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This is a study about repentance. Dr. Griggers, missionary to Austria and my friend, worked it out using different sources.
Repentance is a very common term in the word of God, and it basically means a turning from or a change of mind or a change of attitude about a thing. Under the Old Testament order of law and sacrifices, the people confessed their sin, offered a sacrifice, and then often returned to repeat the sin and the sacrifice. This went on for years and years in the Old Testament, which is obvious by Hebrews 10, which speaks about the offerings having to come back to get their consciences cleared for the same thing.
Gospel repentance is turning from sin and turning to God. It is best illustrated in Acts 20:21, where Paul said," Testifying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ." It is called "repentance unto life" (Acts 11:18) because the new mind is not merely to depart from evil, which is the Old Testament sense, but to obtain life that is found in Christ, and this eternal life does not show up until Christ shows up. When Paul writes in "hope of eternal life" (Titus 1:1-4), he is not talking about anybody in this dispensation "hoping" they have it. He is talking about the fact that throughout the Old Testament they looked forward to and hoped it would show up. This is very apparent by the fact that Titus 1:3 says in due time it had been made manifest.
So, repentance has a little different connotation on it in the New Testament than the Old Testament. Basically, the word means to turn from something or have a change of mind or heart or attitude about something. In this respect, God is spoken of as repenting and not repenting. For example, when Moses was praying to God and interceding for the people of Israel, and the Lord told Moses on Mt. Sinai in Exodus 32:10 that He would consume them, Moses tells the Lord, "repent" (Exodus 32:12), That is "Have a change of mind about what You are going to do." You will find exactly the same thing in Genesis 6:6, where "it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth." So, repentance in its basic, rudimentary, and fundamental meaning is not necessarily a turning from sin, but a change of mind and attitude about a thing. The same God that said, "I repent that I made a man upon the earth," said, "God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? Or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?" (Numbers 23:19). Now God does not repent of anything that He said that is fixed. If God says something and swears by Himself a certain thing is to be or will come to pass, there is no repenting or shadow of turning from it (Hebrews 6:13). It will come to pass. But we read in the Bible where "God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would o unto them; and he did it not" (Jonah 3:10). We read about Jeremiah preaching to the children of Israel, and the Lord saying to the children of Israel through Jeremiah if they do not do this or that, He would bring evil upon the people (Jeremiah 22:3-5). When the Lord repents of evil, it is never a reference to the Lord turning from sin. It is a reference to God changing His mind about bringing evil to pass upon the subjects of His condemnation or wrath. The serious student of the Bible should get that very clear, because many of the would-be theologians who ransack the scriptures to try to prove their own particular beliefs have a habit of just carelessly ignoring what the Bible says. When the Bible speaks of God repenting of the evil that He would do, it has no reference to God turning from sin that He was about to commit. It rather has to do with God changing His mind about some evil that He was going to bring to pass on somebody who was not repenting.
Therefore, repentance means basically "to turn from," and especially a change of mind or heart attitude about a thing. In the New Testament this repentance is called "godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of" (2 Corinthians 7:10). As it is not to be repented of again, it means that no one is to return again to that sin, and it also infers a changed attitude toward sin, and above all it means that once you are saved you cannot repent and get saved again. This is brought out in a hypothetical way by the writer of Hebrews 6:4-6, when he said it is impossible for those who once did certain things to renew them again to repentance. In plainer words, the reason why many Charismatics are worried about the unpardonable sin is, they are afraid that they have committed it in their own lives. That is why they often accuse others of having committed it when they disagree with them. We find that many of the people who talk the most about blaspheming the Holy Ghost are quickest to assume that somebody else has committed it because they have got a bad conscience about it themselves. Those of us who are saved, regenerated, and born again by the Holy Spirit never give any consideration at all to a pre-crucifixion passage given to Jews on the unpardonable sin. That is not one of our problems, and it is not going to one of our problems. However, when a man receives the Holy Spirit and then goes through an emotional experience and gets another spirit, pretending the second spirit is the Holy Spirit and rejecting the teaching of the New Testament that he received the Holy Spirit when he got saved (Galatians 3:2), then he is always worried about blaspheming the Holy Ghost. This is characteristic of demonic influenced, modern Christians today that are being controlled by unclean spirits. Make no mistake about it. In 2 Corinthians 7:10 and Hebrews 6, you are told that it is impossible for a man who is saved to go back and repent and get saved again. It is impossible. When a man is saved, he is saved, and if he is not saved, he is not saved, and that is all there is to it.
