Repentance: What is it?

Ironside SG

What is repentance?

Some say that repentance is turning away from sin. But this is only the fruit of repentance. Repentance is the root, turning away from sin is the fruit; the result of it:

Mt 3:8 "Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance, (NKJV)

To make it clearer...another translation might help:

Mt. 3:8 Let your change of heart be seen in your works

Note: Instead of "heart", it should be attitude.

Repentance literally means a change of mind; essentially a change of attitude. In the verse above, repentance is the change of heart. Let your change of heart [repentance] be seen in your works [acts like turning away from sin etc.]

Again repentance is the change of attitude; turning from sin is the result of it. One can do acts of repentance and yet not have a repentant attitude inside. But when one changes his attitude about sin, the spontaneous result of it is that the repentnat sinner turns away from sin.

Repentance is a change of attitude towards sin, God , self and Christ. When you change your attitude towards God, you will naturally [as an outgrowth] change your behavior towards God; you will revere Him. When you change your attitude towards sin; spontaneously you will change you behaviour towards it; you will leave sin. When you change your attitude towards self, it will result in not relying in the works of self for salvation; you will accept Christ as Savior. You will trust in Him alone for salvation and not in yourself and what you do but in Him alone and what He did on the cross.

"Repentance leading to salvation" is not being saved through works for repentance is a change of attitude towards sin, God, self, and Christ. Saving Faith is an attitude of the will towards Christ. Repentance is never complete when it has not reached the point of trusting Christ alone for salvation. [....repentance leading to salvation......]

Can one savingly trust in Christ without having changed his attitude towards God, sin and self? No. When one says: "Trust in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved" [Acts 16:31], implied in the directive is to change your attitude about yourself. You thought before that you can save yourself, but you can't. Your only hope is Christ. Trust in Him.

Implied in the directive to "trust in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved" is the idea of changing one's attitude about sin. You are a sinner and you need salvation. Seeing the need of salvation implies that the genuinely repentant sinner sees the detestableness of sin. He sees the danger of sin and therefore seeks salvation. Christ died because of sin. He terribly suffered because of it. How can I relish and live in it? Changing one's attitude towards sin implies changing one's attitude towards God; He is to be honored.

When one has savingly trusted in Christ, He has already repented; he has already changed his attitude about God, sin, self and Christ. No one can have faith in Christ unless he has repented [changed his attitude towards Christ]. Faith is the chnge of attitude towards Christ. I did not trust in Him before for salvation; I trusted in myself. But now I changed my attitude towards Him; I trust Him now for salvation.

This change of attitude towards Christ came only when I realized that I could not save myself; I am a helpless and hopeless sinner. This change of attitude towards Christ came only when I realized that sin is a serious problem in my life and that it is a detestable thing to God. I abhor it now. I do not abhor and leave it because i want to escape hell and want to go to heaven. No, not that. I have completely changed my attitude towards sin that even without Hell or Heaven I will leave sin because it is a detestable thing before God. I did not abhor and leave sin because i want to save myself. You see, i saw myself a helpless and hopeless sinner, I could not save myself I finally realized. My only hope is the Savior and I will trust in Him.

Question: Do we need to continually repent all throughout our lives? Absolutely Yes. As long as we are sinners we are to repent. Our attitude towards God must always be that of revering Him; our attitude towards self must always be that of "we are helpless sinners and we cannot saved ourselves"; our attitude towards sin must always be that of hating it; our attitude towards Christ is that of: "He alone is the Savior and I will continue to trust in Him".

The book of John was primarily written as an evangelistic piece:

Joh 20:31 but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name.

But why is it that in the book of John we can never find the word "repentance" or "repent" in it... not even once? Does that mean that repentance is unecessary? Did the apostle John forget about repentance?

No, the book was writen that you may believe [savingly trust] in the Lord Jesus Christ and believing [trusting] in Him we may have life in His name. Believing or trusting in Christ you see is a result of one having changed one's attitude towards God, sin and self. One who has already trusted in Christ implies that he has already changed his attitude towards God, sin and self. No one can ever trust in Christ without having changed his attitude towards God, self and sin.

The words: "Sin no more" in John come only after the words: "Neither do i condemn you" and "See you have been made well." [apparently his wellness goes beyond the physical realm; he was also saved from the spiritual malady of sin. It is not surprising that the Lord Jesus as the promised Messiah of Israel when He heals the children of Israel He heals completely [physical and spiritual] where ever He sees people exercising faith in Him [see Mark 2:4-10].

After one has already been saved, after one has heard the verdict: "Neither do I condemn you" and "See you have been made well" our attitude towards sin will always be that: "I will sin no more"

Ironside SG

Matthew 4:17
From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

The Kingdom is at hand because the King of the Kingdom already was present. They must change their attitude and recieve this King. The One who is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

Luke 5:32
I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.

