There are many facets to repentance, and I have written about the subject of repentance before. The following thoughts, however, provide three similar, but different, views on the subject, and I do not believe one is particularly more true than another. But the three together will give a reader a comprehensive view of the topic and hopefully broaden their perspective of it too. There are some aspects of repentance as presented here that may be easier for some to believe and accept than are others. It may be that a reader has not thought very deeply about the subject of repentance at all. Repentance is a universal requirement because as “Big Bird” quipped: “Everyone makes mistakes. Oh, yes, they do! Your sister and your brother and your dad and mother, too. Big people, small people, matter of fact, all people! Everyone makes mistakes, so why can’t you?” It is hard to think about our mother’s making mistakes, at least the kind that she has to repent of but it is most probably true unless she was “Mother Teresa-like.”
The first view of repentance: I used to think, as many others obviously do, that repentance is a hard, long, drawn out process. By saying that, I do not mean that I think it is easy. It is never really easy to change, because in the case of repentance, we have to be sincere and truthful. It is very painful to begin admitting and to innumerate our weaknesses and errors. We have to identify what and where our behavior has been connected to and identified with the Lord’s laws. If we can agree that the Lord’s way is such that we are willing to give up those things that we now, or at one time, had placed value on, maybe to say, “placing value on,” is the wrong term, they were things that we did and apparently thought were OK and enjoyable, things we knew were not approved by the Lord. Because of their value to us, they are not easy to give up. But if we feel that all of those things are worth walking away from and that we can do it in all sincerity and if we should kneel and talk to Him about it, in a sense committing ourselves to it. After a trial period, and we feel successful and able to stick to our com- mitment, then our repentance process may be over. Yes! I believe it can be that fast. Whatever our past has been, our future can be without blemish, or as the scriptures say, “as white as snow.” The other aspect of repentance is the need to forgive ourselves. We can forgive ourselves by realizing that our previous way of life, of doing, of thinking, is not who we are now. Until we realize that, we will be unable to move forward. Know, too, that in this life we will never be perfect because we are constantly being tempted and continuous repentance is necessary.
I was reading from the classic film, “The Lion King,” where Simba was ask to remember who he was, the son of the king. When he was later ask to take his place as king, he hesitated. Then Rafiki, the baboon, advises him: “The past can hurt. But the way I see it, you can either run from it or learn from it.” Given that wise advice, Simba finds the courage to take his rightful place. The several authors used several parable like stories in the Lion King, and this one was meant to represent each one of us. We are all his son and/or daughter (the sons and daughters of the King), and, yes, we have all made errors and come short of the King’s expectations for us. But we might all look back and be reminded of our mistakes; like Simba, “we can either run from or learn from it” (our past), as Rafiki said.
The second view of repentance: This view follows a similar approach as the first but varies somewhat. Does repentance mean that we will be suffering lashes from a “cat o’ nine tails” forever? This is NOT true! One of the best examples is the seemingly rapid transition for Alma. How was Alma the Elder once a wicked priest of Noah who spent his strength with harlots and taught that which was contrary to the law, and then just a short time after his conversion was baptizing hundreds of people at the waters of Mormon? How was it that Ammon and the sons of Mosiah converted thousands of wicked Lamanites after being “the vilest of sinners” who were going about trying to destroy the church? Elder Jeffrey R. Holland clarifies this: “You can change anything you want to change, and you can do it very fast. That’s another Satanic sucker punch—that it takes years and years and eons of eternity to repent. It takes exactly as long to repent as it takes you to say, “I’ll change”—and mean it.” We have to see forgiveness as a tool, a tool that is able to make us stronger and better. Craig Ballantyne put it this way: “Forgive yourself for the mistakes of the past, and smile at past struggles. They are what have made you the stronger person that you are today. Keep onpushing on, positively. Whatever the past has been, you have a spotless future.”
I believe Andy Proctor (current director of “The Returned Missionary”) described repentance similarly. Only he described it as not being the following four things:
(1) Repentance is not Unending Suffering: One of Satan’s big lies is that to repent of something, we will have to suffer…an endless amount of time before we will finally be worthy. More appropriately repentance means “choosing joy.”
(2) Repentance is not Isolation: What did Satan say after Adam and Eve realized their nakedness? He instructed them to hide from Him. Why would we want to hide from God? We NEVER need to isolate ourselves from Him. The more open we can be about our change of heart and behavior, the more help we will get in keeping our commitment.
(3) Repentance is not Self Loathing: “The Apostle Paul taught that “godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation…but the sorrow of the world worketh death.”
