Often when people hear someone shout "repent!" on the street, eyes start rolling and feet start scurrying because attached to the word is an unwanted feeling that makes it scary and annoying.
But the true essence of repentance is not a scary feeling, but a call to turn to Jesus Christ—and that is the most beautiful thing ever.
When Jesus declared in Mark 1:15, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel."
Today some people, especially non-believers or inactive believers of Christ, may correlate the word "repentance" to "fire and brimstone" message that uses fear of the wrath of God to manipulate people into Christianity.
But the concept of repentance was meant to be a beautiful picture of God's grace, not a scary image of an angry God raining fire from heaven. The dominant Hebrew word for repentance is the word "teshuvah," which means to return back to God. Its root word "shuv" appears 1,000 times all throughout the Old Testament, meaning people loved talking about it.
The idea of repentance was that man's ways would often bring about curse and destruction and that to experience revival, people had to turn back to God. God was never the source of suffering. Man was. God was seen as their redemption.
Is repentance any different today than it was during Jesus' time? Definitely not! Matthew 11:28-29 gives us a wonderful picture of repentance: "Come to me, all who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls."
The essence of repentance is not fear but love—that if we turn to the Only Way, Jesus Christ—who came down to earth as man to become the atoning sacrifice for all sins—we will experience freedom from the consequence and presence of sin in our lives. It's never by our own strength that we repent, but only by the grace of God. All He simply asks us to do is to put our faith and trust in Him.
Repentance is not simply just a turning away from sin, but a turning to God as well. Unfortunately, many people choose not to turn away from sin because they think it brings pleasure and happiness. But sin is a deceptive hole that gives the illusion of satisfaction when it truly only removes us of perpetual joy.
Our only true source of hope and joy is Jesus Christ, and as we repent we turn to Him to be the source of everything we need. That makes repentance a beautiful experience, not a frightening word.
