WHAT IS REPENTANCE?

By Rick Mathes

Matthew 3:2 (NASB77) ² ” Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

I took a dive into the infinite bottom, the abyss of sin and survived only by the grace of God. I tried swimming to the shore of eternal life on my own but got caught up in the whirlpool of endless drowning that never ended until I finally repented of my sins and gasped a gulp of the intoxicating oxygen of glory. I became a Savior’s survivor.

It was the aftermath that perplexed me greatly because the year after I received Jesus as Lord was worse than the one that preceded this liberating event. My sinful tool-box was empty but the land-mines I had laid were all about me and ready to explode, one at a time.

My major premise to survive this certain destruction of my now vulnerable hide was: God is tht which nothing grater can be conceived. The revelation of God incarnate in Jesus put flesh on my faith and the determination of the Holy Spirit in my veins.

Where could I find real essence of repentance but in the original Greek, which I promptly researched and these are the results of my effort:

• Methameloma: regret, sorrow of the past evil course of life.
• Metaneo: reversal of the entire mental attitude.
• Epistrephomai: a change in the direction of life, one goal being substituted for another.

It is a grand-slam home run of the intellect, will and emotions that displays itself in your world-view and day-to-day life lifestyle. Beware though that Satan’s entry level to disrupt this process is your mind and emotions as you process this application to your soul.

When the house is built on a solid foundation, the sirocco winds of the desert of hell cannot take it down. The Spirit that breathed life at the first birth will breath the second time into your born again spiritual lungs and renew your soul into His image and likeness once again if you will just repent. Submission and obedience will soon follow, you can count on it!