In this chapter we come to the matters of repentance and believing. Repentance and believing are the conditions for man to obtain salvation. In order for man to obtain God’s salvation, he must repent and believe. God accomplished redemption for man through Christ and will apply Christ’s accomplished redemption to man through the Holy Spirit because of His great love. However, if man does not repent and believe, redemption cannot become salvation to him. Man must repent and believe in order for God’s redemption to become salvation to him.
According to the original language in the Bible, repentance is related to a change of mind. This differs from the human understanding of repentance, which is related to correction and self-reformation. Since man fell, his mind has turned away from God toward many persons, things, and matters. Moreover, man is dominated by his own mind, “doing the desires...of the thoughts” (Eph. 2:3). Man speaks what is in his mind and acts according to his thoughts. Whether the desires of his thoughts are good or evil, man’s mind is turned away from God while facing a host of persons, things, and matters apart from God. Since man’s mind is turned away from God and turned toward matters apart from God, his deeds and behavior are continuously apart from God and directed toward other things. Therefore, man needs to repent, to have a change in his mind. Once man’s mind changes, his deeds and behavior will change.
1. “That they should repent and turn to God” (Acts 26:20).
Since man’s mind rules his actions and behavior and is turned from God to many things outside of God, there is a need for a change in his mind so he may turn in both his thoughts and deeds from things apart from God back to God. Originally, man’s thoughts are toward things apart from God, and these direct man to carry out things that are apart from God. Everything related to the fallen man, who is controlled by his mind, is turned from God toward things apart from God. When man sins and commits evil, he is turned from God. However, when he does things that are outwardly righteous and good, he still has his back toward God. Just as his sinful and evil acts are apart from God and toward wickedness, his proper and good acts also are apart from God. If he loves the world, he will choose the world instead of God, but if he wants to ascend above the world, he will strive toward that goal rather than God. If he wants to be fashionable, he will choose modernity instead of God, but if he is content to be old-fashioned, he still will not be directed toward God. If he is stingy and greedy, he will direct his efforts toward money instead of God, but if he is charitable and generous, he will direct his efforts toward charity rather than God. If he is gluttonous and lascivious, he will long for things instead of God, but if he is self-disciplined and virtuous, he still will not long for God. He can set his mind on a host of things, having no thought in the slightest toward God. All his thoughts and doings are related to goals, but none of these goals are God Himself. He wants everything except God. Consequently, man needs to repent and turn to God; he needs to have a change in his mind. Such a turn begins with the mind; then it will affect his outward actions and behavior until his entire life and being are turned toward God.
Repentance is not self-correction or even a forsaking of things but a turn to God. A person who loves going to movies may feel it is wrong and stop going. This is the human concept of repentance, not the biblical concept. According to the Bible, a person should repent because he is convicted of his love for movies instead of God. His change of mind is from movies to God, and henceforth, he desires God instead of movies. Repentance according to the human concept does not cause a person to turn to God; this is not the repentance that God desires. A person may give up movies, but if he turns to other things, even proper things, his mind is still not turned to God. The repentance that God desires is a turn of the human mind toward Himself. This is not simply a matter of correction but a matter of no longer rejecting God. This is not a matter of changing from being bad to being good but of turning from godless things back to God Himself. Thus, one needs to repent of what he regards as proper and good. Even the most proper and upright person can be turned away from God very much. He may be faultless but without God; he may deplore evil but reject God. Thus, he needs to repent, to have a change of mind, to turn from proper and good things back to God. True repentance causes man to turn back to God, to turn from not wanting and not facing God.
2. “Repentance unto God” (Acts 20:21).
Since repentance is a turn to God, genuine repentance must be a repentance unto God. Those in the world demand a repentance unto uprightness and goodness, but God requires a repentance unto Himself, not just to what is good and right. A person may change from being wicked to being kind and from being wrong to being right, without turning to God. Before such a change, he is toward evil rather than toward God; once he changes, he may pursue (or be inclined toward) things that are good and proper, but he is still not toward God. This is not the repentance that causes man to receive salvation. According to the Bible, the repentance that results in man’s salvation can never be unto anything other than God Himself. Nothing outside of God can be the object of true repentance.