If repenting is required in order to be saved, justified and sanctified, it might be good to know exactly what it means. How is it defined? Well, that will depend on which church brand you do business with. Some will tell you one thing while others communicate something quite different. But most will be quite vague and not very specific. If repentance is based on a change of behavior, how does one know when they have fully succeeded? Does one "repent" before or after believing in Jesus?
When Jesus arrived on the ministry scene, He told some Jewish people to repent and believe the gospel. Repent from what? These folks were attempting to live by the ultimate blueprint when it came to behavior and works (the Mosaic law). To repent means to have a change of mind, nothing more. Jesus is announcing they should reconsider that path and look to some good news they would ultimately find in Him. And what is that? An eternal redemption providing God's righteousness as a gift, bringing an inheritance leading them to a place of perfection—apart from what they do.
What is the first thing you think of when you hear the words repent, repenting, and repentance? When someone from ChurchLand says people need to repent, they are usually communicating that the person who sins needs to stop sinning. But the messenger stating this hasn't stopped ... in spite of whatever sin reduction they may boast. So where does that leave them if God requires humans to stop committing sinful actions? Of course, a change in behavior and avoiding sin is going to be beneficial in multiple ways. But repentance goes much deeper than that. New Covenant repentance simply means to have a change of mind or to think differently (than we previously thought).
In addition, we who have crossed over from legalistic mindsets into a better understanding of the gospel of grace may have a hard time changing our minds about various doctrinal beliefs about the Bible or what it contains. Sure, it was easy to declare we moved from works to faith and from religious law to grace. But when we've been teaching or proclaiming things for a while under the banner of "grace people," it's easier for some to double-down rather than to allow God's Spirit to reveal new perspectives that we previously missed. We'll never stop learning ... and it will free us from feeling the need to be right all the time.
