Repentance Vs Salvation ~ Aren't they the same thing?

The simple answer is no!

Some people believe that if you do certain things, you are guaranteed a place in heaven. That is not true.

Galatians 1: 6-9 (NIV) ~ "I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel - which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned!"

Without salvation, man kind would be lost forever!

Let us not be confused with what repentance is NOT:

1. Repentance is NOT BEING SORRY for what you have done. People who are truly sorry for their past mistakes, but they are not believers in Jesus. When you mention belief in Jesus as part of true repentance, they want no part of it. People can be truly sorry for messing up in their lives, but not be believers in Jesus.

2. Repentance is NOT FEELING GUILTY for what you have done. Just because you're feeling guilty in your conscience and may sense a burden of shame, that guilty feeling can be masked by external things. So how are you dealing with guilt? (drugs, alcohol, denial, staying busy). Unless you are confessing your wrong doings to Jesus, you are just a person who feels guilt for something you have done.

3. Repentance is NOT REGRETTING that things have turned out poorly. This is what a criminal or a lawbreaker feels whenever they get caught doing something they knew was wrong to do.Even Judas was remorseful.

Matthew 27: 3-4 (NIV) ~" When Judas, who had betrayed him, saw that Jesus was condemned, he was seized with remorse and returned the thirty silver coins to the chief priests and elders. "I have sinned," he said., "for I have betrayed innocent blood." "What is that to us?" they replied. "That's your responsibility."

Dr. Charles Ryrie points out that "there are many criminals who are very sorry about their criminality and the damage they have caused, but they are not willing to come to Christ and have their sins forgiven. This is not a biblical repentance - this is a carnal remorse, this is guilt, this is sorrow, but this kind of grief does not lead to salvation. It is imperative that you search your heart to determine if you are willing to not only face your sin, but to pick it up and run with it straight to Jesus and give it to Him. That act of doing so is biblical repentance."

 True repentance NEVER had conditions.

Mark 1:14b - 15 (NIV) ~ "  Jesus went into Gailee, proclaiming the good news of God. "The time has come," he said. "The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!"

Jesus doesn't fix mistakes, he died so you could have your sins forgiven. We need to change our minds and opinions about Jesus.

God doesn't listen to the prayers of non-believers unless it is a prayer asking for salvation. You can't come under the authority of Jesus, with your prayers, unless you confess Jesus is your Savior. You don't confess your sins to anyone but Jesus.

God is simply waiting for the non believer to change your opinion (repent) of who Jesus is before He will hear you and you will be saved. You have to have a complete 180 degree change of heart before you can be saved. The believers in Jesus have hope in this scripture. Our sins when we confess them and ask Jesus into our lives are removed. We have been forgiven.

Psalm 103:12-14 (NIV) ~ "As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him; for he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust."

2 Corinthians 6: 1-2 (NIV) ~ " As God's fellow workers we urge you not to receive God's grace in vain. For he says, "In the time of my favor I heard you, and in the day of salvation I helped you." I tell you, now it the time of God's favor, now is the day of salvation."

When you hear the truth of God's Word, the truth of what it takes to be saved through Jesus Christ, and you do nothing, God may not speak to you again. You need to stop accepting the biblical world view of Jesus and accept the Bibles view of who He is and what He did for all of us.

We have to remember as believers in Jesus, that when we sin, we don't change our beliefs of Jesus, we simply need to confess our sins. This is the mistake most Christians make when they sin, they believe they need to start the "sinner's prayer" all over again including accepting Jesus into our lives again, and that is NOT what needs to happen when we confess our sins.

So many Christian think that just because they have sinned, they have to go back to the beginning like restarting a game, and go back to the start again. That is where we make mistakes when it comes to confession of sin. Just confess the sin part and move on. We need to see when we give our lives to God, with a change of true repentance, a change of opinion of who Jesus is and who what He did for us, when we slip up, our salvation is NOT LOST. We just disrupted the fellowship between ourselves and God.

Just like the old Verizon commercial, "Can you hear me now?" When we have unconfessed sin our in our life, God won't talk to you until you confess or remove that barrier that is preventing God from hearing you. We need to clear the air between us and God. When we sin, if we don't confess it, God momentarily stops listening to our prayers, our fellowship with Him has been temporarily severed, but our salvation is still intact.

1 John 2:1 (NIV) ~ "My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense - Jesus Christ, the Righteous One." 

1 John 1:6-7, 9 (NIV) ~ "If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin."

The bold text is emphasis on the words fellowship, not salvation. Notice the difference! We need to confess sin to restore the fellowship with Jesus, not go back to the beginning and keep repeating the sinner's prayer for salvation.

We need to make sure however, when we do sin, we confess it on the spot, don't wait!

Mark 11:25 -26 (NIV) ~ " And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in Heaven may forgive you your sins."

It's not about losing our salvation when we forgive others, it is about restoring the fellowship we had with God through the confession of our sins. And we remember just how many times, we are called to forgive, according to the Bible is it 70 times 7, which is 490 times, a number in Jewish culture that means an infinite number of times. That should be such a verse that frees believers to the simple difference between our salvation and the confession of our sins! It doesn't say the Father will forgive you and restore your salvation, NO it says forgive you of your sins!'

You can't tap out the limits of God's grace as a believer in Jesus Christ.