Gospel Guidebook: Getting and Keeping It Right 
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Repent and Believe the Gospel
by Robert P. TerryUpdated January 4, 2025
In the original Greek language, the word "repentance" etymologically means "change of mind." Although words should be defined synchronically (i.e., considered at the moment in time of usage without taking into account etymology or historical usage), even if we adopt the definition of "change of mind" for repentance, the word repentance is still used in contexts where this "change of mind" results in a "change of action." For example, John the Baptist exhorted people to "bring forth fruits worthy of repentance" (Luke 3:8). This means that repentance inherently produces something, whether good works or other responses that we might call fruit, just like a seed inherently produces fruit. Repentance itself is not good works, but good works are the effect of repentance. On this website, I have spent much time arguing that good works are not the fruit of faith, but this is clearly not the case with repentance. Faith and repentance are two different things. Therefore, when Jesus said, "Repent and believe the Gospel" (Mark 1:15), we have to be careful not to collapse the meanings of "repent and believe" as if they were the same thing. If anything, rather than conflating repentance and belief, it would be better to view belief as a potential effect of repentance. I am not saying that belief is a direct effect or an inherent effect of repentance, but repentance is able to create conditions that facilitate belief. Of course, repentance is not limited to creating conditions that facilitate belief. It is also capable of producing good works. In this article, we will take a look at Luke 3:3-14 because this passage gives us a lot of information about repentance.
Luke 3:3
And he came into all the country about Jordan, preaching the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins;
Although it is beyond the scope of this article to talk about the Jewish purification ritual of water baptism (and how it was the only commissioned water baptism in the New Testament and was ultimately superseded by Spirit baptism), its main purpose was to announce Messiah to Israel and serve as a sign of repentance. What we are most concerned with is that repentance was for the remission of sins. This agree with Luke 24:47 where its says, "And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem." However, in other passages, we learn that forgiveness of sins is associated with believing in Jesus, such as in Acts 10:43 where it says, "To him give all the prophets witness, that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins." I mentioned above that we have to be careful not to conflate repentance and belief, so rather than think of them as the same thing, it would be better to think that repentance facilitates belief and belief leads to remission of sins. I think the mechanics of this are alluded to in the following verses.
Luke 3:4-6
As it is written in the book of the words of Esaias the prophet, saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be brought low; and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways shall be made smooth;
I think these verses give us some idea how repentance can affect people. In Luke 18:10-14, Jesus told a parable about a Pharisee and tax collector and how they both went up to the Temple to pray. As the story goes, the tax collector confessed his sins to God and asked for mercy, whereas the Pharisee thanked God that he wasn't like other people. Jesus said that the tax collector left the Temple justified, and then concluded, "every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted." This relates to Luke 3:4-6 and the topic of repentance because we see that the tax collector was a valley that needed to be filled and the Pharisee was a mountain that needed to be brought low. Repentance is something that flattens all distinctions among people. If the Pharisee would have repented, he would have needed to humble himself and see himself as the sinner he really was. Likewise the tax collector also needed to recognize that he was a sinner. This recognition of being a sinner is what creates a level playing field among people. The lowly and despised tax collector is seen in the exact same light as the exalted and revered Pharisee. Repentance removes the distinction between people. All are sinners. All are guilty before God.
Luke 3:6
And all flesh shall see the salvation of God.
Repentance prepares the way of the Lord in that it helps people see Him as their desperately needed Savior. It goes without saying that righteous people do not need a savior. They may pay lip service to Jesus because they want to keep Him as a backup plan if things don't go according to plan, but their reliance is mainly on themselves. It is exactly this kind of mentality that people are called to repent of. This is why Jesus said, "I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners. He came to seek and save the lost. It is only by repenting of self righteousness and self reliance that a person can really recognize himself as a sinner in need of a savior.
Luke 3:7-9
Then said he to the multitude that came forth to be baptized of him, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bring forth therefore fruits worthy of repentance, and begin not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, That God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham. And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees: every tree therefore which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.
In these verses, we get to see first hand that by "fruits worthy of repentance," John didn't only mean the performance of good works, but repentance from a self righteous mindset, which in the case of the Jews was their ethnic boasting that they were Abraham's physical descendants. They thought this automatically gave them an advantage over everybody else and basically guaranteed their acceptance with God. This type of attitude was the first thing that needed to go. And it could only go by recognizing that they were sinners just like everyone else. In other words, their mountain needed to be brought low. John says that they needed to bring forth good fruit, and we see that the people who came to him to be water baptized had produced some of this good fruit in having their consciences stirred to flee from the wrath to come. In other words, they recognized that the axe was laid at the root of their trees. They recognized their need of salvation, and I think we can presume that many of them eventually believed in Jesus Christ because we know that John was leading people to Christ telling them that "they should believe on him which should come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus" (Acts 19:4). This is also why Jesus said that the people who were water baptized by John would enter into the kingdom of heaven before the Pharisees and scribes (Matthew 21:31). They had already moved in the right direction by recognizing that they were sinners.
