When a lost person is presented with the gospel, we say 'repent'
In Matthew 4:15-23, Jesus began his ministry with the Gospel message to repent for the Kingdom of God is at hand, which was a light to the Gentiles, and God's law was how his audience knew what sin is (Romans 3:20), so repenting from our disobedience to it is a central part of the Gospel of the Kingdom, which is in accordance with Jesus being sent in fulfillment of the promise to bless us by turning us from our wickedness (Acts 3:25-26).
and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
The Bible repeatedly connects our belief in God with our obedience to Him. In Matthew 23:23, Jesus said that faith is one of the weightier matters of God's law. In James 2:18, he would show his faith by his works. In Romans 1:5, we have received grace in order to bring about the obedience of faith. In Romans 3:31, our faith upholds God's law. In Revelation 14:12, those who kept faith in Jesus are the same as those who kept God's commandments. In John 3:36, it equates obeying Jesus with believing in him. In Psalms 119:30, he chose the way of faith by setting God's law before him. In Hebrews 11, every example of faith is an example of works. In Numbers 5:6, disobedience to God's law is referred to as breaking faith. In Hebrews 3:18-19, disobedience to God's law is equated with unbelief. The list goes on.
The way that we choose to live testifies about what we believe to be true about God's character. For example, our good works win obedience to God's law testify about His goodness and by testifying about God's goodness, we are also expressing the belief that He is good, or in other words, we are believing in Him, which again is why there are many verses that connect our obedience to God with our obedience to Him. The way to believe that God is just is by being doers of justice, the way to beloved that God is holy is by following His law for how to be holy as He is holy, and so forth for other aspects of God's character, while it would be contradictory for someone to believe that God is a doer of righteous works while they are not. In other words, the way to believe in God is by believing that we ought to be in His image by being doers of His character traits.
Repent.. is a change of mind, heart. It's not a behaviour of cleaning your life up.
Our actions are in accordance with what is in our minds and hearts.
It's going from unbelief to belief..not 'Turning from sins'.
Whatever is not of faith is sin (Romans 14:23), whatever is in transgression of God's law is sin (1 John 3:4), and whatever is in transgression of God's law is not of faith.
It could only mean turning from sins if it was acknowledging you are a sinner in need of grace and then believing on the Lord Jesus Christ.
In Psalms 119:29-30, he wanted to put false ways far from him, for God to be gracious to him by teaching him to obey His law, and he chose the way of faith by setting it before him, so this has always been the one and only way of salvation by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.
Discipleship, following God's commands, submission.. etc... all are what we should do as works... but AFTER first getting saved!
In Titus 2:11-13, our salvation is described as being trained by grace to do what is godly, righteous, and good, and to renounce doing what is ungodly, so it is not the case that we are required to have first done those works in order to earn our salvation as the result and it is not the case that we are required to do those works as the result of having first been saved, but rather God graciously teaching us to do those works it itself part of the content of His gift of salvation.
There is nothing behaviour wise a lost person can do to receive eternal life. It's all Jesus leading and convicting.
The Bible is abundantly clear that obedience to God's law is the way to inherit eternal life (Deuteronomy 30:11-20, Deuteronomy 32:46-47, Proverbs 3:18, Proverbs 6:23, Matthew 19:17, Luke 10:25-28, Revelation 22:14, Hebrews 5:9, Romans 2:6-7, Romans 6:19-23). God's way is the way to doers of His character traits, such as righteousness and justice (Genesis 18:19). In Exodus 33:13, Moses wanted God to be gracious to him by teaching him to walk in His way that he and Israel might know Him, and in Matthew 7:23, Jesus said that he would tell those who are workers of lawlessness to depart from him because he never knew them, so the goal of the law is to have the experience of knowing God and Jesus through being doers of His character traits, which is the gift of eternal life (John 17:3). The many verses that say that the way to inherit eternal life is by believing in Jesus along with the verses that I've cited that the way to inherit eternal life is by obeying God's law confirms that God's law is His instructions for how to believe in Jesus, or in other words, obeying God's word is the way to believe in God's way made flesh.
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ for eternal salvation. That is it! Not believe and promise to do good works or promise to be a disciple or promise to submit. That's mixing YOUR effort into getting saved.
Jesus is God's word made flesh, so it is contradictory to think that we are saved through believing in him, but not through believing in God's word. Someone that is relying on our on effort to become saved would not involve relying on anyone else, so it is contradictory to think that relying on God's instructions is mixing in our own effort. There is a difference between works that we are required to have done first in order to attain something first and works that we are required to do in order to have the experience of doing something.
For example, the content of a gift can itself be the experience of doing something, such as giving someone the opportunity to experience driving a Ferrari for an hour, where the gift requires them to do the work of driving it in order to have that experience, but where the fact that they are required to do that work in order to have that experience does not detract from the fact that opportunity to drive it was given to them as a free gift. In a similarly manner, the content of God's gift of eternal life is the experience of knowing God's and Jesus and the gift of His law is His instructions for how to have that experience through being doers of His character traits.
So turning from sins is a great thing. But a lost person can't do that! They can go from unbelief to belief, and that's all. They can turn from sins after conversion seeing they are freed from them.
Unbelief is synonymous with sin while believe in synonymous with obedience to God's law. The significance of obeying God's law is not that it is part of something that we are required to have done first in order to earn our salvation as the result, but that it is expressing our faith, and it is by that faith that we are being saved. In Proverbs 3:5-7, we have a choice between whether we are going to lean on our own understanding of right and wrong by doing what is right in our own eyes or whether we are going to trust in God with all of our heart to correctly divide between right and wrong by obeying His instructions in all of our ways and He will make our path straight, so this is what it means to trust in God. God is trustworthy, therefore His instructions are also trustworthy (Psalms 19:7), so the way to trust God is by obediently trusting in His instructions and it is contradictory for someone to think that we should trust in God for salvation, but not in His instructions.
