Repent! The Forgotten Doctrine of Salvation...Continued from page 1

But our text is perfectly clear. If you want to go to heaven, you must repent of your sins. This is not only God’s desire; it is also God’s command. As all good soldiers know, when a command is given, you don’t discuss it or debate it. You have but one choice — to obey. If you don’t, you are guilty of insubordination.
No one likes to be commanded to do anything. But here is a command from Almighty God that applies to every man, woman, boy and girl born on this planet. God says you must repent. No excuses will be accepted. If you do not obey God’s command, you will someday face a divine court-martial.
I. The Definition of RepentanceBefore going further, it’s important that we clearly understand what repentance really means. In the Old Testament, two Hebrew words help us understand repentance. The first is the word nacham, which means to turn around or to change the mind. The second is the word sub. It is used over 600 times in the Old Testament and is translated by such words as “turn,” “return,” “seek,” “restore.” You see it very often in phrases like “to turn to the Lord with all your heart.”

When you come to the New Testament there is one word you need to know — the Greek word metanoia, which literally means “to change the mind.” Repentance fundamentally means to change your mind about something. It has to do with the way you think about something. You’ve been thinking one way, but now you think the opposite way. That’s repentance — the changing of the mind.
Let’s suppose a man wants to learn how to parachute. So he goes to a parachute school and they show him how to rig up his gear, how to pull the rip cord, and how to land safely. Finally the day comes when they take him up in an airplane. He’s scared to death but he’s afraid to back out. The moment comes when he is to jump. He goes to the door of the airplane and sees the ground 7,000 feet below. His legs grow weak, he’s about to throw up, and somebody behind him is trying to push him out of the airplane. At the last second he says, “No. I’m not going to do it.” “Go ahead, you can do it,” his instructor shouts. “I’ve changed my mind,” he replies. “I’m not going to jump.” And he doesn’t. That man has repented. He’s changed his mind in a decisive way. That story illustrates how repentance works. Repentance is a change in the way I think that leads to change in the way I live. When you really change your mind about something, it’s going to change the way you think about it, talk about it, feel about it, and act about it. I’m suggesting that true repentance is more than just a mental game. Repentance is a decisive change in direction. It’s a change of mind that leads to a change of thinking that leads to a change of attitude that leads to a change of feeling that leads to a change of values that leads to a change in the way you live.
I can remember almost 40 years ago going to a small Baptist church in northwest Alabama to hear Ed McCollum — my father in the ministry — preach in a revival meeting. I’ve never forgotten how he explained the doctrine of repentance. He went to one end of the platform and started walking. About the time he got to the other end, he turned around and started going in the other direction. “That’s what repentance is,” he declared. “You were going one way in your life and now you are going in another.” That’s why the typical Old Testament word for repentance is “turn.” Turning is always involved in repentance. It’s a change of mind that leads to a change of direction.
Someone may object — rightly — that to leave the matter there may make it seem as if repentance is an outward work I do, a kind of self-reformation where I try to clean up my life. That would indeed be opposed to the gospel of grace. But that’s not what I mean. What I am trying to show is that true repentance affects the way I live and if it doesn’t affect the way I live, it’s not true repentance. It’s not just mental arithmetic; it’s a true change in the values by which I live my life. There are dangers on both sides. I think by far our greater danger is that we will minimize repentance to the point where it doesn’t mean anything at all.