I often receive comments from people who have been taught certain doctrine incorrectly. What makes their view incorrect is not my view v. theirs. It is the conclusion of original language, context, and proper hermeneutics: The Importance of a Proper Exegesis (explanation from Scripture) is required when certain people claim that Jesus means a change in mind, but not a change in behavior, by ending former sins.

The following is an in-depth exegesis of the Text from Matthew 18:3, regarding what Jesus means by using the word “Repentance,” μετανοέω (metanoeō)

It is true that the Greek verb μετανοέω (metanoeō) and noun μετάνοια (metanoia) involve a change of mind, thought, or disposition. But in Koine Greek usage, the question is: a change of mind about what? In the preaching of Jesus and the apostles, repentance is repeatedly connected with sin, wickedness, turning to God, and a resulting change of life.

Matthew 18:3 is particularly important: “Most certainly I tell you, unless you turn and become as little children, you will in no way enter into the Kingdom of Heaven.” (Matthew 18:3)

The Greek word translated “turn” is στραφῆτε (straphēte), from strephō, meaning to turn, change direction, or be converted. Jesus does not use metanoeō in this particular verse. Therefore, appealing to the dictionary definition of metanoia to explain away Matthew 18:3 actually misses the Greek word Jesus uses.

More importantly, the claim that biblical repentance merely means changing one’s mind from trusting something else to trusting Christ is too narrow. Scripture explicitly defines repentance in moral terms.

Jesus said: “I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” (Luke 5:32)

The object is not merely an incorrect intellectual proposition. Jesus identifies those being called as sinners.

“Unless you repent, you will all perish in the same way.” (Luke 13:3; cf. v. 5)

Paul Illustrates The Need For A Change In Behavior—Ending Former Sins

In Paul’s first letter to the church at Corinth, a situation had arisen that required Paul to give instructions. A young man in the church was living in an open sexual relationship with his father’s wife. Paul asked the leaders of the church at Corinth why they put up with this sin. He told the leadership of this church to remove the young man from the church if he was not willing to repent after a first and second warning, so that he might have the opportunity to change his mind.

When Paul wrote his second letter to the church at Corinth, this young man had repented, ended the sexual relationship, and was ready to come back to the church. Paul encouraged the leadership to forgive and restore this young man and welcome him back to the church.

Paul wrote that he was sorry he had to write the first letter, but was happy that the young man had taken the advice to end the sin and live a righteous life, as God intended all people who love Him to live.

The key part of this letter is that the young man was not just sorry that he was caught in sexual sin, but sorry enough to change his behavior and end the sinful relationship.

2 Corinthians 7:8-10 (Paul) “I am not sorry that I sent that severe letter to you, though I was sorry at first, for I know it was painful to you for a little while. 9 Now I am glad I sent it, not because it hurt you, but because the pain caused you to repent and change your ways. It was the kind of sorrow God wants his people to have, so you were not harmed by us in any way. 10 For the kind of sorrow God wants us to experience leads us away from sin and results in salvation. There’s no regret for that kind of sorrow. But worldly sorrow, which lacks repentance, results in spiritual death.”

Before Jesus began His public ministry, John the Baptist was calling people to repent of their sins and change their ways, if they wanted to be saved:

Luke 3:7-8 When the crowds came to John for baptism, he said, “You brood of snakes! Who warned you to flee the coming wrath? 8 Prove by the way you live that you have repented of your sins and turned to God.”

Jesus Said That We Must End Our Former Sins

John 8:10-11: “Then Jesus stood up again and said to the woman, “Where are your accusers? Didn’t even one of them condemn you?” “No, Lord,” she said. and Jesus said, “Neither do I. Go and sin no more.”

John 5:14: “But afterward Jesus found him in the Temple and told him, “Now you are well; so stop sinning, or something even worse may happen to you.”

Genuine repentance results in a change of behavior. The Progressive idea that sexual sin between two men or two women is suddenly acceptable to God is a lie. God has not changed His mind about sin. What He said from the beginning is still true today.

After His resurrection, Jesus summarized the gospel proclamation this way: “Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day, and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name to all the nations.” (Luke 24:46–47)

Notice the inseparable relationship: repentance, forgiveness of sins. Repentance is part of Christ’s own description of the gospel message.

Peter preached the same thing: “Repent therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out.” (Acts 3:19)

Here we have metanoēsate, “repent,” followed by epistrepsate, “turn.” The repentance Peter commands concerns the sinner’s relationship to God and his sins.

Acts 8 is even more explicit. Peter tells Simon: “Repent therefore of this, your wickedness, and ask God if perhaps the thought of your heart may be forgiven you.” (Acts 8:22)

That text directly contradicts the proposition that biblical repentance is simply changing our mind about what we trust for salvation. Peter clearly commands repentance “of this wickedness.”

Paul is clear: “God commands all people everywhere to repent.” (Acts 17:30)

And Paul later described his entire ministry: “I declared first to them of Damascus, at Jerusalem, and throughout all the country of Judea, and also to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, doing works worthy of repentance.” (Acts 26:20)

That verse is especially important because Paul distinguishes three related realities: repent, turn to God, produce conduct appropriate to repentance.

