Very often we’ll see a social media item from a Christian organisation or individual that proposes that we need to preach repentance every time we preach the gospel, so what is repentance, and how does it change anything?
Jesus indeed came preaching repentance, following in the footsteps of His forerunner, John the Baptist, so scripturally we have that same message. What did He say about repentance?
Repent and believe
Now after John was put in prison, Jesus came to Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel.”
Mark 1:14-15
John the Baptist had been preaching for repentance for some time before Jesus was identified by John as the Messiah, the Christ.
Repentance, scripturally, is a change of mind and heart.
The Greek word is metanoeō, which literally means to turn from one direction to another, to have a change of mind that leads to a change of direction.
μετανοέω metanoeō; to think differently or afterwards, i.e. reconsider (morally, feel compunction): — repent.
Strongs Bible Dictionary
to change one’s mind, i.e. to repent
to change one’s mind for better, heartily to amend with abhorrence of one’s past sins
Vine’s Complete Expository Dictionary has a very similar definition.
Metanoeo (μετανοέω, 3340), lit., “to perceive afterwards” (meta, “after,” implying “change,” noeo, “to perceive”; nous, “the mind, the seat of moral reflection”), in contrast to pronoeo, “to perceive beforehand,” hence signifies “to change one’s mind or purpose,” always, in the NT, involving a change for the better, an amendment, and always, except in Luke 17:3, 4, of “repentance” from sin.
Vine’s Complete Expository Dictionary
Repentance follows the gospel
So repentance is to change one’s mind after having heard or learned something. Jesus, remember says, “Repent, and believe in the gospel.”
So what are they repenting of? Well, the gospel must be preached first to present an alternative to life to the one they have been living.
The gospel is the power of God unto faith that exposes the life outside of faith as futile and placing people in jeopardy eternally (Rom.1:17). There has to be a preacher, someone who can deliver the message that causes a change of heart that leads to repentance.
How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, who bring glad tidings of good things!”
Romans 10:14-15
No one hears without a preacher, then. And who is sent? Everyone who believes and is baptised into repentance, where baptism signifies that direction change.
So what is it that we preach that brings about this change of heart that leads to a change of mind? The glad tidings of good things. The good news. The gospel.
Change of direction
The hearer is still in their sins, but God has made a way, through faith in Jesus to change directions and follow Him. Our message is good news. It is glad tidings.
Obviously, then, we don’t have a message that condemns, but a message that convinces. It is the Holy Spirit who works alongside the preacher to convince the hearer of their need of change (John 16:8).
God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.
John3 :17
The person who doesn’t believe is already condemned by their unbelief (John 3:18b). Jesus did not come to condemn but to save. When we believe and repent of our sins the condemnation is lifted. “He who believes in Him is not condemned (John3:18).”
It is a person’s sin that condemns. Jesus came to save. The gospel is a message of salvation. It is God’s goodness that leads to repentance (Rom.2:4), and He wants all to be saved (2Pet.3:9).
Our purpose is to preach the glad tidings that God has sent His Son to take our place at the cross, paying the price of all of our sin, and, being buried in death, our death, but being raised from the dead so that we, too, through faith in Him, could be raised from the wages of sin, which is death.
We have been afforded a free pardon. All we have to do is receive it through faith. This is the gospel.
He has paid the price. God has declared peace to all people who will hear the gospel and believe. That is very good news.
Two reactions
There are generally two reactions to the gospel as it is preached. One is the acceptance of the message (2Cor.2:16). The other is rejection (Acts 7:54). One group was cut to the heart and gnashed their teeth. The other was pierced to the heart and asked what they should do to be saved.
The first message preached on the Day of Pentecost by the Apostle Peter was about the Christ, the Holy One of Israel, what He had done for the hearers. “This Jesus hath God raised up,” Peter declared, and many believed as 3,000 souls were added to the Church that day.
Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do? Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.
Acts 2:37-39 (KJV)
Yes, they were called to repent, to turn from their sinful ways to be baptised in the name of Jesus and to be come a disciple of Christ, through baptism, for the rest of their days. That same promise is to everyone who will hear and believe the gospel, the good news of Christ.
The gospel message caused them to be ‘pricked in their heart.’ They were inwardly stung by the power of the gospel. Peter did not call them to repentance until after they had heard the message. He simply preached the gospel that caused a change of heart in the hearers.
When we confess Jesus as Lord and Saviour we are, in essence, changing directions. When we call on the name of the Lord we are deciding to to turn from our own ways to His. When we have a change of heart and respond to this change by confessing Him as Lord we are signifying the change is taking place.
When we are baptised in water as disciples of the Christ we have made the complete change and said before witnesses that we will forever follow Jesus as Lord. That is why signification of our faith through water baptism is so important to the completion of repentance.
Godly sorrow
The interesting thing is that there is almost always a godly sorrow that comes when we have repented and asked Jesus into our lives.
It may be instant. It may be a precursor to our confession of Jesus as Lord. It may follow some time afterwards, but there will come a realisation of our previous unworthiness, our guilt, and our shame, and we will come before Him in holy reverence and thank Him for His divine intervention on our behalf.
That is godly sorrow that leads to repentance, but it has to be heartfelt, genuine, and not performed under pressure from any outside source. It is a gentle move of the Holy Spirit on our lives to bring us to a righteous realisation of the reality of the change that has taken place.
Paul describes what happens at repentance when referring to another issue of discipline in the church at Corinth.
Now I rejoice, not that you were made sorry, but that your sorrow led to repentance. For you were made sorry in a godly manner, that you might suffer loss from us in nothing. For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted; but the sorrow of the world produces death. For observe this very thing, that you sorrowed in a godly manner: What diligence it produced in you, what clearing of yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what vehement desire, what zeal, what vindication!
2 Corinthians 7:9-11
That realisation comes to us through the preached gospel, when God’s Word is correctly defined explained and articulated under the leadership of the Holy Spirit and with His cooperation in the transaction.
Repentance starts in the heart. The gospel is the power of God to penetrate the heart and produce faith that leads to change (Rom.10:17).
For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
Romans 10:10
Just as John and Jesus preached the gospel and the call to repentance, so we have that message, always knowing that we have the Holy Spirit with us as our Helper. He convinces the hearer of their need of a Saviour.
Our role is to preach the good news, to bring the glad tidings of hope and joy to a world full of sin, pain and destruction to bring about the same change that happened in us when we first heard.
