By David Faust
“Repent” was Peter’s first command in Acts 2:38, but too often today, it’s treated like a forgotten or outdated concept—even among Christians.
This is not the case in other parts of the world. I have known believers in Eastern Europe who refer to their conversion by using the phrase “when I repented.” For them, repentance summarizes what many in America call “becoming a Christian” or “accepting Christ”—the transformation that happens when new disciples believe and are baptized, experiencing what Jesus called new birth.
Repentance requires humbling ourselves and facing the fact that ruling the universe is above our pay grade. It makes us slide out of the driver’s seat so the Lord can take the wheel.
On the Day of Pentecost, Peter’s listeners were cut to the heart—deeply convicted of their sin. Does this happen in our churches today? Does our preaching produce true repentance? Not a manipulative, guilt-induced emotional experience, but a genuine godly sorrow for sin?
Times of Refreshing
If our motives and actions don’t align with the Father’s will, it’s time to repent. If we wear the name of Christ but deny him with our lifestyles, it’s time to repent.
When Jesus said, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near” (Matthew 4:17, New International Version), he wasn’t scolding people; he was offering them a better approach. I think the Lord’s voice rang with the sound of adventure when he invited men and women to follow him. In God’s kingdom, the cross leads to glory. The cost of discipleship is worth the hassle.
God’s kindness, not harshness, leads us to repentance (Romans 2:4)—and to other positive outcomes. It isn’t just “turning from,” but “turning to.” In repentance, we turn from sin toward God, from wrong toward right, from aimlessness toward purpose, from destructive patterns toward healthier habits, from death toward life.
God gave the Israelites a prescription for spiritual renewal in 2 Chronicles 7:14: “If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and heal their land.”
What would happen if national and religious leaders would sincerely repent? What if estranged families, embittered friends, divided churches, and hostile neighbors would humbly seek forgiveness from God and from each other? It would lead to “times of refreshing” (Acts 3:19).
No Longer Forgotten
Repentance shouldn’t be a forgotten word. Let’s include a gracious but clear call to repentance in our teaching and preaching, mention it in our evangelistic conversations, and remember it in our disciple-making.
And let’s include it in our prayers. It’s time to pray . . .
- Lord God, forgive our consumer mentality that whines, “Here am I, serve me,” when we should say, “Here am I, send me.”
- Forgive us for seeking influence and control instead of washing people’s feet and caring for widows and orphans in their distress.
- Forgive our materialism and our stinginess with the resources we’ve been given.
- Forgive us for pursuing our own agendas instead of your will . . . for conforming to the world instead of transforming it . . . for soft-pedaling the truth instead of teaching it with courage and conviction . . . for ignoring your Word instead of obeying it.
Jesus says, “Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest and repent” (Revelation 3:19). Let’s ask, as Peter’s listeners did in Acts chapter two, “What shall we do?” And when we hear the answer, let’s humbly obey.
David Faust serves as contributing editor of Christian Standard and senior associate minister with East 91st Street Christian Church in Indianapolis, Indiana. He is the author of 1 & 2 Thessalonians: Unquenchable Faith.
Thanks for this, especially the line: It isn’t just “turning from,” but “turning to.”
That’s what’s seems to be lacking in the lives of too many people who call themselves Christian.
Could it be that “to” is the essential objective and “from” is simply the result of having “turned to”?
Maybe it is important, not just interesting, that in the Gospel Accounts and the reports of conversions in Acts the command is not “repent from,” but just “repent.”