Even though we could never earn such a priceless gift as salvation, we are still required to take action corresponding to the sacrifice that Jesus made to take away sin. This is an area where there seems to be an abundance of confusion in Christianity but if we keep it biblical we’ll see clearly how God wants believers to respond.

First, Repentance:

Repentance, like sin, is another “church” word that you don’t hear much in everyday life. So let’s define it and then look at passages that address it. Our English word repentance comes from the Latin that means to do penance again. Many people think that repentance means to be really sorry or to apologize; perhaps because of this lacking transliteration.

But the New Testament was written in Greek and repentance is not a good translation of the original Greek word which is metanoia. Metanoia does not mean to be sorry or apologize at all (although those things may be part of the repentance process.) Metanoia (repentance) is a compound word:

Meta – Change, after (Like in metamorphosis – Change form)

Noia – Mindset (Like in paranoia)

So repentance means to completely change your mindset and your life. Anyone can apologize but real change takes a real decision and great effort.

So what do we need to change our mindset to?