What is repentance?
Where does God define it for us?
Do you always hear pastors or other Christians say “repent!” and wonder, just a bit, “what exactly is repentance?”
There’s a common definition of repentance, you would get some variation of: “repentance is changing your mind, changing your behavior.” That’s a fine sentence, but where is the Scripture? They might point you to Luke 3:8-14 or Acts 26:20. But if you ask, “what is the Scriptural definition of repentance? Where in Scripture are we given a definition?” you won’t get anything satisfactory at all. You may get some examples of people repenting, or usually you’ll get places where the word “repent” occurs in a verse, but you do not get a definition.
I don’t like it or trust it when someone gives me the ‘traditional’ answer to something and can’t back it up from Scripture. If you can’t draw a line back to God’s authority for a concept, that is very dangerous. I don’t accept, either, that the definition of repentance is ‘self-evident’ or ‘obvious.’
Repentance is hugely important, and on that basis I refuse to accept that God did not plainly define it for us somewhere. So, where did he do that? I looked far and wide, and did a very long study of Psalms, and found, at last, a biblical definition of repentance! Psalm 51 has it, specifically in verses 7-15:
· 7-9 tell us you need to have a longing to be right with God
· 10-12 say you need a commitment to newness of life
· 13-15 reveal you need to share the truth of this
The first thing is that it’s not as simple as ‘changing your mind.’ It’s turning towards God, it’s God focused, not just “I did a bad thing I shouldn’t do bad things.” There’s a richness of nuance in the true definition and perspective that is lost in the common view. Further, sharing what God has done for you and your repentance is not something we’re typically told is part of the deal! Darkness is defeated when it’s brought into the light, and a helping loving community is an assumption of the believer’s life. There’s a lot more I could unpack in that section, but I encourage you to study these verses for yourself.