Repentance is a Bible word that is packed with a whole lot of meaning. Repentance is also an action word that speaks about steps that are critical for anyone who wants to live in a right relationship with God should take.
Here are the top two definitions of repentance from the Miriam Webster’s dictionary:
- To turn from sin and to dedicate oneself to the amendment of one’s life.
- To change one’s mind.
I see an action here. There is a turning away from sin. There is a change of direction. There is a decisive action to change courses. I also see surrender, in that there is a dedication, a devotion, to a different way of life. Repentance involves a yielding to a way that is different from the way a person might want to naturally go. It is voluntary and deliberate. It involves a person’s will. Third, I see that repentance has a mental component. Something happens in the thought life of a person who truly seeks to repent. There is a reforming of a person’s thoughts. There is an adopting of a new mindset.
Turning. Yielding. Reforming. You turn with your body, literally changing directions and moving away from things that displease God, to walk in alignment with Him. That is a repentance with your body.
The place of yielding is the place of the heart. Instead of letting feelings and impulses rule, the person who truly repents doesn’t lean on their own understanding. They don’t follow their feelings, but they surrender their feelings, they crucify their feelings and choose in their hearts to willfully obey Christ.
In addition to having the body and heart involved in repentance, we see from these definitions that a person’s mind is also engaged. There is a change of mind about what leads to real happiness. There is a change of mind about what should be priority. There is a transformation in a person’s viewpoint regarding what truly leads to happiness. The person who repents in their mind begins to start thinking about sin, starts thinking about life, the way God does. The word, “Metanoia,” is the Greek word for “repentance.” It means a person literally has had a change of mind, one that changes their behavior.
Turning Yielding Reforming
Body Heart Mind
If a person tries to practice repentance but only involves their body, eventually, their heart and mind will draw them back to what they turned from. If a person yields only their heart but doesn’t have their mind changed about why something should be avoided, eventually, the mind will lead the body to do that which displeases God. If a person seeks only to understand what God thinks about a subject but doesn’t crucify their flesh and surrender their heart in an area, eventually the pull of the flesh and the feelings will cause a train wreck.
Someone who wants to live a life of repentance has to understand that it is a three-pronged approach. Even adopting a two-pronged strategy won’t be foolproof because Satan will seek to tempt you in the area that you haven’t yet given over to God.
You might sincerely want to please God in your heart. You might be in total agreement with what God says about a particular sin, but if you continue to drive your car to the sin spot, if you continue to hop on the websites that open the temptation door, if you continue to run with the people who are doing what you are trying to get away from, well…you are setting yourself up for failure.
A lot of people associate repentance with feeling sorry. Tears don’t automatically equate to repentance. Saying, “I’m sorry” isn’t the same as being repentant. Even asking God for forgiveness isn’t what repentance is about. That is what confession is about. Repentance involves more. Even regret isn’t a sign of repentance. People can regret getting caught. People can regret that something didn’t lead to the happiness they thought it would. People can regret that sin came with consequences. That doesn’t mean they are going to turn from sin, yield their heart to Christ and be made new in the attitude of their minds.
Repentance takes place when you accept that you have done something offensive towards God, and you take the necessary steps to move away from that habit, that activity, that experience, and you return to God with your will, your heart, and your mind.
Repentance is a next-level step. It produces a humility and desire to be changed and to change. Listen, before any of us can change, we will need to be changed by God. True repentance won’t take place apart from supernatural help. We have to have help to overcome temptation in our physical bodies. We have to have Divine help to yield our hearts completely to the Lord. We have to have a Holy Spirit transformation in our minds, something that comes only as we partner with the Holy Spirit and present ourselves to God for Him to change us. But the good news is, God will work in and with anyone who truly seeks to repent. He won’t withhold His power. He won’t withhold His resources. He will be 100% committed to and engaged with the person who desires to live a repentant life.
Do you remember the Prodigal Son from Luke 15? He was the guy who had left his father’s house after demanding his inheritance before his dad had even passed on, the one who wasted all of the inheritance on sinful living, who found himself homeless and living in a pig pen, he was more than hungry. He was more than regretting the filthy ways he had squandered his inheritance. He realized and accepted that his way was the wrong way. His way was broken. His way was a dead end.
