There is no salvation without true repentance!

What would you hear if you were to ask the average Christian to summarize the basic gospel message in one sentence? You might hear something like “Jesus loves you and has wonderful plan for your life.” Or you might hear, “Jesus died for your sins, so that you might go to heaven.” Some of the more “modern and progressive” or so-called “seeker friendly” Christians might say, “Come to Jesus and he’ll improve your self-esteem,” or “If you want good health and lots of wealth, come to Jesus.” But how does the Bible summarize the gospel message? That’s a question that almost nobody asks and no one knows or preaches about, even though the answer should be obvious to anyone who has read the Gospels. The truth is shocking and radically different from what most modern Christians think!

Matthew in his Gospel after describing the circumstances around the birth of Yeshua the Messiah, opens up by introducing the ministry of John the Baptist, the anointed prophet from heaven who came to prepare the way for the Messiah. The Gospel writers summarizes the preaching of John as “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matt 3:2). In the next chapter after his brief introduction to John’s ministry, Matthew then brings Yeshua the Messiah onto the scene. After Yeshua’s temptation in the wilderness, Matthew records, “From that time Yeshua began to preach and to say, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand’” (Matt 4:17). Mark in his gospel records the same event as follows: “Now after John was put in prison, Yeshua came to Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of Elohim, and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of Elohim is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel’” (Mark 1:14–15). Finally, on the day of Pentecost after being pricked in their hearts byu Peter’s convicting sermon, the crowd asked the apostle what they should do next. His answer was, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Yeshua the Messiah for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:38). A central and recurring theme in all of these passages is the idea of repentance from sin—a biblical concept that is understood by few modern Christians, and a message that is seldom preached in modern pulpits anymore. All of this is in spite of the fact that the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews refers to “repentance from dead works” as “one of the [six] elementary principles of Messiah [or the gospel message]” (Heb 6:1-3).

So what is repentance? How does Scripture define repentance? It is a Hebraic concept, so we must go back to the Hebrew Scriptures to discover the answer. 

Hebrew Word Definitions

There are two biblical Hebrew words that together present the complete picture of what true biblical-based repentance is. The first word is nacham meaning “to be sorry, console oneself, repent, regret, comfort, be comforted.” According to The Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament (The TWOT), the origin of the root of this word seems to reflect the idea of “breathing deeply,” hence the physical display of one’s feelings, usually sorrow, compassion, or comfort. The root occurs in the Ugaritic … and is found in Old Testament (OT or Tanakh) proper names such as Nehemiah, Nahum and Menehem. The Greek Septuagint (or lxx) translates the Hebrew word nacham by the two Greek words metanoeo and metamelomai. The Greek word metanoeo means “to change one’s mind, that is, to repent or to change one’s mind for better, heartily to amend with abhorrence of one’s past sins.” Wilson’s Old Testament Word Studies says this of nacham: 

In regard to others, to pity,  to have compassion … in regard to one’s own doing, to lament, to grieve; hence to repent; in English, to rue; often of one who repents, grieves, for the evil he has  brought upon another.” The New Strong’s Expanded Exhaustive Concordance says of nacham: to breathe strongly, by implication, to be sorry…to repent means to make a strong turning to a new course of action. The emphasis is on turning from a less desirable course. Comfort is derived from ‘com’ (with) and ‘fort’ (strength). Hence, when one repents, he exerts strength to change, to re-grasp the situation, and exert effort for the situation to make a different course of purpose and action.  The stress is not upon new information or new facts which cause the change as it is upon the visible action taken.

The second Hebrew word is shuv (from which the Hebrew word teshuvah derives, which means “repentance”) meaning “to return, turn back, refresh, repair, restore.” The TWOT in its discussion of the Hebrew verb shuv states, 

The Bible is rich in idioms describing man’s responsibility in the process of repentance. Such phrases would include the following: “incline your heart unto [YHVH your Elohim]” (Josh 24:23); “circumcise yourselves to YHVH” (Jer 4:4); “wash your heart from wickedness” (Jer 4:14); “break up your fallow ground” (Hos 10:12); and so forth. All of these expressions of man’s penitential activity, however, are subsumed and summarized by this one verb shub. Far better than any other verb it combines in itself the two requisites of repentance: to turn from evil and to turn to the good.

There is no better time to focus on repentance than during the sixth biblical month of Elul, which occurs just prior to the fall biblical festivals. During this month, our focus is to be on repentance, restoration and preparation for the coming of the Messiah, which the fall feasts prophetically picture. 