Luke 3:10-14
And the people asked him, saying, What shall we do then? He answereth and saith unto them, He that hath two coats, let him impart to him that hath none; and he that hath meat, let him do likewise. Then came also publicans to be baptized, and said unto him, Master, what shall we do? And he said unto them, Exact no more than that which is appointed you. And the soldiers likewise demanded of him, saying, And what shall we do? And he said unto them, Do violence to no man, neither accuse any falsely; and be content with your wages.
Although these verses seem straight forward when casually read, they really need to be handled carefully. Obviously, the fruit of repentance includes a change of action, which means doing good works. This is why John exhorts the people the way he does. Also, when a person recognizes that he is a sinner, he recognizes that he is living a life that is not pleasing to God and destructive to himself and others. So, it is natural that repentance can cause people to make reforms in their lives. However, God requires good works out of a pure heart. Looking at the context, it is doubtful if these people had pure motives. When they asked John, "What shall we do?", they were asking because they wanted to flee from the wrath to come. In other words, their motives for doing good works were self seeking. This is one of the problems a sinner faces when it comes to repentance. A sinner (if he really knows himself) will know that that his repentance is imperfect, and in many ways he will feel that even his repentance is sinful. God requires love and self sacrifice, but as long as the sinner is worried about keeping his himself out of hell, all his works are defiled with fear and selfish motives. It cannot be denied that John is preaching a "turn or burn" message that is prone to producing selfish motives, but I think his message needs to be interpreted in context by what he said earlier. "And all flesh shall see the salvation of God." When mountains are truly brought low and valleys are truly filled, the only thing such a person can do is either die like a wretch or cast his eyes upon the salvation of God. And it is only by knowing the salvation of God in Jesus Christ that a sinner can truly start producing fruit worthy of repentance.
The story of the rich young ruler has many parallels to the people who went out to John's baptism. Similar to them, the rich young ruler had the first motions of repentance working in his heart because his conscience bothered him. They wanted to flee from the wrath to come, and he wanted to enter the kingdom of God. That was their motivation. They went out to whom they perceived to be a good teacher, musing in their hearts if John was the Christ, and similarly, he went to the good teacher himself. They asked "What should we do?" and similarly, he asked "What should I do?" John pointed them to the second table of the 10 Commandments, and similarly, Jesus pointed him to the second table of the 10 commandments. Although we don't know how they responded to John's exhortation, the rich young ruler replied with confidence, indicating that the motions of repentance hadn't yet come to completion. However, what we do know is that Jesus loved him, and therefore, instead of letting him go along his way thinking that he was justified in his efforts, Jesus, out of love, crushed him by touching the one thing in his life that he couldn't part with, namely his wealth. This is where a lot of preachers will say that he should have cut off his right hand, sold his wealth, and followed Jesus. However, these types of preachers sadly miss the whole point of the story. Jesus wasn't primarily interested in the rich young ruler's wealth. (For all we know, the rich young ruler might not even have had sole authority over his wealth, and any action he took might have jeopardized the wealth and livelihood of his greater family, servants, and community.) Jesus' main intention was to show him that he was unable through his own efforts to enter the kingdom of heaven. Jesus wanted to bring his mountain low. And it is the same with all of us. Everybody has some weak point in their life, regarding which if God were to tell us to part with it, similar to the rich younger ruler, we'd just drop our heads in sorrow and walk away. The rich young ruler is no different than any of us. Since we are told explicitly that Jesus loved him, I think we have good reason to assume that the rich young ruler eventually became a believer in Jesus Christ. He recognized his inability, his mountain was brought low, and he looked upon the salvation of God. What was impossible for man was possible with God. And I venture to say that maybe he was one of the people in Acts 4:32-37 who sold their lands and brought them to the apostles' feet. If he was, he didn't do it because he wanted to enter the kingdom of God. Selling one's possessions and giving to the poor was not a condition of salvation (as indicated by Peter in Acts 5:4). Rather, as a believer in Jesus Christ, he would have been assured of salvation, and his actions would have been done out of pure motives and thanksgiving toward God and love for his neighbor. Such would have been the fruit worthy of repentance.
As mentioned above, repentance can help prepare conditions that facilitate belief. And belief can create conditions that facilitate fruit worthy of repentance. This relationship between repentance and belief can create a sort of reciprocity where both complement each other. Neither repentance nor belief is the direct or inherent cause of the other, but they can be highly correlative. Because man's sinful nature remains after he believes the Gospel, the sinner can still perform actions for the wrong reasons and motives. Through repentance the sinner recognizes his sinfulness and is often left crying out, "O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" (Romans 7:24). To a sinner, the fruits of repentance are always imperfect and defiled with self seeking motives. However, when a sinner believes the Gospel and recognizes his identity in Christ, he is able to move beyond his wrong motives into the realm of love and self sacrifice. So, there is always this war between the flesh and the Spirit (Galatians 5:17). Repentance is for sinners, but the fruit worthy of repentance is for saints. In other words, only a sinner can repent, but only a saint can produce fruit worthy of repentance. This is why I said that belief must come somewhere between repentance and remission of sins. The moment of belief is the moment that a sinner receives remission of sins, and because he is justified through belief, the sinner becomes a saint.