In my opinion, the most powerful evidence for God is when you see a person who was once living a depraved, destructive life, then seeing their life radically changed overnight by giving their life over to God. Not only that, but the person who was once known for being depressed, profane, angry, irritable, and hateful – then going through the process of being healed to become a joyous, grateful, loving, compassionate person – will be more solid in their faith than the “Christian” who simply goes to church on Sunday.
Repentance is one of the most important, foundational principles of Christianity, according to Hebrews 6:1-2. Yet, in Western Christianity, it is largely misunderstood, being either being totally ignored or used to guilt-trip the congregation. However, repentance is not something to be ignored or used as a source of shame.
In this article, I will detail the Biblical foundation for repentance, what exactly repentance is, and why it is so vitally important to the Christian identity.
What is Repentance?
When many Christians hear the word “repentance” today, they think of the Old Testament. In that time, repentance was accompanied by wearing sack cloth and ashes and, often, fasting. This was the custom of the time.
It should be noted that sack cloth and ashes were not a sign of repentance but of mourning. This re-contextualizes the idea of Old Testament repentance. Repentance is not mourning, but rather it can be accompanied by such, because the mourning is for the sin that is being turned from.
This leaves the question: “What is the definition of repentance?”
The word “repentance” comes from the Greek word “metanoia,” which means a change of mind. It basically states that “I was one way, now I am another.” With this idea, one can repent from the idea of going to the library to read a book or two, and choosing instead to remain at home and work out. Most often, however, it evokes the idea of turning from a negative or detrimental activity to a positive and uplifting one.
Baker’s Encyclopedia takes the definition one step further. It defines repentance as a change in the whole personality, or a change of heart.
Whereas the Greek definition denotes a change in the conscious decisions that a person makes, the Baker’s definition presents it as a change to a person’s subconscious being. Thus, repentance is not just a state of mind, but it is a condition of the heart.
This is an important distinction, because what our subconscious mind focuses on is what dictates what our conscious mind picks up on, expresses, and focuses on. It is true that we can use our conscious mind to change the input of our subconscious mind, but when our life is running on autopilot it is our subconscious mind that takes over and runs whatever the dominant program happens to be.
The Bible does talk about renewing the mind. However, this is generally taking about the conscious portion of our mind. The Bible talks far more about the heart, or subconscious mind – i.e. “the heart is deceitful above all things,” “out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks,” “as a man thinks in his heart, so is he,” etc.
To tie it back to repentance, this must become a part of our identity. As fallen sons of Adam, we do sin every now and again, but as born-again sons of the Most High God, we have abundant life in Christ Jesus. We must have it ingrained in our subconscious mind to remember that God has called us to walk a holy, righteous life – “Be ye holy, for I am holy.”
This is an impossible task to do on our own, and we constantly fall short of this perfect life. We feel what Paul wrote in Romans 7. We end up doing the things that we know we shouldn’t to do, and we don’t do the things that we know we should do! This battle between our spirit and natural man has caused many a believer, myself included, sleepless nights of wrestling with God. “Why can’t I make myself do what I know I can do? I keep turning back to sin even though I know that I am fully capable of walking away from it completely through the grace of God. What is wrong with me????”
It is these times that we must continually repent of sin. No matter how many times we turn to sin, we must turn back to God in these moments of clarity. Again, I do not mean that we must feel shame to repent. We don’t need to feel condemnation to repent. You only need sincerity.
In the passage of Romans 7 I mentioned, Paul exclaims, “Oh wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” He immediately answers his own question: it is through Jesus Christ our Lord Whom we must turn to for our deliverance.
This can be difficult to do, because we can feel like we do not deserve the love because of what we have done. But no matter how many times we may fall, Jesus Christ will always embrace us with His perfect love and affection every single time. And eventually, it may take years, we will be able to fully take hold of the grace of God empowered by the Holy Spirit. We will have crucified our flesh completely, and will be able to step fully into walking with the Spirit.
What does the Bible Say?
Let us turn to the Bible and see what it says about repentance.
