Repentance is one of those religious words and ideas that not everyone understands. Some who do understand it suggest it is the hardest of the Lord’s commands. This grabs our interest and makes us want to know what the Bible says about repentance.
It is an absolute necessity. Peter wrote that the Lord “is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9). Paul preached that God “commands all men everywhere to repent, because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by that Man whom He has ordained” (Acts 17:30-31). It is a requirement for salvation.
It comes from godly sorrow. In 2 Corinthians 7:9-10 Paul says concerning a church’s sin of tolerating evil, “Now I rejoice, not you were made sorry, but that your sorrow led to repentance. For you were made sorry in a godly manner … for godly sorrow produces repentance to salvation, not to be regretted; but the sorrow of the world produces death.” Repentance is not remorse or sorrow but godly sorrow leads to it.
It shows itself in good works. John warned those who came to his baptism that they had to “Bear fruits worthy of repentance” (Matthew 3:8). There is something to do for salvation. Some have suggested that repentance is this action of reformation. But this passage shows they are not the same, Repentance leads to reformation. The works are not the repentance. They are its result.
One of the Lord’s parables helps. “A man had two sons, and he came to the first and said, ‘Son, go, work today in my vineyard.’ He answered and said, ‘I will not,’ but afterward he regretted it and went. Then he came to the second and said likewise. And he answered and said, ‘I go, sir,’ but he did not go. Which of the two did the will of his father?” (Matthew 21:28-31) What happened with the first son? He changed his mind, and did what his father asked him to do. And that is what repentance is.
It is defined by these verses. Repentance is a change of mind, that comes from godly sorrow, and shows itself in good works. If this change of mind does not come from godly sorrow for our sins then it is not Bible repentance. If it is does not show itself in doing the works of God then it is not Bible repentance.
Baptism joins with repentance when faith obeys the gospel. Acts 2 says men were to “know assuredly” that the crucified Jesus was “both Lord and Christ” (36-37). Those who were “cut to the heart” asked “Men and brethren, what shall we do?” (37) Peter answered, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins” (38). In faith (know assuredly) their godly sorrow (cut to the heart) led them to repentance that showed itself in good works (baptized).
Why do some say it is hard to do? It may be because repentance has to do with the heart rather than our actions. Outward obedience is rather simple and easily accomplished, but to change the mind is a question of our will at its deepest point. Belief is a response of the mind to the Bible’s testimony of witnesses, but to change the mind is about what we are willing to do with this acceptance of truth. Do we want to change?
The result is heavenly joy. At the end of the Lord’s parable of the lost coin the woman “When she has found it, she calls her friends and neighbors together, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the piece which I lost.’ Likewise, I say to you, there is joy In the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents” (Luke 15:9-10). All who repent give joy, not just to themselves and those here with them, but there is joy in heaven among the angels when the wanderer is safely with God.
– by Robert Hines