Episode 70 - Defining Repentance

 Tim Hello and welcome to the unveiling. We're glad you're here. Whether you're a first time listener or you've been here before, always a pleasure to have you. This is episode 70 and it is titled, defining. Repentance. Hello, mark. How are you? Mark Pretty good, Tim, how are you doing today? Tim I'm doing great. It's good to see you. I noticed we're missing somebody quite conspicuously. Mark There seems to be a strange silence and it's almost like, almost like we have time to talk now. What could be, Tim well, for those of you who haven't figured it out, Ajai. Is not here with us tonight. He is off traveling and no amount of rescheduling was gonna make this work. So Mark and I are gonna take off with this subject, which means a lot less argument cuz Mark and I are always in one lock Spirit step. So yeah, Mark Ajais kinda like our training wheels, keeps us from wiping out, keeps us steady and stable. So we'll see what happens tonight Tim. Tim Well Mark, despite my fear that I'm gonna make this an extremely short episode, defining repentance, I did something silly and went straight to Websters and looked up the word repent. And interestingly enough, it has. Two or three minor variation definitions. The first one is to turn from sin and dedicate oneself to the amendment of one's life. We'll get, hold on. Hold on. Okay. And the other one says, to feel, regret or contrition. And then the last one says, To change one's mind. Now, you've said this in podcasts in the past, and I'm not gonna steal your thunder, but I am gonna mention that the word in Greek is Metanoia and it means to change your mind. So, but when the church, I've been taught my whole life, Repent means more that first definition to turn from sin and dedicate oneself to the amendment of one's life. So that sounds like confessing my sin, asking forgiveness, and then, you know, pulling myself up by my bootstraps, putting my shoulder to the wheel and working hard to not sin no more.So, so why? What makes you think not right? Mark Well, I think. To be more correct. The problem isn't the word. Repentance. There's nothing wrong with repentance. Repentance is awesome actually when you know what the correct definition is. Okay? And unfortunately in this day and age Most churches have it wrong.I'm sorry. I don't mean to be getting in the face of theologians and pastors, but , I think it was Luther who said that a peasant armed with scripture has got greater authority than a pope or a church council. Who are just speaking of their own opinions. So hopefully we're leaning on scripture here, Tim and our listeners can decide from themselves what the scriptures tell us about repentance. No, but that's the key there. It's how you define the word. As you mentioned, Tim let's, let's dig into that a little bit because I have Mark Sure. Tim I've got to say that I, and I did look this up today just to be sure I was right between the old and the New Testament, at least in the King James version of the Bible, the word repent and several of its you know, repentance, repenting it's, it's in the Bible 105 times, I believe that's 45 times in the Old Testament and 60 times in the New Testament. Mark Mm-hmm. Tim And the phrase repent from sin or anything like that doesn't actually appear anywhere. So I'm already confused. Mark Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, that's the key, Tim. It does occur under the old covenant, but that's the law because you have to get rid of the sin in your life if you're going to follow that law. But the problem is none of us can do that. We can do it for a day or for a minute, or if you're me, 30 seconds maybe. But the point is, the standard is keeping that from birth to death perfectly. Once you get to the new covenant, and, and I always say that it's a great day to live right now cuz you can go into an online Bible and you have, you just type in a word and it brings that word up every single time through the Bible. , and what is preach now and how many, our listeners, I'm sure they've heard this. If they've ever gone to church many, many times you'll hear the sermon telling you that you need to repent of your sin and put your faith in God. Repent of sin and turn to God. Nowhere in the New Testament, new covenant, as you mentioned, Tim, does it say even once that we are to repent of our sin, what it does say. Over and over again is repent for the forgiveness of sins. Now that's a big difference and I came up with this little way of putting it here. We don't repent of sin for forgiveness. We repent for forgiveness of sin. The difference is the first one, if you've gotta first get rid of your sin. Before you can be forgiven, before you can turn to God, then you can't turn to God and you can't be forgiven cuz you have to do it perfectly. But thankfully, that's not what scripture tells us. Mark one four. Luke three. Three. Luke 24 47. Acts 2 38. Acts three 19. I'm not gonna read 'em all, but there are a ton of places where it tells us to repent. For the forgiveness of sin. Not once does it say repent of sin for forgiveness. Okay. And thank God that it doesn't say that because we can't do it. Tim You just rattled off a list of verses that I was planning to bring up and now Mark Well, that doesn't mean you can't bring them up too. And, and, and one other point I wanted to make that , when John the Baptist came preparing the way for the Christ, he preached a message of repentance for the forgiveness of sin.Once again, those two little words of and for you, get 'em backwards. The whole message is backwards and there is no hope. So that's what John the Baptist preached. He didn't say, repent of your sin, and then God will forgive you. He said, repent for the forgiveness of sins. Same thing with Peter. On the day of Pentecost, Jerusalem was filled with. Jews coming there from all different nations, all different tongues, and the spirit was given to