King Agrippa, he said, “Whereupon, O king Agrippa, I was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision:  But shewed first unto them of Damascus, and at Jerusalem, and throughout all the coasts of Judaea, and then to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, and do works meet for repentance.” (Acts 26:19-20)  

  -repent and ask God for mercy!

This verse prove that Paul did not disobey Jesus’ commandment to preach “repentance and turning to God”.  Therefore, we cannot quote Acts 16:31 to say that “one does not need to repent in order to be saved”.  This is totally wrong! 

In the New Testament, scriptures related to repentance appeared at least 64 times, and in the Old Testament, you will see “repentance” as “return from his ways”, “turn away from his wickedness”, “turn from their wicked ways”, etc. (Ezekiel 18:23,27; 2 Chronicles 7:14)  

These verses were in fact talking about repentance, just with a different wording. 

The truth is, we cannot find anywhere in the Bible that says “sinners do not need to repent and seek God’s forgiveness before being saved; unless of course, you pull scriptures out of text like the Devil does.  

Correction interpretation of John 3:16 

On the other hands, some today say, “John 3:16 did not mention repentance, so repentance is not necessary before salvation.” 

Our reply is, “When reading the Bible, we cannot pull a scripture out of context and take off on it. 

We must read the scripture in its context carefully and patiently in order to fully understand the truth that the scriptures are trying to get across to reader.”  So, in order to correctly interpret and understand John 3:16, we must first read John 3:14-15.

“And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up:  That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.” (John 3:14-15)

In John 3:14-15, Jesus specifically quoted from an Old Testament event of being saved from sin.  At that time, the Israelites sinned against God and Moses, because they spoken against the Lord and Moses.  That’s why God’s judgment came on them and they were bitten by fiery serpents, and much of Israel died. (Numbers 21:6-9)

Numbers 21:6-9  KJV

6 And the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and much people of Israel died.

7 Therefore the people came to Moses, and said, We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord, and against thee; pray unto the Lord, that he take away the serpents from us. And Moses prayed for the people.

8 And the Lord said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole: and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live.

9 And Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole, and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived. 

In Number 21:7, the Israelites admitted that they sinned against God, then they repented and prayed for God’s mercy to take way the serpents.  Then Moses made a brass serpent, put it on a pole, that everyone that was bitten can look upon it, and live.  And “that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived.” (Numbers 21:9) 

Hence, Jesus did not ignore mankind’s sin problem in John chapter 3, for Jesus was teaching Nicodemus that:

“a person has to repent, believe that He (Jesus Christ) took our sins and judgments upon Himself, and believe that Jesus is God’s Son the Messiah in order to be born again and have eternal life. 

Although Jesus spoke John 3:16 to Nicodemus, He Himself will not contradict His own gospel.  Remember when Jesus first started preaching, His very first sermon was: “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel.” (Mark 1:15)  In other words, the correct sequence is first repent, then believe the gospel, and then be saved.

Dear friends, you must realize that when we preach the gospel, we cannot just quote John 3:16 and neglect the scriptures on repentance.  This is because John 3:16 by itself only presented the last part of the gospel, but that John 3:16 in itself is insufficient, because it did not explain the truth that “All have sinned against God. Therefore, everyone has to repent and believe in the pure gospel in order to be saved.”  

The Bible says, “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God, and the wages of sin is death.  And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment.” (Romans 3:23; Romans 6:23; Hebrews 9:27)

 Also, we recommend you taking the “True and False Christian Test”, available on Amazon Kindle,

or on our website: 

How to know if you are a true or false Christian(a test)

How to know if you are a true or false Christian(a test)

What is the pure gospel of Jesus Christ? 
https://repent-pray-revival.org/2020/06/09/what-is-the-pure-gospel-of-jesus-christ-2/

What is true revival? 
https://repent-pray-revival.org/2020/06/15/what-is-true-revival-2/