Repentance as the Prophets Defined It

One more claim must be faced before this part of the book closes, and it is the one that sums up all the others: “You must not go back to the Torah. The gospel sets us free from the Torah. It does not call us back to it.”

Going “back to the law” can sound like going back to Egypt and its chains, and no one wants that.

So we will ask the question in the simplest way we can. When Yeshua spoke about the last day, whom did He say He would send away, and why?

Depart from Me

Matthew 7:21-23 Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of the heavens, but the one who does the thelema θέλημα thel'-ay-mah(will) of My Father who is in the heavens. Many will say to Me on that day: 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demon(individual evil spirits to be expelled)s, and in Your name perform many dynamis δύναμις doo'-nam-is(miracles, power)?' And then I will declare to them: 'I never knew you — depart from Me, you who work the anomia ἀνομία an-om-ee'-ah(Torah-lessness).'

These people are no strangers to His name. They call Him “Lord, Lord.” They prophesied in His name, cast out demons in His name, and did mighty works. By every outward measure they were successful ministers.

Yet He sends them away, and He gives a reason: “you who work the anomia(Torah-lessness).”

We have met this word many times now. John gives its definition in one line: “sin is anomia(Torah-lessness)” (1 John 3:4). Torah-lessness is no minor charge in Yeshua’s mouth. It is the reason He gives for sending away people who called Him Lord.

Set that beside the claim we began with. If the message of the gospel were “Do not go back to the Torah,” then the gospel would be calling us to the very place from which Yeshua says, “depart from Me.” Those two cannot both be true.

The Old Testament Had Already Defined It

What, then, is repentance? We often think of it as sorrow. Sorrow is part of it, but the prophets had a more physical picture. To repent is to turn around and go back.

Malachi 3:7 From the days of your fathers you have turned aside from my statutes (chuqqim חֹק khoke), and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you, says the LORD of hosts (tzevaot צָבָא tsaw-baw'). But you say, "In what shall we return?"

“From the days of your fathers you have turned aside from my statutes (chuqqim).” That is where they left the road, and so the place to which they return is those same statutes. The Hebrew word is shuv שׁוּב shoob, to turn back, to return.

Israel’s reply at the end of the verse is telling: “In what shall we return?” Many ask the same today: return how, and to what? Malachi has already answered in the first half of the verse. One returns to the place one walked away from.

Ezekiel makes the same call:

Ezekiel 18:30-32 Therefore, each man (ish אִישׁ eesh) according to his ways I will judge you, house of Israel, declares the Lord GOD. Return, and turn yourselves back from all your transgressions, that iniquity may not be for you a stumbling-block. Cast away from upon you all your transgressions by which you have transgressed, and make for yourselves a new heart and a new spirit (ruach רוּחַ roo'-akh); and why will you die, house of Israel? For I do not delight in the death of the one who dies, declares the Lord GOD; so turn yourselves back, and live.

“Return, and turn yourselves back from all your transgressions.” The heart behind the call is plain: “I do not delight in the death of the one who dies … so turn yourselves back, and live.” The call to return is not a threat. It is a father calling his children home.

Nehemiah, looking back over Israel’s history, shows what refusing that call looks like:

Nehemiah 9:26 And they were rebellious, and rebelled against You, and cast Your Torah behind their back, and they killed Your prophets who testified against them to bring them back to You; and they did great blasphemies.

In a single sentence they cast the Torah behind their back and killed the prophets who came “to bring them back.” To throw the Torah away and to refuse the call to return are one and the same act, seen from two sides.

The First Word of the Gospel

Now turn to the Gospel of Matthew, to the day Yeshua began to preach:

Matthew 4:17 From that time Yeshua began to proclaim and say: "metanoeite μετανοεῖτε met-an-o-eh'-o(Repent, spiritual domain), for the kingdom of the heavens has drawn near."

The very first word is metanoeite (μετανοεῖτε), which we translate “Repent.” But Yeshua was speaking to a people who knew Malachi and Ezekiel, and to them that call meant one thing: turn around and come back.

Now put the pieces together. Sin is anomia, Torah-lessness, and the first word of the gospel is “return.” So the first word of the gospel is, in effect, “Return from Torah-lessness.” That is no different from the message of the prophets. It is their message, now with the kingdom standing at the door.

The Voice in the Car

Most of us have driven with a navigation app at some time. When we miss a turn, a calm voice says, “Make a U-turn when possible.” If we miss it again, the voice says it again, patiently and without a trace of anger. It is not trying to punish us. It wants to bring us home.

Yet the voice did not put us in the car. Grace did that. Grace forgave us and set us on our way with a new heart, as Ezekiel promised. But once we are on our way, the road still matters, and the Torah, written on the heart by the Spirit, is that road. Grace brings us in, and the Torah is the way we walk once we are inside.

That is why “return” is good news. It is not a demand that we earn our way back, for we have already been brought in by grace. It is an invitation to walk on the road God laid down from the beginning, the road Yeshua walked, and the apostles after Him.

Looking Back, Looking Ahead

This part of the book has covered much ground: zeal and its direction, the Way the apostles followed, the four rules of Acts 15, one Torah and one tree, Romans 7, a word that is not in the Bible, the shadow in Colossians, a night in Troas, and the Sabbath and its Lord. At the end of it all we heard one word from Yeshua’s lips: return.

But a road is more than a direction. It also has a rhythm. God did not only tell His people how to walk; He told them when to stop, when to gather, when to rejoice, and when to afflict their souls. He called these days “My appointed times,” and He set them on the year like markers along a highway.

The road has a calendar.