What is
"repentance"?
Posted:
Aug 28/2k
This came in a while back:
Help. I am trying to understand the nature of
repentance and I think I am tying myself up in knots. I appreciate that faith
is trusting in the promises of God. But the call to repentance fills me with
difficulty. On one hand it seems something I am incapable of performing (due to
my inability) and if there is a measure of repentance I will never reach it.
But I suspect I misunderstand the term. If it is related to being sorry for sin
then I will never be sorry enough, if it is related to turning I will never be
able to turn enough. Am I simply to believe that my sins are forgiven based on
the promises of the gospel or is this 'gospel law' (repentance) necessary to
true faith?
I responded:
The short answer
is : "change of mind"...this is the basic meaning of the turn (metanoia), and the consequences of that
'change of viewpoint' might be variously experienced as sorrow (over sins),
delight and commitment (toward God), revulsion (over sins), relief (over
forgiveness)...but the basic meaning is almost synonymous with 'changed
belief'...
in itself it
doesn't refer to God, or sin, or whatever...and so you have to ask the question
as to what are the implications/consequences
of the change of mind...
e.g. Acts
26.20: that they should repent and turn to God, performing deeds appropriate to
repentance...
notice that' repent' is DIFFERENT from 'turn to God', and that it is DIFFERENT
from 'doing deeds'...
and in Acts 20.21
it is 'repentance toward God
(change your minds about what God is like) and faith
toward the Lord Jesus Christ (confidence in His person and work
specifically, as the agent of God)...
like i say,
sometimes (only sometimes) the idea of 'regret' is associated with it, but only
because that regret is a 'fruit of
repentance' (matt 3.8)...
so, you might go
back through the passages on repent and read them this way, and see if it makes
more sense...
hope this helps,
glenn
The Christian ThinkTank...[http://www.Christian-thinktank.com]
(Reference
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