Repentance

A very close friend of mine emailed me the other day asking for a definition of repentance. Hmmm...

I heard someone say that repentance is spiritual and moral honesty. Meaning, in repentance I admit that I am a real sinner, and not just one in theory. That's good (not the sin, but the honesty!). For Stanley Voke, a working definition of repentance is "sitting in the sinner's place." I really like that. 

Anyway, the Greek word for repentance, metanoia, means "to change one's mind" or "to turn." The standard explanation is that when we repent, we change... we commit to stop doing bad stuff and to start doing good stuff. Some say it this way: "Repentance is turning from your sin to following Jesus." However, I think that this explanation misses the teaching of John the Reformed Baptist, who said that the Pharisees should "produce fruit in keeping with repentance." The fruit (the change) is not the repentance... it is the result of repentance.

So let me twist the phrase a bit, and say it this way... Rather than turn from my sin to Jesus, I am to turn with my sin to Jesus (or to anyone else whom I have sinned against).  The change of mind is that I am the sinner. I am wrong. I deserve justice. And so to repent with faith is to turn with my sin to Jesus believing that he takes my sin upon himself on the cross and, in turn, clothes me with his perfect righteousness. Then I am filled with the Spirit and enabled to see the fruit (change) of repentance, which is nothing other than the fruit of the Spirit working in my life as I go to the sinner's place and find grace. 

So the problem with my lack of practical change, is not a lack of trying harder to change, but a lack of repentance (not penance) combined with faith.