Repentance and Salvation: What is Repentance?

Salvation cannot happen without repentance. But this repentance isn't remorse, it is changing my mind, turning from my own works and my other idols and turning to the true God. It is never really present without a change in the way I live. But my new way of life does not come from me, but from God who has prepared it for me and lives it through me.

As has been said previously on various pages of this blog, as well as in Scripture, repentance is a critical requirement for salvation. This requirement is stated in various ways, all of which complement each other. According to the writer to the Hebrews, the elementary principles of Christ start with a “foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God.” Hebrews 6:1 (NASB). Both John the Baptizer and Jesus started their preaching, reported by Matthew, with the simple message “Repent, for the Kingdom of the Heavens is at hand.” Matthew 3:2; Matthew 4:17. Mark reports a very similar message–“The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel,” Mark 1:15–and that when the disciples were first sent out, “they went out and preached that people are to repent.” Mark 6:12. In Acts, Peter told the crowd at Pentecost that they should “Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins,” Acts 2:37, but he told a very similar crowd in the Temple not long after that that what they needed to do was to “repent and return, so that your sins may be wiped away, in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord,” and concluded his sermon with “God raised up His Servant for you first, and sent Him to bless you by turning every one of you from your wicked ways,” Acts 3:17 & 26, without anywhere mentioning baptism. So repentance is primary. (Baptizing an unrepentant sinner does no good, as is demonstrated by the stories of Ananias and Sapphira and of Simon the Magician).

Repentance, Greek metanoia, is an abstract noun describing the state of mind of a person who repents, Greek verb metanoeō. To “repent” is basically to change one’s mind or purpose, thus, “repentance” is a change of mind or purpose. But the reality of a change of mind or purpose is questionable unless it is accompanied by a change of the actions motivated by the previous beliefs, thoughts or purposes. See the article “Repentance, Definition of Terms” recently posted on this blog.

It is for this reason that nearly every time people are called upon to “repent” in scripture, some change in behavior consistent with repentance is required. Merely feeling remorse without changing at all is not repentance. The changed behavior is not a necessary component of repentance, nor is it a proof of repentance (God knows our hearts), but merely the natural result of changing one’s mind about something. If I don’t change, I really didn’t change my mind, but only falsely professed to do so. True and false repentance, and the many scriptural examples of each, will be discussed in the series that begins with “Repentance, Changed Way of Life, and John’s Baptism,” which will slowly be added to this blog.

Because repentance is a change in thinking followed by a corresponding change in action, not a change of feelings, it is also quite possible to repent without feeling, or showing, remorse. This is shown by the first son in the Parable of the Two Sons, Matthew 21:28-32, who did the will of his father by merely changing his mind and doing the work his father had asked him to do, without any mention of an emotional display.

For purposes of the present series on Merit, however, two further points need to be made. First, the repentance that is necessary to salvation is a repentance from a false approach to our relationship with God (or, in pagan Gentile cultures, often “the gods”). It does not primarily involve remorse for outward behaviors identified others have identified for us as “sins,” following any formulaic prayer “confessing” those “sins” and begging for forgiveness, conformity with any particular Christian standard of moral, political or business behavior, participation in any human organization, or efforts to conform to the expectations of a “Christian culture.” Rather, repentance, as required for salvation, is a turning from a way of life that leads to death, following “worthless” or “useless things” (Acts 14: 15), to the living and true God. The “useless” things we rely upon may be idol images in the old pagan sense (as in Acts 14), institutions (see, for instance, 1 Samuel 12:11-25, Jeremiah 7:3-15 and A Warning Concerning Idolatry), or other people we rely upon in the place of the true God (See, Isaiah 30:1-5). But they may also be religious rituals or codes of conduct we rely upon to make the true God favorable to us–including those prescribed in the Old Testament, when used for this purpose–because they permit us to treat the true God like a classical idol (i.e., a deity we can manipulate for our own purposes). (See, for example, 1 Samuel 4:1-11; Romans 2). And these “useless things” may also include reliance upon our own strength (Isaiah 10:12-14; Habakkuk 1:11), our country’s military power (Daniel 11:36-40), or our own greed (Ephesians 5:5; Psalm 52:6-7; Habakkuk 1:15-17). The repentance required for salvation is “to turn from these useless things,” these “idols” “to serve a living and true God,” the one who made all things (1 Thessalonians 1:9; Acts 14:15-16), who we therefore cannot manipulate. The first result of this turning from the “empty way of life” to the true God will be faith in his Son Jesus Christ, as Jesus told Paul while commissioning him to preach to the Gentiles, “to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who have been sanctified by faith in Me.” Acts 26:18.

But this repentance, and the faith in Christ which results from it, never originates in us–it is a gift of God. John 6:44; Romans 2:4; Ephesians 2:4-8. And the works in keeping with this repentance are not expressions of remorse, nor are they acts of penance to show God we have repented, to show other people or the church we have repented, or to somehow pay the “price” demanded for our past sinful course or for specific sinful acts, so that having made the proper showing or payment we can then go on our own way. God already knows our hearts, other people’s opinions of us have no bearing on our salvation (which depends only on our relationship with God), and making payment for a wrong is an aspect of human justice, not divine grace. Moreover, if the purpose of making the showing or paying the price is so that we can then go our own way, we haven’t truly turned from the worthless things that comprise our own way to the living and true God. No, the repentance that leads to salvation is a turning to faith in Christ–which includes a willingness to follow him, to permit him to do through us the good works he has prepared for us from the beginning. (Ephesians 2:9-10).

NEXT: Repentance, Changed Way of Life, and John’s Baptism