What Does Repentence Mean?

[Galations 2:20]

Repent defined in the simplest terms possible:  View the sin(s) as god sees it. 

[Galations 2:20]

Jonah 3:10 And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not. 

 

In light of how everyone weighed in on the meaning of repentance- see in the above verse that God repented of the evil.  How would you define repentance in this instance?

[Standing Firm In Christ]

God turned from the evil He had said He would do.

[heartstrings]

Yes, God repents........

Contrary to way the World seems to define it, Repentence does not mean to "regret", "be remorseful", or "sorry". It doesn't even mean to confess. God repents but He does none of those things; God has never done anything to regret or be sorry for. When the Bible says that God "repented", it means he turned against something He fully intended to do. For instance, God fully intended to destroy Nineveh. But when they truly repented...that is, turned against their filthy, evil ways and did an "about face", then God repented of the imminent destruction. The Ninevites did that by faith when they believed the preaching, acknowledged their wickedness, humbled themselves, and STOPPED the wickeness. They turned from sin and looked TO God.......

Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not? Jonah 3:9 

 

Just "being sorry" will not get it. It leads to it. But there must be a 'turning' from sin and self to Jesus.

[swathdiver]

The Hebrew and Greek are good enough for me.

 

And my King James Bible is good enough for me.  

 

Greek Schmeek.  

[Giancarlo]

Repent, in itself, cannot possibly mean to turn from or feel sorry for sin... Unless you are willing to call God a sinner "And God REPENTED of the evil that he said he would do unto them and did it not." Jonah 3:10.

 

Look up the word repentance in the KJV. God repents more than anyone else in the entire bible. Repent simply means to change your mind. If we had to 'turn from' or 'be willing to turn' from our sins to be saved, that would be works salvation. Anyone who teaches lordship salvation, or repent of your sins salvation is an heretic out of hell.

 

Turning from your sins is works.

 

"And God saw their WORKS, that they turned from their evil way." Jonah 3:10

[heartstrings]

In it's basic meaning, it is to "turn against"; or "turn away from": it doesn't  have to be sin.

 

God did not regret creating the earth because He already KNEW Adam would sin before He created it. and it does not say "I repent", "God repented" either. Instead, it says "it repenteth me". What "repenteth me"? "That I have made them" The fact that God had made everything had
turned against" Him. Genesis 6:7

God turned against the evil He intended for Israel  Exodus 32:14

God turned against the evil He intended for Nineveh. Jonah 3:10

 

As far as I can recollect, the words "repent" or "repentance", no matter who it involves, always have to do with the heart and the will but never with any physical "work" of any kind. The only times the word "repent" has to do with sin, is when we "turn against" sin. Those people in Nineveh had to "repent" AKA "turn away from" the sin in their hearts before they ever took any action AND, seeing they did so after hearing the preaching of Brother Jonah, it was done in Faith. They believed the Word of God from the Man of God. . Likewise, concerning true salvation, the Holy Spirit deals with three things: sin, righteousness, and judgment. You must realize that you are a lowdown sinner, bound for Hell, and deserve it. Then you simply turn to Jesus from sin.self and destruction. Put as simple as I can explain. The moment you admit "I'm a lowdown, evil, rotten sinner and I deserve Hell and you turn to Jesus as your blessed Hope, you repented and believed on the King of Glory all in one split second. Therein lies repentance. But it doesn't end there: repentance must take place throughout our Christian life, because we still have a sin nature.

[wretched]

Good explanation Sir.

 

The turning away from sin part however still smacks somewhat of works.

 

Consider repentance to mean a change of heart about sin, righteous and judgement vice a "turning away". Change of heart is stronger than a change of mind. The connotation is that of "resulting in action" but not diliberately starting out that way.

 

I think the most important thing folks miss when debating this subject is that repentance of heart from religion, idols of this world, humanism, materialism (whatever god the lost follow whether knowingly or not) is a triple work of an OBedient believer sharing the Gospel (#1), the Word of God which is spoken (#2) and the conviction of the Spirit (#3). This new birth is the only actual miracle that still occurs in our time and is not easily dissected in our limited imaginations. Give them the Word in OBedience and if they have a fear of God, then The Spirit will convict and regenerate.

 

It seems more and more difficult to find people who retain God in their knowledge so less and less people have a fear of God. Without this basic fear that is present at birth in all humans and "learned" away by the world, then it becomes far more difficult to find people who will openly listen to the Gospel. The fear of the Lord is the "beginning" of wisdom.

Edited December 17, 2014 by wretched

[heartstrings]

Works will result from true repentance; but repentance can only take place in the heart and only by free will.

