What Does it Mean to Repent?

I heard a rare message on repentance at my home church this last Sunday. David Loney at Crossings Alliance Church did a great job of teaching and laying out what it actually means.

The call, “to repent” is sometimes confused with penance.  They are not the same.  To “do penance” which comes to us from the Catholic tradition implies carrying out penalties usually imposed by the priest in the confessional booth. A person might be told to say thirty or forty “our Fathers’” or some other religious duty.

The word, repent comes from the Greek word, metanoia which means “to change one’s mind”.  It  carries with it the thought of turning from one course of action and turning toward another. Evangelicals in times past have usually conceived it as turning away from sin and turning toward God.  Bakers Dictionary of theology notes, “Generally however metanoia can be said to denote that inward change of mind, affections, convictions and commitment, rooted in the fear of God and sorrow for offenses committed against him, which, when accompanied by faith in Jesus Christ, results in an outward turning from sin to God and his service in all of life.”

Repentance in the book of Acts is repeatedly tied to the call to put faith in Jesus. Apostolic preaching expected that the new convert would be a transformed person.  The new convert would have turned away from sin and selfishness and their new orientation would have been toward God and love of neighbour. Repentance should always be linked with the call to believe in Christ. 

An old story has it that a newly converted follower of Christ was being mocked and belittled for his newly found faith. His tormentors laughed at him for believing that anybody could turn water into wine.  The convert said, “I don’t know how Jesus turned water into wine. I wasn’t there.  But I do know that in my own home he has turned beer into furniture and whiskey into shoes for my kids.”