Is repentance from sin essential to salvation?
John MacArthur
Some
say that turning from sin is a human work and therefore cannot be part
of salvation. To accommodate the biblical call to repentance, they
redefine repentance as nothing more than a change of mind about who
Jesus is.
Biblically,
however, repentance is a total about face—turning away from sin and
self and unto God (cf. 1 Thessalonians 1:9). That is no more a result
of human effort than
faith itself. Nor is it in any sense a
pre-salvation work required to prepare a sinner for salvation. Real
repentance is inseparable from faith and, like faith, is the work of
God in a human heart. It is the response God inevitably generates in
the heart of one He is redeeming.
Answer excerpted from Getting the Gospel Right by John MacArthur. © Copyright 2006 by Grace to You. All rights reserved. Click here to see the article in its entirety.