Acts 26:19-20
19 “Therefore, O King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision, 20 but declared first to those in Damascus, then in Jerusalem and throughout all the region of Judea, and also to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, performing deeds in keeping with their repentance.
Right now in many circles, there is a great emphasis on evangelism. The SBC has recently released a report from its Great Commission Task Force which called the largest protestant denomination in the US to focus on the Great Commission—on evangelism and disciple-making. This focus is good, so long as the genuine gospel is at the heart of the evangelism.
If our evangelism is to match the evangelism of the New Testament, then our evangelism must have the same gospel. We know from Scripture that salvation is a gift of God, by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. That part of the gospel is generally pretty widely accepted. What is often missing, however, is an understanding that genuine salvation always—and I mean always—leads to a change in the life of the saved person.
Take a look at the verses above, which include Paul’s testimony of how he presented the gospel immediately after his conversion. Paul called people to repent and turn to God. There was repentance necessarily included in the process of having saving faith.
Not only was repentance present at the beginning of the faith that saved the people with whom Paul shared, Paul also called the people to perform deeds, works, right actions in keeping with their repentance. Paul was by no means calling the people to try to save themselves by their actions. However, Paul was by all means communicating with the people that a person who has no repentance in his or her life is not a saved person. True salvation always includes repentance.
Let’s put this in simple terms. If a person is saved, they must have already repented. They must have believed something about their sin that made them turn from it and turn to Jesus Christ for mercy. Also, for a person to be saved, their lives will be marked by a continuing repentance. Saved people live differently, not in order to gain or keep their salvation, but simply because their hearts and desires have been changed by the glorious, saving power of God.
Do you know someone who claims to be saved? Does that person’s life look different than before their claimed salvation experience? Does that person’s life look different than the lives of the lost around them?
What we want to do, as we talk to people about the gospel, is to call them to repent, turning from sin and turning to Christ. We also want to call those who claim Christ to perform deeds in keeping with repentance. We want them to live and think in such a way as to demonstrate to the world around them that something has changed and that they have a new Master, a new King, a new Lord. If that change is not there, something is very much wrong. And if that call is not in the gospel that one presents, something is wrong with the evangelism.
Pastor Travis Peterson 