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Repentance, part 1

Hebrews 6:1 identifies “repentance from dead works” as part of the “milk” of the word, which long-time believers ought to have mastered. We have already covered the second example of such milk, which is “faith in God.”

I have found that most believers have just enough knowledge of the milk to get by, but not enough to really understand properly the “meat” of the word, as it is called in Hebrews 5:12 KJV. So it is needful to do a more thorough study of the milk to provide the background for deeper studies of the meat.

The Hebrew Words for Repentance

There are two main words in the Hebrew Old Testament that are translated “repent.” The first is nakam, “to regret, be sorry, console, comfort;” the second is shoob, “to turn or return.”

Numbers 23:19 says,

¹⁹ God is not a man, that He should lie, nor a son of man, that He should repent [naham]; Has He said, and will He not do it? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?

Being God means never having to say, “I’m sorry.” Every word that comes out of His mouth will come to pass, because His word “calls into being that which does not exist” (Romans 4:17). Existence itself depends on His word.

Naham is also used twice in Isaiah 40:1,

¹ “Comfort [naham], O comfort [naham] My people,” says your God.

This is the root word for “Comforter” and is the word from which the New Testament idea of the Comforter comes. (See John 14:26 KJV.) In Lamentations 1:9 we read that when Jerusalem was destroyed by Babylon, the prophet laments that “she has no comforter.” This suggests that the Comforter had not yet come, nor, indeed, were the people sorry for their sins. As a whole, they were sorry or regretful only that their city had been destroyed and that they had been taken into captivity to Babylon.

The other Hebrew word translated “repent” is shoob. It is usually translated “return” or “turn.” To repent is to change course and to return to the godly path. Isaiah 9:13 says,

¹³ Yet the people do not turn [shoob] back to Him who struck them, nor do they seek the Lord of hosts.

To repent, then, is a change of mind or a change of heart. It is a new way of thinking that results in a change of behavior. If such repentance is brought about by divine revelation of the Spirit (as it should), then the result is a change of nature that better aligns with the nature of God Himself. To have justifying faith is, as Paul tells us, not a matter of works, but yet such faith results in works—a change in behavior—for James 2:17 tells us,

¹⁷ Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself.

Again, we read in James 2:22,

²² You see that faith was working with his [Abraham’s] works, and as a result of the works, faith was perfected [i.e., telioo, finished, completed].

So if faith produces no change in the life of a believer, then it is “dead,” as James says. It has no life-giving quality. Genuine faith, then, results in repentance and a change in one’s outlook in life as well as one’s behavior. For this reason, I have chosen to study faith first and repentance second, even though Hebrews 6:1 lists repentance first and faith second.

The Greek Word for Repentance

Matthew 3:2 says,

² Repent [metanoeo], for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

The Greek word metanoeo is from meta, “with,” and noeo, “perception, understanding.” True repentance is not possible without understanding what actions and attitudes should be changed. Repentance goes beyond an emotional feeling of being sorry. When John the Baptist and Jesus called for repentance, there is no doubt that they gave specific examples of change that needed to be made.

How to Repent

The law of God is the expression of His nature and is the righteous standard for the universe. But mankind is mortal and corruptible and is not capable of fully living up to its standard. This is why faith is important, for faith imputes righteousness to the unrighteous (Romans 4:3 KJV), God calling what is not as though it were (Romans 4:17 KJV).

God never expected the law to make anyone righteous, for changing one’s behavior could not change anyone’s nature. This is the great weakness of the law—not that the law is unrighteous but that man’s heart is unrighteous. The law demands that we conform to His nature, but it does not empower us to meet those demands. Instead, the Holy Spirit is required to work within one’s heart and to write His laws upon our hearts (Hebrews 8:10).

The problem in Jesus’ day (and in our own time) is that even the religious leaders had developed incorrect applications of the law. Keep in mind that most of their audience were religious people that had been schooled in the law in every synagogue. Murderers, thieves, and prostitutes were present, no doubt, but they were a small minority. Most of the religious leaders, in fact, felt no need to repent, as they believed they were righteously observing every law. But were they really?

