What does it mean to Repent? What is repentance?

January 12, 2010 · Filed Under renewing our mind · Comment 

After a deeper study of repentance in the original language, I think we’ve got it wrong.

I was reading today in Acts 2 and 3, and I was reading from some newer translations.  Two scriptures stood out:

Peter’s words pierced their hearts, and they said to him and to the other apostles, “Brothers, what should we do?” Peter replied, “Each of you must repent of your sins and turn to God, and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. Then you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. (Acts 2:37-38, emphasis mine)

Now repent of your sins and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped away. (Acts 3:19, emphasis mine)

You hear this term quite often, “Repent of your sins,” implying that repentance of sins is a turning away from sins, to stop sinning. But, I don’t think that’s what the original language was implying.  If you search through a more accurate word-for-word translation (KJV or NKJV), I can’t find a single instance of Jesus saying, “Repent of your sins.” He never said that.  He said, “Repent, for the Kingdom of God is at hand.”

Look at the original Greek word for “repent” – metanoeo. It comes from two root words, meta and noeo.

Meta means an over-arching change.  As Bob Hamp points out, there’s a difference between “morphing”  and “meta-morphing”. Morphing is changing from within something similar.  Meta-morphing, on the other hand, is changing from a caterpillar to a butterfly. It’s an over-arching change–a broader, more high-level change.

Noeo is where we get the word Knowledge.  It means to think, to perceive, to understand.

So, combine the two meta-noeo, and you have a word that means “an over-arching change in how you understand or perceive”.

The message Jesus had for us was not “stop sinning so that you change your thinking” – his message was “change the way you think and you’ll stop sinning”.

What most people miss today is that our sins are dealt with, done, covered, taken care of.  Jesus died “once for all” (Hebrews 10:10) and provided “eternal redemption” (Hebrews 9:12). He no longer has to die for your sins. All your sins (past, present and future) were taken care of once and for all.

Now that are sins are gone, we need to repent.

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Chasing your Passion

January 11, 2010 · Filed Under purpose/destiny · Comment 

From this year’s devotional from Gateway Church called “Let’s Go!”:

God wants to use you … to send you. Don’t think you’re too young or too old for Him to use you. Regardless of your age, His plans for you are so much greater than you could ever imagine. What stirs your heart? What burning passion has God given you? Don’t grow weary and give up. The dreams He has placed in your heart He will accomplish—in wonderful, creative, unexpected ways—if you choose to seek Him, trust Him and obey Him. Ask yourself today: “Am I willing to be open to God’s will for my life?”

I seem to always struggle with this tension of “lay down your life” and “what are your dreams/what are you passionate about”. This scripture from Matthew 16:24-25 is clear:

Then Jesus said to the disciples, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must put aside your selfish ambition, shoulder your cross, and follow me. If you try to keep your life for yourself, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for me, you will find true life.”

Questions like “What stirs your heart?” and “What are you passionate about?” seem to be conflicting with “give up your life for me, and you will find true life.”  Because what if your passions are in conflict with your calling?

I think the key is the very next verse: “And how do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul in the process? Is anything worth more than your soul?” v26. A wrong motivation is to “gain the whole world” at the cost of losing your soul. To save your soul, come to Christ, and let him resurrect the Godly passions that were wired into you when God formed you in your mother’s womb:

“You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb. Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous–and how well I know it. You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb. You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed. How precious are your thoughts about me, O God! They are innumerable!” Psalms 139:13-17, NLT.

I like what Erwin McMannus wrote on the back of one of his book covers. He simply said, “Since God has changed your heart, he can now trust your passions.” I think that is the key. I have a new heart, a new motivation, a new desire.  When I think about my dreams, my desires, my passions, they are rooted in glorifying God.  So, God can trust my passions.

What makes your heart come alive?

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Stop praying for revival, and BE the revival

January 2, 2010 · Filed Under purpose/destiny, renewing our mind · Comment 

Christ has no body on earth but yours, no hands but yours, no feet but yours. Yours are the eyes through which Christ’s compassion for the world is to look out; yours are the feet with which He is to go about doing good; and yours are the hands with which He is to bless us now. — TERESA OF AVILA

My 2010 New Year’s Resolution is to stop praying for revival and BE the revival.

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