Listen to the typical gospel presentation today and you will hear entreaties like, “If you want to be saved just ask Jesus into your heart.” Or, “Jesus is knocking on the door of your heart and all you have to do is let Him in.” Or, “Make a decision for Christ today.”

It may surprise you to know that none of these phrases or concepts are biblical. They are a product of a watered-down gospel prevalent among Christians who talk very little about sin and repentance and instead stress the free will of man to choose Christ as Savior on their own terms. This system of belief is also the fundamental tenet of free grace theology.

Free grace is a view of salvation which holds that the only condition necessary to be saved is initial faith. No repentance is required, no submission to the Lordship of Christ, no giving up all to follow Him, no leaving family, friends, or anything else – just your initial faith to be saved. Anything beyond this, they claim, is works. Another name for it is easy-believism.

This is in contrast to the many commands and examples in Scripture that stress repentance as an absolute requirement for salvation (Mk 1:15; Lk 3:8, 5:32, 13:2-3, 15:10, 18:13-14, 22:40-42, 24:46-47; Ac 2:38, 3:19, 5:31, 11:18, 17:30, 20:21, 26:17-18; Ro 2:4; 2Co 7:10; 2Ti 2:25; Rv 2:5, 16, 21-22, 3:3, 19, 9:20-21, 16:9, 11).

The apostle Peter proclaimed, “Therefore repent and return, so that your sins may be wiped away, in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord” (Ac 3:19).

Submitting to Christ as Lord goes hand-in-hand with trusting Christ as Savior. Follow the life and teaching of our Lord and you’ll never hear Him proclaim a gospel without repentance. The same with John the Baptist and the apostles. They never preached “make a decision for Christ today.”

The Bible is clear: No repentance = no salvation. If you present anything less than this in your gospel message, you are not presenting a biblical gospel.