Do we come to Jesus as we are, or do we repent? Yes
Four of the most popular words in evangelicalism today are “come as you are.”
They are the titles of songs. They are T-shirts and bumper stickers. They are proclaimed as the gist of the gospel.
Like so many other catchphrases in pop theology, what they mean and whether they are true depends on how you define them.
The first word, at least, is undoubtedly scriptural.
“Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest,” Jesus proclaims in Matthew 11:28.
The Bible closes with a call to come: “And the Spirit and the bride say, ‘Come!’ And let him who hears say, ‘Come!’ And let him who thirsts come. Whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely” (Revelation 22:17).
So Christ indeed calls all to come to Him.
It’s the next three words in the phrase that are at issue: “as you are.”
What many mean by them, I’m sure, is that the sinner doesn’t have to clean himself up before coming to Christ. Whatever terrible sins we commit do not have to cease prior to conversion.
This is true, because it’s impossible. Before Christ, we’re dead in our sin and incapable of any true righteousness or obedience or even faith. We’re saved by the imputed righteousness of Christ; the Lord doesn’t accept us because of our works or merit, but because of His.
Also keep in mind that our ability to respond to this call is granted by the grace of God, without which we cannot come. “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him,” Jesus said in John 6:44; earlier in that chapter, He said, “All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out” (verse 37).
But “come as you are” has a broader meaning for some who argue that no change whatsoever is required or effected, before or after regeneration. “You don’t have to change who you are,” some in the more progressive camp say. That is where they depart from Scripture.
Hanging out with sinners
Perhaps the passage used most often to illustrate the phrase is when Jesus dined in the home of Matthew with tax collectors and other notorious sinners. Jesus “hung out” with the lowly, the outcast, those looked down upon, we like to say. With sinners.
(Jesus also dined with Pharisees at least three times, but I digress.)
But whenever I hear that story cited, almost never is it told to its conclusion.
The indignant Pharisees complained to the disciples, asking why Jesus associated with sinners.
Jesus answered for them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance” (Luke 5:31-23).
Those verses aren’t quoted probably because of that last word (which appears in all manuscripts of Luke’s version). Repentance is not a very popular word for some Christians.
But there is no escape from that word in Scripture.
Repentance is the first thing Jesus preached (Mark 1:15).
Repentance is what He told His disciples to preach, in His final instruction to them (Luke 24:47).
Repentance is the first thing the disciples preached (Acts 2:38). They did so boldly: God “now commands all men everywhere to repent,” Paul preached in Acts 17:30.
Jesus called five of the seven churches in Revelation to repent.
Heaven rejoices when we repent (Luke 15:7).
God wants all of us to come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9).
So the call to repent is indisputable. Again, the issue is in the definition.
What repentance means
The Greek word usually translated “repent” is μετανοέω (metanoeó); the derivative “repentance” is metanoia. The literal definition is to change (meta) one’s thinking (noeó). Some have called it changing one’s mind, and it could more broadly mean a change of heart.
Also see this exegesis of the word, which points out that a word’s etymology doesn’t necessarily define it, and how people at the time would have understood it.
In any case, we can agree that, contrary to secular thought, repentance does not literally mean changing one’s behavior.
What thoughts need to change? Given the overwhelming context of its uses and the teachings of Scripture, repentance unto salvation is basically a change of thinking from “I’m already righteous before God” to “I’m a wicked sinner deserving of wrath.” It’s recognizing our own depravity, and desiring to forsake it.
Even if it merely meant changing one’s mind, that includes a change of will, desire, and affections.
Repentance is a change of direction, a turning from our sinful lives to the Savior.
Repentance is a renunciation of our lives as we’ve lived them. It’s abdication of the throne of our hearts. It’s absolute, unconditional surrender to our Lord and Creator and Savior.
It bears repeating that this, in the moment, does not mean actual cessation of sin or committing works of obedience. That does not save us. Calling sinners to do that is only to show that they can’t, that they need the Savior’s gift of grace. Even Biblical repentance, the will to change, is something that is granted (Acts 5:31, Acts 11:18, 2 Timothy 2:25).
The fruit of repentance
However, another characteristic of repentance is that it has fruit (Matthew 3:8).
Fruit is a common metaphor throughout Scripture: “I am the vine, you are the branches,” Jesus said. “He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing” (John 15:5).
Those who abide in Christ, and He in them, WILL bear fruit, He teaches there. It is so inevitable that it is a defining characteristic by which true believers are identified (Matthew 7:16-20).
Both of those passages, therefore, warn that the final absence of such fruit indicates that no salvation has taken place: “Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire” (Matthew 7:19); “Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit” (John 15:2).
What is this fruit? Look at Galatians 5:22-23, the fruit of the Holy Spirit, who regenerates and abides in us: love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.
While repentance itself is not a work of ours, it does result in works. Paul preached to Jews and Gentiles “that they should repent, turn to God, and do works befitting repentance” (Acts 26:20).
In the John 15 passage, Jesus said we abide in His love by keeping His commandments (verse 10).
And immediately following the section of Matthew 7 cited above, Jesus says, “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’ Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock. But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall” (21-27).
The fruit of repentance is obedience and practical holiness, of becoming more and more like our Father who transformed us. It’s gradual, it doesn’t happen overnight, and it will never be complete as long as we wear sinful flesh. But if there is never any fruit at all, no difference whatsoever from our old lives, there has been no repentance, no transformation, no salvation.
It would take a weak Holy Spirit to bring about no change in His temple. God “works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure” (Philippians 2:13). We don’t clean ourselves up, but God does.
What we should say
Yes, Jesus hung out with sinners, but He called them to repent.
So when we proclaim “Come as you are,” we must make clear that God will not keep us as we are. We must do it up front, telling those we call to count the cost, as Jesus did (Luke 14:28). Anything less is a deceptive bait-and-switch.
The call of Christ is a call to follow, to change, to die (Matthew 16:24). It’s a call to leave behind the lives in which He found us and not look back (Luke 9:62).
Jesus didn’t stay in Matthew’s house, and neither did those who heeded His call.