Repentance from a negative standpoint, is not merely sorrow for sin. There are many who weep over sin without repentance and immediately return to the same sin. Doing penance is certainly not repentance, for it gives the sinner some merit to earn in order to gain salvation and often hinders true repentance. Judas Iscariot (Matthew 27:3-5), Esau (Genesis 27:38, Hebrews 12:16-17), Balaam (Numbers 22:34), and Saul (1 Samuel 15:24) illustrate false repentance. When people try to get saved by Acts 2:38, they go through this false plan of salvation and repent as Esau which did not work, as Judas Iscariot which did not work, as Saul which did not work, and as Balaam which did not work. Balaam repented of his sins and said, "I have sinned," and went to hell (Jude 11-13). Saul said, "I have sinned," and was rejected and went to hell (1 Samuel 15:23-24, 28:16). Judas Iscariot said, "I have sinned" and went to the bottomless pit (Acts 1:20, 25; Revelation 9:11). Pharaoh said, "I have sinned" (Exodus 9:27), and died and went to hell (Romans 9:17, 22). So, there is a great deal of difference between Biblical repentance and the modern repentance that is based on the Messianic message to Israel in Acts 2:38.
In Acts 2:38, Simon Peter is telling the nation of Israel (Acts 2:5, 14) to repent of their sin of rejecting the Messiah (Acts 2:22-23). There was not one word said in Acts 2 about a man repenting of the sins he had committed that were driving him to hell without the righteousness of Christ's finished atonement: not a word. This explains why people who repent and are "buptized" (misspelling intentional) according to Acts 2:38 never repent. Because evangelical repentance is not sorrow for what you have done. Evangelical repentance is sorrow for what you are. Notice how clearly this is demonstrated in the Bible in the case of Simon Peter (Luke 5:8), Job (Job 42:6), and Isaiah (Isaiah 6:5). Notice how clearly and vividly the Holy Spirit draws out to your attention, regardless of your feelings about it, that there are two kinds of repentance; one of them works death because it is the sorrow of this world (2 Corinthians 7:10). The other works salvation not to be repented of because it is godly sorrow. Now, the kind of repentance that is the sorrow of this world that worketh death is when you are sorry for what you have done and confess it. Biblical repentance is being sorry for what you are and accepting Christ because you yourself are no good. Now, that is the difference. For example, when Isaiah ran into God, he did not say he had done anything wrong. He said, "I am a man of unclean lips and dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips." When Job met God, he did not say, "I am so sorry I made a mistake and said the wrong thing." He said, "I abhor myself and repent in dust and ashes." When Simon Peter gets right, he says, "Depart from me, O Lord, for I am a sinful man."
It is not a confession of sin that marks repentance. It is a turning from sin and turning to Jesus Christ by faith and receiving the promise of the Spirit by faith, because the promise of the Spirit is never given through water baptism one time after Acts 2:38.
There is a necessity for repentance. From a positive standpoint, there is a change of mind that leads to a change of conduct. All need to repent because all are guilty in God's sight. In Luke 13:5, the Lord says, "Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish." In Jesus Christ's first sermon after being baptized and His tsting in the wilderness, He said, "Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand" (Matthew 4:17). The very first message John the Baptist preached to Israel after the times had worn on and the end of time was nearing and the Messiah was about to be sent, John the Baptist says, "Repent" (Matthew 3:1-2). Repentance comes before believing: "Repent ye, and believe the gospel" (Mark 1:15). Repentance comes before forgiveness: "repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations" (Luke 24:47), not just Israel.
