01.05E. Repentance, Conscience and Spiritual Understanding

Repentance, Conscience and Spiritual Understanding In the New Testament repentance (metanoia) is a combination of two words: the preposition meta meaning “change or alter” as used in metamorphosis (change in shape), and the noun noia, a feminine form of the word nous, meaning “mind.” Biblical repentance is not merely sorrow for sin, but a change of spiritual insight toward God, sin, oneself and spiritual truths. Without the change wrought by repentance, no unbeliever will ever see himself as God sees him, neither will his conscience recognize sin to be sin. Pharoah, Balaam, Achan, Saul and Judas’ confession, “I have sinned” might be remorse but certainly not scriptural repentance, which is not produced by man’s resolve or effort. Repentance is God’s gift as the Bible explains in Acts 5:31, “He is the one whom God exalted to His right hand as a Prince and Savior, to grant repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sin.” It is the heart-opening granted by Christ, without which Lydia would not have listened intently to the gospel as preached by Paul and be saved-“Lydia . . . a worshipper of God, was listening; and the Lord opened her heart to respond to the things spoken by Paul”(Acts 16:14). For this reason Christ came not only to bear our sin, but also to give “us understanding, in order that we might know Him who is true” (1 John 5:20). At the moment of salvation, Christ restored the function of our spiritual understanding and put His laws into it, fulfilling Jeremiah’s prophecy, recorded in Hebrews 8:10, “I will put My laws into their mind, and I will write them upon their heart.” In this manner, Christ created within us “the law of [our] mind” (Romans 7:23), which established our conscience according to God’s law-to convince us of sin committed, of righteousness impossible, of judgment impending, and thus led us to confess and forsake our sin, and to live in righteousness, which are evidences of genuine repentance. When the demands of conscience for either condemnation or atonement are met and satisfied by Christ’s substituted suffering, the sinner’s bad conscience turns into a good one. This is salvation in effect, and regeneration in truth. It is not merely lifting up one’s hand while others’ heads are bowed and eyes closed, nor just being baptized and received as a church member, but it is having a good conscience which proceeds from a real conversion, brought about by serious confession, and true faith in Christ, by which the forgiveness of sins is obtained and the renewal by the Holy Spirit unto a new life and walk is initiated. Strictly speaking, if the Gospel has not penetrated man’s conscience, that is, if he has not experienced the power of God in his moral exercises, he is still outside of Christ and is not saved, no matter how long he has been a church member. This is why the prophets and apostles in the Bible stressed the message of repentance so much. It is the spiritual labor of regeneration. Without such travail, spiritual miscarriage may take place, and the church may produce a member with a defiled conscience, having neither new birth nor spiritual life. 65 In the spring of 372 AD, a 31-year-old professor, Augustine, was discussing with his friend, Alypius, how to find peace for their souls. Because much of his youthful life had been spent in sexual immorality and impiety, Augustine was extremely distressed because of constant condemnation from his conscience. He left Alypius and went into another part of the garden, lay under a tree and moaned as tears rolled down his cheeks in abundance. Suddenly, he heard a chorus of children’s voices saying, “Tolle, lege; tolle, lege [take and read, take and read]!” Augustine returned to his friend, picked up Paul’s Epistle to the Romans that he had left there a short while before, and opening it he read the first passage his eyes recognized. It said, “Let us behave properly as in the day, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual promiscuity and sensuality, not in strife and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts” (Romans 13:13-14). As he was reading this, the Lord opened his spiritual understanding, as he said later, “Every doubt was banished!” From that moment until his death, Augustine lived a noble, virtuous life for Christ. God’s grace performed for Augustine according to what Scripture promises, “Then He opened their minds [nous] to understand the Scriptures” (Luke 24:45) and “We know that the Son of God has come, and has given us understanding [dianoia-a renewed mind or nous], in order that we might know Him who is true” (1 John 5:20). By means of our enlightened spiritual understanding, we know God and the things pertaining to Him. Our regenerated spiritual understanding perceives God’s will in personal Bible reading, biblically-based sermons, and Sunday School edification, analyzes and interprets it, and makes it known to conscience, which discerns God’s will on moral and spiritual affairs according to the knowledge received. Spiritual understanding (nous) and conscience (metanoia) are two in one; whenever one is defiled, the other is polluted, “To those who are unbelieving . . . both their mind and conscience are defiled” (Titus 1:15). They are like the eyes and ears mentioned in Acts 28:26-27 : Whenever the eyes are closed (spiritual understanding), the ears are dull (conscience); but whenever the eyes see, the ears hear. God put both within us at our birth, so that following our new creation they might work together as a team to make us God-like-even according to the image of Jesus Christ.

All Scripture quotations are taken from the NASB. For more discussion on the origin and function of our spiritual understanding and conscience, see Genesis: A Biblical Theology, 50-54, and How We Know God, 2-4, under the section, “Other Studies,” at the Website: www.bsmi.org. For further discussion on how repentance and faith give us a renewed mind and on how to encourage growth of spiritual understanding and conscience, see The Kingdom and What It Means to the Life of the Believer, 35-38, and 46-48, at the Website: www.bsmi.org. © Biblical Studies Ministries International, Inc. You are permitted and encouraged to reproduce and distribute this material in any format provided that: (1) You credit the author and Biblical Studies Ministries International, Inc.; (2) Any modifications are clearly marked; (3) You do not charge a fee beyond the cost of production; (4) You do not make more than 500 copies; and (5) You include BSMI’s web site address (www.bsmi.org) on the copied resource. For placing this material on the web, a link to the document on BSMI’s web site is preferred. For any use other than that given above, please contact Biblical Studies Ministries International, Inc., 820 Bennett Court, Carmel, IN 46032 or tbsmi@aol.com. 66 67