Salvation by God's
Sovereign Grace
REPENT OR PERISH!
By Rosco Brong (1908 - 1985)
Old-Fashioned
Doctrine of Repentance, Though Much Neglected Is Still in the Bible!
"Jesus
answering said unto them, Suppose ye that these Galileans were sinners above
all the Galileans, because they suffered such things? I tell you, Nay: but,
except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish. Or those eighteen, upon whom
the tower in Siloam tell, and slew them, think ye that they were sinners above
all men that dwelt in
Millions of
people confuse repentance with penance, a Romish invention entirely foreign to
the Bible. Many others confuse repentance with penitence or sorrow for sin, so
that even Webster's dictionary, following common usage, wrongly defines
repentance as "contrition for sins with amendment of life." Most
Protestants today, and modernistic Baptists along with them, either ignore the
doctrine of repentance or explain it away as nothing more than a momentary
"decision for Christ."
1. Definition of
Repentance.
If we accept
the English words "repent" and "repentance" as translations
of Greek metanoeo and metanoia, respectively, it will not be
hard to learn the New Testament meaning of these words. Even a reader who knows
no Greek can easily check the information given here by reference to the Englishman's Greek Concordance or to Young's Analytical Concordance.
The question
is confused a little for the English reader of the common version because the
same words "repent," "not to be repented of," and
"without repentance" are misused for the Greek metamelomai and ametameletos, which could better be
translated by forms of English "regret."
WHAT IS
REPENTANCE?
Repentance is
sometimes defined as "a change of mind." The trouble with this
definition is that it in turn can easily be misunderstood. Bible repentance is
not a mere change of mind in the sense of momentary opinion or desire, as if a
man should order pork chops for dinner and then, seeing his neighbor with an
appetizing steak, "change his mind" and order a steak for himself.
Rather, repentance is a change of mind in the sense of fundamental conceptions
and attitudes, such as those Americans who now trust the promises of atheistic
Communists and want to do business with Russia will experience when the bombs
begin to fall on our cities - if they live long enough to learn from the
disaster.
"Repent"
as sated above, is English for Greek metanoeo.
This word, in turn, is a compound of noeo,
meaning "think," "undersand," or "be minded" and
the prefix meta, which may mean
"after" and often denotes a change. Thus the word could be rendered
"think again" or "have a different mind."
The simple
verb noeo apears 14 times in
the Greek New Testament. The King James translators rendered it ten times
"understand," twice "perceive," once "think," and
once "consider." Thus the compund metanoeo,
"repent," might well be rendered, "have a different
understanding."
2. Repentance and Faith.
A right understanding
of repentance will save us from erroneous idea that faith is something separate
and apart from repentance, and from the false teaching that saving faith
precedes repentance. When the Scriptures mention repentance and faith together,
the order is "repent and believe," never "believe and
repent."
REPENT AND
BELIEVE
The reason
for the scriptural order is obvious. The natural mind is incapable of saving
faith. But when a man has a changed mind, a spiritual mind, even the mind of
Christ, then he believes God's Word, he agrees with God's judgment upon him, he
accepts God's provision for him in Christ - and this is saving faith.
As repentance
is a radical change of mind from unbelief to belief, so faith is the attitude
of the mind changed. This is why repentance and faith have been described as
inseparable graces. And this is why in the Scriptures we usually find either
word used without mention of the other, since either word necessarily implies
the other.
3. Command to Repentance
"The
times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men everywhere to
repent: because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world
in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given
assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead" (Acts 17:30-31)
ALL MUST
REPENT
It might be
supposed that only exceptional sinners would be called on to repent, but not
so. God "now
commandeth all men everywhere to repent." Repentance is not merely a desirable
change of mental conceptions and attitudes; it is an imperative change - a
direct command of God.