believers that day. Peter stood up among all the disciples in the streets with thousands looking, and he preached. He said these words, in Acts three 19, he said, repent then and turn to God so that your sins may be wiped out. That times of refreshing may come from the Lord. Now, what he didn't say and what modern churches say is he didn't say repent. Wipe out your sins, then turn to God so times the refreshing may come. No, it's the turning to God first, because we can't do it by our power.In fact, the only hope we ever have of sin diminishing in our lives is taking our own eyes off of trying to get rid of sin and fixing the gaze of our soul on Christ. Leaving it there and living in his spirit, who over time will transform us into his image. And as we become more like Christ sin just naturally, or better yet supernaturally dissipates in our life.So when we tell people they gotta get rid of their sin first, you're keeping him from the only way, the only person that can do that. Tim Yeah. Agreed. And that that little distinction, two words. What is it you said? Repent… Mark We repent for forgiveness of sin. We don't repent of sin for forgiveness.That's a work that would be works if you had to stop all your sinning before you're forgiven. Tim But those two little words completely rearrange what is it? Your call, your, your. Hundred 80 degree.. Factor. Mark Yeah. It's the hundred hundred 80 degree factor, and it almost always leads back to an incorrect understanding of the law and of the gospel.The law says repent of your sin. For the, forgiveness, grace, the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Faith in Him alone says, repent for forgiveness of sin and repent. Remember, it means to change your mind. It's take a new outlook. It's, it's changing your mind about who God is, how he feels about humanity. Who I am. What is my status with him before faith in him? Who am I now that I have put my faith in him? When you don't understand those basic tenets of the gospel, you tend to get things 180 degrees wrong. Tim Well, I will say this, there's a little story in Matthew 21 that Jesus told that gives me what I think is the clearest Context for what repent means because he's telling the story of the well, let me, it's gonna be faster to read it than explain it.So this is verse 28. In Matthew 21, but what, think you. A certain man had two sons and he came to the first and said, son, go to work today in my vineyard. He answered and said, I will not, but afterward he repented and went, He didn't go to dad and he, he repented and went. So in other words, repent. If it means change your mind, he changed his mind and he left. He didn't go to dad. Oh, I'm sorry. I've sinned against you. Forgive me, make me whole. He just went, no, I changed my mind. I'm out. I'm gone. I'm doing it. Mark Yep. Change of mind. Tim It's that metanoia right there too. The same word. Mark Absolutely. Absolutely. And I another little point is the way that it's incorrectly translated is from the word panaticia. Tim Yeah. Mark Which means penance. It means to do acts of contrition. It means to feel bad about your sin, to grovel over it, to go give money and to go do works or to say, a thousand, our fathers to make up for it. That's penaticia, that's the wrong word for repentance though. Metanoia is the correct word. Tim Yeah. Repentance I believe is very closely related to punishment and, you know, that's, that's not, Jesus never says I'm going to punish you anywhere, ever. So, no. That's a bad translation of that word. Okay. So , there's a lot of verses that like you said, you rattled off a couple at the beginning and I'd encourage everybody to go look those up. But acts 20:21 says, testifying to both the Jews and also to the Greeks, repentance towards God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. I'm , just changing repentance toward God, changing my mind towards God. Not, doesn't even say my sin, doesn't say my, my nature doesn't say all the bad things I've done. But it's just changing my mind toward God about God. Mark Yeah. And when you really think about it, even just a logical manner as opposed to scriptural, which the two are never, obviously Scripture is probably one of the most logical books there are in the world, but Unless we change our mind toward God, who he is, who we are, that's like the core worldview right there. Unless we change that, why would we even want to get rid of sin? You know? , and that, that reminds me, , imagine that there's a pastor or a theologian who is just so eloquent. So clever, so dynamic, a motivational speaker that he could actually convince the unbelieving world that their bad behavior was sin. Imagine that he was that good that he could do it. What good would it do 'em? Zero. Because they don't have the power. Even if you convince them what they're doing is bad, they don't have the power to change that. Unless they change their minds and turn to God into his only way of changing that situation, which is his beloved son that he sent to perfectly fulfill that law in us and on our behalf, and then give his life as a sacrifice. Tim Well, that's a good point, mark, because even atheists understand right and wrong. Good and bad, evil, whatever. The problem that they run into is because they don't believe in God. They don't have any power over any of that in their lives. They're living proof day in and day out that, We can't keep the law, we can't keep the commandments. We can't be sinless. And so that should be enough to convince some people that , there's a need for something more, which can erase that in their lives and, and, yeah. That's a very interesting point, . Mark you know, Tim, on what you just said there, sin is so much a part of our nature. That's one of the things we change our mind about, that we are not innately good, but as great as God has made us, we're fearfully and wonderful made. We can think we can love, we're