Last night my son said to me, "You sure seem to talk a lot about repentance in your lessons. That's something we sure don't hear about in the churches we have been around. We hear a lot about love and faith, but I never hear about repentance."

That is interesting isn't it? Some of the first words of Jesus (Matthew 4:17), John the Baptist (Matthew 3:1‑2), the twelve apostles of Jesus (Mark 6:12), and the Great Commission of Luke 24:47 was "And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem." Notice that repentance is linked to the forgiveness of our sins. And yet it is not spoken about often. When is the last time you heard the foundational teaching of Christ on repentance (Hebrews 6:1‑2)?

It is interesting to discover that repentance is a theme of both Old and New Testament teaching.
The word that expresses the biblical concept of "repentance" is šûḇ. It is used over a thousand times in the Old Testament. It can indicate a turning from evil to God or a turning from God back to evil. In Ezekiel 18:26‑27 we see the description of both:
Jesus is the righteousness we need, the wisdom we need, the redemption we need. In fact, He is everything we will ever need (1 Corinthians 1:29‑30).

The danger in the early church, as well as today, was that individuals were turning away from Jesus to the law for righteousness (Galatians 2:21), returning to another sacrifice for sin (Hebrews 10:4), and to another priesthood for help (Hebrews 7:11). In doing so, the Apostle Paul declares repeatedly and boldly:
In "repentance" someone always turns FROM something, TO something. On the positive side, it turned the Thessalonian believers FROM idols TO serve the true and living God (1 Thessalonians 1:9). On the negative side, the writer of the book of Hebrews warned of turning away from Christ and back to sin (Hebrews 3:12‑14), away from Christ and back to the law for their justification (Hebrews 10:1,14), and away from Christ and back to the Old Testament priesthood (Hebrews 7:11). The same kinds of warnings are given repeatedly throughout the book of Galatians and most of the New Testament. I am surprised that most people have never seen it!

A friend of mine who is a teacher in the "grace movement" says that (based on Hebrews 6:4‑6) he believes that a believer can turn from Christ and His sacrifice, but it is so rare that it would be almost impossible to ever happen.

What my friend doesn't realize is that this same warning is all over the New Testament and the New Testament writers also include themselves in the warning that they give. The personal pronoun "we" meaning "a group of people that includes the speaker" is used repeatedly throughout the New Testament.

For example:
"Repentance" should be towards God (See Acts 20:21), but sometimes it appears that people change their mind and turn back:
When a person turns towards sin he begins a process of turning away from Christ and His sacrifice (Hebrews 10:26). If continued in, it will lead to a hardening of the heart, unbelief and departure from the Living God (Hebrews 3:12‑14; James 5:19‑20; 2 Peter 2:20‑22).

These same warnings are repeated continually throughout the New Testament. I am surprised that so many professing Christians have never seen these passages or acknowledged them. I think it may be the result of following men, the result of not having an honest and open heart to all the Scriptures, and the hardening effects of the lifestyles of a twentieth-century church. Nevertheless, the warnings are there and anyone may freely read them if they so desire. The Bible both Old and New Testaments are full of these kinds of warnings.

It is a shame that repentance towards God has been linked with legalism, the keeping of God's commandments with works of the law, or the confession of sin as being sin consciousness (Acts 3:19; John 14:15; 1 John 1:9; Acts 8:22).