As I alluded to earlier, many people think that the topic of repentance is no longer relevant in the Church today. Again, the repentance that they are thinking of is accompanied by sack cloth and ashes. It is true that this form of repentance is no longer necessary, but what does the New Testament have to say about repentance? Here are just a few verses:
- Matthew 4:17 – The first word out of Jesus’ mouth when He started His ministry was “repent.”
- Matthew 11:20 – Jesus upbraided the cities that saw His greatest miracles, because they did not repent.
- Mark 6:12 – When Jesus sent out His disciples out to preach, they preached that everyone should repent.
- Luke 13:3&5 – Both verses say, “Unless you repent, you will likewise perish,” in part referring to those who died when the tower of Siloam fell.
- Luke 16:30 – the rich man in Hell proposed that if someone from the dead were to go to his family then his family would repent.
- Acts 2:38 – On Pentecost, Peter said to the multitude to “repent and be baptized.”
- Acts 26:20 – “But showed first unto them of Damascus… that they should repent and turn to God.”
- Acts 17:30 – God “commands everyone everywhere to repent.”
What do we see from this? That there is no true faith in Jesus Christ without repentance.
To close this segment, let’s take a look at the rich young ruler.
“Good Master, what must I do to be saved?” the man asked.
The posture that this young man had was not like the Pharisees who were trying to trap Jesus in His words, but this man was sincerely asking for the answer.
If Jesus were like today’s preachers, He would have told the man to simply say a sinner’s prayer. Instead Jesus asks, “Did you obey the commandments?”
“I have since my youth,” the man replied.
At this point, Mark 10 records something remarkable. It says that Jesus looked at him and loved him. However, He said this to the man, “You lack one thing. Give everything you have to the poor, and you will have treasures in heaven. Then, come, take up the cross, and follow me.”
Upon hearing this, the man turned sadly away. He sincerely wanted to go to heaven, but he was not willing to let go of the god that was holding him to this earth.
All Jesus was asking was that he repented, that he would no longer date the god of money.
We will come back to this story in a moment, but what Jesus said to the young man was that there is a price to following Him.
Once we choose to become a member of the body of Christ, we can’t just go off and do our own thing. We can’t just live our life the same way that we lived it before. It’s not just going to be all sunshine, rainbows, and unicorns the rest of our lives either.
There is a price for following Christ.
The Cost of a Christ-Centered Life: Complete Surrender
According to a study done by George Barna1, from 2000 to 2020, the number of practicing Christians dropped from 45% to 25%, while non-practicing Christians went up from 35% to 43% and non-Christians went up from 20% to 32%. What is the cause of this drastic downfall of practicing Christians?
Today’s preachers try to sell Jesus like a used car salesman would a car. They say all of the good things about becoming a child of God – “God heals your disease,” “You have all authority in Him,” “Your sins are forgiven,” “Your place in hell is taken,” etc. – yet, they neglect to share the true cost of being a child of God.
Jesus did not only go around Judaea talking about all of the good that His Father had for His followers if they would just “accept” Him. He did not use the benefits to entice more followers to join Him. Jesus did say that one would be blessed if he followed the will of God, but Jesus also always mentioned the price. This price was complete surrender.
Paul was dealing with this very issue in 2 Corinthians 11:2-4 (emphasis added).
“For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.
“But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.
“For he that comes preaching another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him.”
Today’s preachers often preach a different Jesus than the one presented in the New Testament. Today’s “knock-off Jesus” offers forgiveness that’s not real. He frees people from the punishment of sin but does not free from the bondage of sin. He does not change a person’s nature, does not keep his promises, does not answer prayer, and does not manifest himself.
We talk too much about “just accepting” Christ while offering no change in behavior whatsoever. This knock-off Jesus does appeal to a much larger audience – so better short term growth of a church – but the eternal results are devastating. He offers a quantity of Christian people over quality followers of Christ.
This Jesus make Christianity look just like any other religion – as a simple appeasement of the conscience and comfort in this life. He makes the Christian faith an irrational hope for the life after this one.
