An Introduction to Repentance
By Pastor Chris McKnight
If there was one sermon series I wish every church in America could hear, it would be a series on repentance. In my opinion, nothing is more important in this hour, nothing is more needed. Friend, the gospel itself is once again being obscured, compromised, and watered down. In many circles, even so-called evangelical churches, the gospel has been lost.
Not because what is being said isn’t often true, but because what is being said is incomplete. A partial gospel (which is no gospel at all) has permeated Christianity like yeast permeates dough. Result? Millions are deceived, not because they haven’t heard some truth but because they haven’t heard and accepted the whole truth.
The missing ingredient? Repentance. This is not a hair splitting debate among seminoids or fodder for theologians with too much time on their hands. Rather, the issue of repentance cuts to the core of the required response to Jesus Christ if one is to have Jesus Christ as Savior and confess Jesus Christ as Lord.
Consider …
- Most children’s programs in churches promise children salvation without repentance.
- Some popular youth ministries imply youth can live like unbelieving peers and call themselves Christians.
- In my observation at least 90% of Christian camps, retreats and evangelistic crusades, programs and sermons leave it out or inadequately touch on the subject.
- Most mega churches know nothing of it, which is likely why they are mega churches.
You see, this is a truth none of us naturally like. To our fallen flesh, there is nothing pleasant or appealing about repenting. We don’t even like the word. It’s actually quite offensive. Many Christians don’t even talk about it much.
For this reason and many others, a gospel without repentance has made inroads into every city, community and nearly every church in America because it’s very hard to accept that parents, or your favorite pastor or lifelong denomination was negligent about what God requires to be saved from His wrath.
So often when a young adult finally repents and actually begins following Jesus as Lord, he will tell his Christian parents and then hear, “Oh, sweetheart, you’ve been a Christian since you were six.” Has he?
Repentance is so rarely mentioned in broader evangelical circles that I find myself going back to the Bible to make sure it’s still there! And boy is it ever.
Personally, I’m both puzzled and ticked off that something so obvious and wide spread in the Bible and so critical to salvation is being left out of the gospel. As Scripture will clearly bear out, this is not even seriously debatable by anyone who will take God’s Word at face value. In my estimation, the presence of the crystal clear call to repent in order to be saved is as widespread and essential as the Deity of Christ or the substitutionary atonement is to be saved.
This issue is like many we face as Christians. Will I base my belief on a) my experience; b) past teaching; or c) what the Word of God actually teaches, no matter how that may redefine my so-called spiritual experience or conflict with past teaching?
The truth at stake is this, like faith in Christ (please hear that), repentance from sin is part of the required response to Christ for forgiveness of sins and eternal life.
This series will seek to answer: What is Repentance? Is it Necessary for Salvation and really part of the gospel message? Who must repent and from what? How does repentance come about and what are the results? What does it look and feel like in actual experience?
Today, we begin with the meaning of repentance. In the OT, the verb form is nacham, meaning to be sorry, to console oneself. It is translated as to change, regret, relent or repent. Another key OT verb is shub, meaning to turn back, to return. It’s translated as go back, restore, return, turn back, turn around or repent.
In the NT, the verb is metanoeo, meaning to change one’s mind or purpose. It’s always translated in some form of “repent”. The related noun is metanoia (used 22 times in the NT), meaning a change of mind and is translated repentance.
The most biblically complete and helpful definition I’ve encountered comes from Dr. Wayne Grudem in his Systematic Theology. He writes that repentance is:
- a heartfelt sorrow over your sin
- and a renouncing of sin
- and a sincere commitment to forsake sin and walk in obedience to Christ.
Repentance is the fitting counterpart to saving faith, for it’s impossible to truly turn from sin without turning to Christ and one can only turn to Christ as he turns from sin. Saving faith and repentance are the heads and tails of the one coin called conversion. Faith is the heads, facing Christ, looking only to Christ. Repentance is the tails, turning from sins, leaving the former manner of life to follow Christ. So we can say salvation is the result of a repentant faith and a believing repentance.
This is why the Bible will sometimes speak of repenting with no mention of believing
(Luke 13:5 “unless you repent, you will all likewise perish”), sometimes of believing with no mention of repenting (John 3:36 “he who believes in the Son has eternal life”) and sometimes of both (Mark 1:15 “repent and believe in the gospel”).
The bottom line? Repentance is essential for conversion, ultimately the work of God in the human heart and results in forgiveness of sins, changed thinking and behavior and eternal life. Our study will bear all this out as the whole truth and nothing