In order to repent according to biblical criteria, one must understand that Scripture defines sins in the most basic terms as the violation of YHVH’s Torah, or instructions or teachings in righteousness (1 John 3:4). This basic concept can be expressed in several other ways as well. For example, all unrighteousness is sin (1 John 5:17). To fail to do what is right is also sin (Jas 4:17). It is also sin not to believe in Yeshua the Messiah (John 16:9). 

The main Hebrew word for sin is chet, which in its loosest sense means “a failure in our relationship with Elohim.” Our goal should be to continually move closer to Elohim, but chet is any behavior (i.e. word, thought or deed or the failure to do what is right) that causes us to move away from Elohim.

If YHVH requires his people to repent of or to turn away from sin and then turn to righteousness, which is obedience to his commandments (Ps 119:172), then we must know what is involved in repentance. Repentance as expressed in the Hebrew word teshuvah, which comes from the Hebrew word shuv meaning “to return.” In the biblical context, it means “to return to Elohim” by returning to the righteous behavior that he requires of his people. In other words, repentance means a return to obeying his word or his commandments, which is the opposite of sin. While we must deeply regret our movement away from Elohim (i.e., nacham), we must not despair, for YHVH has provided the way for us to return to him, and he promises us that when we repent, he will forgive us without delay (Ps 103:3, 8–12; 1 John 1:9)

According to Scripture, there are, several basic steps to repentance. They are:

Recognize our sin. We must first recognize that we have a problem—that we are sinful to the core (Jer 17:9; Rom 8:7; Rom 3:10–18, 23; Isa 64:6). For this to happen, we have to come to grips with the fact that we have broken Elohim’s laws, which define sin (1 John 3:4; Jas 2:10; Rom 3:23). Human pride makes this step the hardest one to take (1 John 1:8).

Confess our sin. We must next confess our sin before YHVH (Lev 5:5; Num 5:7; Ps 32:5; 1 John 1:9).

Be sorry for our sins. We must manifest heartfelt regret for our wrong actions by evidencing remorse and contrition before YHVH and our fellow man, if applicable. The Hebrew word for this is nacham and according to The TWOT and as already noted above means, “to reflect the idea of ‘breathing deeply,’ hence the physical display of one’s feelings, usually sorrow, compassion, or comfort.”  We see David expressing nacham in his thirty-eighth psalm.

For my iniquities have gone over my head; Like a heavy burden they are too heavy for me. My wounds are foul and festering Because of my foolishness.  I am troubled, I am bowed down greatly; I go mourning all the day long. For my loins are full of inflammation, and there is no soundness in my flesh. I am feeble and severely broken; I groan because of the turmoil of my heart.… For I will declare my iniquity; I will be in anguish over my sin. (Ps 38:4–8, 18)

Turn from our sins. After this, we must turn from our sins and resolve to stop sinning. This is expressed in the Hebrew word teshuvah  meaning “to repent,” which is from the root word shub or shuv. The TWOT defines shuv as follows: 

The Bible is rich in idioms describing man’s responsibility in the process of repentance. Such phrases would include the following: “incline your heart unto [YHVH your Elohim]” (Josh 24:23); “circumcise yourselves to YHVH” (Jer 4:4); “wash your heart from wickedness” (Jer 4:14); “break up your fallow ground” (Hos 10:12); and so forth. All of these expressions of man’s penitential activity, however, are subsumed and summarized by this one verb shub. Far better than any other verb it combines in itself the two requisites of repentance: to turn from evil and to turn to the good.

The penalty price must be paid for our sins. Whenever a law is broken, a penalty must be paid. This is true with men’s civil laws as well as Elohim’s moral and spiritual laws. When a person breaks Elohim’s spiritual laws he comes under the penalty of the law and a penalty price has to be paid. That price is death (Ezek 18:4; Rom 6:23). There is only one way to circumvent the death penalty for breaking Elohim’s laws, that is to make an offering of the legally prescribed sacrifice to pay for the sin (Lev 5:1–20). Yeshua, the Messiah of Israel, became that sacrifice for our sin once and for all when he died on the cross (Isa 53:5; Heb 4:14–5:10; 7:14–8:6; 9:11–10:22). By accepting his paying the death penalty for our sins, his righteous, sin-free life can be credited to our spiritual account in the courts of heaven. This occurs when we believe in him and come into a spiritual relationship with him (John 3:16–18; 5:24–29; 6:40, 47; Rom 6:3–11; 10:9–13).