Sorrow That Leads to Action

The next claim is gentler than the last two, and many sincere believers hold it:

“The repentance required is a longing and mourning to be rid of sin, not deeds. When one meets the Lord, true repentance happens on its own.”

There is real truth here. Longing and mourning over sin are precious, and a person who has never grieved over what he has done has not begun to repent at all. It is also true that meeting the Lord changes people, and no one would want to dismiss tears shed at an altar.

So let this be clear from the start: longing and mourning are the beginning of repentance. The question is whether they are the whole of it.

A Driver Going the Wrong Way

Picture yourself driving at night when you suddenly realize that you are on a one-way street, going the wrong way, with headlights coming straight at you. Your heart pounds. You know you are wrong and in danger, and you wish with all your heart that you were not there.

All of that is real, and none of it has turned the car around.

Sorrow is what a driver feels when he sees that he is going the wrong way. Repentance is braking, turning the wheel, and driving in the other direction. A driver can weep the whole length of that street and still be heading into traffic.

What the Words Mean

The Bible’s own words for repentance are built in just this way. In Hebrew the word is shuv שׁוּב shoob, to turn back. In Greek it is metanoia μετάνοια met-an'-oy-ah, a turning of mind and of direction. Both are words of movement, and both describe a change of path.

The prophets used shuv in exactly this sense:

Ezekiel 18:30-31 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?

“Return, and turn yourselves back from all your transgressions.” “Cast away from upon you all your transgressions.” These are things a person does. Ezekiel is not describing a mood. He is describing a man who throws away what he was carrying and walks in a new direction.

“What Then Shall We Do?”

The clearest test case is John the Baptist. Crowds had come out to the Jordan to hear him, and they had just been told that the axe was laid at the root of the trees. They asked him a question:

Luke 3:10-14 And the crowds asked him, "What then shall we do?" He answered and said to them, "Whoever has two tunics, share with the one who has none, and whoever has food, do likewise." Tax collectors also came to be baptized and said to him, "Teacher, what shall we do?" He said to them, "Collect no more than what you are authorized to." Soldiers also asked him, "And what shall we do?" He said to them, "Do not extort anyone, do not falsely accuse anyone, and be content with your wages."

Three times they asked what they should do. If repentance were only a feeling, John had every opportunity to say so; he could have told them to go home and long for God. Instead he gave them deeds, and very practical ones: sharing what they had, honesty in business, and an end to extortion.

Every answer touched someone else’s life: the neighbor with no coat, the person paying taxes, the man a soldier might accuse. When they asked, “what shall we do?” John gave them something to do.

Sorrow That Produces Something

The claim often leans on Paul, who did write about godly sorrow. But Paul also says what that sorrow does:

2 Corinthians 7:10 For the sorrow that is according to God produces a metanoia(repentance, spiritual domain) that is ametameleton(without-regret, soul-domain), leading to Salvation, but the sorrow of the world produces death.

The Greek word for sorrow here is lype λύπη loo'-pay, grief or pain, and Paul says that this sorrow “produces a metanoia(repentance, spiritual domain).” Sorrow, then, is not the same thing as repentance. Sorrow is what produces it. The tears come first, and the turning grows out of them.

In the very next verse Paul goes on to tell the Corinthians what their repentance produced:

2 Corinthians 7:11 For behold what earnestness this very thing, this godly sorrow, has produced in you: what vindication of yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what longing, what zeal, what avenging of wrong! In everything you demonstrated yourselves to be innocent in the matter.

Earnestness, vindication, indignation, fear, longing, zeal, and the avenging of wrong all came from their sorrow. The Greek verb behind “has produced” is katergazomai κατεργάζομαι kat-er-gad'-zom-ahee, to work out, to bring to completion. Their grief had worked itself out in action. They had dealt with what was wrong, and Paul could say that they had shown themselves “innocent in the matter.”

Paul does not stop at mourning. He traces the line from sorrow to repentance to deeds, and he praises the deeds.

What Happened to Peter

The second half of the claim says that when a person meets the Lord, true repentance happens on its own.

Meeting the Lord does deepen repentance, as Simon Peter shows. He had fished all night and caught nothing. At Yeshua’s word he let down the nets again, and they filled until the boats began to sink. Then Peter did this:

Luke 5:8 But when Simon Peter saw this, he fell down at Yeshua's knees, saying, "Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, Lord."

That is a man meeting the Lord. He did not reason his way to it. He saw who was standing in his boat, and he saw himself.

Years later, however, this same man preached in a way the claim does not expect. After Pentecost, standing in the temple courts in Jerusalem, Peter did not tell the crowd to wait until repentance came over them. He told them what to do:

Acts 3:19 Therefore metanoesate(repent, spiritual domain) and turn back, so that your sins may be wiped away, so that kairos καιρός kahee-ros'(appointed-time)s of refreshing may come from the face of the Lord,

The verb for turning back is epistrepho ἐπιστρέφω ep-ee-stref'-o, to turn around. Peter, who had himself fallen at Yeshua’s knees, proclaimed repentance as something to do, and he proclaimed it first.

That had been the order from the beginning. Yeshua’s first words of public preaching, which we read in Chapter 2, were “metanoeite μετανοεῖτε met-an-o-eh'-o(repent, spiritual domain) and believe in the good news” (Mark 1:15). He told His hearers to repent and believe; He did not tell them to believe and wait for repentance to arrive by itself. Paul summed up his whole ministry in the same way:

Acts 20:21 solemnly testifying to both Jews and Greeks of metanoia(repentance, spiritual domain) toward God and faith in our Lord Yeshua.

Repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Yeshua were both proclaimed, and both were called for.

Tears and a Turned Car

None of this makes tears less precious. A driver who turns around without ever feeling the danger has probably not understood where he was. Sorrow matters, because it is the beginning.

But it is only the beginning. The longing to be rid of sin is meant to grow into getting rid of it. Ezekiel told Israel to cast away their transgressions. John told the crowds to share their coats. Paul praised a church whose grief turned into zeal. Peter fell at Yeshua’s knees, and then went out and told others to turn back.

Another claim says that Yeshua Himself never told anyone who came to Him to repent, but healed them all and gave them what they asked for. Whether that is so is a question the Gospels can answer.