Is it necessary to repent, or turn from sin and toward God (whether you have performed one single action or not, I’m simply talking about a heart attitude change) to be able<\/strong>\u00a0to see or believe in Jesus for the forgiveness of sin? Is that who has ‘ears to hear’ the gospel? The one living in an attitude of repentance from sin?<\/p>\n Then believing in Christ for the forgiveness of your sins gives you the power to overcome the power of it? I’m thinking Paul said something like: “Let me ask you this one question: Did you receive the Spirit when you believed or when you kept the law?”<\/p>\n So then it’s the believing which gives the power of (or access to) having the Holy Spirit within yourself to be able to walk in love, etc. This Spirit was accessed by the believing. But was the ability to believe the gospel accessed by repentance? Is this understanding correct? Any true understanding of this fundamental question appreciated!<\/p>\n\t “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ<\/em>” (Romans 10:17).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n You have to know what you are being asked to believe before you can believe in it. You cannot repent from sins if you do not know that your actions are sins or if you don’t believe they should be considered sins. Faith is the motivation for changing your life. Think about it. Why change if you don’t believe the gospel?<\/p>\n When Peter and the other apostles taught the first gospel lesson, the people hearing that message responded with faith: “Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Men and brethren, what shall we do?<\/em>” (Acts 2:37). In response to them hearing the gospel and believing it, Peter told them what needed to be done next: “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit<\/em>” (Acts 2:38).<\/p>\n See:\u00a0What Must I Do to be Saved?<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0What Saves a Person?<\/a><\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Question: Is it necessary to repent, or turn from sin and toward God (whether you have performed one single action or not, I’m simply talking about a heart attitude change) to be able\u00a0to see or believe in Jesus for the forgiveness of sin? Is that who has ‘ears to hear’ the gospel? The one living…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[20],"tags":[139,49,50],"class_list":["post-46795","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-belief","tag-faith","tag-repentance"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":94512,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-can-you-repent-before-being-forgiven\/","url_meta":{"origin":46795,"position":0},"title":"How can you repent before being forgiven?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 12, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Greetings! I've been struggling to understand repentance. I know it's commonly taught that we must repent of all sin before we can be saved. However, as I read Romans and some of Paul's other writings, I find that Paul talks about being made free from sin, putting to death\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":14379,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/it-had-to-have-been-a-miracle-to-cause-the-corinthians-to-change\/","url_meta":{"origin":46795,"position":1},"title":"It had to have been a miracle to cause the Corinthians to change","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 28, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I'm finding a hard time believing that the people of Corinth actually repented, as you call it. I believe so many of them most have been probably struggling with sin because if you read I Corinthians 6:11, it says they were washed, sanctified and justified all in the name\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":27917,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/thank-you-for-talking-about-repentance-and-forgiveness\/","url_meta":{"origin":46795,"position":2},"title":"Thank you for talking about repentance and forgiveness","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 23, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hi, I just want to thank you for answering some of the questions and confusions I have been dealing with. I am a real Bible-believing Christian woman who just divorced my husband of 20 years over his prolonged, continuous, unrepentant adultery.\u00a0 I prayed over him and reasoned with him\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":92814,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/granted-repentance-unto-life\/","url_meta":{"origin":46795,"position":3},"title":"Granted Repentance Unto Life","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 27, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton A drunkard might repent of being a drunkard and hurting his family, but such repentance is not such a repentance that makes him right with God regarding all his sins. It is a needed repentance that helps his physical well-being and his family's quality of life,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":18886,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/can-there-be-repentance-without-confession\/","url_meta":{"origin":46795,"position":4},"title":"Can there be repentance without confession?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 23, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I have a question about repentance.\u00a0 I have always wondered if there was such a thing as a lack of repentance? For example, when someone lies to another and later on they repent and change their mind about lying, but they don\u2019t want to bring up the details of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":28155,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-did-peter-say-that-perhaps-god-would-forgive-simon\/","url_meta":{"origin":46795,"position":5},"title":"Why did Peter say that perhaps God would forgive Simon?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 21, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I a question for you regarding a scripture. It was a passage that you showed\u00a0someone grappling with blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. \"Repent therefore of this your wickedness, and pray God if perhaps\u00a0the thought of your heart may be forgiven you\" (Acts 8:22) I am sure I am misunderstanding\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46795","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46795"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46795\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46795"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46795"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46795"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Answer:<\/h2>\n