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The lesson library / Lesson 26

Repentance and faith

Explain turning from sin and trusting Christ as inseparable responses produced by God’s saving grace.

The application of salvation

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Luke 15:11-32 · Romans 4:1-25 · Psalms 51:1-19 · James 2:14-26

Repentance is sometimes mistaken for feeling bad, and faith for feeling certain. Both can involve feelings, but neither can be reduced to them. A person can regret consequences while intending to repeat the act. Another can speak with great confidence while trusting a false promise. Scripture directs repentance toward God and faith toward the actual person and work of Jesus Christ.

Read Luke 15:17-32

17 But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many hired servants of my father’s have bread enough to spare, and I’m dying with hunger!
18 I will get up and go to my father, and will tell him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight.
19 I am no more worthy to be called your son. Make me as one of your hired servants.” ’
20 “He arose and came to his father. But while he was still far off, his father saw him and was moved with compassion, and ran, fell on his neck, and kissed him.
21 The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’
22 “But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring out the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet.
23 Bring the fattened calf, kill it, and let’s eat and celebrate;
24 for this, my son, was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found.’ Then they began to celebrate.
25 “Now his elder son was in the field. As he came near to the house, he heard music and dancing.
26 He called one of the servants to him and asked what was going on.
27 He said to him, ‘Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fattened calf, because he has received him back safe and healthy.’
28 But he was angry and would not go in. Therefore his father came out and begged him.
29 But he answered his father, ‘Behold, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed a commandment of yours, but you never gave me a goat, that I might celebrate with my friends.
30 But when this your son came, who has devoured your living with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him.’
31 “He said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours.
32 But it was appropriate to celebrate and be glad, for this, your brother, was dead, and is alive again. He was lost, and is found.’ ”

The younger son does more than dislike his circumstances. He returns and acknowledges his sin. The father’s welcome is generous, but the story never turns the rebellion into a wise life choice. The older brother also requires attention. His outward nearness conceals resentment toward mercy. It is possible to be offended by grace precisely because one has been keeping a private account of what God supposedly owes. Both sons expose ways a person can fail to understand the father.

Read Romans 4:1-12

1 What then will we say that Abraham, our forefather, has found according to the flesh?
2 For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not toward God.
3 For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.”
4 Now to him who works, the reward is not counted as grace, but as something owed.
5 But to him who doesn’t work, but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness.
6 Even as David also pronounces blessing on the man to whom God counts righteousness apart from works:
7 “Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, whose sins are covered.
8 Blessed is the man whom the Lord will by no means charge with sin.”
9 Is this blessing then pronounced only on the circumcised, or on the uncircumcised also? For we say that faith was accounted to Abraham for righteousness.
10 How then was it counted? When he was in circumcision, or in uncircumcision? Not in circumcision, but in uncircumcision.
11 He received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had while he was in uncircumcision, that he might be the father of all those who believe, though they might be in uncircumcision, that righteousness might also be accounted to them.
12 He is the father of circumcision to those who not only are of the circumcision, but who also walk in the steps of that faith of our father Abraham, which he had in uncircumcision.

Paul makes the promise and the One who gives it central. Faith is not valuable because confidence itself is a saving substance. A person can be strongly confident in something completely unreliable. Biblical faith rests on God’s promise and ultimately on the crucified and risen Christ. That also prevents faith from becoming a concealed work. The believer is not presenting impressive believing as a substitute achievement. He is receiving righteousness that comes from outside his own performance.

Repentance can be tested by what happens when a consequence remains. Someone may apologize sincerely and still need to repay what was taken or accept a limitation on responsibility. If the apology is withdrawn the moment consequences remain, that raises a question about what the apology was meant to accomplish. This is not an infallible test of another person’s heart. It is a practical observation about the difference between turning from wrong and bargaining to escape discomfort. Faith likewise expresses itself when trusting Christ requires a costly action. The action does not buy His favor; it shows that His word is being treated as trustworthy.

