Repent!
Jesus said “I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance” Luke 5:32. These words sum up His mission in that He came to seek and save that which was lost. Christ’s preaching was designed to lead men to repent and so enter into life. God issues a gospel call in the message concerning repentance. “Those that truly repent of their sins, will not be ashamed to own their repentance,” notes Matthew Henry. So a sorrow for our sin and a genuine turning from it is bound up in biblical repentance. The first word of the gospel is Repent!
Jesus provided a clear illustration in Matthew. “But what think ye? A certain man had two sons; and he came to the first, and said, Son, go work today in my vineyard. He answered and said, I will not: but afterward he repented, and went. And he came to the second, and said likewise. And he answered and said, I go, sir: and went not. Whether of them twain did the will of his father? They say unto him, The first. Jesus saith unto them, Verily I say unto you, That the publicans and the harlots go into the kingdom of God before you. For John came unto you in the way of righteousness, and ye believed him not: but the publicans and the harlots believed him: and ye, when ye had seen it, repented not afterward, that ye might believe him” (Matthew 21:28-32, KJV).
The reason Jesus shares this poignant piece is because the religious leaders had refused not only Christ and His message, but they had previously refused to heed John the Baptist as well. In giving the story of the man with two sons, it becomes very clear that sorrow for a previous decision is part and parcel of what it means to repent. Indeed, Matthew places the Greek word, metameleomai, “repent” on Jesus’s lips. This is one of the terms used to denote biblical repentance, but unlike metanoeo, also translated as “repent,” which literally emphasizes a change of mind, metameleomai speaks of deep regret that leads to changed behavior. So the first son said he would not go to work but later had a true “change of heart.” So he ends up going and doing his father’s will, as the crowd rightly notes. He has genuinely repented.
This illustration shows that the mere lip service that the religious leaders gave to John the Baptist was hardly enough. Jesus challenges them that when John convicted the nation of its sins, the religious leaders did not repent in the fashion of the first son, and therefore did not really believe the good news announced by John. Sinners that heard John and welcomed his gospel, however, Jesus assures us, did actually enter into salvation. Thus the religious leaders are much like the second son in Jesus’s story. They merely say they will do the bidding of the Father, but in actuality they do not. Thus they did not believe John’s message, and clearly, they have rejected Jesus Christ Himself.
It is this kind of sorrow of heart that Paul discusses in 2 Corinthians. He speaks of the same idea but utilizes the more common word for repentance. “I rejoice, not that ye were made sorry,” Paul says, “but that ye sorrowed to repentance [metanoia]: for ye were made sorry after a godly manner, that ye might receive damage by us in nothing. For godly sorrow worketh repentance [metanoia] to salvation not to be repented of [ametameleton]: but the sorrow of the world worketh death” (2 Corinthians 7:9-10). Notice in the latter part of these verses that the Corinthian disciples had repented, metanoia, as a result of “godly sorrow.” Interestingly enough, this genuine repentance is secure and true as it is “not to be repented of.” This latter term in the original is the word metameleomai with the a-privative. In other words, they will not undergo a “change of heart” concerning this repentance. That is why Paul assures the Corinthians that this is true repentance that leads to salvation.
May God make it so, that we would see our congregations filled with sinners that have authentically repented. For Christ said, it is sinners that need to repent. All too often, we leave the impression to outsiders that we are “righteous” just like the religious leaders of Jesus’ day. It is not in imitation of the second son in Jesus’ story, who merely says he will do as the father requires, but in genuine repentance exhibited by the first son that is pleasing to the Lord. God’s will, will be done by us only if we have both genuine grief concerning our sin and true turning away from our sin. And so, we will be encouraged by Jesus that we have entered into the kingdom by God’s grace