made in so many wonderful ways. Yet still, somewhere down at the heart, there's a nature that's corrupt. And that's easily corrupted. , and the point is, sin is so much in us that we cannot do anything about it on our own. And that's why we're in desperate need of a savior, even after we become Christians. Now we've got the spirit and he's, you know, don't get me wrong, he for sure is starting to transform us into the image of Christ. How? Not by us looking at our sin and trying hard to get , rid of it, trying to feel guilty about it. No, by keeping our eyes on Christ, but even after we're Christians, we don't stop sinning. Okay. Now if I could think of the most mature. Christian, committed Christian in the world. I would say it was the Apostle Paul. , Now the Apostle Paul, this is him talking about his own pedigree and resume. He says, he's talking about the other apostles and he says, are they Hebrews? So am I, are they Israelites? So am I. Are there Abraham's descendants? So am I. Are they servants of Christ? I am more. I have worked much harder, been in prison more frequently, been flogged more severely, and been exposed to death again and again. Five times I received from the Jews, the 40 lashes, minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was pelted with stones, three times I was shipwrecked. I spent a night and a day in the open sea. I have been constantly on the move. I've been in danger from rivers, in danger, from bandits, in danger, from my fellow Jews, in danger, from gentiles, in danger in the city, in danger, in the country, in danger at sea, and in danger from false believers. I have labored and toiled and. Often gone without sleep. I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food. I have been cold and naked besides everything else I face daily. The pressure of my concern for all the teachers. And all these things Paul suffered, he suffered for the gospel, for the Lord Jesus Christ. Has there been a more committed Christian? So you would think this guy must have like zero sin in his life, right? He actually saw the resurrected Christ. And yet, what does Paul say in Romans 7:14? He says, we know that the law is spiritual, and this is after Paul's a Christian. He's not talking about before he came to Christ. He says, we know that the law is spiritual, but I am unspiritual sold as a slave to sin. I do not understand what I do for what I want to do. I do not do, but what I hate. I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. So I'm gonna skip down a little of the 21 here. Romans 7 21. So I find this law at work, although I want to do good, evil is right there with me for in my inner being, I delight in God's law. But I see another law at work in me waging more against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work. Within me. What a wretched man I am who will rescue me from this body of death. And he doesn't answer by saying, well, I will by trying harder to overcome the sin of my life and repent of it. No, he says, who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord. And while on the surface it sounds real spiritual and pious and religious for you to do everything and work hard to get rid of the sin in your life, to read more self-help books and go to more services where the pastors guilting you and telling you to reflect on your sin, it doesn't work. It gets you nowhere. It is not profitable. As the apostle Paul tells us in Titus 4:14 it's not profitable. It doesn't do anything. And as religious as that sounds for you to work hard to get rid of your sin, it really, I believe, is tantamount to idle worship. You're taking your eyes off Christ and trying to do it yourself. That's not why Christ died. He died to bring you into him and Him into you to have a union with you and to trust. When he says, That your sin has been removed as far as the east is from the west, and I remember it no more. Why does the church put such a big focus, Tim, on sin when Jesus and God the father, clearly tell us they don't even remember our sin. Why would we wanna keep reminding them of what a bad sinner we are? First of all, it's not true because the cross was more than sufficient and more than efficient to take care of those problems. Now we're children of God, sons and daughters, and heirs. Well, something Tim you said at the beginning of that resonated with me in that I hear a lot of people say in the world today that, you know, people are mostly good and I can't help but laugh at that because I believe the exact opposite. I don't think we have the nature to be good. And even if we get to a point in our lives where we understand right and wrong and we feel like we don't want to do wrong, certainly not all people choose that, but even those that do, , cannot keep that up. . Cannot not do wrong because it's in their nature to do wrong. And as, as Paul said, that, which I would do, I don't do, and that which I would not do that I do, you know? Yep. It's just the nature of the human being in the flesh. Mark Well, you know, that's really, really a religious viewpoint when you think about it for atheists and secular humanists. Because all you have to do is open your eyes and take a look at the world. What's going on? Does it seem like mankind is getting better? Like we're getting morally better? The 20th century, more people were killed during that century than any other century in the history of the world. And yeah, we're basically good and we're getting better. We just need more education and that'll do it. Then why are people with PhDs sin free? I would say to them, Tim right, Hey, even pastors who absolutely love the Lord, still make mistakes, still commit sin. And these are, these are the guys who are literally up there putting themselves up, trying to. I'm trying to say I love Jesus so much and they still can't keep themselves out of it. It's just not possible, , so , , we've talked about what repentance really