 

Maybe this will explain better: repentance can't happen without turning to Jesus in faith.. I've heard some say that you "Take God's side against yourself".

 

See Luke 18:13. You will find, in this verse, a man dealing with sin, righteousness and judgment.

[Jordan Kurecki]

The word repent means a change of mind, heart, or emotion about something, repentance is not ceasing from sin, penance or paying for sin, reformation, or turning over a new leaf. Repentance is simply a change of our heart and attitude towards something.

 

 

There are 3 things every person must repent or change their mind, heart, and attitude towards in order to be saved.

 

The first is Sin

 

Ezekiel 18:30-31  Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, every one according to his ways, saith the Lord GOD. Repent, and turn yourselves from all your transgressions(Sins); so iniquity(Sin) shall not be your ruin.Cast away from you all your transgressions, whereby ye have transgressed; and make you a new heart and a new spirit: for why will ye die, O house of Israel?

 

Mark 9:43-46  And if thy hand offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter into life maimed, than having two hands to go into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched:Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.And if thy foot offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter halt into life, than having two feet to be cast into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched:

Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.

 

Mark 8:36-37  For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?

 

No sin is worth dying and going to hell over. Jesus said it would be better to cut off your hand than to go into hell with both hands! We must be willing to repent of sin in order to be saved, you must be willing to change your attitude towards sin as something that you desire to be saved from

 

The 2^nd thing you must repent of is Self

 

Luke 18:10-14  Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican.The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican.I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess.And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner.I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other: for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.

 

Romans 10:3  For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.

 

The Pharisee was self righteous and had a higher view of himself, the publican admitted his sinfulness before God, which is why he received forgiveness. Many people today are ignorant of the perfect righteousness of Christ and go about to establish their own works based righteousness through religion, or “try to be good and not hurt others” but we are all wicked sinners condemned to die. You must repent of self righteousness in order to be saved.

 

The 3^rd thing you must repent of is the Savior.

Jesus Christ is the savior, he is also God. If you believe in the false Jesus and not the one of the Bible you cannot be saved:man such as the Mormons and Jehovah’s Witnesses teach a false Jesus that is not the Jesus of the Bible. Jesus is perfect and sinless because he is GOD!

 

Consider these verses:

John 8:23-24  And he said unto them, Ye are from beneath; I am from above: ye are of this world; I am not of this world.I said therefore unto you, that ye shall die in your sins: for if ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins.The name “I am” is a name for God in the Exodus chapter 20.

John 10:30-33  I and my Father are one.Then the Jews took up stones again to stone him.Jesus answered them, Many good works have I shewed you from my Father; for which of those works do ye stone me?The Jews answered him, saying, For a good work we stone thee not; but for blasphemy; and because that thou, being a man, makest thyself God.

 

So three things we must repent of are Sin, Self, and the Savior.

So a Christian is someone who has repented of Sin, Self, and the Savior, and has believed on Christ.

[Jordan Kurecki]

Repent, in itself, cannot possibly mean to turn from or feel sorry for sin... Unless you are willing to call God a sinner "And God REPENTED of the evil that he said he would do unto them and did it not." Jonah 3:10.

 

Look up the word repentance in the KJV. God repents more than anyone else in the entire bible. Repent simply means to change your mind. If we had to 'turn from' or 'be willing to turn' from our sins to be saved, that would be works salvation. Anyone who teaches lordship salvation, or repent of your sins salvation is an heretic out of hell.

 

Turning from your sins is works.

 

"And God saw their WORKS, that they turned from their evil way." Jonah 3:10

it depends upon what you mean by turn from your sins, if you mean stop those sins, then yes that's a work, but you have to repent of sin in order to be saved, in that you must be willing to change your mind about sin as something that you desire to be saved from, The Rich Young Ruler went away from Jesus sorrowful because of his sin of covetousness, he should have turned from his covetousness and turned to Christ for salvation, instead he went away sorrowful because of his love of possessions.

 

Some people love their sin too much to really turn to Christ, this love of sin and refusing to turn away from it keeps people from being born again.

 

You absolutely have to repent of sin to be saved, no one will be every truly be saved without the Spirit convicting of sin and a turning to Christ for salvation.

 

By the way, the bible says repentance is a gift from God. 

 

2Ti_2:25  In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth; 

 

Repentance is a grace that God offers to all who will choose to accept it, any person can repent of their sin if God draws them in conviction... many reject this drawing unfortunately, but accepting his drawing and the repentance is not a work.