The works do not cause salvation. They are the fruit of genuine repentance. This is precisely what John the Baptist had taught: “Therefore produce fruit worthy of repentance!” (Matthew 3:8)

And Paul describes conversion among the Thessalonians similarly: “You turned to God from idols, to serve a living and true God.” (1 Thessalonians 1:9)

The Lexical Argument is Incomplete

It is often claimed that because metanoeō derives from meta + noeō, repentance therefore means nothing more than “change your mind.” That commits an etymological/root fallacy if the word’s components are treated as its complete definition.

Words are defined by their actual usage in context, not merely by decomposing them into their historical components.

BDAG, the standard Greek lexicon for New Testament scholarship, gives μετανοέω the sense of changing one’s mind with the implication of turning about, particularly in the religious and moral sense of repentance.¹

In the same way, Louw and Nida place metanoeō within the semantic domain of changing one’s way of life as the result of a complete change of thought and attitude with regard to sin and righteousness.²

The Old Testament background makes this even clearer. The prophetic concept underlying New Testament repentance is frequently expressed by Hebrew שׁוּב (shuv), “turn/return.” God repeatedly calls sinners to turn from their evil and return to Him: “Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts. Let him return to Yahweh, and he will have mercy on him.” (Isaiah 55:7)

Notice that this involves both thought and way. Ezekiel is even clearer: “Repent, and turn yourselves from all your transgressions.” (Ezekiel 18:30) And “Cast away from you all your transgressions, in which you have transgressed; and make yourself a new heart and a new spirit.” (Ezekiel 18:31)

This is the Biblical Conceptual World From Which Jesus’ Preaching Comes

But repentance is not salvation by works. This distinction is essential. Biblical repentance does not mean: “Stop committing sins sufficiently well so that God will save you.”

Salvation is entirely by God’s grace through faith in Christ, not by meritorious works (Ephesians 2:8–9; Romans 3:28; Titus 3:5).

Repentance means that the sinner undergoes a genuine change of mind and heart concerning God, Christ, himself, and his sin, resulting in a turning toward God. Faith and repentance are therefore closely related aspects of conversion.

Paul summarizes them perfectly: “Repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus.” (Acts 20:21)

That is much broader than merely “changing your mind about what you were trusting.”

Paul also writes: “Godly sorrow produces repentance to salvation, which brings no regret.” (2 Corinthians 7:10). And he describes what that repentance produced in the Corinthians—earnestness, concern, indignation toward wrongdoing, and a desire to correct what had occurred (2 Corinthians 7:11). Their repentance was not merely an intellectual adjustment.

The first statement made regarding Matthew 18:3 asserts that “Matthew 18:3 does not say ‘repent from your sins’ to be saved.” Technically, that is true, but it proves very little because Matthew 18:3 does not contain metanoia at all.

Jesus says: “unless you turn/change/be converted.”

ἐὰν μὴ στραφῆτε
ean mē straphēte

Jesus then says that without this turning:

οὐ μὴ εἰσέλθητε εἰς τὴν βασιλείαν τῶν οὐρανῶν

“you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.”

So Matthew 18:3 cannot legitimately be reduced to: “Change your mind from trusting something else and place your faith in Christ alone.”

That concept is simply not contained in the Greek sentence. Jesus is describing a profound conversion—a turning accompanied by becoming like a little child in humility and dependence.

The strongest evidence comes from Jesus Himself. At the beginning of His ministry: “The time is fulfilled, and God’s Kingdom is at hand! Repent, and believe in the Good News.” (Mark 1:15)

Jesus distinguishes grammatically between:

μετανοεῖτε — repent
and
πιστεύετε — believe.

If repentance simply meant “change your mind by believing in Christ,” Jesus’ formulation becomes unnecessarily redundant. Instead, repentance and faith are intimately connected but distinguishable responses: turn from rebellion toward God and trust the good news God has provided in Christ.

Jesus also said: “There is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner repenting.” (Luke 15:10). And immediately before that, He described it as: “joy in heaven over one sinner who repents.” (Luke 15:7). The context is the recovery of someone who was lost.

Yes, metanoia involves a change of mind—but Scripture does not permit us to stop there. Biblical repentance is a change of mind, heart, and the practice of sin.

Jesus taught: “Repent, and believe.” (Mark 1:15)

Paul taught: “Repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus.” (Acts 20:21)

Peter taught: “Repent therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out.” (Acts 3:19)

And Paul summarized genuine conversion as: “repent and turn to God, doing works worthy of repentance.” (Acts 26:20)

See Rob’s In-depth New Testament Apologetics Work, describing the 21 primary arguments presented by atheists and critics of God and the Bible:

“New Testament Apologetics”

Sources and Citations

1. Walter Bauer, Frederick W. Danker, William F. Arndt, and F. Wilbur Gingrich, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, 3rd ed. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000), s.v. “μετανοέω,” P. 640.
2. Johannes P. Louw and Eugene A. Nida, Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament Based on Semantic Domains, 2nd ed. (New York: United Bible Societies, 1989), §41.52, “μετανοέω; μετάνοια.”

Categories: Robert Clifton Robinson