President Uchtdorf teaches this masterfully: Godly sorrow inspires change and hope through the Atonement of Jesus Christ. Worldly sorrow pulls us down, extinguishes hope, and persuades us to give in to further temptation. Godly sorrow leads to conversion and a change of heart. It causes us to hate sin and love goodness. It encourages us to stand up and walk in the light of Christ’s love. True repentance is about transformation, not torture or torment.
(4) Repentance is not Shame: No one wants to admit that they aren’t perfect or that they have ever had any problem with anything, ever. Why is there so much shame in being honest about our imperfections? Why is it scary? Why can’t we be more open? If angels rejoice when we decide to repent, then why not us along with them?
Elder D. Todd Christofferson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles stated: “Among the most significant of Jesus Christ’s descriptive titles is Redeemer. Redeem means to pay off an obligation or a debt. Redeem can also mean to rescue or set free as by paying a ransom. Each of these meanings suggests different facets of the great Redemption accomplished by Jesus Christ through His Atonement, which includes, in the words of the dictionary, “to deliver from sin and it’s penalties, as by a sacrifice made for the sinner.”
The third view of repentance: This view of the term takes an altogether different and more liberal approach to the meaning of repentance, maybe even a radical approach. An unknown author with this philosophy stated that repent is likely the most misunderstood word in the Bible today. This description was written in the doctrine of the Hitland, a Paradigm of Kingdom Ministry. The unknown author felt that this misunderstanding can and did actually change the true Gospel of Christ. “Repent” is used many times in the Bible, and the misinterpretation of the term has altered the meaning of every passage of scripture where it was used. According to him, to repent does not mean to quit sinning, to feel sorry for sin, to change your sinful ways before you can be saved, to imply salvation, forgiveness of sin, or imply that we should live a sinless life. The author sought for the true meaning by studying the history of the Greek language.
There have been many translations of Greek in the past, most of which are obsolete now, but in the days of Alexander the Great a number of Greek languages existed. After Alexander had conquered the known world around in 300 BC, he had a problem communicating with the many Greeks under his rule. Rather than learn all of the different types of Greek himself, Alexander invented a Greek language called koine or common Greek. It was common in that all of the Greek speaking world would be required to learn it in order to resolve the communication problem.
This new Greek language was very precise and mathematical in its precision. Every word had a four fold navigational fix. A word, or all words, could have only one meaning. It could have several applications but only one interpretation. As we all know, words in English can have several meanings but not in the Greek koine (pronounced koin-a). It was one word, one meaning. In other words, there was no doubt about what was being said in this language. Eventually, this language became the dominant language of the New Testament.
If you have looked up repent in your handy Bible dictionary, you will likely discover that it gives a definition of everything that I said repent is not. Why is this? Dictionaries get their definitions of words from its common usage. Religions and denominations have distorted the gospel for many years and therefore, the word repent as well. In other words, the writers of a dictionary get the meaning from different religious organizations and give several different meanings of the word in their publication without regards to the original language that it was translated from.
Compound words were very common in the koine Greek and this brings us to our subject.
In the New Testament there are two different Greek words which have been translated repent. This author states: The word repent is an English word. It is an obsolete old English word and means nothing to us today. It was not even used in the Bible until the King James Bible came along in 1611. It was translated from the compound Greek words Metanoeo and Metamelomai. These two words have completely different meanings and remember, in the koine Greek, a word can have only one meaning so how can anyone give one definition or numerous definitions to the word repent? There must be two and only two definitions for repent.
1. Metanoeo. This is a compound word. “Meta” means change; “noeo” means thinking. This word is derived from “nous” which
means mind. So, metanoeo means to “change your mind.”
2. Metamelomai. This is also a compound word. “Meta” means change.
“mellamai” means emotions. It means to have a “change of emotions.”
Some brilliant mind somewhere along the way added “of sin” and came up with the moronic phrase “repent of your sins,” and someone else added “and be saved” and came up with “repent of your sins and be saved.” This is a false gospel because it leaves out two things: faith and Jesus Christ. People who use the phrase “repent of your sins as a condition preceding salvation or as forgiveness of sin” are either ignorant or are intentionally teaching a false gospel.
Anywhere metanoeo is translated repent you can substitute “change your mind,” and the verse will make sense. If you are thinking “of sins” after you see repent the whole gospel message shifts from accepting the free gift of God to something you have to do as a condition of salvation.
Of course no one can turn away from sin completely. You can minimize sin in your life, and you should, but to turn away from sin in total is impossible. The Apostle Paul tells us: “Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lust thereof.” (Romans 6:12) Paul is not telling us here that we must quit sinning completely; he is saying that we should not let it rule our lives.
