Real Change

Remember when the whole nation, it seemed, voted for, “Hope and Change”? The emotions, the hype, the ‘historical moment’ complex, the pressure, and the glitzy advertising were like a road grater rolling over an ant mound on a gravel road. Then reality, like the joy of a mortgage payment, started its painful rise from the bowels of hell. The day of reckoning came, as it always does.

We all paid dearly (and still are) for that elusive and ethereal idea with the costly currency of righteousness and liberty. We were kowtowed into giving up personal freedom to a Marxist agenda. Under the guise of, ‘change,’ a reduction in national Christian virtues through Islamic promotion, the redefinition of healthy sexuality by, ‘progress,’ and the legal theft of income from the vanishing middle-class the deception is perpetuated by the idea of, ‘more skin in the game.’ Even our children’s propagandistic programming was amped up under the pixie-dust ideals of, ‘hope for a better future.’ We were all shackled with a few more chains because a deep-seated desire for, ‘change,’ is hard-wired into every soul… and our professional enemy knows it very well.

God, our Creator, built us with the knowledge that the way we see this present evil world is not right, even a little bit. This truth is universally accepted from the wokest leftist to the ultra-extreme right. It would be an exercise in futility to find a cognitively functional adult who would not agree that change in our world is of dire necessity. Where the arguments, and even endless wars, start is about what exactly needs to change and how to do it.

It is part of our Divine image to desire a world free from the systems of pain, oppression, and death itself. That desire can passionately drive people into self-sacrificial compassion reflective of Jesus in His atonement or it can be expertly used against us by the deception of our chief Adversary (the devil) as a breadcrumb trail right into his well-constructed death trap. Change is the engine that drives most people out of their beds and into a world filled with sweat, toil, injustice, and devaluation. People want their lives to change for the better so they will suffer through some uncomfortable workplace in hopes of a bigger TV and a pension. The alternative is no change and the misery persists or grows. But, that alternative is worse… as the lepers concluded sitting outside the city gate in 2 Kings 7:

Now there were four men with leprosy at the entrance of the city gate, and they said to one another, “Why just sit here until we die? If we say, ‘Let us go into the city,’ we will die there from the famine in the city; but if we sit here, we will also die. So come now, let us go over to the camp of the Arameans. If they let us live, we will live; if they kill us, we will die.” (Verses 3-4 BSB)

The Aramean army had surrounded and besieged Samaria for so long that the people were eating their infant children and those dying from the famine were saturating the city with the stench of rotting flesh. These folks needed some, “Hope and Change,” in a desperate way. What these lepers said is the stuff of legends, “Why just sit here until we die?” This is the motivating force behind the righteous and ungodly alike. Just do something!

The problem is that the, ‘wrong,’ something does not make the problems go away. Many times it exacerbates the situation or prolongs the misery, but the idea of doing something numbs the reality that the change you were hoping for is not the change you are experiencing. There was a spiritual bait-and-switch con job. Those lepers above had the miraculous experience of stumbling smack dab into the blessings of God. But, most times an uncalculated and non-Spirit-led action will make the mess messier.

Usually, the negative experience boils down to the fact that the change we desire was sought from the wrong source. There is no political leader in a cape who is coming to save us. There is no leprechaun with a pot of gold that is going to waddle in and fund our future. There is no magic pill that will give us the body of a Greek god and the health of an Olympian. Real change only comes from Christ and it only comes through deep, sincere, and authentic repentance.

There are two kinds of repentance in the scriptures. The one that ushers in the change that our heart desires is the one our New Covenant cries aloud and repeatedly for:

Peter: “Repent, then, and turn back, so that your sins may be wiped away” (Acts 3:19)

John the Baptist: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.” … “A voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for Him.’” (Matthew 3:2b, 3b)

Jesus: “The time is fulfilled,” He said, “and the kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe in the gospel!” (Mark 1:15)

The door through which each of us, and any of us, must go through to reach Divine change is genuine repentance. There is no back way.

“Truly, truly, I tell you, whoever does not enter the sheepfold by the gate, but climbs in some other way, is a thief and a robber… Truly, truly, I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. All who came before Me were thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the gate. If anyone enters through Me, he will be saved. He will come in and go out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I have come that they may have life, and have it in all its fullness.” (John 10:1, 7-10)

In context, the, “thief,” Jesus refers to here in these famous passages is any person who tries to find another way. I know we have always used this as referring to the devil, and that is still applicable because he is trying to find alternative ways outside of Jesus too. But, the real context is about the person trying to cheat the system with their unsubmitted ways. I know that is tight, but it is right.

