 Do we have to repent to be saved? That's an interesting question, isn't it? You may have heard a lot of mixed messages about this. Some people will say that repentance is not required for salvation. Some people say that it is required for salvation. How do they come to this conclusion? John's Gospel never mentions repentance and talks about eternal life extensively. Many times throughout this Gospel account, Jesus tells people to believe on him for everlasting life without telling them to repent. On the other hand, people counteract this claim for three reasons. Repentance is mentioned multiple times in the other Gospel accounts. John also wrote the book of Revelation, which does also mention repentance multiple times. And John's Gospel never mentions the word gospel outside of the title, even though this is the good news of salvation. So we need to consider then, do these arguments or counterarguments carry any weight? Are they valid points in determining whether repentance is or isn't required for salvation? Well, there is something very crucial that we do need to consider. John's Gospel is the only Gospel account that's written specifically for the purpose that by reading it, you would have everlasting life. It says in John 2031, but these are written that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that's believing you might have life through his name. If John's Gospel was written specifically for the purpose of you believing and getting eternal life, and it doesn't contain all of the instructions or steps you need to complete to get everlasting life, then it does not fulfill the purpose for which it was written. The other Gospel accounts were not written with the same intention, and the book of Revelation certainly was not written to tell you to have everlasting life. Nevertheless, although the other Gospels were not deliberately written with the intention that you would have everlasting life by reading them, they do talk about the subject extensively, particularly about the Kingdom of God, which is synonymous with eternal life, so we can't just dismiss them either. So let's look at some examples. In Mark 1.15, it says that the Kingdom of God is at hand, repent ye and believe the Gospel. This is clearly a Gospel verse and clearly a verse about the Kingdom of God. Entering the Kingdom is synonymous with entering into everlasting life. In Matthew 21, 31 to 32, this verse indicates that the publicans and harlots, a type of sinners, entered the Kingdom of God, which is synonymous with getting saved onto eternal life or everlasting life. But the chief priest Jesus was speaking to didn't because they didn't repent. So we have a conundrum. The one book in the Bible that's written to tell us how to have everlasting life doesn't tell us to repent, and these other Gospel accounts, as we talk about everlasting life, tell us to repent. We don't want to accuse John of writing a Gospel account that was insufficient for the purpose for which he wrote it. On the other hand, we don't want to accuse Matthew and Mark and Luke of writing false Gospel instructions in their letters. So what do we do with this conundrum? Remember in my previous video on repentance, we saw what the core word repentance means to do an about turn from one direction in the other direction, in other words, a change of course, a change of action or a change of mind. It may include sorrow and remorse and guilt, but not always. The context tells us what is being repented of, from or towards. So in Mark 1.15, Repent ye and believe the Gospel, this can be interpreted as change your mind ye and believe the Gospel. Matthew 21 can be interpreted as saying the publicans and harlots believed him and when you had seen it did not change your mind afterward that you might believe him. So in conclusion based on those two verses we say yes, you do have to repent to be saved. That is to change your mind about not believing the Gospel or not believing in Christ and start believing the Gospel of Christ. If repentance is defined in this way changing what you believe then it is a moot point that John's Gospel doesn't mention repentance because it's already implied in the multitude of verses in John's Gospel that tell you to believe for everlasting life. Now let's compare Mark 1.15 and these two things together. Mark tells us to turn towards one thing. John however gives us two options either we believe or we believe not. Mark just tells us to do the one thing, believe. So you can see that by comparing the two we can see what repentance is in Mark 1.15. Repent of not believing in him towards believing in him or we can illustrate this visually as well. He who believes not is condemned already so repent and believe the Gospel i.e. change towards being he who believes and is not condemned. The mistake that the vast majority of Christians make is that they redefine repentance as meaning exclusively or always to turn away from sin. Now in previous videos I've dealt with the problem of that assumption and prove why that's incorrect. I will do future videos to explain some of the go-to verses that Christians use but to keep this video on topic the answer is simply this. If we define repentance for salvation as turning from unbelief or belief and trust in the wrong thing then yes, we have to repent for salvation. If we redefine repentance as turning from sin to clean up our lives and start living right then no, we do not have to repent for salvation because that would be mixing our works of obedience with the blood of Christ for salvation. As explained in the previous video repentance needs context to understand what is being repented to of or from. Sometimes repentance does mean turning from sin but not all verses about repenting are about the repentance that we must do for salvation on to everlasting life. As I mentioned in the previous video repentance is simply the noun of the verb to repent. So just like the Bible says walk in the spirit. Okay, you don't start thinking I need to put one leg in front of the other because he says walk. Those words in the spirit shape how we use that verb. So likewise repentance is shaped by whatever the surrounding context is telling you to repent of. This is no nonsense Christianity reminding you that nowhere in the Bible does it say repent of your sins to be saved.