Hey everyone, this is Pastor Bruce Mejia here from First Works Baptist Church in Imani, California.
I want to make a video regarding a question that I get frequently asked here on Instagram
and that is in regards to being saved. A lot of people will ask me, do you have to repent of your
sins to be saved? And people will sincerely have that question, others will attack me because of
my position on salvation. So I want to explain what the Bible says in this video regarding that
specific topic. Now let me just start off by saying that the Bible teaches us that all we
have to do to be saved is believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Plus nothing, minus nothing. Faith
alone in Christ is sufficient to save us and the Bible actually says in John 1 12 but as many as
received him to them gave you power to become the sons of God even unto them that believe on his
name. The most famous verse in the Bible, John 3 16 says for God so loved the world that he gave
his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life.
Verse 36 says he that believeth on the son hath everlasting life he that believeth not the son
shall not see life but the wrath of God abideth on him. Now what do these verses have in common? Well
it's teaching us that it's by faith alone and in fact Romans chapter 3 tells us therefore we
conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. So over and over again we
see that it's by faith alone it's by believing on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will see that
throughout the word of God that it's simply by placing your faith in Jesus that we can be saved
but even amongst all of the evidence that's shown in the Bible you'll still have people that will
say no you know Pastor Mejia I agree you have to believe on Jesus but you also have to repent of
your sins to be saved you have to turn from your wicked ways to be saved. Now here's the thing is
that the Bible never records a verse God never had wrote down a verse in the Bible that says
repent of your sins to be saved but you know the Bible does record explicitly believing to be saved
you know the Bible tells us in Romans chapter 10 verse number 9 that if thou shalt confess with
thy mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in thine heart that God hath raised them from the dead
thou shalt be saved for with the heart man believeth unto righteousness but with the mouth
confession is made unto salvation for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be
saved but nowhere will you find that you have to repent of your sins to be saved. Now even in the
midst of all that people often bring up what the Bible says in the book of Mark it tells us in Mark
chapter number 1 verse 15 saying the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand
repent ye and believe the gospel there you go pastor here there's your proof repent ye
and believe the gospel well somehow they managed to insert within parentheses of your sins and
believe the gospel but notice it doesn't say that it says repent ye and believe the gospel
now what is that specifically referring to well the Bible tells us in Hebrew chapter number six
that in order to be saved we have to repent from dead works and place our faith in God place our
faith in Jesus Christ you see repentance of sin is not what we have to do to be saved but repenting
of whatever we're trusting in it to go to heaven is what we need to repent of most people in this
world trust that they're doing good enough works in order to go to heaven you know they trust in
themselves they trust in their church they trust in how good they are in order to go to heaven
well God says we have to repent and turn from whatever we're trusting in and place our faith
in Jesus Christ that is very much different from repenting of your sin why is that well because of
the fact that the Bible tells us that for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God
it tells us there's not a just man upon earth that do with good and sin is not you know once
you turn from one sin guess what you're gonna have another one that you're struggling with
we're never going to stop sinning this side of eternity it's impossible so therefore it's
impossible to repent of our sins in order to be saved because the question remains so if we have
to repent if we have to turn from our sins what sins are you talking about is it the sins that
you struggle with or is it the sins that I struggle with or is it the sins that is just
common to man you see when you get into that frame of mind that you have to repent of your
sins to be saved it becomes very ambiguous and the interpretation is open to the person who's
actually teaching that whereas when you talk about what the Bible says that we all we have to do is
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ there's no confusion trust in Jesus and you can be saved
well pastor me here you don't know what you're talking about you know the Bible is always
referring to repent of your sins it's insinuated it's implied and they automatically think that
because the Bible uses the word repent it's always automatically attached to of your sins
well you got a problem with that because you have scores of times in the Old Testament where
God repents Genesis chapter 6 and verse number 6 says this and it repented the Lord that he
had made man on the earth and it grieved him at his heart what do we see we see God repenting and
we obviously know that he's not repenting of sin because God cannot sin Exodus 32 verse 14 says
and the Lord repented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people again we see
him repenting and we obviously know that it's not of sin and by the way folks I'm not saying
you don't have to repent of your sins after you're saved you know the Bible commands us to live
a life that's pleasing unto the Lord to keep his commandments but hold on a second in order to be
saved you don't have to repent of your sins because no one's going to argue that the Bible's teaching
us after salvation that we should live a life that's pleasing unto the Lord but folks if you
never do that if you never turn from your sin and you've only believed on the Lord Jesus Christ
the Bible says you're still saved let me read to you from Romans chapter number four to give you
proof of that Romans chapter number four tells us in verse number five but to him that worketh not
but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly his faith is counted for righteousness so again
we see that God places this great emphasis on faith alone believing on Jesus Christ alone
for salvation repenting of your sin takes an effort on your part you know what the Bible says
in Ephesians 2 verse 8 through 9 for by grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves
it is the gift of God not of works lest any man should boast so there you have it and obviously
there's many more verses that we can go over to prove that it's pretty clear pretty explicit
within the word of God that in order to be saved all you have to do is believe and in fact there's
a guy in the Bible the Philippian jailer jailer in Acts chapter 16 asked the question what must
I do to be saved and the apostles responded and said believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou
shall be saved in thy house and so if you have any questions about that shoot me a message on
Instagram put a comment in the section below if you want to hear about a specific topic or doctrine
make sure you put that as well and we'll see you in the next video all right God bless you