I know I made up a word there in the title, but that is the fun part with titles, I get to make them up. I have written on repentance before, my decreasing Facebook friend count reflects this. Yet as I have, I heard some charges that seem to persist. The first time I heard it was in Bible college, “Jesus never said we had to repent.” I was so shocked because it was such a silly statement. Mark 1:14 speaks to this, yet this idea persists in a more insidious form. “We are to repent of unbelief, but not sin”…eh? But it says repent and believe, not repent of unbelief.
14 Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, 15 and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the Gospel. (Mark 1)
While I understand the sentiment, at least with the initial coming to faith–we are not truly going to understand how to address all that persistent and entrenched sin until the presence of the Spirit of God in our lives gives us aid. We are not to clean up our act in order to come to Christ, but we are to clean up our act as we walk this out with him. The first is earning, and the second is simply obedience. Sanctification naturally follows justification. To hold that the idea of continual repentance is not something Biblically taught, making it into a false Gospel as some have, declaring it works righteousness, (YouTube breeds false teachings) is straight-up wrong. While it is not a constant point, this message was the continual one the disciples carried: (Mark 6:12, Acts 2:38, 3:19) I suppose this depends on what repentance means to a person. But we do not get to make this stuff up.
Does repentance mean, “I will never cross that threshold again”? To some degree it does, it is certainly a U-turn, a changing of the mind, but I think it is also some of that “already and not yet” that so many Christian realities are. It is a turning around and making a new decision, but that doesn’t mean we may not fall again. This is not setting up a lifeline for our conscience later, it is simply the reality of still living in a body dedicated to sin. Paul describes this in Romans 7 when he declares. “Wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of sin!”
21 So I find it to be a law that when I want to do what is right, evil lies close at hand. 22 For I believe in the law of God, in my inner being, 23 But I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. (Romans 7)
This is not an excuse by any means. Paul tells us he wants to do what is right, he is not making excuses for himself, and after he declares thanks to God in the next verse, he states that this is still the situation for the believers. There are two competing laws operating inside us until our flesh is buried in the ground and raised anew. This is why Paul says our bodies were sown in corruption but raised in purity. (1 Corinthians 15) We still have this problem until the resurrection of our bodies.
In Matthew 3:28, when John the Baptizer has been teaching repentance before the object of faith was even known–Jesus, he reminds the people that repentance must bear fruit. In other words, before repentance is joined with the idea of faith in Jesus, repentance was known to be a behavior change. In the same chapter, the people were confessing their sins along with the baptisms. (Matt 3:6) The people seemed to understand that repentance meant more than simply turning from unbelief, but their sinful lifestyles needed to be addressed.
When the Pharisees come, John rebukes them for coming with pretense and not the necessary heart condition or repentance. He tells them …”You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 8 Bear fruit in keeping with repentance…(Matthew 3:7-8) There was necessary action that needed to accompany the repentance; just like faith without works is dead, so is repentance. Later in the same chapter, John says, “Every tree, therefore, that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.” (Matthew 3:10)
So John is clearly making the point, do not come and be baptized showing interest in the kingdom of heaven (which he was preaching) if you are not prepared to walk the road of repentance. In other words, don’t tell me you have repented if you have not actually turned from your sins. He says that kind of tree will not bear fruit and will ultimately continue into judgment. The flow of this logic is that repentance leads to the continued following of Jesus in Matthew (4:17) and then into the teachings of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5. While this new life is necessary, Jesus continues to teach ongoing repentance.
Unless you repent you to will perish, (Luke 13:3)
There is more rejoicing in heaven over sinners who repent than the righteous (Luke 15:7)
If your brother sins against you seven times and he comes to you and says he repents you must forgive him (Luke 17:3-4)
Jesus does not let up on the message just because people are starting to believe in him. The first passage above in Luke is his response to questions about seemingly random suffering. Pilate mixed the blood of the sacrifice with the Jews (Killing them during offering) or a temple falling on some people. Jesus says the message is always about repentance. We turn away from our sins and turn into faith. Of course, when those who turn from sin, walk away from death–there is rejoicing over this.
The third point is we have to carry this out among brothers. This is important for relationships as well. Now when it says that when a brother repents and we are to forgive him, are we to read that as belief only? Why would a brother need to repent of unbelief to me? No, a brother or sister may need to repent of sin, which is then why I would forgive them. I forgive others for their sins. The text says when a brother sins against you, this is repentance for sin! A good picture of this is hiking a trail.
Have you ever been on a hike, come to a section where the trail is worn thin, and there appear to be many options? Well, if so, you have probably had the experience of walking down a path only to find it didn’t really lead anywhere useful, a large bush, a cactus, a warthog, a slope leading to your demise, or a bunny trail taking you into the wilderness. Well, when that happens the smart-hiker-paying-attention-actually-interested-in-his-destination will repent. He will turn back to the main trail and find where he went wrong. Simply believing will not help. We follow the path to God and repentance is turning back to the main trail where we wandered off. Sometimes following bunnies leads to a magical bunny grove, but many times it is a deadly pit, even if you have begun to believe the destination you are on is the correct one. Not all bunnies are cut from the same cloth.
It is amazing that this is still a repeated subject, but when we hear false teachers denying hell, punishment, and punitive atonement, of course, repentance is going to follow. Who wouldn’t want to follow a Jesus who allows such a rampant sin fest? The answer: the World. The world is interested in compassion narratives because the world desires sway over the human heart. If they can incorporate a version of Jesus to do so as well, all the better. But the constant theme in the whole Word of God is repentance because it is following a creation, fall, redemption, glorification narrative.
21 Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to Bethsaida! For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes, 22 But I tell you, it will be more bearable on the day of judgment for Tyre and Sidon than for you. 23 And you, Capernaum, will you be exalted to heaven? You will be brought down to Hades. For if the mighty works done in you had been in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. 24 But I tell you that it will be more tolerable on the day of judgment for the land of Sodom than for you. –Jesus (Matthew 11)
If you think Sodom was judged for a lack of belief instead of a deadly sin problem, well, that is tradition speaking. The Old Testament is covered (no pun intended) with stories of men in mourning over their sin, and the results of judgment, clothing themselves in sackcloth and ashes. Why? Because they were deciding to merely believe something else, or was it a sudden change in fashion sense? No, they were they demonstrating a kind of penance that signaled that they needed a desperate change of heart to alter their behavior away from wickedness and towards righteousness? Read the response of the Ninevites in Jonah when they did this. I will pick up the text in 3:9-10
9 “Who knows? God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger, so that we may not perish.” 10 When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster that he has said he would do to them, and he did not do it.” (Jonah 3)
Even though some are saying repentance is works, they are simply not reading their Bible properly while holding to a cultural definition. Repentance doesn’t merit God’s righteousness, it signals our hearts’ desire for forgiveness. It is humility before the wrath of God because we also understand he is a merciful God. If faith doesn’t mean walking in the light, then we are walking in darkness, and can that faith save us? The writer of James inspired by God answers, No.
Thanks
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