Not only the gate of religion

It is generally supposed that repentance and faith are only the gate of religion. People suppose they are necessary only at the beginning of our Christian course, when we are setting out on the way to the kingdom. And the great apostle may seem to confirm that. When he urges the Hebrew Christians to go on to perfection, he teaches them to leave these first principles of the doctrine of Christ, and not to lay again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God. That must at least mean that they should leave these things comparatively. At first, repentance and faith took up all their thoughts. They are to leave them in that sense, so that they may press forward toward the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.