by Pastor Patrick Cho
“Do you want to go to heaven or hell? If you want to go to heaven, all you have to do is believe that Jesus came and died on the cross for your sins. That’s the amazing part! You don’t have to do anything. Jesus did it all for you! Don’t you feel a sense of emptiness in your heart? Nothing in this world will ever be able to fill it. Everything else that we pursue in life falls short. But God can satisfy that longing. He can fill that void completely. Would you like to receive this incredible gift? If you do, all you need to do is pray this prayer after me and Jesus will come into your heart.” Many people today are given a gospel presentation very similar to this one. It’s simple, straightforward, and easy to follow. And who wouldn’t want to believe after hearing a presentation like this? It appeals to the desires of the hearer, and it emphasizes the point that the hearer really doesn’t have to do anything – just believe!
This is what we typically refer to as the easy-believism or free grace gospel. It essentially teaches that a person is saved by God when they profess faith in the tenets of the gospel and make some appeal to God to save them. The emphasis of this evangelistic approach is winning souls by helping people understand the gospel and helping them ask God to save. Most importantly, those who hold to the “easy-believism” philosophy do not believe that repentance is a necessary component of the gospel and do not believe that one must submit to the lordship of Jesus Christ in order to be saved. This is something that is done subsequent to salvation if the person so chooses to make such a commitment to God, but belief is all you need to be saved.
The danger of the easy-believism gospel is that it oftentimes leads to shallow, fake professions of faith leaving people thinking they are saved when they are really not. They go on to believe they will go to heaven (and are warned not to doubt it!) even though they do not show any evidence of salvation in their lives. Jesus said that it is difficult to enter into the kingdom of God. It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God (Mark 10:23-25). Why would He have said these things if faith really is as easy as some say?
Looking at the issue biblically, we come to see that repentance and faith are completely inseparable. There are times when the Bible shows that we need to believe in order to be saved (John 3:16). There are times when the Bible shows that we need to repent in order to be saved (Mark 6:12; Acts 3:19). And in Mark 1:15, Jesus brings the two terms together (cf. Paul in Acts 20:21). The reason for this is that you can’t have one without the other.
Repentance is the act of turning from our sins. Those who demonstrate true repentance exhibit genuine remorse for their sin against God and turn from their sin. Faith is the act of turning towards God, but you can’t turn to God unless you turn around first. This is because the direction of our sin is away from God (Rom. 3:11-12; cf. Isa. 53:6). In order to turn to face God, we must turn away from our sin. In this way, repentance and faith are two perspectives of our conversion – two sides of the same coin. Just as faith is a necessary part of the gospel, repentance is also a necessary part of the gospel. This is why Jesus preached a gospel of repentance and He preached a gospel of faith. This is why the Apostles did the same. Whenever faith is spoken of in the Bible, by necessity repentance is implied, and whenever repentance is spoken of, faith is implied.
Some argue against preaching repentance because they say it amounts to teaching salvation by works. They say that preaching repentance is like telling people they need to change in order for God to save them. But the gospel calls for a response. We sometimes forget that both faith and repentance are commanded by God (cf. Acts 16:31; 1 Cor. 1:21; Acts 17:30; Mark 1:15). Not only this, but both faith and repentance are described as granted by God (cf. Eph. 2:8-9; Acts 5:31; Acts 11:18; 2 Tim. 2:24-25). Both are received by a person by the grace of God. Just as God is the one who brings about faith in the unbelieving heart, so God is the one who brings about repentance in the unbelieving heart. Salvation is entirely God’s work.
Biblically, you cannot have one without the other. To call people to follow Christ in faith is to call them to turn from their sins, forsake this world, and submit to Christ. The genuine believer is not just the one who understands the facts of the gospel and believes them to be true. He also understands that the gospel has implications for his life. In Christ, he has a new life, a new allegiance, and a new citizenship. The old passes away and new things come (2 Cor. 5:17). It would be foolish to bank on some experience as the surety of your salvation. Perhaps you prayed a prayer at a retreat as a child, or maybe you walked an aisle during an altar call. The evidence for true saving faith is not the sincerity you felt when you asked Jesus to come into your heart. The evidence of saving faith is the changed life that resulted as the outcome of that confession.