Misconception #3: Repentance Toward God Is Not Necessary for Salvation

The third misconception is that repentance toward God is not necessary for salvation — that a person can be saved while bypassing any real turning of the heart toward God. To answer it, we need to look closely at the pattern the apostle Paul actually followed as he went from house to house preaching.

The misconception: repentance toward God can be skipped

Testifying to Jews, and also to Greeks, repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.

Acts 20:21 (NKJV)

Notice the order. The first thing Paul names is repentance toward God, and only then faith toward the Lord Jesus Christ. So often in the church we assume the first step is to share Jesus with someone — and there is nothing wrong with sharing your testimony or telling people the good news. But the very first place in a person’s journey to God is acknowledging that God is. Before a soul can meaningfully receive the Savior, it must first reckon with the Creator:

But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.

Hebrews 11:6 (NKJV)

You must first believe that He is — recognizing that He is God, that He is holy, that He is eternal, that He is above me, and that I am only a created being, a creature, and He is the Creator to whom I owe my submission.

How God draws a person: creation, then conscience

This is exactly the progression Paul lays out in the opening chapters of Romans. In Romans 1 he points to the reality of God revealed through creation. In Romans 2 he points to the work of God in the human conscience:

Or do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?

Romans 2:4 (NKJV)

The goodness of God leads us to repentance — but Paul goes on to warn that a stubborn, unrepentant heart stores up wrath for itself. (We will deal more with the hardened heart when we come to the misconception that “love is a feeling.”) For now, the key point is the sequence: God reveals Himself through creation, and then works directly in the conscience of men. And it is the Father Himself who draws people:

No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day.

John 6:44 (NKJV)

The Father is the one drawing people and teaching them about the reality of God. Then the Holy Spirit comes to convict — and that conviction operates in the conscience, in our inner being where we make our decisions. I remember as a young person stealing something once and being instantly convicted. Where did that come from? From the conscience, from the Holy Spirit. That inner work is precisely what we are appealing to when we bring the truth to people.

Repentance and a good conscience

Even baptism testifies to this reality. Beyond identifying us with Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection, Peter tells us:

There is also an antitype which now saves us, namely baptism (not the removal of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God), through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

1 Peter 3:21 (NKJV)

Baptism represents, among other things, “the answer of a good conscience toward God” — a life no longer lived to please self primarily, but lived in good conscience before God. Paul commends the Thessalonians for exactly this kind of turning:

…how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God.

1 Thessalonians 1:9 (NKJV)

That turning is the first step. If a person is not willing to acknowledge God, to honor God, to fear God, then there is no point in offering them the salvation message yet — it must begin with the knowledge of God as God.

🎥 Watch the full message: Misconception #3 — Repentance Toward God Is Not Necessary for Salvation

Part of the Misconceptions of the Faith series.