This explains why God had to correct Simon Peter in Acts 10, when he began to preach to the nations. Simon Peter was all ready to pull his Jewish formula from Acts 2 on Cornelius, when the Lord interrupted the sermon and showed that Acts 2:38 was no longer the way to receive the Holy Spirit (Acts 10:44-45). Simon Peter, going by the information he had at that time, did right and did what God had showed him, but God had to show him additional information. This is why all unsaved elders and pastors try to teach their congregations that Acts 2:38 is the plan of salvation, because God changed it.
There is not one case in the New Testament where any Gentile was ever told, "Repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins." When the Gentiles were saved in Acts 10 under Simon Peter's preaching, they received the promise of the Holy Spirit by faith, before they were baptized in water (Acts 10:44-48). And there has not been a Gentile saved, before or since, according to Acts 2:38. In Simon Peter's message to Israel in Acts 2:38, he is talking about the repentance of a nation for rejecting the Messiah. Among nations, it is the repentance and forgiveness of sins preached in Christ's name (Acts 10:43), and the Gentiles receiving the promise of the Spirit by faith (Galatians 3:14).
God commands repentance. "And the times of this ignorance God winked at" - the Old Testament times, when God tolerated or put up with image worship- "but now commandeth all men every where to repent." To repent of what? The context of Acts 17:30 is men worshipping images and idols instead of the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the image of God (2 Corinthians 4:4). Repentance, then, is a very prominent subject in the scriptures, being mentioned over a hundred times in the Bible. Repentance, as we have said before, was the theme of John the Baptist. "In those days came John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judaea, and saying, Repent ye" (Matthew 3:1-2). When Jesus sent forth His disciples before the crucifixion to preach to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, He commanded them to preach repentance, "they went out, and preached that men should repent" (Mark 6:12).
At Pentecost, where Jewish apostles were preaching to a Jewish audience of Sabbath-observing, temple-worshipping, circumcised Jews, Peter tells the, "If you want to know what to do in view of the fact you have crucified your Messiah, repent and be baptized, every one of you." This was the message of the apostle Paul, the repentance part, although of course he never quoted Acts 2:38, nor die anybody. There is no case in the New Testament where anybody ever gave anybody Acts 2:38 as the plan of salvation after the Pentecostal message to Israel. And, of course, you could not be saved if they gave you the message because you are to receive the promise of the Spirit by faith, not water baptism (Galatians 3:14).
It is the burden of the heart of God that all should repent, because in 2 Peter 3:9 we read that the Lord is "not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance." Failure to obey God in this matter will lead to eternal damnation according to Jesus Christ, who said in Luke 13:3 "Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish."
These commandments are clear. Repentance is commanded by God of all men everywhere. Nobody is exempt. You say, "Repent of what?" Repent of your devilment, repent of your meanness, repent of your laziness, and repent of your stubbornness. Do you want me to tell it like it is and name them? You have to name things to people these days. They have had so much positive slop about "sharing Christ" and "sharing their experiences" and "the love of God" that they do not even know what they are to turn from and turn to, anymore.
Repentance means to turn from your wickedness. Quit your meanness. Repentance is negative: it means "quit it." It means verboten: "do not do it." It means God talking to you like a dogmatic dictator and you resenting it because of your rotten, mean, depraved nature. That is what it means. Repent. Quit your boozing, quit your cussing, quit living like the devil. That is what it means. Turn from your sins.
Repentance, as touching the intellect, means to change our mind. In Matthew 21:29, the young son said, "I will not: but afterward he repented, and went." Repentance is a revolution touching your attitude, your views toward sin, your views toward righteousness, and especially your views toward Bible translations and Bible versions. Repent. Repentance teaches a Christian to hate sin and learn to love the truth of God. The prodigal son repented. He changed his mid about living in a far country and decided to return to his father's household as a servant. When Peter at Pentecost asked the nation of the Jews to repent, he meant for them to change their minds about rejecting the Messiah. From considering Jesus a mere man, a blasphemer, or imposter, they were told to change their minds and recognize Him as the Messiah sent to Israel to be their anointed leader.
