Repentance isn't what I thought it was (Part 1)

I thought repentance meant begging God for forgiveness. I was wrong.

One word I remember hearing growing up in church was "repent."

If I'm being honest, I never really understood what it meant.

I thought repentance was something you did after committing a really bad sin. I thought it meant begging God to forgive me for what I had done and hoping He would. It sounded like such a serious word that I figured it had to mean feeling terrible about my mistakes.

Maybe you've thought the same thing. But that's not actually what the Bible teaches.

A quick side note. The New Testament wasn't originally written in English. It was written in Greek nearly 2,000 years ago, and our English Bibles are faithful translations of those original writings. Every now and then it's helpful to look at the original Greek because it gives us a clearer picture of what a word meant to the people who first read it.

The Greek word translated "repent" is metanoia (met-uh-NOY-uh). It literally means "a change of mind." In the Bible, that change of mind is so genuine that it changes the direction of your life.

A simple way to define repentance is this: Repentance is turning away from sin and turning toward God through faith in Jesus Christ.

It's more than feeling guilty. It's more than being sorry you got caught. It's recognizing that God is right about your sin, agreeing with Him, and choosing to follow Him instead.

Does that mean you'll never struggle with sin again? No.

Every Christian still struggles. We all stumble. But after repentance, our direction has changed. Before Christ, we were running toward sin. Now we're pursuing Christ. We may fall from time to time, but we don't want to stay where we were because God is changing us from the inside out.

Jesus began His public ministry with these words:

"The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel."

— Mark 1:15 (NKJV)

Notice Jesus didn't say, "Get your life together first." He said, "Repent, and believe in the gospel."

Jesus wasn't calling people to simply feel guilty about their sin. He was calling them to leave their old way of life behind and place their faith in Him.

The Bible consistently connects repentance with faith in Jesus Christ as our response to God's offer of salvation.

"...testifying to Jews, and also to Greeks, repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ."

— Acts 20:21 (NKJV)

Repentance is the response of a heart that has come to understand who Jesus is and what He has done for us.

What did you think repentance meant before reading this?

Next time, I'd like to answer a question that confused me for a long time:

If repentance means turning away from sin... why do Christians still sin?


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