“If we say that we (Christians) have no sin we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us” (1 John 1:8) John in that statement was speaking to Christians and included himself as having sin.
In 2 Corinthians 7, the word metanoeo is used in verse 9 and 10. Read verse 10 carefully: “For Godly sorrow WORKETH repentance (metanoeo—a change of mind) to salvation”… Notice that “Godly sorrow” is not repentance, but rather it works to repentance. In other words, a person can become sorrowful of his sinful ways and then repent (change his mind about Christ). Jesus Christ is always the object of salvation, not turning away, refraining, quitting or whatever of sin. In Mark 1:15, Jesus said speaking to unbelievers in Galilee. “Repent (metanoeo change your mind), and believe the Gospel.” It tells us right here what we are to change our mind about—the Gospel, not our sins. He was speaking to unbelievers who did not believe the gospel. We are condemned because of unbelief not because of our sins: “He that believeth on him is not condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned already BECAUSE he has not believed in the name of the uniquely born Son of God.” ( John 3:18)
Since we are condemned because of unbelief, does it not follow that we should turn from our unbelieving mind and not our sins? We are not condemned because of sin. Sins are forgiven when we believe in Christ. Repenting of sin prior to salvation is meaningless because God will not forgive an unbeliever of his sins until he believes. Changing your mind about Christ is repenting, which is salvation.
When someone tries to add “repenting of sin” or emotionalism to the free gift of God, he is saying that what Jesus Christ did for us is not enough. We cannot do anything about our sin. This is why Jesus Christ had to die on the cross as a substitute for us.
“The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Romans 6:23) Repenting of sins is a human work as is becoming emotional. Works will not save us because the payment for sin is (spiritual) death. Works are not spiritual death, therefore it is not salvation.
If all you have done is to repent of your sins, you are not saved. If you are a believer in Jesus Christ and you expect to be forgiven of your personal sins by repenting, you have not been and you are not living the spiritual life. For a believer to regain fellowship with God, he must confess his sin to God the Father. We must search our souls and name each sin. (1 John 1:9) Salvation comes by faith in Christ alone. Believing is a non-meritorious act and requires nothing of us except a change of mind.
“And by him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses.” (Acts 13:39)
“That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God has raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believes unto righteousness; and with the mouth’s confession is made unto salvation. (Romans 10:9–10)
My Summary: This third view is in reality trying to prove justification for the doctrine of being saved by “Grace Alone” without regard to works. Many with that philosophy will go so far as to say you can be a terrible person and be saved as long as you believe and confess that Jesus is the Christ. The problem with that statement is that Satan, himself will confess that Jesus is the Christ, and Satan has no chance of being saved. Many scriptures also refer to the importance of works, i.e. “Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar?” (Abraham 2:20), and in Alma: “And Amulek hath spoken plainly concerning death, and being raised from this mortality to a state of immortality, and being brought before the bar of God, to be judged according to our works.” (Alma 12:12) I like what Paul said to the Romans as well: “What then? Shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid.” (Romans 6:15) I believe that and know in my heart that both faith and works are important for us to be saved. We must strive to do good works, and at the same time, works alone will not save us, for Christ died to satisfy justice and that is His grace, a gift to us that only He could give. We can be in agreement with one aspect of the third review and that is that we should not focus on our sins but rather focus on Christ. President Hinckley said: “There will be no survivors amongst those who constantly focus on the sin to get rid of it. He said, “Imagine yourself swimming in the ocean saying to yourself, “Don’t think about sharks. What are you thinking about? SHARKS! And it is probably paralyzing you from actually focusing on swimming to safety. Even if the sharks are all around you, you still need to focus on the way out, not the sharks themselves.” Focus on the highest in you. Don’t focus on the sin. Where was your attention? True repentance does NOT mean focusing on the sin.”
Elder Packer agreed, as well, by saying that instead of focusing our attention on the sin or the unwanted behavior, you focus your attention on doctrine and truth: “The study of doctrines of the gospel will improve behavior quicker than a study of behavior will improve behavior. Preoccupation with unworthy behavior can lead to unworthy behavior.” Paul, too, agreed with that idea by saying; “Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body.”
Let us follow Gordon B. Hinckley’s advice and “stop seeking out the storms and enjoy more fully the sunlight.”
“In the end, just three things matter: how well we have lived, how well we have loved, how well we have learned to let go.” —Jack Kornfield
The subject of repentance has a lot to think about, I know, but it is a subject of great importance to all, as we all need to understand what repentance means to us individually. Most people have never thought of repentance as it is described here and from so many different views. Let us focus on Jesus Christ and His great love for us, His sacrifice in our behalf, and our desire to live as He did will be strengthened. God bless us to that end.