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'Then hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life'.
'Repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ'.
B. Here you will observe that repentance comes before faith, before
knowledge and before life, and that it is necessary for repentance to be
directed toward God if faith is to be exercised in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Before we go further, however, we must be sure that we understand the meaning
of the term we use. What does repentance mean?
A. I understand that repentance is derived from the word penitence, and
implies a certain amount of sorrow for sin.
B. That is true so far as the English word is concerned, and sorrow or
penitence is a part, perhaps a later part, of Scriptural repentance, but that
is not its primary meaning. What are the Greek words for repent and
repentance?
A.
(Using Concordance) Metanoeo and metanoia.
B.
What does meta mean when used in composition with other words?
A.
Meta means 'after' or 'change'.
B.
Can you give me any illustrations of this meaning?
A.
Metathesis.
Translated or transferred (Heb. 11:5).
Metallasso.
To change one thing for or into another (Rom. 1:25).
Metamorphoo.
To be transformed (Matt. 17:2; Rom. 12:2).
B.
What does noeo and noia mean?
A.
Noeo means to think.
B. So then repentance literally means a change of mind. The reason why
natural man does not believe the testimony of God concerning His Son is
because something is wrong with his mind. The reason why he does not
acknowledge the truth is for the same reason.
You may remember that we found in the Scriptures that the heart and the
mind are not such separate terms as they are in modern use. A man thinks
with his mind and believes with his heart in modern phraseology, but in
Scripture, thoughts arise in the heart, 'as he thinketh in his heart, so is
he' (Prov. 23:7).
A.
What then is wrong with the mind of man?
B. Let us discover from Scripture. Speaking of man by nature Scripture says
that he walks 'in the vanity of his mind', that his 'understanding is
darkened', that he is 'alienated from the life of God through the ignorance
that is in him' (Eph. 4:17,18). That men's minds are 'corrupt' and 'defiled'
(Tit. 1:15; 1 Tim. 6:5; 2 Tim. 3:8), and that they have been given over to a
'reprobate' mind (Rom. 1:28). Now if this is the case, how is it possible
for that man whose very compass is wrong, whose judgment is distorted, whose
understanding is so darkened as to alienate him from the very life of God,
how is it possible, I say, for him to believe the gospel or to acknowledge
the truth without that change of mind which we call repentance?