He was truly contrite in his heart and acknowledged he had sinned against God and against his father. He realized the depth of his offense. He knew it broke the heart of God and that it broke his father’s heart. It was more than regret because he found himself in a tight spot, but it was a state of remorse for having hurt the ones who loved him so deeply.
He didn’t just come back and say, “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have done that. I won’t do it again.” No, he used weighty words and took the humblest of approaches. He said, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired servants.”
Friends, this son had gone away proud, arrogant, leaning on his own understanding, following his flesh, obeying his misguided thoughts, seeking worldly pleasure, justifying his sin, bent on doing life his own way, but he recognized he had broken God’s laws, and when that hit him, he resolved to come back home differently. He didn’t just mess up. He didn’t just try something and fail. He sinned, and he knew it meant a loss of status. He knew it would cause separation from God and from his earthly father, and his words and actions demonstrated that recognition. He sought mercy. That is a sign of repentance.
So, repentance involves your body, your heart, and your mind, AND repentance includes visible signs. People can take note that a turning, a change, a transformation has taken place.
I also want to suggest to you that repentance isn’t general in nature. It is specific. Repentance is the response to particular sins. A person who is repentant doesn’t just acknowledge they messed up, but they own what they have done and take responsibility for their actions. What I am trying to say is the person who is repentant doesn’t just attempt to move on from their sin, but they desire to make right whatever can be made right. There is an attempt to make amends. I’m not talking about trying to work your way into God’s good graces, but I’m talking about recognizing that sin does damage. A repentant person will do what they can to make right anything they got wrong, and they will put safeguards in place to make sure those wrongs don’t continue.
Take the story of Zacchaeus, for instance. It’s found in Luke 19. He was a wealthy Jew. He also had status with Rome. He was a chief tax collector for Rome. He was hated by the Jews because he used his position to steal money from them. But Zacchaeus had a spiritual curiosity. He had heard about Jesus and wanted to know more.
We pick up the story in Luke 19:3ff: 3 He wanted to see who Jesus was, but because he was short he could not see over the crowd. 4 So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way.
5 When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.” 6 So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly.
7 All the people saw this and began to mutter, “He has gone to be the guest of a sinner.”
8 But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.”
9 Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. 10 For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”
Zacchaeus had a sin problem. Even the people who saw the exchange between Jesus and Zacchaeus identified Zacchaeus as a sinner. Zacchaeus hadn’t fooled anyone. They knew he was a thief. What I love so much about this story, however, is that when Jesus engaged Zacchaeus, he didn’t try to run and hide. He didn’t offer a cover up or excuse. He didn’t try to avoid being confronted about his sin, but he welcomed Jesus gladly. Repentance begins in the heart and mind of someone who isn’t hostile towards Jesus. People who won’t gladly welcome Jesus will never be changed. They will never live a repentant life.
Zacchaeus was under the authority of Rome, but when Jesus invited Himself to Zacchaeus’s home, Zacchaeus recognized an authority greater than Rome. He gladly welcomed Jesus and because he did, he was radically changed. He didn’t just want to put the past behind him, but he wanted to deal with the damage he had done. He vowed to give half of his possessions to the poor and with what was left, he was going to pay back anyone he had cheated four times the amount he had taken. That is radical. He was basically choosing a life of poverty. He could have said, “I’m going to pay back everyone I have cheated,” and we would have thought, “Wow, this guy has really changed.” But to pay back four times what he had taken? That went way beyond what we would expect, right? It was radical repentance.
Listen, repentance involves radical change. And notice the placement of Jesus’ comments about his salvation. Jesus said, “Today salvation has come to his house” AFTER he had demonstrated repentance. Salvation followed repentance.
There is an order in the salvation process. Repentance is a step in that order. It cannot be skipped. Mere belief in Christ doesn’t result in salvation. There has to be a desire and at some point, a demonstration, that you are turning away from sin to follow Christ wholeheartedly.