Repentance gets us to the door, and Jesus is that door.

Then, it would be beneficial to know what real repentance is.

Repentance: ‘metanoia’

Definition: change of mind, repentance. From metá, “changed after being with” and noiéō, “think” – properly, “think differently after,” “after a change of mind”; to repent (literally, “think differently afterward”).

Usage: repentance, a change of mind, change in the inner man.

Simply put: change. Real change.

This is a word that connotes a deep and complete reversal of a way of thinking, believing or worldview. It was always scripturally accompanied by visible actions (fruit) of that powerful reversal.

John the Baptist was uber-famous in his day for carrying this message with power and passion. He was so successful and anointed for that ministry that God ordained him to be the precursor for Christ to bring the Gospel message to humanity. Yet, he knew people were wanting to cheat the system and cut some corners.

But when John saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his place of baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Produce fruit, then, in keeping with repentance.” (Matthew 3:7-8)

His requirement was, “fruit,” that was congruent with genuine repentance. This was a demand that he could confidently make because there was an evil twin brother to genuine repentance. Jesus told a parable about it.

What do you think? A man had two sons. And he went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work in the vineyard today.’ And he answered, ‘I will not,’ but afterward he changed his mind and went. And he went to the other son and said the same. And he answered, ‘I go, sir,’ but did not go. Which of the two did the will of his father?” They said, “The first.” Jesus said to them, “Truly, I say to you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes go into the kingdom of God before you. For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed him. And even when you saw it, you did not afterward change your minds and believe him. (Matthew 21:28-32 ESV)

In the BLB, KJV, ASV, ERV, and other translations verse 21 uses the terminology of, “but afterward he repented, and went.”

Repent—such a small word, with an eternal impact.

The evil twin brothers’ name is “metamelomai”. Looks the same, but is so not the same.

The distinctions often laid down between these words seem semantic, but are powerful. The second word (metamelomai) expresses a merely emotional change, but the first (metanoia) is a real, deep change of choice. The latter has reference to particular places or moments the former to the entire life. The latter signifies nothing but regret, even though it amounts to remorse; the former that reversal of moral purpose and direction. Metanoia is the fuller and nobler term, expressive of compelling action and fruit connected with the change of root in the center of the thinking. Metamelomai is also expressive but never gets to the root level, only the emotional or surface level.

In the last moments of Jesus’ perfect life, both Peter and Judas betrayed Him. Both betrayals were equally painful for Jesus and devastating against the relationships of trust that were built with Him. Both men were supernatural in their ministries with Him. Both men were hand-picked by Him. Both of them were equally loved and discipled by Him. Both men failed Him… and both men ‘repented’ for their failures.

Peter denied the Lord three times in His most dire moment, even after Peter argued for his level of commitment as so high that he was willing, “to die,” for Jesus if necessary. After the third public denial, the cock crowed just like Jesus prophesied…

And the Lord turned and looked at Peter. Then Peter remembered the word that the Lord had spoken to him: “Before the rooster crows today, you will deny Me three times.” And he went outside and wept bitterly. (Luke 22:61-62)

Peter repented. Later, Jesus came to Him and affirmed Peter in love because the repentance that Peter poured out was genuine.

Judas also denied the Lord through an insidious plot of treachery with some self-righteous religious zealots. After seeing the devastation his infidelity caused, Judas also repented.

When Judas, his betrayer, saw that Jesus was condemned, he repented and brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and the elders. He said, “I have sinned by betraying innocent blood.” But they said, “What is that to us? See to it yourself.” Throwing down the pieces of silver in the temple, he departed; and he went and hanged himself. (Matthew 27:3-5 NRSV)

The scriptures are clear that Judas died in an apostate state and his repentance was not accepted. This used to bother me until I learned that Judas did the metamelomai repentance, not the genuine one. His response was emotional… deep, remorseful, and visible… but emotional.

The ESV says: “He changed his mind and brought back the thirty pieces of silver.” There is a, ‘change of mind,’ that is inauthentic and one that is genuine. One makes us, ‘feel bad,’ for our choices. The other one leads us to the door of Jesus. That is the genuine one.

Our world needs to see people living in a genuine kind of repentance, otherwise, how will they ever find the door (Jesus)?