Salvation Summaries

Job 42:5-6 ⁵ My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you. ⁶ Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes.“

Repentance is an important part of becoming saved and living the Christian life, at least according to the New Testament, yet it does not receive near the attention that faith does, and I’m not sure why.  Twice Jesus said, “But unless you repent, you too will all perish” (Luke 13:3,5). 

Should this warning by Jesus not grab our attention?  Should we not seek to know everything about what repent means so that we can be sure we have done it? That is the purpose of this and the next post – to provide you with an understanding of what repentance means so that you can determine if you have genuinely repented and are living as a Christian should.

Before diving into the details though, let me mention that this study of repentance was an “eye opener” for me. I thought I had understood what it meant and how important it is, but I did not. After studying it, I (finally) realized what God really wants from us. It is not simply to “get saved” and then try to live as a Christian should, with some people doing well here and others not.

What God really wants from us – His creation – in both the Old and New Testaments, is this: a changed life. This changed life begins with repentance, certainly includes faith, and continues with repentance. Becoming saved enables us to live a changed life because of the Holy Spirit working in us, but salvation is not the end goal, and I believe that proof of one’s salvation is better measured against the changes in one’s life rather than their profession of faith.

Once you read through these two posts on repentance (and one on what our purpose in life is), I think your perspective on what a Christian is and how a Christian should live will change, just as mine did.

Repentance in the Old Testament

The word “repent” is not mentioned that much in the Old Testament – only 19 times using the NIV translation – though the underlying Hebrew word is mentioned many times.

The word repent has several meanings in the Old Testament. Also, there are several steps one takes to repent. I’ve shown each of these below.

Step 1: Sorrow for Sin

Repentance, in its most basic form, means to be sorry for one’s sins, or to console oneself. Here are two examples:

• “My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you. Therefore, I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes.” (Job 42:55-6).
• Genesis 6:6 The LORD was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart.

Step 2: Turn Away from Sin

In some instances, repent means to stop doing something sinful, or to turn away from it, but with no command to turn back to God.  This can be viewed as the second step one should take to repent. An example is Ezekiel 14:6:

• “Therefore say to the house of Israel, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD, “Repent and turn away from your idols and turn your faces away from all your abominations.“‘

Step 3: Turn Back/Return to God

In some verses, repentance means not only to turn away from something sinful, but also to turn back or return to God. 

• In Hosea 14, God tells Israel to return (in repentance) to Him for they have stumbled and fallen because of their sin. They are to confess their guilt and return to God and say “take away all our wickedness.”
• Jeremiah 8:4-5   ⁴ “Say to them, ‘This is what the LORD says: “‘When men fall down, do they not get up? When a man turns away, does he not return (“repent” according to the NAU version)?  ⁵ Why then have these people turned away? Why does Jerusalem always turn away? They cling to deceit; they refuse to return. 

This view of repentance is consistent with Strong’s definition of the Hebrew word for repent, bWv, shub (שוב),which means to “turn back, return.”  The standard that people were to follow in the Old Testament was to obey God and His commandments.  If people disobeyed, and thus did something sinful, they would have turned away from Him.  When this took place, God wanted them to turn back or return to Him (thus repent).   

Turning back to God and away from sin was something the Israelites were to take seriously.  It was not a casual, “Oops, I made a mistake, I’ll try to do better” attitude.  They were to express great sorrow over their sin, and then return to God “with all of their heart.” This can be seen in Joel 2 and 1 Kings. 

• ‘Even now,’ declares the LORD, ‘return (Hebrew word here is the same for repent) to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning.‘  ¹³ Rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the LORD your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity.
• 1 Kings 8:48 says to “return with all their heart and with all their soul…”

Returning to God with all of their heart (and soul) meant turning back to Him entirely – with their mind, will and emotions.

When turning back to God, there is some indication that the Israelites were to replace what sin they had committed (such as “evil” in Job 36:10 and “detestable practices” in Ezekiel 14:6) with something good, right or pleasing to Him, as shown in the following verses:

• Jeremiah 34:15   ¹⁵ Recently you repented and did what is right in my sight: Each of you proclaimed freedom to his countrymen. You even made a covenant before me in the house that bears my Name. 
• Ezekiel 18:27 Again, when a wicked man turns away from his wickedness which he has committed and practices justice and righteousness, he will save his life.  

This view of repentance is found in the TWOT (Hebrew) Lexicon, which defines the Hebrew word for repent as “turning from evil and turning to the good.”

Step 4: Reform Your Life?

However, there appears to be one more aspect to the word repent, and I believe it gets to the heart of what this term really means. 

Up to this point, we know that repentance starts with acknowledging sin and expressing sorrow over it, and then it moves to turning to God with all of one’s heart and possibly replacing the bad deed with something good or right in God’s sight. This should be done when a person sins.

However, there’s a bigger picture view that the Israelites (and we by extension) need to take, and that is this: repentance should not be viewed on an individual sin-by-sin basis; rather, the main intent or purpose of repentance is to reform one’s way of life.  It is a complete change in how one lives…from living in an evil, sinful way that pleases selfish, sensual and other desires, to living in a holy way that pleases God.  In Psalm 1 and elsewhere, God’s people are separate into two camps: the wicked, and the righteous. God wanted Israel to turn away from a wicked way of life to a righteous way of life. Here are other supporting examples.

• In Amos, the Israelites were oppressing the poor and robbing them of justice, drinking wine in abundance, and worshiping idols, so God punished them over and over to get them to return (in repentance) to Him, and to seek Him and good, not evil, (5:14) so that they would live. God wanted a major change in lifestyle from them.
• In Jonah, upon hearing Jonah’s warning, the people of Nineveh believed and trusted in God, proclaimed a fast, put on sack cloth and mourned. The king commanded all people to call on God earnestly and forcefully that each may turn from his wicked way and violence. When God saw their deeds – that they had turned from their wicked way – He relented. Here we see a complete change in the lifestyle of the Ninevites in response to repenting and believing.
• And in Zechariah, God recounted when He wanted Jews from an earlier time to “Repent and return now from your evil way and from your evil deeds.” We see that God wanted them to have a complete change in their lifestyle – away from evil and back to Him in obedience.

IF this understanding of repentance is correct, then it begs the question: What does God want?  What is pleasing to Him? 

From a review of the Old Testament, here are some of the things that God wants:  

• With regard to God: We are to love Him with all of our heart, soul and strength; we are to trust and obey Him; we are to worship and honor Him; praise and glorify Him; and fear and serve Him.
• With regard to Others: We are to show people mercy and kindness; we are to judge people fairly; and we should care for widows, orphans and the poor.
• With regard to Ourselves: We are to obey the 10 commandments; love good and hate evil; do good (deeds) and be holy; practice righteousness and justice.  

Summary

In the Old Testament, God wanted the people of Israel to repent so that they would turn away from their sinful deeds and turn back to God to obey Him. Turning back or returning to God was to be done with all of one’s heart after expressing deep sorrow over the sin of offending and disobeying God. The goal of repentance was not simply to stop committing certain sins here and there. Rather, it was to reform one’s way of life – from a sinful way focused on self to a holy way focused on God. It was to change one’s life to loving God and praising and serving Him; showing mercy and kindness to others, especially the widows and orphans and the poor; and obeying God’s 10 commandments and other requirements.

In the New Testament, you will see that repentance shares a similar meaning but takes on even greater importance than in the Old Testament. In fact, we are commanded to repent, and there are dire consequences for those who don’t.

If you want to learn more about what repentance means in the New Testament, please read my next post, What does it Mean to Repent? Part 2 (New Test.).