While Apollos was at Corinth, Paul took the road through the interior and arrived at Ephesus. There he found some disciples and asked them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?”
They answered, “No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.”
So Paul asked, “Then what baptism did you receive?”
“John’s baptism,” they replied.
Paul said, “John’s baptism was a baptism of repentance. He told the people to believe in the one coming after him, that is, in Jesus.” On hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. When Paul placed his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they spoke in tongues and prophesied. There were about twelve men in all. - Acts 19:1-7
It would be a sad salvation if we only had repentance. Yes, we would truly recognize how had the things we had done were. It is like the hunger without the feast. Repentance is good for showing you how good God is and make you realize how much you long for the holiness of God and how much you lack that holiness. It can lead to life change, making you strive to attain that holiness with the strength within you, fueled by that sense of longing and that sense of guilt and opportunity lost. But it seems like a kind of losing cause, like you are pushing a giant boulder up a hill, trying to reach the very top but knowing realistically that at some point you will grow tired and your footing will slip and that boulder will roll right over you back down to the foot of the hill and then you must start over again, only this time with less strength--a strength that will eventually fade until it is overcome by death.
But repentance isn't the end of the gospel story--instead it is just the beginning. The fresh wind of the Spirit and the rescue by the Messiah Jesus are for the life post-repentance. It is the life full of new opportunities, not based on avoiding regret but rather based on running fueled by gratitude. It is the new life, not just a grueling extension of the old life. Repentance is key, because no recognition of the grace of God can fully come until we are willing to relinquish the past and accept that God's way is better. But repentance is not sufficient, because we must learn to live in the landscape of grace.
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