Three Steps of Repentance

Acts 26:19-20 – “Therefore, O King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision, but declared first to those in Damascus, then in Jerusalem and throughout all the region of Judea, and also to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, performing deeds in keeping with their repentance.

In Christian circles, there is a lot of terminology tossed around whose meanings are known but not expressed in a clear fashion.  For example, we use words like grace, mercy, propitiation, atonement, sanctification, and the like.  Most times, we have an idea of what the word means, but no real understanding to what it actually represents.  This is what some people call Christianese.  One word that is used a lot but not explained is the word repentance.  We tell people to repent and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ to be saved, but we never really explain what the Bible means by the word repent.  (Quick Note:  Repentance does not save you, but repentance is the action by which you realize your salvation.  When Christ died for your sins on the cross, He saved you completely and all; the work was finished.  But to accept this salvation, repentance is key, for how can you be saved from sin and to a right relationship to God, if you don’t repent?)  In our passage today, Paul, when he was defending himself before King Agrippa, actually describes the three steps that should be seen in true repentance – 1) Repent (Turn away from sin), 2) Turn to God, and 3) Perform actions in keeping with repentance.

The first step in repentance is probably the most obvious – turn away from sin.  The Greek word for repentance is the word metanoeo which means “to change one’s mind.”  This word usually signified a change of choice, wherein one intentionally turned away from his previous mindset to something different.  It was a purposeful change.  This is in contrast to its Greek relative metamellomai which usually referred to an emotional change due to regret or remorse.^[1] Metanoeo is the Greek word from which we probably derived metamorphosis, the complete change of a caterpillar into a butterfly to which it can no longer return to its former state.  True repentance requires a changing of one’s mindset of sin to something completely different.  It requires a turning away from sin – its lifestyle and actions.  It is described as making a 180° turn, where you completely change directions.  In the Bible, one example that illustrates repentance is with Lot’s wife.  Lot was the nephew of Abraham who ended up living in Sodom.  He and his wife were then warned of the destruction and sweeped away to safety.  Unfortunately, as they were running, instead of the wife continuing forward away from Sodom, she turned around and looked back, which caused her instantly to turn into a pillar of salt as punishment.  If she had a heart of true repentance, she would have not turned back, but instead continued to move forward; but she must have still loved her sin and the pleasures that came with it so much that she had to turn back.  That is not true repentance.  To repent means to turn away and change one’s mind.  So when Paul mentioned repent here, he meant for those who call themselves Christians to turn away from sin.  We as disciples of Jesus Christ must make the purposeful choice to turn away from sin.

The second step in repentance is to turn to God.  It is a great first step to turn away from sin, but it means very little when there is no positive to replace it.  It is like breaking a bad habit; when you do so, if you don’t quickly develop a good one in replace of it, you will just replace it with another bad habit.  Haven’t you noticed those people who break addictions to drugs or alcohol?  In most cases, if they don’t find some type of positive replacement, they either fall right back into it or just change the addiction.  Why do you think most of these “quit smoking” patches wean you off of nicotine slowly?  It is not only because it is hard to quit cold turkey, but it must be so that a person can build replacement habits.  Jesus taught this principle in Luke 11:24-26, when He spoke of a person who had an unclean spirit removed from his life but never replaced it with the Holy Spirit.  Soon after, the unclean spirit saw that the heart was still empty and just came back bringing with himself “seven other spirits more evil than itself.”  The case of the person just became worse than it was in the beginning.  That is why it is so important that when you repent (turn away from sin), you turn to God.  You need to replace sin with things that are holy like prayer, Bible reading, and sharing the Gospel.  We need to make sure that when we repent, we change our direction not in any other way but to God.  It is so quick and easy for disciples of Christ to realize their idolatry with some item and destroy it.  But if they don’t replace the idol with God, they quickly just find another idol.  Returning to the example of Lot, we see that he illustrates this point.  After running from Sodom, instead of, running back to Abraham or into the mountains like God asked them to, Lot begged that the Lord grant him safety at Zoar, a small but still wicked town near Sodom.  All he did was replace a wicked place for another “less wicked” place.  In the end, his choice led to some pretty difficult situations.  In repentance, we make the 180° turn not only away from sin but back to God.  What have you been doing to fill your heart and life with God today?

Lastly, repentance requires proof.  In the book of James (specifically 2:14-26), James, the brother of Jesus, describes how faith without works is dead.  He was not in any way pushing that doing good works was required for salvation, because it isn’t, but that stating you have faith in Jesus Christ and not having that show up in your life through good works is a good indication that your faith was never really there.  He was simply saying, “Prove your faith.”  In the same way, Paul was telling those he shared the Gospel with that it was not so much that you only turn away from sin and turn to God but that now you need to show that changed mindset through your actions.  Ephesians 2:8-10 states, “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves:  it is the gift of God:  Not of works, lest any man should boast.  For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.”  These few verses not only share the simple Gospel of salvation through Jesus Christ by grace through faith but remind all believers that even when you are saved it does not stop there but continues to a life of discipleship and service through good works to the glory of God.  If you say that you are turning away from sin, you must physically do it.  It makes no sense to say that you are quitting an addiction to pornography but continue to revel in it.  It makes no sense to say that you are going to stop stealing but continue to take company pens and time.  It makes no sense to say that you are giving up an idol only to replace it with another one.  Instead, prove your repentance by showing it out in your life by living a new life created in Christ Jesus.    Like Jerry Maguire said, “Show me the money.”  Repentance without works is dead.

Repentance is actually quite simple to define but hard to put into practice – 1)  Turn away from sin, 2)  Turn to God, 3)  Prove it.  Even we as disciples of Jesus Christ will continue to struggle with it, but every time we confess and repent of our sins, let us remember these three points and apply them to our lives. 2 Corinthians 5:17 explains it best, “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature:  old things are passed away (Step 1 of Repentance); behold, all things are become new (Step 2,3 of Repentance).”  Repentance is the changing of the old sinful nature to the new holy nature of Christ.  Do you have any sin to repent of?  Do so today.

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^[1] Strong, J. (2001). Enhanced Strong’s Lexicon. Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software.