As a teenager, I attended various Bible camps and retreats. At each of those events, it seems that there were always some young participants who didn’t quite fit the mold. They didn’t like rules, didn’t respect authority, or had some other fault that marked them as not spiritual like all the other “good” kids. Sometimes, it was undeniable that these were unbelieving kids who were there because their parents sent them, or some other less than ideal reason. There were many others, however, who were described by some in low tones with, “Yes, he’s a Christian, but he’s not living it [i.e., his faith].” I’m not sure exactly what was meant, but I’m assuming these were kids who had at some point been talked into asking Jesus into their hearts or some such nonsense*, but had not yet, or no longer were, surrendered to him as Lord. I was pretty young and ignorant at the time, but even as one who could have been described as “not a Christian, but faking it,” that seemed fishy to me. The gospel I had been taught in those same places hadn’t made allowance for that.
Years later, I learned that there was actually a theology that excluded lordship and repentance of sin from the gospel. Its proponents call it “Free Grace,” and teach that salvation is received simply by faith in Christ (with which we should agree), but that faith should not be expected to actually change anything. In other words, faith without works is not dead. Those who say otherwise are accused of teaching “Lordship Salvation,” of adding works to faith as a requirement for salvation. But, like two sides of a coin, faith and repentance are not separable. Greg Gilbert explains:
Jesus’ message to his listeners was, “Repent and believe the gospel” (Mark 1:15). If faith is turning to Jesus and relying on him for salvation, repentance is the flip side of that coin. It is turning away from sin, hating it, and resolving by God’s strength to forsake it, even as we turn to him in faith. So Peter told the on-looking crowd, “Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out” (Acts 3:19 NIV). And Paul tells everyone “that they should repent and turn to God” (Acts 26:20).
Repentance is not just an optional plug in to the Christian life. It is absolutely crucial to it, marking out those who have been saved by God from those who have not.
I have known many people who have said something like, “Yes, I’ve accepted Jesus as Savior, so I’m a Christian. But I’m just not ready to accept him as Lord yet. I have some things to work through.” In other words, they claimed that they could have faith in Jesus and be saved, and yet not repent of sin.
If we understand repentance rightly, we’ll see that the idea that you can accept Jesus as Savior but not Lord is nonsense. For one thing, it just doesn’t do justice to what Scripture says about repentance and its connection with salvation. For example, Jesus warned, “Unless you repent, you will all likewise perish” (Luke 13:3). The apostles, when they heard Peter’s story about the conversion of Cornelius, praised God for granting to the Gentiles “repentance that leads to life” (Acts 11:18), and Paul speaks of “repentance that leads to salvation” in 2 Corinthians 7:10.
Moreover, to have faith in Jesus is, at its core, to believe that he is who he really says he is—the crucified and risen King who had conquered death and sin, and who has the power to save. Now how could a person believe all that, trust in it, and rely on it, and yet at the same time say, “But I don’t acknowledge that you are King over me”? That doesn’t make any sense. Faith in Christ carries in itself a renunciation of that rival power that King Jesus conquered—sin. And where that renunciation of sin is not present, neither is genuine faith in the One who defeated it.
It is as Jesus said in Matthew 6:24: “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other.” To put one’s faith in King Jesus is to renounce his enemies.—Greg Gilbert, What is the Gospel (Crossway, 2010), 79–80.
* Yes, I said “nonsense.” Go ahead, ask me why.
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