Friends: Turning away from sin is good; turning toward God is better, growing in Christ is best. Blessings, Bob

--- --- ---

Spirituality Column #977

August 5, 2025

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

Acts of Repentance, Part 4

By Bob Walters

“… and a large number of priests became obedient to the faith.” – Acts 6:7

The book of Acts is Luke’s rock ’em, sock ’em tale of the beginnings of the church, the arrival of the Holy Spirit, early disciples punished for debating Jewish leaders, Stephen’s preaching and execution by stoning, Paul’s conversion and escapades, tales of Jews who believed in Christ, and Jews who did not.

For those Jews who repented – changed their mindset away from the Law and toward the new covenant of relationship with God through Christ – even their growing numbers did not overturn the political and religious persecutions against them.

There are ten specific citations in Acts of the words “repent” and “repentance” where both Jews and gentiles are guided to renew their thinking toward salvation in Jesus and away from Hebrew laws and pagan gods. The above quotation from Acts 6:7 is a good example of where “repentance” is not mentioned but is nonetheless inferred: Jewish priests who changed their minds and became obedient to Christ.

In the Law and Old Testament writings and prophecies, “repentance” had a good Hebrew word, “Teshuva,” which meant approximately, “turning toward God.”  When we sin, human tendency is to run from God when our salvation is in running toward God.

The Greek word “metanoia,” and its dozens of variations for “repent,” appears 57 times in the New Testament and refers more to “changed thinking” than “changed actions.” In that Jewish life required obedience to physical laws of conduct, it is subtly quite different from the mental interpretation of the philosophical Greeks.  

Our purpose with this four-part series on repentance has been to steer Christian intellectual and spiritual life toward a growing and closer relationship with Jesus and within the church. Let’s not merely see the word “repent” as a challenge limited to one’s sinful behaviors and thoughts. True repentance is re-focusing our minds on Christ.

We grow in Christ when we turn to Christ, and that often means turning away from sin.  But since we are all sinners, and since almost everyone admits they are not perfect, there is a human tendency to maybe not sin so much because we see that sin hurts our own lives. This does not automatically transfer into a relationship with Jesus.

Breaking a bad habit is a temporal win for us, but it is not salvation. When we strive to obey the laws of God or directions of Jesus, we have to understand that God’s grace, love, and salvation are already there and don’t change.  Only our own awareness of God changes/improves, and it is with faith in Christ that our eternal prospects grow.

Modern culture isn’t much help with Godly repentance because any secular dictionary of the English language mirrors the basic biblical misunderstanding: that “repent” means only to feel guilt, shame, regret, contrition, or other negative postures about our mistakes. I think it is safe to say that everyone understands “sin,” but not everyone understands embracing faith and mental trust in Jesus as repentance.

Folks on the edges of Christianity or some form of Godly faith – the ones who figure the One True God is likely real but don’t buy into the whole “Jesus” thing – tend to miss the very real fact that our improved behavior and obedience to God is not a gambit to impress God, but a strategy that improves our own lives and grows our own joy.

As I’ve said before, the Bible becomes a very different book when we understand “repent” goes beyond addressing only our negative behavior, but in turning our minds positively toward God.  Repentance is our doorway to hope. And to new life in Christ.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) sees God’s renewed mercies every day.