Pastors are too afraid to call “sin” as “sin” for fear of driving people away from the faith. Repentance is “too hard” because it demands that we give up our old life and follow Him with complete devotion.
Is this why we see the decline of the “practicing Christians”? The tragedy of the situation is that now these people are harder to reach. “I tried that before, and it didn’t work.”
The sinner’s prayer may be the heart of the matter. Today we appeal for people to accept Jesus, all the whole not telling them that they are entering into a covenant relationship – that it’s a choice, and that He says “deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow Me.”
These are three things that Jesus said to the rich young ruler, and these are the three things which are required to follow Him:
We must deny ourselves. Once we surrender to Christ, our life is no longer ours. We are no longer to follow the whims of our own desires. “The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.”
We must take up our cross. This denotes crucifying our fleshly nature. I don’t mean that we must kill ourselves, but we must kill off the roots and influences that are causing us to sin, the things that are programming our minds to follow after the lusts of the flesh, the lusts of the eyes, and the pride of life.
We must follow Christ. He Himself said, “If you love me, keep My commandments.” We should always strive to emulate Christ. Our lives should be a reflection of His.
All too often, we say “Jesus will take care of everything for you. Just say this short prayer, and you’ll be a Christian. You don’t have to change anything. He will take care of it all for you.” This is NOT the Jesus that is presented in the Bible, and this is not the relationship that He wants.
The Living Sermon
Paul outlines what a proper relationship with Christ should be like in Ephesians 5:30-32:
“For we are members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones.
“For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh.
“This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the Church.”
Another translation says that this is “an illustration of the way Christ and the Church are one.”
In essence, Paul is making a correlation between a marriage relationship and a relationship with Christ.
In marriage, it is expected that a wife give up wanting to sleep with other men. No man wants to be with a wife with a divided heart. Why would God be any different?
From a very young age, we are taught that when we get married we are making a decision that we are giving our whole heart and life to this one person for the rest of our lives. When the girl walks down the aisle with that white dress, she is making a public statement saying “Good-bye,” to the other 3.5 billion other guys on earth. She is promising to no longer have any romantic interest in her old boyfriends.
Why don’t we do this with Christ? He is the Groom, and we are the Bride. A proper, Biblical marriage is the living sermon illustrating the relationship we are to have with Christ.
We talk about “accepting Christ.” What if a girl just “accepts” a guy into her life? That only means she acknowledges his presence. That does not mean that she wants to follow his advice for every decision she ever makes, much less devote her whole life to him.
There is a price to pay for marriage and Christianity. In marriage, you decide to never develop any other romantic relationships and cut off pre-existing ones. “For the rest of my life I am going to devote myself to this one person.” In Christ, you decide to cut of pre-existing relationships with the world that interfere with you and Christ. “For the rest of my life I am going to devote myself to this One Person.”
Is Jesus Christ really your Lord and Savior? Or do you have things in your life that you are tolerating or “flirting” with?
For the rich young ruler, he was still flirting with money. He loved his riches more than he wanted to follow Christ. What Jesus was essentially saying was, “You have one other boyfriend you have to break up with: money. You have to choose between money and Me. Things will happen dictating that money will go one way and that I go the other. If you hold your riches in higher regard than Me, when these winds blow, you will follow the money and not Me. Yet, you will still say that you are following Me. You will be deceiving yourself, because I will not be with you. You will be following a knock-off Jesus.”
Jesus does not say or imply here that money itself is evil. Nowhere in the Bible does it say that money is evil, only the love of it. In fact, I believe that it is a person’s right to be wealthy if they can. I believe, as Zig Ziglar said, that God made the diamonds for His sons for their inheritance and not for Satan’s minions to have a monopoly over. God Himself is so wealthy that His entire city is paved with gold.
Money is not evil. Having it as your god to worship is. If a person holds money as the number one thing to gain in life, then they have left no room to develop a relationship with Christ. This is why Jesus says in a different verse, “No man can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one, and love the other, or he will hold to the one, and despise the other.” One cannot serve both God and Mammon.
