Is the Concept of Repentance Present in John’s Gospel?

Summary

Grace in Focus Episode Summary

Podcast: Grace in Focus
Date: November 19, 2025
Episode Title: Is the Concept of Repentance Present in John’s Gospel?
Hosts: Bob Wilkin (C) & Sam Marr (B)
Main Theme:
Exploring whether the concept of repentance appears in the Gospel of John, its relation to salvation, and clarification of what constitutes faith for eternal life in Free Grace Theology.

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Episode Overview

In this concise but in-depth episode, hosts Bob Wilkin and Sam Marr respond to a listener question regarding Free Grace Theology’s position on repentance in relation to the Gospel of John. The discussion centers on textual analysis, theological concepts, and practical implications for evangelism and assurance of salvation.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Listener Question & Theological Framing

• [01:07] Sam (B) introduces Alberto’s question:
  • “Doesn't the Gospel of John teach the concept of repentance, not just believe in Jesus?”
• Bob (C) responds by referencing his writings and the core Free Grace stance that repentance is not required for eternal life according to John’s Gospel.

2. Is Repentance in John’s Gospel?

• [01:28] Bob uses an analogy to stress the importance of explicit mention and conceptual clarity:

  • “If you didn't mention [Patton’s] name and you didn't allude to his actions, then you're clearly not talking about him.”

• He explains:

  • Repentance (Greek: metanoia for noun, metanoeo for verb) is neither mentioned nor conceptually present.
  • The closest passage, John 3:19-21, isn’t a call to turn from sin but to publicly confess Christ.

• [02:30]

  • Nicodemus as an example: Bob notes John recounts Nicodemus’ progression as a secret believer without mentioning repentance.

3. 'Believe' as the Sole Condition for Eternal Life

• [03:50]
  • "A hundred times in John's Gospel, the word believe occurs... specifically tied with 'will never hunger, will never thirst, will never die, will never be cast out, will never perish, has everlasting life, shall not come into condemnation.' None of those have repentance in there."
  • Other cited texts: Acts 16:31, Galatians, Ephesians 2:8-9, Revelation 22:17, emphasizing explicit faith as the condition for salvation.

4. Repentance in Other Biblical Contexts

• [05:24]
  • Repentance appears in Revelation, but not as a condition for eternal life.
    • In Revelation 2-3, believers must repent to be overcomers.
    • In Revelation 9 and 16, the unrepentant world faces judgment.

5. Repentance: For Believers and Unbelievers

• [07:23]
  • Bob recommends his book Turn and Live and references Ezekiel 18 and 31.
  • Repentance for Believers: Needed only if a believer strays (cf. Luke 15’s lost sheep, coin, and son).
  • Repentance for Unbelievers: May lead to improvements in this life (e.g., escaping harmful habits) but is not the means of receiving eternal life.

6. Follow-up: Can 'Bad People' Believe in Jesus?

• [08:41]
  • Alberto asks about the credibility of professions of faith from “serial killers or sexually immoral people.”
  • Bob clarifies:
    • The real question should focus not on lifestyle, but on the content of belief:
      • “I would be suspect of just about anybody that tells me they believe in Jesus until I find out what they mean by that.” [09:11]
    • Most professing Christians actually believe in works-based salvation, not John 3:16-style faith.

7. Eternal Life and Assurance

• [10:21]

  • Lifestyle is not proof or disproof of genuine faith.
    • “It doesn't matter whether they're a serial killer or Mother Teresa. They don't get eternal life unless they believe in Jesus in the biblical sense.”
    • The key question for assurance: “Are you certain that you have everlasting life and you can never lose it? Even if you fall away, even if you become an alcoholic, even if you become a serial killer, would you still have eternal life?”

• [11:50] Bob encourages:

  • “Repentance is not a condition of everlasting life. And we don't base whether someone's born again on the quality of their life. We base whether someone is born again on the root, not the fruit.”
  • The “Kennedy question” (Evangelism Explosion) is referenced as a classic assurance check.

8. Final Assurance and Christ’s Promise

• [12:19]
  • Sam: “If that promise isn't true 40 years from now, then why would it be true now?”
• [12:32]
  • Bob closes with:
    • “Whoever believes in him will not perish, but has everlasting life. It has nothing to do with repentance. It has nothing to do with the quality of our life. It has everything to do with his faithfulness, not our faithfulness.”

