Salvation Summaries

Luke 13:3 I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish.

Repentance is an important part of becoming saved and living the Christian life, 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 not grab our attention?  Should we not seek to know everything about this word so that we can be sure we have done it (and continue to)?

To understand what repentance means, I looked up its use in both the Old and New Testaments. I also consulted a few dictionaries, lexicons and commentaries. In this post, I’ll show you want it meant to repent in the Old Testament, and in the next post its use in the New Testament.

Let me mention that this study of repentance was an “eye opener” for me. I thought I understood what it meant and its significance, but I did not. What I learned about repentance overall, but mainly from its use in the New Testament, changed how I live my life, and I think it will affect your life too. In fact, of all the posts I’ve written over the past 10 years, this one (parts 1 and 2) on repentance and the next one on what our purpose in life is have had the greatest impact on my spiritual and daily life.

Repentance in the Old Testament

The word “repent” is not mentioned that much in the Old Testament – only 19 times using the NIV translation. This surprised me given how rebellious the people of Israel were towards God. One would think that the authors would have said it repeatedly, but what I found was that the authors used the terms “obey” and “turn away” much more often, and both of these relate to repentance.

The word repent in used in several different ways in the Old Testament, and I’ve shown this below in order of its most basic or limited meaning to its real purpose.

1. Sorrow for Sin

In a few instances, repent means to be sorry for one’s sins, or to console oneself. An example of this in the book of Job: “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).

2. Turn Away from Sin

In several instances, repent means to stop doing something sinful, or to turn away from it, but with no command to turn back to God.  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.“‘

To turn away from something means to acknowledge that what you did is sinful, and express sorrow over having committed it (Jeremiah 8:6). 

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

Turning away from sin and turning back to God 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 following verses in Joel (2:12-13)   ¹² ‘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.

Returning to God with all of your heart meant turning back to Him with all of one’s mind and emotions and will. It was recommitting yourself to Him and deciding to obey Him again.

In addition, when turning back to God, 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 two 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 consistent with the TWOT (Hebrew) Lexicon, which defines the Hebrew word for repent as “turning from evil and turning to the good.”

4. Reform One’s Way of Life

However, there appears to be just a little more 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 replacing the bad deed with something good or right in God’s sight.

But repentance should not be viewed on an individual sin-by-sin basis. Rather, the main intent of repentance, from what I understand, is to reform one’s way of life.  It is changing how one lives…from living in a sinful way that pleases self, to living in a holy way that pleases God.  I base this view on the following verses:

• Jeremiah 5:3-4   ³ O LORD, do not your eyes look for truth? You struck them, but they felt no pain; you crushed them, but they refused correction. They made their faces harder than stone and refused to repent.  ⁴ I thought, “These are only the poor; they are foolish, for they do not know the way of the LORD, the requirements of their God. 
• Jeremiah 18:11 “…Turn back, each of you from his evil way; correct your habits and change your actions for the better.” 
• Zechariah 1:4, Thus says the LORD of hosts, “Repent and return now from your evil way (of life) and from your evil deeds.”

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 God wants:  

• With regard to God: We are to love Him with all of our heart, soul and strength; trust Him; obey Him; worship and honor Him; praise and glorify Him; fear and serve Him.
• With regard to Others: we are to show people mercy and kindness; judge people fairly; and 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 not only from each sin they had committed, but from their sinful way of life. Repentance was necessary to get the people of Israel to turn away from all of their sinful deeds and turn back to God to get right with 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 for Israel to live in a way that pleased God. This meant loving God and praising and serving Him; it meant showing mercy and kindness to others, especially the widows and orphans and the poor; and it meant obeying God’s 10 commandments and living a holy life.

In the New Testament, you will see that repentance 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.

You will also see that the aim of repentance is not simply a change of mind about sin; it is a radical decision a person makes at the point of their conversion – to do away with their old, sinful way of life and replace it with a completely new way of life (which can be done with the help of the Holy Spirit) – and it is also a daily decision to keep getting back on the right track with God after we go off track from sinning.

What God wanted from Israel in the Old Testament and what He wants from Gentiles and Jews in the New Testament is essentially the same – look towards Me and live a holy and blameless life; love others and have compassion on them (especially other believers); and perform good deeds.

It is a changed way of life that God wants from us, not merely a profession of faith in Him. Repentance, as you will learn, is just as important as faith, and without genuine repentance, a person is not saved. That is why it’s imperative for you, and those you care about, to fully understand what repentance means, and to ensure that you, and they, have truly repented.