Articles
Repentance
"...unless you repent, you will all likewise perish." (Luke 13:3) These words of Christ emphasize how He felt about repentance. He wouldn't have taught on it as much as He did if it weren't important. We must properly understand repentance.
What is repentance? Webster's defines it as "...to change from past evil." It is a change of mind and will, a change of one's inner resolve to stop doing what is wrong and to begin doing what is right. This is the working of one's conscience. Clearly, if our conscience is not affected by the things we do and say, we will have no desire to change (1 Timothy 4:1-2). A conscience continually deadened and dulled by sin will not allow repentance that will lead to salvation.
True repentance is quite a bit more than just feeling sorry for some wrong we have done. Many times, we are only sorry that we got caught. Yet, the apostle Paul teaches in 2 Corinthians 7:8-11 that godly sorrow is being sorry enough to the point of repentance, or changing of our own ways to the ways of God. Notice the following from this passage:
2Cor 7:8 For even if I made you sorry with my letter, I do not regret it; though I did regret it. For I perceive that the same epistle made you sorry, though only for a while.
2Cor 7:9 Now I rejoice, not that you were made sorry, but that your sorrow led to repentance. For you were made sorry in a godly manner, that you might suffer loss from us in nothing.
2Cor 7:10 For godly sorrow produces repentance [leading] to salvation, not to be regretted; but the sorrow of the world produces death.
2Cor 7:11 For observe this very thing, that you sorrowed in a godly manner: What diligence it produced in you, [what] clearing [of] [yourselves], [what] indignation, [what] fear, [what] vehement desire, [what] zeal, [what] vindication! In all [things] you proved yourselves to be clear in this matter.
Godly sorrow leads to repentance (verse 9)
Repentance is to, or towards, salvation (verse 10)
Do not misunderstand. Paul is not teaching that we are completely saved when we repent. There are other commands from God that we must comply with in order to be saved. Repentance is but one step towards our goal of salvation. If one can adopt a "faith only" salvation (discussed last month in Neighbors Together), then one can equally adopt a "repentance only" salvation. The trouble with both of these concepts is that the Scripture does not teach either one. We are not saved at the point of repentance any more than we are saved at the point of faith.
Repentance can many times mean hard choices. Turning away from sin sounds like a choice everyone would want to make. However, the choice to forsake sin is often a hard one. In Ezra 9 & 10, the Israelites were told to divorce wives they had no right to marry according to the Law of Moses (Deuteronomy 7:3-4). This was a hard choice, but a necessary one in order to please God.
The correct view of repentance is that God expects all who desire salvation to repent (Acts 17:30). If our view of repentance doesn't match God's, then we must change our view. This will require learning what His word teaches, comparing our lives to what He has said, and making the appropriate changes. Only then can we have true repentance.
