The doctrine of repentance

1. The word for repent used in the Old Testament is nacham. It is generally used in the Old Testament for God, God is the subject. So obviously it doesn’t mean to feel sorry for sin. When God is the subject it is an anthropopathism and it means that God changes His policy from time to time and this anthropopathism is used to indicate a change of policy. In Genesis 6:6 God changed His policy about man; Exodus 32:14; Judges 2:18; 1 Samuel 15:35; Psalm 90:13; Jeremiah 15:6; 42:10; Amos 7:3, 6.

2. Since God is immutable, therefore unchangeable, these expressions — such as God repents — are anthropopathisms. They are designed to explain changes in policy, divine acts of discipline, in terms of human attitudes or expressions. This is what we call, therefore, language of accommodation: ascribing to God a characteristic He doesn’t have to accommodate us so we can understand.

3. We have a Greek verb, metanoew which is translated “repent.” Meta means “change; noew means thinking. It means to change your mind about something. Metanoew, when the subject is man, means a change of mental attitude with limited ability to follow through. When God is the subject in the New Testament metanoew means a change of policy with total ability to follow through. We also have an emotional verb which is translated “repent” — metamelomai, which means to feel sorry for something you’ve done. In other words, this verb has emotional connotations. It should be translated correctly, “regret.” It is often translated “repent” but repent does not mean to regret and regret does not mean to repent.

4. Metanoew and nacham are both transitive verbs, they must have a subject and must have an object. The subject changes its mind about the object.

5. Metanoew and its cognate is used in salvation. In each case we have a subject and an object of the verb metanoew. In salvation the subject is always the unbeliever, the object is always God. In each case the unbeliever is the subject and the object is Jesus Christ as a member of the Godhead. In a few cases God the Father is the object as the author of the divine plan of grace. Because He is the author of the divine plan some of the passages talk about repentance toward God. Others talk about repentance toward Christ. Actually they are synonymous terms. A change of mental attitude does not save but it is immediately followed by believing in Christ. You change your mental attitude before you believe, you are persuaded before you believe and then you believe in Christ. So repentance and faith are not the same. Faith is necessary for salvation; repentance sets you up for it. Repentance causes you to change your mind so that from your own free will you are willing to make a decision. Cf. Mark 1:15; Matthew 12:41; Luke 13:3, 5; 15:7, 10. The unbeliever does not repent toward sin, he repents toward God - God’s message, the Gospel. We also have Luke 16:30,31; Acts 17:30; 20:21; 26:20; Hebrews 12:17; 2 Peter 3:9.

6. Salvation repentance is defined as a change of attitude toward God, toward Jesus Christ, prior to faith in Jesus Christ. This change of mental attitude is wrought by God the Holy Spirit. This is the illuminating work of the Spirit, based upon 1 Corinthians 2:14 — the natural man cannot understand the things of the Spirit of God, etc. The Holy Spirit acts as a human spirit in the perception of the Gospel — Psalm 16:8-11; 2 Timothy 2:25.

7. The verb metanoew and the noun metanoia are also used in the Christian life. For example, in our passage a change of mental attitude toward human good — Hebrews 6:1. It is used as a change of attitude toward doctrine in reversionism — Revelation 2:5, 16, 22; 3:19; 2 Corinthians 12:21.

8. Metamelomai is translated “repent” but it should be translated “regret”, it connotes feeling sorry for something you have done, regretting some act or some thought or some function. There are four uses of metamelomai: regret of a previous action — Matthew 21:29; the regret of Judas Iscariot — Matthew 27:3, his regret was strictly emotional with no spiritual connotation; then we have God as the subject. God has no regrets regarding saving individuals and giving them spiritual gifts — Romans 11:29; the Father has no regrets regarding appointing Jesus Christ as a high priest - Hebrews 7:21.

9. Metanoia is used in Romans 2:4; 2 Corinthians 7:9,10; 2 Peter 3:9; Acts 20:21.

What are “dead works” ? Human good.