Zacchaeus wanted to live differently after his encounter with Jesus. He was not just going to move on, but he was going to stop sinning. He wasn’t going to live for money or power anymore. He was going to live for Jesus. Zacchaeus wouldn’t go down in history as the tax collector who cheated people and stole from them. He would go down as the tax collector who changed after he met Jesus. He would be remembered for the generous way he made restitution for his actions. He would become an example of how a life could be radically changed by eagerly welcoming Jesus into his life.
Pre-Jesus, no one had anything good to say about Zacchaeus. Post-Jesus, people wouldn’t be able to stop talking about how different he was. True repentance leads a person to abandon sin. Not only did Zacchaeus’s repentance precede his salvation, but it was proof of his salvation.
What about some other examples? Think about the people of Israel and the many times they turned their back on God and worshiped false gods. When they did, they suffered. They were persecuted by the nations around them. At times they were captured by those people. When they would cry out to the Lord and repent and turn from their wicked ways, God would free them and bless them once again. Friends, repentance produces deliverance!
Do you ever ask yourself, “Why don’t I see God’s blessing in MY life? Why am I not being delivered from that which is holding me back? Why am I being oppressed everywhere I turn?” If so, I invite you to stop asking questions and to start answering one…Have you repented of your sins or are you trying to hold on to sin and the Savior at the same time? It won’t work, friends.
Isaiah 38 tells the story of one of the kings of Israel, Hezekiah. He received awful news. He was told to get his house in order because he was going to die. He was told he wouldn’t recover from an illness. Even though that prophetic report was a report about death, Hezekiah repented. He cried out to God. He humbled himself before God, and God healed him! He lived another 15 years. Repentance produces healing.
What about the wicked city of Nineveh? God sent Jonah to tell the Ninevites that God was going to destroy the city, but when the people heard the news, they humbled themselves and repented of their sin. What happened? God relented! Repentance produces protection from God’s wrath. A city was literally saved from destruction because people repented of their sin.
Friends, repentance can change your story. It can change your destiny. If you are headed for destruction, repent. If you are living with yourself on the throne, repent. If you are dabbling in the sins of the flesh, repent. If you are on the brink of a disaster of your own making, repent. If your reputation is built on the actions of your sin, repent and get a brand-new identity.
Repentance can save relationships. It can put you back on the road to blessing. It will usher healing into your life, but it won’t come if you pretend you are good. It won’t come if you dismiss Jesus’ overtures toward you.
It is no wonder that both John the Baptist and Jesus very first sermons included the call to repentance. (Matthew 3:1-2 and Matthew 4:17)
The Apostle Peter in Acts 3 preached a confrontational message to those who were witnesses to the lame man that Peter and John healed. They were all shocked by the healing, and Peter told them they ought not be surprised. He wanted them to understand that the healing ministry of Jesus was still intact. Though those gathered were some who had called for Jesus’ crucifixion, they needed to understand He was alive and well and He was still doing what He had been doing. He was healing people. Look at Peter’s next words from verses 17ff: 17 “Now, fellow Israelites, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did your leaders. 18 But this is how God fulfilled what he had foretold through all the prophets, saying that his Messiah would suffer. 19 Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord…
Peter accused the people who called for Jesus’ death of acting in ignorance, and then he challenged them to repent. If you are choosing ignorance instead of obedience to the Word of God, if you are choosing ignorance by not digging in to see what a pleasing life looks like to God by studying His Word, God is saying to you, “Repent.”
It’s not a heavy-handed, harsh command, but rather an invitation to receive something special from God. God wants more for you than for you to live right. God wants you to live refreshed in your soul. God wants you to live relieved of your sin. God wants you to live restored and well. Do you need to be refreshed? Perhaps the way to refreshing is through repenting!
Our country is in trouble. The only hope for America is Jesus, but He won’t bless what we won’t confess. He won’t refresh and restore us if we won’t repent.
“If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land. II Chronicles 7:14
We need to stop waiting for the world to repent. Let’s lead the way, Church. God’s people need to be the lead repenters! And repentance requires the submission of our heart, our mind, and our will. It includes the confession of our sin, and it involves a turning away from anything that could distract or damage us as we seek to follow Christ.
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