Edited December 17, 2014 by Jordan Kurecki

[Genevanpreacher]

Repent, in itself, cannot possibly mean to turn from or feel sorry for sin... Unless you are willing to call God a sinner "And God REPENTED of the evil that he said he would do unto them and did it not." Jonah 3:10.

 

Look up the word repentance in the KJV. God repents more than anyone else in the entire bible. Repent simply means to change your mind. If we had to 'turn from' or 'be willing to turn' from our sins to be saved, that would be works salvation. Anyone who teaches lordship salvation, or repent of your sins salvation is an heretic out of hell.

 

Turning from your sins is works.

 

"And God saw their WORKS, that they turned from their evil way." Jonah 3:10

 

Yes, but this is a 'heart' turning, when in reference to salvation.

And anything from the heart is not works.

Repentance is the after effect of believing with all your heart; and you do

choose to resist sin, because you are now in that 'kind of nature', because, at the moment of truly

believing, you are born again, and have changed into something you weren't a moment before, a new creature.

Following repentance comes remission. Because you have repented, or amended your ways, choosing not to 'fall' into the same ol' sinful ways

like you used to, the after effect of that brings about the 'lessening' of you deciding to choose sin over OBedience to God and his ways.

Hence, your lifestyle of 'sinning' has gone into remission, not disappeared, but like cancer after treatment, your sins are 'in remission',

not gone, but not in control of you, and, Lord willing, your OBedience will increase and overcome the desire to sin.

[Old-Pilgrim]

Hi, I was going to start a thread about this, partly for some feed back, since it is one thing to come up with a new understanding of something from Scripture, but it is another thing to prove it from scripture, that takes time.

I have read quite a few good comments ,Jordan Kurecki said 'The word repent means a change of mind, heart, or emotion about something, repentance is not ceasing from sin, penance or paying for sin, reformation, or turning over a new leaf. Repentance is simply a change of our heart and attitude towards something.' I agree with this, apparently even the English word repent in its early recorded usage meant only remorse. wretched   said 'The turning away from sin part however still smacks somewhat of works.' I agree with that also, if we could turn away from sin then we would be doing something that no one could do before.

Ac 15:8 And God, which knoweth the hearts, bare them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as he did unto us;
Ac 15:9 And put no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith.
Ac 15:10 Now therefore why tempt ye God, to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear?
Ac 15:11 But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved, even as they.

This is the account in Acts where some of the Jews were professing to be Christian teachers and were teaching something which was VERY similar to Lordship Salvation, ie

Ac 15:1 And certain men which came down from Judaea taught the brethren, and said, Except ye be circumcised after the manner of Moses, ye cannot be saved.

Ac 15:5 But there rose up certain of the sect of the Pharisees which believed, saying, That it was needful to circumcise them, and to command them to keep the law of Moses.

Change the word 'circumcise' for 'christen' to put it in a modern context.

Paul said of  this matter Ga 1:9  ...If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed.'

Ga 2:4 And that because of false brethren unawares brought in, who came in privily to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into bondage:

Ga 2:21 I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.

To say we need to turn from sins is like saying we need to keep the law.

[wretched]

 

Change the word 'circumcise' for 'christen' to put it in a modern context.

 

​I was amening most of the post until I saw this line. What is this about?

[Old-Pilgrim]

I am TR only, and I read the AV, as such I generally trust

Strong's Greek Dictionary
3340. metanoeo
Search for G3340 in KJVSL metanoew metanoeo met-an-o-eh'-o

from 3326 and 3539; to think differently or afterwards, i.e. reconsider (morally, feel compunction):--repent.

So when I see 'Repent' in the NT I read it as 'change your mind'.

This could mean different things in different contexts.

If we are talking about a God fearing Jew, they would already agree that the Law is good, so they don't need to repent about sins, but they would need to repent about how to be saved, ie trust no more in sacrifices of Moses Law and trust in Jesus as atonement.  So the Jews had to have Heb 6:1 'repentance from dead works', and have ...'faith toward God,' Joh 14:1 .. ye believe in God, believe also in me.

If we were talking about pagan sinners who think all manner of sin is ok, they might need to change their mind about that as well before they understand that they need a saviour. Ps 66:18 If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me: This leads us to John the Baptist.

Mt 3:8 Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance: I think Repentance here means a change of mind, or the ability to 'see', they need to be 'illuminated' by the true light of the world, I think John perceived that they weren't genuine believers. God has blinded them and only God can open their eyes, so who's eyes will he open? the meek, the contrite in heart, those in who's heart is no guile.

 

Edited May 30, 2015 by Old-Pilgrim
god to God