Is repentance a work?
We believe and are taught that no one can earn salvation, as verses like Ephesians 2:8-9 say. However, some people think that repentance is a work that has to be done to earn salvation, especially since being unrepentant can take away your salvation. How do I explain to someone that repentance is not a work?
You can explain that repentance is a work—not done by people to save themselves, but produced in them by the Holy Spirit. The Bible speaks of repentance in a narrower and wider sense. In the narrower sense it is contrition and sorrow over sin (Mark 1:15). In the wider sense repentance refers to both contrition and faith (Luke 13:5; 15:7). It is the Holy Spirit who works in people to confess their sins and to confess faith in Christ as their Savior. Repentance, in either sense, is not anything that people manufacture on their own. Confessing sins is an example of the power of “God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose” (Philippians 2:13).