How Important Is Repentance for the Christian?

(This blog entry is dependent upon the five previous blog entries on ‘repentance.’ By itself, it might not make sense. So…please read the others first.)

What a question! Of course repentance is vital for the Christian...right?

I am not trying to wrangle words, be argumentative or create novelty, but rather, discover and apply biblical truth. So, I must say that as long as we keep pressing an old and incorrect meaning onto repentance, we will not know how to answer the title question.

Remember, repentance in the New Testament is actually a change in perception. Repentance certainly applied to those who did not believe that Jesus was the Son of God, the prophesied Messiah. The call to repentance after the death and resurrection of Jesus was a call to change one’s perception concerning Jesus. (See Acts 2, giving careful attention to verses 36-47.) But what about repentance after a person becomes a Christian?

The epistles (letters) in the New Testament are addressed to Christians, and repentance is fairly rare in those writings. That is not surprising since Christians have already repented. So in the epistles repentance is most often applied to unbelievers, but also believers who have left Christ or are at risk of leaving Christ.

It has often been taught that a Christian who sins should ‘repent of his sin.’ Paul seems to have said that in 2 Corinthians 12:21. He wondered if when he visited he would mourn...

over many of those who have sinned in the past and not repented of the impurity, immorality, and sensuality which they have practiced.

Actually, Paul wrote that they had not ‘changed their perception’ concerning their past sins.

The idea is that they had made a proper faith response to Christ, but they had not changed their thinking about their sin. 

Were they still sinning? “Yes.” 

Did they need to change their behavior? “Yes.”

However, instead of telling them to stop sinning or turn from sin or change their behavior, Paul addressed their thinking, that is their attitude toward sin. If their attitude toward sin changed, then their behavior would naturally follow.

We can see the same thought applied to the seven churches of Asia in Revelation 2 & 3. Over and over Jesus called the Christians to repent. Strictly speaking, He admonished them to ‘change their perception.’

As an example, Jesus said to the church in Ephesus,

But I have this against you, that you have left your first love. Therefore remember from where you have fallen, and repent and do the deeds you did at first….
—Revelation 2:4-5

Note that they had ‘left their first love.’ Their behavior was not separate from a change in their heart. In other words, at one time they had changed their heart (mind) toward Jesus, but then, over time, fell. Their fall marked a change of heart (mind) away from Jesus. The call to repentance was a call to change their mind back to the way it was at first. AND they were to couple that changed mind with changed deeds, as they had done at first.

So, what do we say to the title question? Is it just for religious discussion? What does it matter?

While repentance is first, a call to those who do not believe, it is also vital to believers who have fallen away from Christ. As for the Christian who has already changed his perception of Jesus (repented), he surely must not change his mind back to his former way of thinking!


Mark Stinnett
December 30, 2019