In Matthew 15:1, 2 we read,

¹ Then some Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem and said, ² “Why do Your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat bread.”

There was no law commanding them to wash their hands before eating. It was a tradition based on 2 Kings 3:11, which says, “Elisha the son of Shaphat is here, who used to pour water on the hands of Elijah.” It therefore came to be a tradition to baptize one’s hands to cleanse them ceremonially before eating. This was done by pouring water over their hands. Yet there was no law commanding the people to do this, nor did any of the later prophets interpret the law in such a manner.

Jesus’ response came in Matthew 15:3-6,

³ And He answered and said to them, “Why do you yourselves transgress the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition? ⁴ For God said, “Honor your father and mother,” and “He who speaks evil of father or mother is to be put to death [Leviticus 20:9].” ⁵ But you say, “Whoever says to his father or mother, ‘Whatever I have that would help you has been given to God’, ⁶ he is not to honor his father or his mother.” And by this you invalidated the word of God for the sake of your tradition.

It appears that the religious leaders had elevated the principle of giving offerings to such importance that those offerings often superseded the needs of their parents at home. Offerings were supposed to be “freewill offerings” (Leviticus 23:38 KJV), that is, voluntary. Yet the ruling of the elders said that it was a righteous act to give God [i.e., the temple] that which one’s father or mother needed. This, Jesus said, violated the Fifth Commandment.

Jesus concluded in Matthew 15:7-9,

⁷ You hypocrites, rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you [in Isaiah 29:13], ⁸ “This people honors Me with their lips, but their heart is far away from Me. ⁹ But in vain do they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the precepts of men.”

This was one example of lawlessness that showed their need for repentance.

Another major example is in their attitude toward non-Jews. The law commanded the people to treat them as equals before the law. Numbers 15:15, 16 commands,

¹⁵ As for the assembly, there shall be one statute for you and for the alien who sojourns with you, a perpetual statute throughout your generations; as you are, so shall the alien be before the Lord. ¹⁶ There shall be one law and one ordinance for you and for the alien who sojourns with you.

The feast days too were to be kept by all people, regardless of ethnicity, as long as they wanted to worship the God of Abraham. So Jesus treated Romans, Greeks, Canaanites, and Samaritans with respect and love, according to the law’s commands. But in doing so, He broke the traditions of the elders.

Even the disciples themselves did not fully grasp this until later. Peter, for example, was led by the Spirit in a vision to minister to Roman troops in the house of a centurion named Cornelius. When the Holy Spirit came upon them, he was surprised. After all, the Holy Spirit had been promised to Israelites, not to foreigners. (So he thought.) We read in Acts 10:44, 45,

⁴⁴ While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell upon all who were listening to the message. ⁴⁵ All the circumcised believers who came with Peter were amazed, because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the Gentiles also.

If these Jewish believers had but understood Deuteronomy 16:10-12, they would not have had any reason to be so surprised. There we read of the Feast of Weeks, later called by the Greek term Pentecost.

¹⁰ Then you shall celebrate the Feast of Weeks to the Lord your God… ¹¹ and the stranger [gar, “alien”] and the orphan… ¹² You shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt, and you shall be careful to observe these statutes.

All were commanded to keep the Feast of Weeks (Pentecost), including non-Jews. Yet the Jews accompanying Peter were surprised when the Spirit came upon Gentiles. No doubt that day a spirit of repentance came upon them. Their minds were changed, and hopefully, they began to understand the Impartial God of Israel, even as we read in Acts 10:34, 35,

³⁴ Opening his mouth, Peter said: “I most certainly understand now that God is not one to show partiality, ³⁵ but in every nation the man who fears Him and does what is right is welcome to Him.”

In Jesus’ day and even in the early church, there was great need for repentance so that men would understand the Impartial God. He is not only the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; He is the God of the whole earth (Isaiah 54:5 KJV).