AN ONGOING LIFESTYLE OF REPENTANCE.
It’s understood that you need to repent to become a Christian. However, there is sometimes the confused belief that repentance is not ongoing; consequently, to keep thinking about your sins displays a lack of faith.
After all, does the Bible not declare: 2Co 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!
Similarly, when Paul describes his attitude, of “…forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” (Php 3:13-14), does this mean that focusing on repentance is going backwards?
GOD’S ETERNAL PERSPECTIVE.
This is an understandable interpretation, but it misunderstands how God communicates through the Bible. God declares as completed that which is simultaneously still a process. Not being limited or bound or defined by time, God looks at us beyond time. He looks at us when all our days are done and He sees his completed work. We see this in Psalm 139: … all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. Psa 139:16
So, the timeless God gives us these promises to hold on to; promises that declares the end from the beginning. In Romans it says, “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. (29) For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. (30) And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.” (Rom 8:28-30)
All these stages of our salvation, outlined here in Romans 8, along with the mystery of our participation and working out of our salvation, are sometimes collapsed into a single description, as a completed past-tense act, saying “we are saved”, “we are a new creation”, “the new has come.”
WORKING OUT OUR SALVATION.
However, we still have to go participate in every stage of the salvation drama. We need to work out our salvation with fear and trembling and become, day by day, moment by moment, what we are eternally, according to God’s sovereignty. We see this mystery and paradox in various scriptures, where the accomplished fact that is a promise (and promise that is a fact), when understood, motivates spiritual discipline, including ongoing repentance (Heb 10:14; 1 Pet 2:2-3; 1 Jn 3:2-3).
Christians who are honest and willing to talk about their lives over time (rather than merely testify about the snapshot, “best bits” events, as if that represented the whole) will acknowledge that their spirituality and experience of living as a new creation, in victory, operating seemingly fully out of the “new man” alternates with moments of doubt, fatigue and reverting to old patterns. In the light of this, repentance has to be part of our Christian walk, part of our toolbox, until our last breath.
UNPACKING THE MEANING OF THE WORD
If we trace the Greek words for repent (the verb metanoeō) and repentance (the noun metanoia), back to the root noun on which they are based (nous) the ongoing nature of repentance becomes clearer.
Nous stands for intellect, mind (including thought, feeling, or will), understanding. Repentance involves changing the way you think, how you reason and what you value.
There are two key verses that use the word nous on its own, as opposed to as part of the words repent (metanoeō) and repentance (metanoia).
Rom 12:2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind (nous). Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
Eph 4:22-24 You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; (23) to be made new in the attitude of your minds [literally in the spirt (pneuma) of your minds (nous)]; (24) and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.
These two verses do not use the words repent or repentance but they are saying the exact same thing. To transform your mind or be made new in the spirit of your mind is merely a synonym for repent, i.e. take on a new, different (meta) way of thinking.
The Romans and Ephesians verses are more easily understood as an ongoing process that is not limited to your moment of salvation. Understanding them as synonymous with repentance, reinforces the fact that repentance is an ongoing process.
THE UPS AND DOWNS OF THE CHRISTIAN LIFE.
If we consider the trajectory of a Christian’s life, the ongoing need for repentance is further shown.
When one becomes a Christian there is often a host of wrong ideas and behaviour that one needs to renounce and turn away from (i.e. repent of). For some this is easy to discern. There is a turning away from drugs, crime, sexual perversion, occultic practices, etc. Even with those who don’t have obvious sins like these, the experience can be as deep if they realize just how much self-centredness and pride there was in their “good” behaviour and lifestyle.
Luk 18:9-14 To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else, Jesus told this parable: (10) “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. (11) The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. (12) I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’ (13) “But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’ (14) “I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”
There is often a honeymoon period, following this initial repentance, and ongoing repentance seems less relevant. There is a danger that one settles into religiosity, but if one keeps pursuing God one will soon realize that the deepest, most serious sins actually lie ahead. One starts to recognize how deep ones self-centredness and pride run and how impoverished one is according to God’s standard of love.
GOD’S HIGH STANDARD BASED ON HIS RELENTLESS LOVE.
God does not overwhelm us in the beginning. Our more obvious and superficial sins were enough for us to deal with and God also allows us our honeymoon period. However, Scripture shows that He does intend to produce His character in our deepest being.
Joh 16:12-13 “I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. (13) But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.
Php 2:12-13 Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, (13) for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.
Ongoing repentance does not contradict grace; it is not burdensome and it has nothing to do with earning our salvation. It is precisely out of their secure position as forgiven, blessed children of God that mature Christians delight to repent on an ongoing basis. They seek increased blessing and they seek to please their Creator, the source of all blessings.
1Pe 3:10-11 For, “Whoever would love life and see good days must keep their tongue from evil and their lips from deceitful speech. (11) They must turn from evil and do good; they must seek peace and pursue it.
Psa 141:5 Let a righteous man strike me—that is a kindness; let him rebuke me—that is oil on my head. My head will not refuse it….
Psa 139:23-24 Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. (24) See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.
