B.--What does noeo and noia mean?

A.--Noeo means to think, and noia comes from it.

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 a

man thinketh in his heart so is he."

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" (I Tim. 6: 5, II Tim. 3: 8), and that they

have been given over to a "reprobate" mind (Rom. 1: 28). Now if this be 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?

A.--Repentance then of itself does not necessarily mean a change of life.

B.--Not necessarily, but in the Scriptures it is usually presented as one half of an action,

the other half of which consists in the change of conduct and life. For example, you will

find metanoia joined with epistrepho, to turn:--

While men are exhorted to repent, Scripture also tells us that it is God Who gives or

grants this change of mind, and into that problem we will not at this point enter.

A.--Thank you for this opening of the subject, I must give it a fuller consideration.