A marriage where either of the two parties is not solely devoted to one another will not last. This is the same with our relationship with Christ. If we do not dedicate our lives in pursuing a deeper, more intimate relationship with Christ, then we will not be looking very good on Judgment Day. Of course, I am not the judge of whether a person has eternal life or eternal damnation, nor do I wish to be, but I can tell you that the Church that Christ will be coming for in the last days is one who dedicates her whole heart to Him, demonstrates her authority in Him, is desperately in love with Him, and is willing to give her life for Him just as He did for her.
Do you think that He is coming back for a bride that is immature and half-hearted for Him? No. God is not a pedophile. He is coming back because His bride made herself ready by walking in maturity and with wholehearted love for Him.
This is the difference between a repentant and unrepentant person. An unrepentant person sees the Word of God as optional. “I choose what good and best for my life.” A repentant person sees the Word of God as the final authority. “I choose what God says is good and best for my life.” A person who truly wants to follow Christ will say, “Whatever God says, I will believe it and obey it.”
If following Christ does not become a part of your identity, you will compromise with what you think is the best, rather than following the will of God. Without repentance, we are spiritual adulterers.
Conclusion
To me, one of the most heartbreaking passages in the Bible is Matthew 7:21. “Not everyone who will say to me, “Lord, Lord,” shall enter into the kingdom of God.” In the Hebrew language, they would often repeat a word or phrase to give it emphasis. Today, we would underline, bold, italicize, or add an exclamation point.
What this means is there will be many people at Judgment Day who truly believe that they are Christians. They prayed the sinner’s prayer. They tithed to the church. They even prophesied, cast out demons, and have done many wonderful works in His Name! Yet, God will say, “I never knew you. Depart from Me, all you who work iniquity.” Though there will be many reasons why these people will be cast into the lake of fire, I believe that many of them will be there because they never had a relationship with God in the first place. Even if they professed to be Christians, they were sold a false version of Christianity.
All too often, when we go out “soul-winning” the conversation goes like this:
We give our testimony and present the Gospel that “we are sinners and deserve everlasting punishment, but Jesus died so that we might have everlasting life when we die.” We may even quote John 3:16. Then, we will ask the question, “Do you want to accept Christ into your life right now?”
“Sure!!!” is the answer that we hope for.
We then tell them, “Okay, then pray this sinner’s prayer after me… Amen. Congratulations! You are now a member of the body of Christ. Now, all you have to do is believe in Jesus, and I will see you in heaven someday!” This is wrong – not only wrong, it is downright criminal, because we are cheating the person out of a true relationship with Christ.
We do not magically become a child of God just because we prayed this “sinner’s prayer.” The reason is simple. All too often – I dare say the vast majority of the time – the person receiving the prayer experiences no change in their lives. They go about their lives as before.
This is due to them not being properly instructed in the beginning of what a Christian walk truly is. If they are not told that they must give up everything that is ungodly, what will happen when they are told later that God said in Exodus 20, “Thou shalt not commit adultery,” for example? They will compromise and find a way to excuse themselves from this command.
“Well, I don’t really agree with that. That was written 2,000 years ago! Get with the times, man! 90% of unmarried couples live together today. Sure, porn may not be godly, but I see it more of a weakness that Jesus takes care of, not as something that I need freedom from to live a holy life, because we are saved by grace and not works.”
Most people to not truly grasp what Jesus said when He stated, “You must deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow me.” This is a full commitment to perfection in Christ. We may not reach it in this world, but this must be the goal.
We cannot even imagine what Jesus left in order to be with us. We cannot fully fathom the price He paid. He left His Father’s House in Heaven. He was abused, beaten, scourged, spit upon, slapped, punched, betrayed, humiliated, and crucified. He shed every drop of His blood for us.
What is the price YOU are willing to pay for Him?
Endnotes
- https://www.barna.com/research/changing-state-of-the-church/
- The inspiration for this message comes from John Bevere’s messages called “A Knock-off Jesus” and “Killing Kryptonite.” A number of videos of these messages can be found on YouTube, and John Bevere has books and courses for this topic as well, found at www.messengerinternational.org.
Super Success 