Repentance from dead works

By Sidharth Mohandas

As Nathan has put across in his previous posts, laying the proper foundations is vital for our lives to be stable and strong in the Lord, without which it is impossible for us as Christians to mature.

Our blueprint for this foundational series will be Hebrews 6:1-2, where Paul mentions six “elementary teachings of Christ”. The very word “elementary” suggests that without graduating from these, you can’t go any further in the faith. These are the ABC’s you and I need to be founded on.

Today I want to take you into the first lesson of this series: Repentance from dead works.

Let me start off by saying that repentance is the first and foremost response the Gospel of the Kingdom demands from an individual.

Let me show it to you from Scripture:

Now after that John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the Gospel of the kingdom of God, and saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the Gospel (Mark 1:14-15)

Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you …. (Acts 2:38)

And how I kept back nothing that was profitable unto you, but have shewed you, and have taught you publicly, and from house to house, testifying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. (Acts 20:20-21)

And said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behooved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day: And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem (Luke 24:46-47)

This again lines up with the order we see in Hebrews 6:1: Repentance from dead works preceding faith towards God.

So what is repentance? The Greek word used for “repentance” is the word “metanoia” and it simply means “to change ones mind”. Why would the Gospel demand such a response from us? It’s because we go where our mind goes. Hence repentance involves not only a change of mind, but also a change of direction. The wordings Paul uses in Hebrews 6:1 makes it abundantly clear that there is a turning from something that is dead to something that is alive by God’s standards.

In 1 Thessalonians 1:4-10 we read Paul relating of how the Gospel came to those at Thessalonica and then goes onto record their response to the Gospel. Here is true repentance summarized in the above reference: “They tell how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God.” (1 Thess 1:9).

Now you must understand that anything below the standards of God is considered dead (Romans 6:23). That is exactly what sin is. The Greek word for sin simply means “to miss the mark”. For example imagine an examination where the pass percentage is 50%. A person who gets 3% and a person who gets 49% both fall under the same category: “failed”. I remember one time in school when I failed in a test, instead of being worried that I had failed I was more concerned of how many got lower marks than me! That’s exactly how many of us are. We have our own standards, but God is calling us to change our mind-set to His standards of sin, judgment and righteousness and thereby turn to Him for our complete salvation. Without such repentance, Christ Himself said, “….you will all likewise perish” (Luke 13:3)

In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now He commands all people everywhere to repent. (Acts 17:30)

In the upcoming post Justin will take you more into the topic of repentance before I conclude on it.

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