Does Repentance Come Before Faith?

When we point out in our “Salvation At The Point Of Faith” debates that if salvation is at the point of faith, that would rule out repentance being necessary to salvation (since repentance follows faith), some “faith only” debaters counter by asserting that repentance precedes faith. That only gets them deeper into trouble (as we will point out later), but what about the passages that list repentance before faith? Mark 1:15 (“repent ye, and believe the gospel”) and Matt 21:32 are talking to Jews who already believed in God, so they had a basis upon which to repent. Perhaps that is more clearly seen in a verse like Acts 20:21 – “Testifying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.” And sometimes we need to recognize the Bible is not always stating order of occurrence when it lists two actions. An example I am sure you would agree with is Acts 5:30 – “The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom ye slew and hanged on a tree.” Was Jesus killed first and then hung on a tree, or was it vice-versa? If Romans 10:9 is asserting order of occurrence, then it would contradict the very next verse which lists belief and confession in the opposite order. So similarly when Hebrews 6:1 lists repentance before faith, it is not declaring order of occurrence.

Having dealt with those passages, let me get to my main point. Suppose for the sake of argument repentance does precede faith. Then according to Baptist logic, that would prove a sinner is saved at the point of repentance before and without faith. Remember, their false logic on “faith only salvation” is that any passage that conditions salvation upon faith proves salvation comes at the point of faith (before and without water baptism, which comes later). So if there are passages that condition salvation upon repentance, then by their exact same logic, that would prove salvation comes at the point of repentance before and without faith. And there are many passages that condition salvation upon repentance; how about Acts 3:19, 11:18b, and II Pet 3:9 just to name a few?

It doesn’t really make any sense that repentance comes before faith; why (upon what basis) would a person repent of his sins to become a Christian if he didn’t even believe in God/Christ? Those asked to repent in Acts 2:38 had already believed the fact that Jesus was “both Lord and Christ” (verse 36). Paul the apostle became a believer in Christ and called Jesus Lord on the road to Damascus (Acts 9:4-6, 22:8-10). Only then Paul did repent of his sins (Acts 9:11,9). Subsequently he was baptized (22:16). That is the logical order.

So since faith does come before repentance, whenever the Baptists teach salvation comes at the point of faith, they are unintentionally teaching one is saved (at the point of faith) before and without repentance from sin, right? Of course, the gay church would have no problem with that <grin>. For a fuller treatment of “Does Repentance Precede Faith?” read my written debate with Milburn Cockrell on “Does Salvation Come At The Point Of Faith?” (which was run in Truth Magazine and The Berea Baptist Banner in 1994) at http://www.bibledebates.info/DebatesWritten/CockrellDonahue/index.htm

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