Not only lost
sinners but Christians are commanded to repent when they have sinned. In
Revelation 2 and 3 we read letters from Jesus to seven churches. Five letters
out of the seven contain calls to repentance. Not to lost sinners, but to the
church at
"Though
I made you sorry in the letter, I do not regret, even if I did regret; for I
perceive that that letter, even if for an hour, made you sorry. Now I rejoice,
not that ye were made sorry, but that ye were made sorry to repentance: for ye
were made sorry after a godly manner, that ye might receive damage from us in
nothing. For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be regreted:
but the sorrow of the world worketh death" (II Cor. 7:8-10, corrected
translation).
4. Need to Repentance.
To be
acceptable to God, man must have a changed mind because the mind with which he
was born in the flesh is at enmity against God and cannot receive the things of
God.
In Noah's day
"God
saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every
imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually" (Gen. 6:5).
David by
inspiration declared: "The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not
seek after God: God is not in all his thoughts" (Ps. 10:4)
Paul tells us
that "the
natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are
foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually
discerned" (I Cor.
"Because
the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God,
neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please
God" (
A SOUND MIND
False
religions may drive people crazy, or crazy people may have false religions, but
not so with the true religion of Jesus Christ. "For God hath not given us the
spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind" (II Tim. 1:7)
Sometimes it
may be a matter of opinion as to whom is sane and who is insane, but we need
have no doubts if we accept the Word of God, for the inspirec apostle assures
us that "we
have the mind of Christ" (I Cor. 2:16)
5. Repentance From and
Toward.
As repentance
is a change of mental attitude, it must be from one attitude to another. And so
we find:
Repentance is
from sins: "I
gave her time that she might repent from her fornication" (Rev. 2:21, corrected
trans.)
"And the
rest of the man, who were not killed in these plagues, did not even repent from
the works of their hands, that they should not worship demons, and idols of
gold, and of silver, and of brass, and of stone, and of wood: which can neither
see, nor hear, nor walk. And they did not repent from their murders, or from
their sorceries, or from their fornication, or from their thefts" (Rev. 9:20-21,
correct trans.)
FROM DEAD
WORKS TO GOD
Repentance is
from dead works: "The foundation of repentance from dead works" (Heb. 6:1).
"Dead works" are the outwardly good deeds that sinners do in trying
to establish their own righteousness. The sinner must give up trying to save
himself before he can be saved by Christ.
Repentance is
toward God: "Repentance
toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ" (Acts
6. Alternative to
Repentance.
"Except
ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish" (Luke 13:3). Human nature has not
changed. In the days when Jesus walked upon this earth, people liked to point
to the calamities of others as visitations of divine justice. Jesus declared
that these were only examples of greater judgments to come upon all who fail to
repent.
EVERLASTING
PUNISHMENT
The sinner
who does not repent will perish not merely in this life, but in eternity: "These shall go
away into everlasting punishment" (Matt. 25:46). "Who shall be punished with
everlasting destruction" (II Thess. 1:9).
Mark gives us
these words from the lips of Jesus Himself: "If thy hand offend thee, cut if off: it
is better for thee to enter into life maimed, than having two hands to go into
hell, in to the fire that never shall be quenched: where their worm dieth not,
and the fire is not quenched" (Mark 9:43-44)
We are
reminded of Isaiah's prophecy: "As the new heavens and the new earth, which I will
make, shall remain before me, saith the Lord, so shall your seed and your name
remain. And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from
one Sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith the
Lord. And they shall go forth, and look upon the carcasses of the men that have
transgressed against me: for their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire
be quenched; and they shall be an abhorring unto all flesh" (Isa. 66:22-24)
REPENT OR
PERISH
7. Conclusion.
God's Word is
sure and will certainly come to pass. He is not a man that He should lie or
repent. If we are in disagreement with Him, the only way we can ecome agreed
with him is for us to change, for He changes not.
God "NOW commandeth
all men everywhere to repent." Not tomorrow or any other time but "NOW is the day
of salvation" (II Cor. 6:2)'
If you are
not saved by His grace, may God now grant you "repentance unto life" (Acts