means, and we've given some examples and we've talked through some of this, but tell me, I. Because we are taking what doesn't seem to be a very popular viewpoint of what repentance means, cuz that's not what's being taught today. How did we get here with, if the word really only means change your mind, how did it become about beating yourself up over over your sin? Mark Well, if you would've asked me about two weeks ago, Tim, I would've said, I don't have a clue. You know? But it's funny because a couple weeks ago I was listening to a message from a fame theologian. He was speaking on something else, but he was teaching on the church fathers throughout church history. And what I found out, , and this is my personal belief, nobody has to believe it, but it makes so much sense to me. Okay, so in the fifth century, The, main Bible that the world used for over a thousand years was put together by a gentleman named Jerome, and it was called the Vulgate. It was translated into Latin from the original Hebrew and Greek, because it was, the Roman Empire at that time, and that's what people spoke. And then it was adopted by the Roman Catholic Church. And so for a thousand years, the Vulgate was the Bible. There was only one problem with that Vulgate. It was a really bad translation, and when you have a really bad translation, it leads to bad. Doctrine and it makes it easier for it to be twisted. And so a lot of bad doctrines came out of that. Well, in the 15th century, the world's leading biblical scholar was a man named Erasmus. Okay? And he was one generation ahead. Of the Great Reformation and the reformers. , and so , in the early 15 hundreds, just before the reformation occurred, he created a Bible entitled The Novem Instrumental, which meant the new instrument. And what he did is with all his, as I mentioned, he was the leading biblical scholar. He did an awesome translation from the original Greek. So each page of his Bible. This new instrument. On the left side of it would be in Greek, and on the right side would be the Latin Vulgate. And when he did that, it caused a big stir because now it was showing that a lot of the doctrines the church had developed over a thousand years. Were created on improper translations. And so now you had this original Greek and they could see, wait a minute, this isn't right. This says metanoia. It doesn't say peneticia. It says, change your mind here , so this is where that doctrine came from. So when the church now has adopted that in modern times after the gospel and the rediscovery of the gospel in the reformation, they're going back to the vulgate. They're going back to a thousand early years of false translation and are reading it as repenting of sin, that it's penaticia. Penance, contrition. Tim I also think that back then, , the preachers, the pastors, the people who were teaching found it easier to control people by talking to them about their sins, their actions, their their outwardly signs, and by controlling your actions, I can control what you do, what you think, what you listen to, et cetera. And I think that there was a modicum of desire there on their part to use that to their advantage. Mark That's a great point. In fact, Tim, that's the very reason that Erasmus. Put that bible together to confront the corruption in the church and the way they were manipulating the people through those incorrect translations, and doctrines to give to the church, to do penance, to do acts of good works. It was, it was a modicum of control for them over the people where we're not meant to be controlled by other men. We're meant to be controlled by the Holy Spirit through Christ alone. Tim Amen. Amen. Well, you know what, mark, I think we've covered this topic pretty well. It's amazing how fast we can get done when Ajia not around, Mark we miss you Ajai. You know, we kid, Tim we do, we do. Can't wait to have him back next week at this time. But however Let us take a few moments to summarize or, or add any last thoughts we want before we head out. Mark Yeah, I'd love to do that, Tim. Thanks. So my first disclaimer that Tim and I and Ajai try to give anytime we talk about the law or works is that we're not saying sin is not bad. We're not saying works are bad. What we're saying is that sin is bad and it destroys people's lives. It people destroy the lives of their loved ones. It does irreparable harm to the world. We're not saying it's not bad. What we're saying is our only hope is Jesus Christ. We can't do it. We can't repent of our own sin and the gospel, the new covenant in Christ. Blood doesn't call us to do that. It calls us to change our minds and turn to Jesus. That, that would be my final summary and I'll just gonna want to end with that one line, and I'll put it this way. We're not called to repent. Of sin for forgiveness. We're called to repent for forgiveness of sin. Tim Amen. , that was the piece I was gonna reiterate as well. But I'll instead end with another verse, which is Mark 1:4. John did baptize in the wilderness and preach the baptism of repentance for remission. Of sins. And that's the story of John the Baptist appears in multiple of the first four gospels, and this particular line is said pretty much exactly the same way anywhere it appears.So once again , I won't. Beat the dead horse and reiterate that line and get again, Mark. But that is exactly it. And you know, for that 180 degree factor, I think you've put out a couple of blogs and teachings kind of revolving around that idea. So I wanna encourage anybody who wants to look at that even a little bit more. Feel free to go out into our website, check out our blogs at www.theunveiledgospel.com Mark and thanks for hearkening. Back to that, by the way, Tim had to, had to get that in there. Tim Thank you very much, Mark. On that note, thank you everybody for listening. We hope you've been blessed and we look forward to talking to you again the next time.