METANOIA

Repentance

"What is true repentance, and why is repentance so important for us attempting to live as Christians?

The word repent comes from the Greek word metanoia.

 It stresses a change of mind and attitude.

To repent is to make a decision that changes the total direction of one’s life.

 When Jesus preached, He issued a call to repentance which was a call to people to change their mind about Him and to make a personal commitment to Him.

 Repentance is an abandonment of those courses of action in which we once defied God and embraced those things which God dislikes and forbids.

 The Hebrew word for repent signifies a turning away from sin to God, or a returning to God. The New Testament Greek word carries the sense of changing one’s mind so that one changes one’s ways.

 Full repentance means altering one’s habits of thought, one’s attitudes, outlook, policy, direction and behavior just as fully as is needed to get one’s life off of the wrong path and onto the right one.

But changing in this way is only possible for Christian believers, who have been set free from sin’s control and made alive to God.

 Repentance comes as a result of putting one’s faith in Jesus Christ.

 Repentance flows out of true faith. It is the fruit of faith and as such, is a gift of God, according to Acts 11:18.

 Repentance is not that which saves, but it is the opposite side of the same coin as faith. One cannot have true faith unless one turns away from believing in himself and turns to believe in Christ alone to save, forgive and empower him to change.

Once again, true repentance is only possible for Christians because it’s only the Christian who in relationship with God starts to have God pull off the blinders of his life.

 The Bible tells us we do not even know how self-deceived we are about our sins, according to James 1:22 and 1 John 1:8.

 So once we place our faith in Christ, bit by bit God showsus that our deeds, our lifestyle, our thinking, our acts have offended Him. This awareness that we have offended a holy God is the soil from which repentance grows all during our life. True repentance includes a contrite heart, sorrow and remorse in having dishonored God’s goodness and love to us.

 The kind of repentance that is a false repentance is that which shows only regret for sin prompted by fear for oneself, not love for God. Repentance brings on a sincere request of God’s pardon, cleansing of conscience and help not to lapse into the same sin again.

J. I. Packer says repentance is (1) a person discerning the perversity, folly and guilt of the sin he or she has done;( 2) the desire to find forgiveness, and the willingness to abandon the sin and live a God-pleasing life from now on; (3) deciding to ask God for forgiveness and power to change, and then actually talking to God; (4) demonstrating, whether by testimony, confession, or by changed behavior that one has left one’s sins behind.

Martin Luther taught that all of life was to be repentance toward God. That is, as we walk with God, He will reveal to us things about ourselves that we didn’t know—sins and habits which need to be abandoned.

Such recurring repentance is the life of the adult disciple. Keep in mind that when you put your faith in Jesus Christ, He gave you a new heart that desires to obey God. You will only be happy and joyful when those things that offend God are turned away from and you’ve asked God to forgive you and to cleanse you.

Paradoxically, such action brings more joy because God draws closer to you and you experience more of Him. You can refuse to repent. But you should know that you will run the risk of being disciplined by God. Read Hebrews 11 and 12. God disciplines His children because He loves us and He won’t stand by and allow us to ruin our lives