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the absence of repentance in John:

  • “If you didn't mention his name and you didn't allude to his actions, then you're clearly not talking about him.” (Bob, [01:42])

• On faith vs. repentance:

  • “A hundred times in John's Gospel, the word believe occurs... None of those have repentance in there.” (Bob, [03:50])
  • “Repentance is not a condition of everlasting life. And we don't base whether someone's born again on the quality of their life. We base whether someone is born again on the root, not the fruit.” (Bob, [11:50])

• On the assurance of faith:

  • “If that promise isn't true 40 years from now, then why would it be true now?” (Sam, [12:19])
  • “It has nothing to do with repentance. It has nothing to do with the quality of our life. It has everything to do with his faithfulness, not our faithfulness.” (Bob, [12:32])

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• [01:07] — Listener question on repentance in John
• [01:28] — Analogy and setup for biblical analysis
• [02:30] — John 3:19-21 and concept of public confession
• [03:50] — Emphasis on belief, multiple scriptural cross-references
• [07:23] — Repentance for believers vs. unbelievers, Turn and Live
• [08:41] — Investigating the meaning of “believe in Jesus”
• [10:21] — Assurance, fruit vs. root, Kennedy question
• [12:19] — Final affirmation of Christ’s promise and its implications

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Final Takeaway

The hosts make a strong, text-oriented case that the Gospel of John neither mentions repentance as a word nor presents it as a concept tied to receiving eternal life. Instead, John unequivocally associates eternal life with believing in Jesus. The episode underscores the importance of correctly understanding and articulating faith—as a reliance on Christ’s promise of eternal life, apart from repentance or works—calling for clear, careful evangelism and deep assurance rooted in Christ’s faithfulness.

Transcript

[A]

The following is a listener supported ministry from the Grace Evangelical Society. Welcome to Grace in Focus. Perhaps the word repentance does not appear in John's Gospel, but isn't the concept present a question we will discuss today here on Grace in Focus. Glad you've joined us. This is a radio broadcast and podcast ministry of the Grace Evangelical Society. Our website is faithalone.org there you can find out about our online seminary. You can go through the application process and get ready to study with us next semester. We offer an M. Div. Degree. It's free to those maintaining a 3.0 grade average. So come and study with us. We also want you to know about our annual National Grace Evangelical Society conference. We'd love you to make plans to be with us next May 18th through 21st, 2026 at Camp Qopas in Denton, Texas. Get all the details, faithalone.org and now with today's question and answer discussion, here are Bob Wilken and Sam Marr.

[B]

Bob, we've got a question from Alberto on repentance. The question is your program teaches that repentance is not required for salvation, especially in the Gospel of John because it's an evangelistic book. My question is, doesn't the Gospel of John teach the concept of repentance, not just believe in Jesus?

[C]

Okay, I've written an article on this and if you go to faithalone.org you can see that the article and I give a lot more details than I'll be able to give here. But let me say that no, the concept of repentance does not occur. Let me give you an illustration. Let's say that I was an expert on World War II generals and I wrote a book and I didn't mention George Patton. Could someone argue no, you didn't mention patent, but you had the concept of patent in there. Well, I'd say no, unless you had some particular place where you were talking about him, but you chose not to mention his name. But it was obvious you were talking about him. If you didn't mention his name and you didn't allude to his actions, then you're clearly not talking about him. Well, when you're in the Gospel of John, there's no mention of repentance. Metanoia is the noun, metan is the verb. But on top of that, even the concept is not there. The closest you could get to would probably be something like John 3:19 21, which after Jesus evangelizes Nicodemus, he challenges him to come out into the light and to confess Christ publicly and be an open witness for Christ. And after John 3:21, we get John 3:22:36, which is all about John the Baptist, who's the prime example of someone who had come out in the light and was confessing Jesus. But John 3:19 21 is not a call to turn from sins. It's a call for Nicodemus to come out in the light. He was a brand new believer. He was in fellowship with God. He didn't need to turn from his sins. What he's being called to do now is to do something positive, which is to confess Christ publicly. In fact, I think that explains other passages in John's Gospel. There's a couple of secret believer passages that relate to Nicodemus. This Passage, John Chapter 7 and John Chapter 19, all three places where it says he came to Jesus by night. That's repeated in John 7, that's repeated in John 19. And the point is he didn't want his interest in Jesus public. And then when he did come to faith over in John 7, he doesn't make it clear before the other members of the Sanhedrin that he's a believer in Jesus. And even when he claims the body of Jesus with Joseph of Arimathea, again, he doesn't confess his faith in Christ. Here's the other issue, Alberto. I would say let's say we had some place in John's Gospel where the concept of repentance is found. Then the question would be, does that passage say you need to do that in order to be born again? Even if the concept were in John's Gospel, which it's not, but even if it were, John 3:16 doesn't say anything about repentance. John 3, 14, 15, 16, 17 and 18. It's all about believing. A hundred times in John's Gospel, the word believe occurs. There's more than 20 times. The believing is specifically tied with will never hunger, will never thirst, will never die, will never be cast out, will never perish, has everlasting life, shall not come into condemnation. None of those have repentance in there. We don't have a believe and repent in John's Gospel, right? What you have is the only condition everlasting life is faith. And that's true, of course, in Acts 16:31, when Paul's directly asked, what must I do to be saved? His answer is believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved. He said nothing about repentance. The book of Galatians is where Paul is defending his gospel of justification by faith alone. Apart from works, guess how many times the words repent and repentance occur there? 0. And the concept of repentance occurs 0 times in Galatians as well. If you think about Ephesians 2:8:9 for by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It's the gift of God, not of works. Lest anyone should boast this by grace through faith. Salvation is the gift of God. There's no mention of repentance in Ephesians 2:8 9. Same thing in Revelation 22:17. Basically the last evangelistic verse in the Bible. Let anyone who desires come, and let him who comes take the water of life freely. And the word freely is as a gift without cost. And there's no repentance there either. Now the word repentance does occur in the Book of Revelation, but it's in chapters two and three where it's talking about believers who needed to repent so they could be overcomers. It also occurs in Revelation 9 concerning the unbelieving world was not repenting, and as a result the judgments continued unabated. And the same thing in chapter 16 the unbelieving world was not repenting, so the judgments continued.

