“Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. And behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high (Luk 24:45-49).”

What does it mean to repent and more specifically what does it mean to repent for the forgiveness of sins?  The Greek word here, μετάνοια (metanoia), is always translated repent, repentance, or repenting.  It means a change of mind which results in a change of lifestyle.  R.C. Sproul explains the Greek meaning more fully, “The prefix meta can mean ‘with,’ ‘beside,’ or ‘after…’  The root noia is the verb form of the noun that we find frequently in the Bible as nous.  This is simply the Greek word for “mind.”  In its simplest form, the term metanoia has to do with “the mind afterward,” or, as we might say, “an afterthought.” In the Greek language, it came to mean “a significant changing of one’s mind…”  So, in the most rudimentary sense, the concept of repentance in the Bible means “to change one’s mind (Sproul 2014).”

As an Assistant Professor of Military Studies in the Army’s Reserve Officer Training Program (ROTC) we used to teach our cadets “know, do, be.”  We would teach them the principles behind that which we would coach them to do so that we could mentor them into what we wanted them to be.  The idea is that if they knew the principles, they could apply them to any situation to accomplish that which they had to do.  But where is the line between knowing and doing?

A synonym for knowing is to believe.  Often translated in the New Testament from πιστεύω (pisteuō), a verb or the action of believing as when Jesus asked His disciples, “Do you now believe (Joh 16:31)?”  What would the action of believing look like?

I was once caught in a triangle in which my boss was asking me to accomplish a challenging task. I needed to schedule a physical for thirty-one soldiers in an environment in which seven or eight hundred soldiers needed the same physical in a very short amount of time. My boss kept telling me that the person responsible for the allocation of the appointments was a friend of his and that she had already made the appointments we needed in order to get our soldiers home on time. However, every time I spoke with his friend, she told me that the appointments she had promised had already been scheduled for other soldiers. Repeatedly I explained to my boss that we were not going to get the task accomplished before we left the training site and that his friend was the person giving me that information. I don’t know why she was lying to him but she was. He would not believe what I was telling him. It culminated when he raised his voice in frustration, “Aaron, I am not calling you a liar” to which I replied, “but you are aware that there is a lie on the table?” It was at that moment that he finally believed me over his friend. How did I know? When he picked up the phone to confront his friend. It was in that action that his belief was confirmed.

To repent is both to believe and to act on that belief.  To fail to act on a belief is to demonstrate unbelief.  Jesus told the Pharisees to, “Bear fruit in keeping with repentance (Mat 3:8).”  They had misunderstood God’s plan of salvation for all people by assuming that His salvation would only come to the Israelites.  They had put their faith in the fact that they were Abraham’s children and the promises that God had given Abraham.  While God’s promises were faithful and sure there was more to God’s plan of salvation than simply being a child of Abraham.  Their righteousness depended on the righteousness of the sacrifice that God would offer on their behalf.  They needed to change their minds about God’s plan of redemption, or they were going to miss out on His offered redemption. The proof of their repentance would then be demonstrated in the fruits of their lives.

In the Old Testament repent is translated from the Hebrew שׁוב, (šûḇ), which means to turn back or to return specifically to the Lord.  It is an action.  An action that is also based on something known.

“Zion shall be redeemed by justice, and those in her who repent, by righteousness. But rebels and sinners shall be broken together, and those who forsake the Lord shall be consumed (Isa 1:27-28).“

The justice that was to redeem Zion was the justice that was to be poured out on Jesus for the sins of the world.  That is what we know and believe. It was God’s plan from the beginning and so when we repent today, we are also returning to the Lord in our acceptance of His plan of redemption.  The difference between us and the believers of the Old Testament is that we know the mechanism of God’s justice that redeemed us and provides for our righteousness.  That mechanism was an act of love performed by God’s own son in which He took the punishment for our disobedience.  What would your life look like if you really believed that?  What fruit would be produced? I suspect that it would look radically different than before you believed and would probably require a one hundred and eighty degrees turn from where you were. Have you made that turn?

Repent of wrong thinking regarding righteousness, salvation, and eternal life, believe that Jesus has provided for your redemption, and live your life in that belief.  That is what it means to repent for the forgiveness of sins.  That is what it means to be a follower of Christ!  If you live any other way and yet profess to be a believer then your life will one day testify against that very belief.

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Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

Sproul, R. C. What is Repentance? First Edition. Orlando, FL: Reformation Trust Publishing, 2014.

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