Download Repentance Occurs At And Continuously And

Repentance Occurs At And Continuously
And/Or Repeatedly After Conversion
The original Greek New Testament commands unbelievers to:
a)
b)
repent at the same time as converting or turning to God and Jesus Christ and
repent continuously and/or repeatedly when the need arises.
In Acts 3:19, the Apostle Peter uses the aorist tense and imperative mood of the Greek
verb which is translated as “repent”. In this verse, the word “repent” is used in the context of
people first converting or turning to the Lord Jesus Christ.
In Greek, without taking into account other words in the sentence or other features of
the relevant verb in question, the aorist tense of a verb refers to a simple action or occurrence
without defining or describing the time or progress of the action. The aorist tense refers to the
writer’s or speaker’s perception of the action in its entirety or as a single whole. The aorist is the
most commonly used tense in Greek. In Greek, imperatives are commands.
So in Acts 3:19-20, God simply commands unbelievers to repent at the same time as
converting to Him. In Acts 3:19-20, God through Peter instructs: “Repent therefore and be
converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the
presence of the Lord, and that He may send Jesus Christ, who was preached to you before.”
But note in Acts 17:30 and 26:20, God inspired Paul to command unbelievers to repent
continuously and/or repeatedly. In both of these verses, the Greek form of the word “repent” is
in the present tense. In Greek, the present tense nearly always refers to continuous or repeated
actions.
So in Acts 17:30 and 26:20, God is commanding unbelievers to not only repent at the
point of conversion but to also continuously and/or repeatedly when needed, repent after the
point of conversion. In a New Testament sense, to repent means to have a change of thoughts
and will about God, Jesus Christ, the Gospel, sin in general and our specific known sins.
Note also that in Acts 26:20 in Greek, the action word “turn” in the phrase “turn to
God” and “do” in the phase “do works befitting of repentance” are also in the present tense.
The present tense of these verbs signifies that Paul was saying:
a)
b)
we should turn to God continuously and/or repeatedly. This does not mean that believers in
Christ need to be repeatedly reconverted to Him and resaved. Instead it means we must
continuously or repeatedly turn our hearts to Him more fully.
we should continuously and/or repeatedly do actions which are outward expressions of our
inner heart repentance or changed thoughts and will about God, Jesus Christ, the Gospel
and our known sins.
In Acts 26:20, Paul states that he: “…declared first to those in Damascus and in
Jerusalem, and throughout all the region of Judea, and then to the Gentiles, that they should
repent, turn to God, and do works befitting repentance.”