Jesus cried out, “Repent! For the kingdom of heaven is at hand!”
A couple of years ago I posted on Facebook a question about the Greek word translated “repentance.” (It’s metanoia and its variants.)
Yes, I admit, it took me a long time to get back to all the links and ideas people sent me, but here I am again, studying repentance.
It’s because three things happened at about the same time. First, I was praying for pastors and other Christian leaders (the ones who have treated and counseled sexual abuse survivors as if they were pariahs) to repent about their wrongdoing.
Second, I’ve been praying for revival for a long time, and in the context of that, having a discussion with a Christian leader about whether or not repentance is necessary for salvation.
Third, I’ve been studying II Corinthians, where Paul talks about repentance in chapter 7.
I always used to hear repentance being taught as a change of mind. That very sterile, academic definition vaguely dissatisfied me. It seemed to accompany the academic, intellectual acceptance of Christ embodied in the “sinner’s prayer.”
But as I’ve been thinking and praying about the concept this past week, I’ve better understood why that definition is a problem. You know the (sexist) saying from our culture, “It’s a woman’s prerogative to change her mind”? In this statement, it’s understood that the change of mind is completely capricious. “I think I’ll buy this frilly pink dress. No, I’m going to return this one and get that slim black one instead.”
Repentance is technically a change of mind from one choice to another, yes. But not capricious, and not between two things of roughly equal value.
The Prodigal Son by Harry Anderson
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This article has now been incorporated into the book . You can find that book here.
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“The concept of “repenting of your sins because you’re headed for hell and you want to go to heaven” doesn’t match with this idea. (For one thing, “repenting of your sins” is nowhere in the Bible.) Really, the options you’re faced with are Self and Christ (because no one is actively choosing the biblical hell). With the eyes of the flesh, Self looks like the obvious choice.”
Well said Rebecca, like “the sinners prayer”, the idea of getting saved because one wants to avoid hell is no where found in the NT but has somehow has been the staple of most Fundamentalist preaching for ages. I mean really, what kind of “choice” is that? It’s like “Hi! You can either confess to your crimes and go free OR not confess (here, get comfy in this here electric while you think it over)…what kind of a “choice” is that? However, as you so deftly cut through all the verbal and philosophical clutter, you are really choosing between YOURSELF or Christ, the end results stand in stark contrast to each other.
I used to be of the “repent and believe” crowd until I really had the opportunity to think it over (usually on the drive to or from work) and, call me cynical, but I think people demanding the repentance of sins is just a way to get the lost person to cry “uncle!”. Case in point, while in Bible College, many a preacher boy wouldn’t consider the prayer of the lost for salvation unless the lost person under interrogation would confess to all his or her crimes against God, THEN they were proper subjects for “the prayer”.
I fully agree that REAL repentance is a “coming to your senses”, and to boot, I believe it happens SEVERAL times in a believers life, which in my estimation, shows as growth spurts in one’s spiritual life.
With that, I am
MikeSmith
I fully concur! I believe repentance is an ongoing thing, and some points in my life that I describe as “spiritual epiphanies” were really nothing more than coming to my senses, in alignment with what God has said. It’s very freeing, isn’t it?
“Repent” is a change of mind – from relying our dead works to a faith towards Christ. Faith is trust and assurance we have in Him to do what He promised the Father.
The Sinner’s Prayer is basically a paraphrase of what the Thief on the Cross said. However, we also have a woman who was saved by faith without a word in Luke 7:36-50 (which is a very profound passage, especially v.47 in light of Galatians 3:10-12 & 5:3, James 2:10 and Romans 3:23).
A good article on the subject:
http://www.timothyministry.com/2012/07/the-great-meaning-of-metanoia.html
Repentance is technically a change of mind from one choice to another, yes. But not capricious, and not between two things of roughly equal value. As my friend Heidi said to me, “It’s like choosing between a Thanksgiving feast and a maggoty carcass. Sure, I guess you make a choice, but once you see what it is, it’s really no choice at all.”
Repenting is the change of mind that results in turning from a bad choice to a better choice, not because of caprice or even some logical, intellectual conclusion but because you suddenly understand the truth about the two choices.
I have no argument against the prayer of a sinner that is prayed spontaneously. It’s the formula that is problematic to me: “Pray this, and you’ll be a Christian.” When a person only changes his academic, logical intellect without his whole self changing, when he has to be given words to pray because no words are rising spontaneously from his heart, then that’s where I see a problem lies.
That’s not at all what “metanoia” means, and is just adding presuppositions to the definition of the word. Sorry, I’m out. This is the same Reformed garbage definition that tries to insert oneself into the language.
I’m willing to discuss what I write when my readers have a different opinion. I’d ask, though, that we keep the dialogue respectful.
I rescind any favorable comments I had about this site and it’s comment moderation.
I’m the only comment moderator. It was early in the morning here in EDT when you posted that comment, and I hadn’t gotten to my computer yet.
Because what that means is, if I don’t change my mind in a manner that you find beneficial, then I am guilty of ‘no repentance’ in your eyes. If you can’t see the issue with that then we are done here.
Because then my entire relationship with Jesus is based on their opinions of my life, and I don’t ever grow in Christ, because my relationship with him is stunted because my assurance is based on the opinions of others’ view of my “repentance,” which means something that metanoia doesn’t mean.