Read Psalms 51:1-19

1 Have mercy on me, God, according to your loving kindness. According to the multitude of your tender mercies, blot out my transgressions.
2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity. Cleanse me from my sin.
3 For I know my transgressions. My sin is constantly before me.
4 Against you, and you only, I have sinned, and done that which is evil in your sight, so you may be proved right when you speak, and justified when you judge.
5 Behold, I was born in iniquity. My mother conceived me in sin.
6 Behold, you desire truth in the inward parts. You teach me wisdom in the inmost place.
7 Purify me with hyssop, and I will be clean. Wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.
8 Let me hear joy and gladness, that the bones which you have broken may rejoice.
9 Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all of my iniquities.
10 Create in me a clean heart, O God. Renew a right spirit within me.
11 Don’t throw me from your presence, and don’t take your Holy Spirit from me.
12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation. Uphold me with a willing spirit.
13 Then I will teach transgressors your ways. Sinners will be converted to you.
14 Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God, the God of my salvation. My tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness.
15 Lord, open my lips. My mouth will declare your praise.
16 For you don’t delight in sacrifice, or else I would give it. You have no pleasure in burnt offering.
17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit. O God, you will not despise a broken and contrite heart.
18 Do well in your good pleasure to Zion. Build the walls of Jerusalem.
19 Then you will delight in the sacrifices of righteousness, in burnt offerings and in whole burnt offerings. Then they will offer bulls on your altar.

Paul distinguishes kinds of sorrow by their direction and effect. Tears alone do not settle the question. Someone can be devastated by losing his reputation while remaining unwilling to admit the wrong. Another may speak quietly but make an honest confession and begin costly restitution. The point is not to judge every person’s internal state from his manner. It is to ask whether the response moves toward truth, correction, and God, or merely toward recovering the advantages the sin endangered.

Read James 2:14-26

14 What good is it, my brothers, if a man says he has faith, but has no works? Can faith save him?
15 And if a brother or sister is naked and in lack of daily food,
16 and one of you tells them, “Go in peace. Be warmed and filled;” yet you didn’t give them the things the body needs, what good is it?
17 Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead in itself.
18 Yes, a man will say, “You have faith, and I have works.” Show me your faith without works, and I will show you my faith by my works.
19 You believe that God is one. You do well. The demons also believe—and shudder.
20 But do you want to know, vain man, that faith apart from works is dead?
21 Wasn’t Abraham our father justified by works, in that he offered up Isaac his son on the altar?
22 You see that faith worked with his works, and by works faith was perfected.
23 So the Scripture was fulfilled which says, “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him as righteousness,” and he was called the friend of God.
24 You see then that by works a man is justified, and not only by faith.
25 In the same way, wasn’t Rahab the prostitute also justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out another way?
26 For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, even so faith apart from works is dead.

James challenges the person who says he has faith while refusing its consequences. Paul addresses how an ungodly person is accepted before God; James exposes a profession that is empty. Abraham’s obedience expresses the reality of trust. A supposed faith that leaves a hungry brother without help is not improved by a more accurate verbal formula. Works do not replace Christ as the ground of justification. They show that the person professing faith has begun to live as though the God he names is actually to be trusted.

Do not wait to make yourself worthy of coming to Christ. Turn to Him with the sin you need forgiven and the weakness you cannot cure. Then take the concrete steps that turning requires. Faith does not earn the Savior. It receives Him, and repentance stops defending the rebellion from which He saves.

Consider your perspective

Repentance turns from sin while faith turns toward Christ; neither is a way to buy His mercy. This frees us to admit wrongdoing honestly instead of making regret, shame, or determination into substitutes for trust.

Put it into practice

Name a specific sin without qualifying the confession with someone else's failures. Ask forgiveness, repair what you can, and take a concrete step that expresses trust in Christ rather than confidence in resolve alone.

Reflect and respond

  • What is the difference between regretting exposure and repenting?
  • Where is your confidence actually placed?
  • What action would express trust in a promise already given?

Passages and further study

Scripture quotations are from the public-domain World English Bible (WEB). Historical confessions are study aids, subordinate to Scripture. This independent lesson is not an official denominational statement.