[A]

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[C]

I have a book called Turn and Live and Alberto, I'd highly recommend you get it. That expression turn and live comes from Ezekiel chapter 18 and Ezekiel 31 and in both places God says turn and live because God does not desire your death and he's talking about physical life and physical death of Jews within Israel. But the principle applied to Gentiles in the Old Testament or anybody today, Repentance is not just for unbelievers, it's for believers as well. The point is the believer doesn't need to repent unless he strays. That's Luke 15, right? The sheep that strays, the coin that's lost, the sun that goes to the spiritual far country. As long as I'm walking in fellowship with God, I simply need to confess my sins and continue to walk in the light. And I don't need to repent for the unbeliever repentance is a great thing, but it doesn't give them eternal life. If an unbeliever is on the path of death and they're continuing to get high all the time, they're on a path that's going to lead to a premature death. And if they repent, well, they can continue to live. Now it's a separate issue of them being born again. Does that make sense?

[B]

It does. And that answered a follow up question. There's a little bit more to Alberto's email. I think he did a very excellent and thorough job of answering the question as it was stated. But the follow up part of his question is if you ask a serial killer or a sexually immoral person if they believe in Jesus, then why should you believe they're telling the truth? Like if someone's a serial killer, they say, yeah, I believe in Jesus, I have everlasting life. I think the majority of people will say, well, that can't be true because you're a serial killer.

[C]

Yeah, so let me say, I would be suspect of just about anybody that tells me they believe in Jesus until I find out what they mean by that. If I'm talking to the Pope, if I'm talking to a nun or a priest and they tell me they believe in Jesus, I doubt it. If I'm talking to an orthodox priest, they say, I believe in Jesus, I doubt it. If I'm talking to most Protestants and they say I believe in Jesus, I doubt it. Why do I doubt it? It has nothing to do with their lifestyle. It has to do with, I know that well over 90% of people in Christianity believe in work, salvation. So if I ask them, what do you mean I believe in Jesus? What I'm going to find out is they believe that Jesus existed or they believe Jesus is the son of God, or they may even believe that Jesus died on the cross for their sins and rose again. But if I say to them, so what happens if you become an alcoholic and die away from the Lord? Oh, I'd go to hell. Well, then they don't believe in Jesus in the John 3:16 sense, do they?

[B]

No.

[C]

His point about the serial killer is a canard. A canard is a kind of a misleading statement because it doesn't matter whether they're a serial killer or Mother Teresa. They don't get eternal life unless they believe in Jesus in the biblical sense. And so of course we should be skeptical of anybody saying I believe in Jesus. And we ought to ask them, what do you mean by that? Are you certain that you have everlasting life and you can never lose it? Even if you fall away, even if you become an alcoholic, even if you become a serial killer, would you still have eternal life? It sounds like Alberto is saying if he became a serial killer, he'd lose his salvation or he would prove he wasn't really saved in the first place. Alberto, I hope that's wrong. I hope you recognize that you have everlasting life. And even if you mess up big time, you can't lose everlasting life anyway. I hope that helps. But repentance is not a condition of everlasting life. And we don't base whether someone's born again on the quality of their life. We base whether someone is born again on the root, not the fruit. That's why the Kennedy question used to be, if you died and you appear before God, why should he let you into heaven? If your answer is, because I'm better than most, I follow the golden rule. We say, no, no, you need to go back to John 3:16. But if they say, well, it's only because I believe in Jesus and he guarantees my eternal salvation, he guarantees me everlasting life, I'll never perish. Great. But we need people to understand it's not just, if you died today, why should God let you into heaven? The question is, if you died 40 years from now as an alcoholic and a murderer, unrepentant, where would you go? And if their answer is, I'd still go to be with the Lord, then they get it.

[B]

And I think that's good news. And that's why we believe, because it's a promise that Christ made. And if that promise isn't true 40 years from now, then why would it be true now?

[C]

Exactly. It's a promise that's based on faith in Him. Whoever believes in him will not perish, but has everlasting life. It has nothing to do with repentance. It has nothing to do with the quality of our life. It has everything to do with his faithfulness, not our faithfulness. Well, good question, Alberto. We're out of time. But remember, keep grace in focus. Amen.

[A]

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