In the postmodern world, repentance is often associated with great shame, religious fundamentalism, and pious arrogance. However, the biblical meaning of repentance in Christianity, metanoia, means something quite different than all the negative baggage we associate with repenting. What does the Greek word for repentance mean, and why is it important to understand this with both the mind and the heart?
In Greek, metanoia is a feminine noun that describes spiritual conversion or changing one’s thinking. When it is used in the New Testament, it means someone coming to know the divine love of Christ. Metanoia is used 24 times in the King James Bible.
Metanoia is not just choosing to be a good moral person or intellectually adhering to certain theological doctrines; it is a fallen human being’s life being transformed by the agape love of Christ. This love transforms one’s intellect, emotions, will, and personality and makes all things new.
Throughout the biblical narrative, metanoia describes how the everlasting love of Christ brings hope and redemption to a sinner’s life. A good example of this comes from Matthew 4 when Jesus calls people to repent and proclaims that the kingdom of God is at hand. What did this mean in a first-century context to Jesus’ hearers, and what does it mean today? Jesus called those willing to follow him to turn away from the ego and humble themselves before God.
Metanoia is also key to understanding why the early church made such an impression when it started in the ancient Roman Empire. People observed and were surprised when folks from all walks of life experienced metanoia and joined the church. It made them realize that Christ was who He claimed to be and that hope was possible for them. As St. Paul states in his letter to the Galatians, there is neither Jew nor Greek, but all are one in Christ.
A good example of metanoia in Scripture is the conversion of Saul of Tarsus, who became known as St. Paul. Saul was a Jew educated under the Rabbi Gamaliel. Saul became very notorious as a great persecutor of Christians. Saul saw what Christians were doing as blasphemy against God because they followed a crucified Messiah who did not overthrow the Romans and cleanse the temple for the return of Yahweh. While journeying to Damascus, Saul had a profound spiritual experience that changed everything. The spirit of Christ confronted Saul and came to know the risen Savior he once persecuted after repentance and surrender. Saul became known as St. Paul and wrote much of the New Testament, helped spread the gospel of Christ, and was a martyr for his faith.
While shocking spiritual encounters like what Paul saw on the road to Damascus may be unusual, metanoia still happens today, changing people’s lives radically. One famous example in the twentieth century was C.S. Lewis. Lewis was a staunch atheist for many years because of the loss of his mother, trauma experienced in WWI, and his philosophical education from a secular tutor that emphasized logical empiricism. Despite Lewis’ resistance to the Holy Spirit, Lewis came to know Christ around 1930. Lewis came to repentance, and the Holy Spirit transformed his mind and heart. Lewis glorified Christ in his vocation as a writer by living out his faith by grace and by writing about Christian spirituality through his non-fiction, fiction, and poetry.
No matter what kind of sin one has committed or is struggling with, no one is beyond the redemption of Christ. This promise of redemption is offered to everyone who comes to know that Christ changes everything and brings healing and hope. I, and many others, are living examples of that.
A defining trait of metanoia is realizing that one is a broken sinner in need of grace. Since we are fallen humans who struggle with pride, this is very difficult for us to do of our own free will. It was pride that caused Lucifer to become Satan when he rebelled against God.
Jesus taught that the world would know Christians by their fruit. In this context, when Christians show acts of kindness, compassion, forgiveness, and love, this is evidence that the love of Christ has truly changed their lives. In theological language, this process is called sanctification.
Many twenty-first-century intellectuals, such as the “Four Horsemen of the New Atheism” (Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, and the late Christopher Hitchens), have scorned metanoia as weak, dehumanizing, and wishful thinking. However, it is ultimately a life-giving trait that provides more freedom than secularism appears to give. How is this so? While naturalism (the philosophical belief that spiritual beliefs are irrelevant) may seem simple, it presents many problems. Theologians like Vern Poythress highlight many problems with naturalism. Still, a key one is that it offers no hope: no objective, transcendent reality, and no sense of ultimate meaning since everything is random chance. Metanoia contains the promise that we can change.
Metanoia can sometimes have a specific meaning in certain Christian traditions. Many Orthodox churches use metanoia for a prayer routine involving prostrating towards the cross and then rising up. As the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America explains, metanoia prayer represents turning to Christ and rising again.
Metanoia is also at the heart of a common church activity: performing penance, which means confessing and repenting from sins. Penance has taken different forms at different times in church history. Today, in the Roman Catholic Church, it usually means confessing sins to a priest and receiving absolution. Similar practices appear in other high church denominations like Anglicanism and Episcopalianism.
While we may not see the word penance used much outside high church traditions, most churches emphasize that confessing sins (to God, if not other church members) is important, especially before participating in the Eucharist. When we take the bread and wine at the Eucharist (also called communion), we remember that we are new creations. Celebrating The Eucharist proclaims that Jesus is risen, that through the metanoia process, we have accepted his gift of salvation and that one day, all will be made right through the marriage of heaven and earth. This hope is still proclaimed today by Christians all around the world.
Metanoia can teach us that although we are fallen human beings living in a broken world, there is hope in Christ through surrender and repentance. How does this change happen to someone in our confused, broken world? Since intellectualism can only take one so far, below I give an example from personal experience of how metanoia is experienced by a fallen human being in time and space.
When I was a confused teenage agnostic struggling to find meaning and hope, my life was completely changed by the agape love of Christ. This drastic change that happened at the beginning of my spiritual journey of faith required coming to a place of surrender. I repented of my sins and acknowledged Jesus as the Messiah and King. Asking historical and existential questions was part of that journey, but ultimately, it required metanoia. This subjective encounter with the Christ that rose from the dead in the first century was the same divine encounter the first Christians experienced in the early church and is still experienced by Christians today. Through my experience of metanoia, I came to know true freedom, joy, and the promise of being with Christ after death.
We live in difficult times. Every day, the world seems dominated by wars, political turmoil, and various kinds of leaders abusing their power. Confusion, hatred, and darkness dominate, and hope can seem impossible. Yet, in Mark’s gospel, Jesus tells us not to despair but to hold fast to hope in him. Political leaders, empires, and celebrities all come and go, but the one sustaining factor of the Christian life is the hope offered through Christ.
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Justin Wiggins is an author who works and lives in the primitive, majestic, beautiful mountains of North Carolina. He graduated with his Bachelor's in English Literature, with a focus on C.S. Lewis studies, from Montreat College in May 2018. His first book was Surprised by Agape, published by Grant Hudson of Clarendon House Publications. His second book, Surprised By Myth, was co-written with Grant Hudson and published in 2021. Many of his recent books (Marty & Irene, Tír na nÓg, Celtic Twilight, Celtic Song, Ragnarok, Celtic Dawn) are published by Steve Cawte of Impspired.
Wiggins has also had poems and other short pieces published by Clarendon House Publications, Sehnsucht: The C.S. Lewis Journal, and Sweetycat Press. Justin has a great zeal for life, work, community, writing, literature, art, pubs, bookstores, coffee shops, and for England, Scotland, and Ireland.
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