What is Biblical repentance?

[Dave]

What does it look like?

Does it grow, or mature?

Is it always perfect?

This is a quote from caption below a Paul Washer you tube video called "Don't Expect a Perfect Repentance"

"Many people say that things like “I cannot repent” or “I’m trying to repent” thinking that they need a fully matured, perfect repentance before they can be saved. But we are not saved because we have a perfect repentance, but because we are weak and helpless and cast ourselves upon a perfect Savior. We cannot expect to see the same depth of repentance from a babe in Christ as we would expect from a person who has walked with God for 30 years."

Thoughts?

Dave

 

[Fred]

Does it grow, or mature?

Is it always perfect?

The more one sees how holy God is the more one also sees how horrible of a sinner one is and how great the mercy of God is.

 

[Arial]

What does it look like?

Does it grow, or mature?

Is it always perfect?

This is a quote from caption below a Paul Washer you tube video called "Don't Expect a Perfect Repentance"

"Many people say that things like “I cannot repent” or “I’m trying to repent” thinking that they need a fully matured, perfect repentance before they can be saved. But we are not saved because we have a perfect repentance, but because we are weak and helpless and cast ourselves upon a perfect Savior. We cannot expect to see the same depth of repentance from a babe in Christ as we would expect from a person who has walked with God for 30 years."

Thoughts?

Dave

The first and crucial repentance, as in "Repent and you will be saved." is not about repenting of individual sins. If it were it would be works based salvation. It means turning away from one thing and towards another. The natural state of mankind is away from God. We are at enmity with him. So repent unto salvation would be a complete change of heart and mind. And we know from John 3 and John 1:12-13, and the prophecy of Jeremiah that God will remove our heart of stone and give us a heart of flesh (soft and pliable in his hands) and write his law upon our heart, that this turning is something God does.

It removes all our sins legally, as in justification by faith, but the sanctification, the gradual removal of sins as the Holy Spirit conforms us to the image of Christ, as we learn from his word and grow, is something that takes place over our lifetime. There are usually some sins the new Christian recognizes as sin at the beginning, things they have been doing that they now recognize they should not be doing as a child of God, but our sanctification goes much deeper than merely outward actions.

 

[Josheb]

What is Biblical repentance?

The act of changing one's thinking about something and then acting in a different manner, heading in a different direction.

What does it look like?

Changing one's thinking about something and then acting in a different manner, heading in a different direction. The specific changes would be dependent upon the circumstances.

Does it grow, or mature?

No, but the skill, the ability to repent may grow (increase, improve) and lead to maturity.

Is it always perfect?

Nothing of the creature is perfect on this side of the grave.

This is a quote from caption below a Paul Washer you tube video called "Don't Expect a Perfect Repentance"

"Many people say that things like “I cannot repent” or “I’m trying to repent” thinking that they need a fully matured, perfect repentance before they can be saved. But we are not saved because we have a perfect repentance, but because we are weak and helpless and cast ourselves upon a perfect Savior. We cannot expect to see the same depth of repentance from a babe in Christ as we would expect from a person who has walked with God for 30 years."

Thoughts?

Meh. I try not base my thoughts on extra-biblical sources. All such sources are measured by God's word. I find Mr. Washer's opening comment absurd on their face because people who do not believe in God or Jesus do not say, "I am trying to repent" with any integrity. Neither do people in whom the Spirit is not already at work for that specific purpose. The last line from Mr. Washer is a move of the goalposts because he starts out talking about those needing to be saved and then, within three sentences, segues into a comment about those already saved ("a babe in Christ"). In between he mentions "we." Who is the "we" to whom he is referring? If he was preaching to an audience of Christians, then that "we" is a bunch of already-saved people and the thoughts of the unsaved about getting saved are irrelevant. The comparison between the unsaved and the saved is correct, but why make such a comparison? Who expects the two (or three) groups to behave identically? Who expects the unsaved to behave identically to the saved? Who expects the "babe" in Christ to behave identically to the mature and experienced in Christ? Who expects the unsaved to behave identically as the mature in Christ?


If we were looking for an example or a precedent, is there an explicit report in the Bible of a sinfully dead and enslaved unregenerate non-believer ever salvifically repenting to God without God already at work in that Indvidual's life for that purpose?

 

[Fred]

What does it look like?

What have I done? (Jer. 8:6)