Repentance is a change of attitude towards sin, God, self and the Savior whom God sent. No one can truly trust in the Savior if he has not truly changed his attitude about self. If he still thinks he can do something about his salvation, then he can never lean wholly in the Savior for it. If one has not truly changed his attitude about self, he has not truly changed his attitude about sin.

If one has truly changed his attitude about sin; hated it and ahbored it, then he will see how helpless and hopeless his condition is. Wretched man that I am who will deliever me from sin....i tried so hard not to sin but still it is within me...in my mind, in my heart though I already changed my attitude about it---someone must save me. I thank God for sending the Savior.

If one has not truly changed his attitude about sin, then that means he has not truly taken God seriously. Take God seriously, it will result a change of attitude towards sin. Take sin seriously and you will realize how helpless and hopeless you are. Seeing how hopeless and helpless you are, you will look away from yourself to the Savior for salvation from the penalty, power of sin.

Luke 13:3
I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.

God is concerned about the inward motions of our hearts not just our outward acts. When you get the heart, you get the man--all of him. Change truly from the inside or perish.

Acts 3:19
Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord.

Repentance like faith always has an object. Faith is included in repentance. No man is born in the world naturally having faith in the Savior. Naturally as sinful and fallen cretures we look and confide to others and anything except the Savior for salvation and forgiveness of sins. Repentance--a change of attitude towards the Savior must be preached for the forgiveness of all sins. For it is He alone that can take away our sins [1 John 3:5].

Even if we turn away from sins now and hereafter...our acts can never blot away our sins in the past. Only the blood of Christ can do that. Trust in Him for forgiveness of sins:

Ac 10:43 To him give all the prophets witness, that through his name whosoever believeth [faith] in him shall receive remission of sins.

The Lord Jesus was not amiss or forgot repentance when He told Nicodemus: For God so loved the world that He gave His only Begotten Son that whosoever believes [puts their faith in Him] will have eternal life.

Nicodemus change your attitude about Me, Yes I am a teacher come from God but more than that I am the Savior of the world. You must trust in me and you will have eternal life.

Repentance is the attitude. Conversion is the event; the result of repentace--the change of attitude. You wont be truly converted if you dont truly change from within.

breytonhartge SG

So what is sin? and what are you repenting from?

fantovic SG

what is Sin?

check out http://faithfacts.gospelcom.net/

answers this question and much more... makes a good and inspirational read.

breytonhartge SG

From faithfacts: There is a problemyour sins have cut you off from God. Sin is essentially mans failure to trust in Godan act or state of unbelief, and an assertion of autonomy. Christians also define sin as missing the mark.

actually this site still does not answer my question... so I ask again, what is sin? it is not some airy fairy concept, infact not many christians will be able to tell you what mark they are missing... is sin failure to trust in Yahweh? is sin unbelief?

Ironside SG

1Jo 3:4 Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness. NKJV

The NKJV corrected the KJV translation:

1Jo 3:4 Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.

Sin is lawlessness. Even before the Law of Moses came sin was already in the world. Adam and Eve committed sin but they did not transgress the Law of Moses. They disobeyed God's command for them at that time and became a law to themselves.

Icemoon SG

Sin is basically an error or a mistake, i.e. missing the mark.

While sin can mean transgression of the law, it should NOT be thought of as a heinous crime that will condemn you to hell eternally.

Scripture gives us a hint. The hebrew for sin is chait. What many people know of as the "sin offering" is called the chatat. They come from the same root word. However, what many people DO NOT know is the kind of sin the chatat atones for.

Leviticus 4 reveals the answer. In sentences after sentences, the author (God, actually) stresses that the chatat atones for unintentional sins, which if you think about it, are the most insignificant iniquities.

For example, Lev 4:

27 If anyone of the ordinary people among you sins unintentionally in doing any one of the things that by the Lords commandments ought not to be done, and incurs guilt, 28when the sin that you have committed is made known to you, you shall bring a female goat without blemish as your offering, for the sin that you have committed. 29You shall lay your hand on the head of the sin-offering; and the sin-offering shall be slaughtered at the place of the burnt-offering.

29 in Hebrew: Vesamach et-yado al-rosh hachatat veshachat et-hachatat bimkom ha'olah.

So sin offering is chatat. Interestingly, the burnt offering is mentioned too - the olah.

Point to note, there are other Hebrew words used to describe more serious misdeed, like avon and pesha.

Icemoon SG

Personally I do not think of the definition as restricted by the religion of the day. For example, transgression of the Law of Moses, or simply disobeying God in Eden.

This definition is too narrow and leaves out people who do not know the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob or are just simply atheists.