Why repentance in the Bible doesn't mean "turn from sins": GOD REPENTS!
The word used is metanoia in the Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament. See Jer. 18:10, KJV; Amos 7:3, 7:6, KJV; Jonah 3:10, KJV.
So for all those who say that "repentance" in the Bible means to "turn from sins," that would make God a sinner, because God repents (Gr. metanoia, see the above Bible verses).
Don't miss the mark on the meaning of repentance! The word simply means to have "a change of mind" ("a whole-hearted change of mind," as Charles Ryrie would say). That is biblical repentance, and that definition is right on target!
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Now I can guess what the response will be from those who say that repentance means "turn from sins". They will probably say something like, "No, the 'turn from sins' definition of repentance doesn't make God a sinner because He only SEEMS to repent from the human point of view. But He doesn't actually repent." And I actually agree with that, by the way. (See Dr. Scofield's summary of repentance in the Old Testament, in his Reference Bible, where he affirms as much. And I should point out that like myself, Scofield is a proponent of the "change of mind" meaning of repentance.) But getting back to the "turn from sins" view of repentance, if they use that argument (that God only SEEMS to repent but doesn't actually), their argument is self-refuting, because look at the Bible verses that say God doesn't actually repent: they clearly describe repentance as "a change of mind"! For example:
1 Samuel 15:29: “And also the Glory of Israel will not lie or change His mind [Heb. nacham / Gr. metanoēsei in LXX]; for He is not a man that He should change His mind [Heb. nacham / Gr. metanoēsai in LXX].” (1 Samuel 15:29, NASB. Note: Most of the English Bible translations that I found of this verse translate the repentance in the sense of God not "changing His mind"!)
Jeremiah 4:28: “For this the earth shall mourn, and the heavens above be dark, because I have spoken, I have purposed, and I will not change My mind [Heb. nacham / Gr. metanoēsō in LXX], nor will I turn from it.” (Jeremiah 4:28, NASB.)
So these Bible verses actually support the traditional Free Grace understanding of repentance, that it is a "change of mind"! God only appears to change His mind humanly speaking from our way of looking at it, but of course as God He knows the end from the beginning and nothing takes Him by surprise; He is omniscient. So when certain Bible verses say that God changes His mind (repents), this is how the word is being used: "applied to God the word is used phenomenally according to O.T. custom. God seems to change His mind. The phenomena are such as, in the case of a man, would indicate a change of mind." (C. I. Scofield, The Scofield Reference Bible, 1917 edition, p. 1174.) But again, what definition of repentance (or non-repentance) is being used in these Bible verses? NOT the "turn from sins" definition of repentance, but rather, repentance as being "a change of mind"! This is consistent with the meaning of metanoia in Hebrews 12:17, for example, which Bauer's Lexicon lists alongside (in the same gloss definition) other N.T. Bible verses that have a soteriological (salvation) context. So to change the meaning of "repentance" (metanoia) in soteriological contexts as meaning something other than what it means in Hebrews 12:17 is unsupported and merely shows theological bias on the part of the interpreter. For more information see my article: "The Meaning of Repentance: Quotes from the Ancients, Lexicons, and Theologians" (available in the Grace Research Room at gracelife.org, or in the Free Grace Library on my blog).
So the "turn from sins" definition of repentance doesn't hit the bullseye at all; it's way off target. It completely misses the mark on the meaning of repentance.
Technically, in 1 Samuel 15:29, Jeremiah 18:10, Amos 7:3, 7:6, & Jonah 3:10, the Septuagint/LXX (the Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament) uses the verb form of metanoia (metanoeo), not metanoia the noun. It's similar to how in the Gospel of John in the NT, the noun faith never occurs anywhere in the book; it's always the verb believe that is used. But obviously the concept of "faith alone" is still affirmed through (or by means of) the verb believe. In Bauer's Lexicon, he lists metanoia (the noun) and metanoeo (the verb) together, similar to the words "faith" and "believe" as I noted above. They refer to the same basic concept (the noun emphasizes the thing itself, while the verb emphasizes the action of it); it's just different grammatical forms of the same root concept.
The noun metanoia is found only once in the LXX, in Proverbs 14:15, where it is similarly understood and translated in the sense of a "change of mind". Proverbs 14:15 talks about how a wise man gives thought to his ways. In Charles Thomson's 1803 translation, it reads: "a prudent man cometh for a change of mind" (Prov. 14:15b, Thomson translation). Can Proverbs 14:15 apply to Jesus Christ, God manifest in the flesh? Yes! Jesus said: "the Scriptures bear witness of Me" (Jn. 5:39). And in 1 Corinthians 1:24 the apostle Paul says that Christ is "the wisdom of God"! So in Proverbs 14:15 we have a reference to the METANOIA that "bears witness to" Jesus Christ, God manifested in the flesh! And once again, the metanoia does NOT mean "turn from sins". It instead has reference to "a change of mind"! Praise the Lord!
"Not to us, Oh LORD, not to us, but unto Thy name give glory, because of Thy righteousness, and because of Thy truth" (Psalm 115:1).
Dr. J. Vernon McGee, in his Notes and Outlines for Proverbs, affirms: "Wisdom is none other than the Lord Jesus Christ (see 1 Corinthians 1:30)."
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