As touching the emotions, repentance means that you sorrow to salvation, godly repentance. Very often feelings play an important part in repentance. Repentance is a hard battle. There is nothing easy about this. It is not easy for you to break fellowship with your mother and father because they are being led by the devil to reject the word of God. That is not easy. It is not easy to have to the leave the church where you were raised because that church is now supporting modernism and liberalism and apostasy and taking its offerings to support revolutionary groups. It is not easy. God never said it was easy to do right or think right or act right or talk right. You may have been taught that in school. You may have been taught that it is easy to do wright as long as you did not hurt anybody. It has never been easy to do right.
Christ said, "If any man will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily, and follow me" (Luke 9:23). Do you think that's easy? Christ said a man that follows Him denies himself and takes up a cross. Do you think it is easy to get nailed to a cross? Oh, we do have certain groups today who talk very pretty and share their experiences, but how about those nails? How about the blood, sweat and tears running down the face? Well that is where they go that follow Jesus Christ. Some people have been following the wrong Christ (Mark 13:22). They have invented the christ that has become so popular in their circles today.
Repentance is not easy. In Luke 10:13, Jesus said about Tyre and Sidon, if they had repented they would have repented sitting in sackcloth and ashes. In Luke 7:44, the woman who was demonstrating repentance washed Jesus' feet with her tears. The publican in Luke 18:13 smote his breast, indicating sorrow of heart. In Psalm 38:18, David said, "I will delcare mine iniquity; I will be sorry for my sin." It does not always have to include tears and terrible sorrow, but very often it does.
As touching the will, the Greek word for repentance means "to turn from." The prodigal son said, "I will arise," and he arose. As a man said, "Repentance is a crisis with a changed experience in view." Paul talked of repentance as an experience rather than a single act. Repentance is twofold (Acts 20:21); one: turning from sin; two: turning to God.
The essence of sin is departure from God, like the prodigal son. The essence of repentance is returning to God. Turning from sin without turning to God is reformation; that is not regeneration. If you turn from sin without turning to God, you are simply in a temporary state of abeyance before the ax finally falls. Paul said about his converts in Thessalonica that they "turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God" (1 Thessalonians 1:9). In Acts 26:18, he said his commission was to take people and "turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God." Repentance is no good unless it is repentance to God.
How is repentance produced? Basically it is produced by the Holy Spirit convicting of sin, righteousness, and judgment (John 16:8). In this sense, it can be said that God grants it (Acts 11:12) because it is the work of the Holy Spirit. In 2 Timothy 2:25 we read, "if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth." As people hear the message of the gospel, the Holy Spirit convicts them of their sin and gives them a desire to repent and turn from their sins and trust Christ. Jonah preached repentance to Nineveh. They believed the message and turned to God. The Bible says, "the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance" (Romans 2:4). The Lord said, "As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent" (Revelation 3:19).
The results of repentance are apparent. All heaven rejoices. "I say to you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance" Luke 15:7). It brings pardon and forgiveness of sins (Isaiah 55:7). Repentance does not cause one to merit forgiveness. Repentance is a condition for receiving forgiveness. Repentance prepares a man for pardon, but it does not entitle him to it. The pardon comes from the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ on Calvary's cross. The Holy Spirit then, when He comes into the body of the penitent believer, gives him assurance of knowledge that his sins are forgiven, that he is in Christ, that he is regenerated, and that he is born again. All the blessings of the Bible follow the true believer's initial repentance God-ward. A redeemed sinner should never cease to be a penitent sinner, and should, form time to time, check upon his life and turn back from his individual sins, confess them, judge them, and turn again to God to stay in fellowship with God. For "if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin" (1 John 1:7)
Author: Dr. J.E. Griggers, missionary, Bludenz, Austria, Europe
I thank Dr. Griggers for the permission to use this study on my page.
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