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toward God. This meant a change of the whole of life in its inlook as well as in its outlook ; a change, in short, of one's self, motives, aims, pursuits.
Jesus' primary thought was of a change to. For His starting-point was God. Hence the burden of His message was God and righteousness. But this implies that there was something to change from. Men were to free their mind from one thing and to fix it on another. They were to exchange one habitual, fixed state of mind for another — for its opposite, namely, for one that recognized, preferred, hungered after and sought for righteousness as the fulfilment of the will of God, as the realization of the rule (Kingdom) of God.
What was it then that they were to change from ? Naturally it was from that which was the opposite of righteousness, that which refuses the rule of God and excludes Him from life. In other words, it was from sin. In turning to God it was necessary, in the nature of the case, to turn fmm that which is opposed to God, from that state of mind which loves, enjoys, chooses sin ; which is permeated and dominated by sin, and which brings about the inevitable consequence of living in the practice of sin. So that, while Jesus had much to say about righteousness. He had much to say, and inevitably, alDout sin. We are now better prepared to understand what He meant when He called on people to repent. Popularly, repentance is under- stood to be a sense of regret and self-abasement looking to the forgiveness of the wrong-doings of the past. This is one part of repentance, but it is the least part. Sin lies deeper than the act. It is in the unrenewed, perverse nature behind the act. So repentance goes deeper than the act. Sin has its root in the inherent condition of man's nature ; repentance contemplates a change in this con- dition. And until this change is effected, sin will inevitably continue to rule. Repentance then, while it is a sense of regret and sorrow for the wrong-doings of the past, is far more. It is an agonizing desire, leading to an agonizing and per- sistent effort, to realize such a radical change in the state of the mind as will secure and ensure against wrong-doing in the future. Born of a realization, more or less clear and pungent, of our natural sinward tendency and of our hopeless in- ability to correct it or control it, it impels us to desire above all things and to seek before all things that change of mind and moral condition which will not only lead us to choose righteousness, but also enable us triumphantly to realize righteous- ness. Repentance goes to the root of the matter. The very word goes to the root of it. For what is fxerdvoia but a ' change of mind ' ? That this was the meaning of the word in the thought and intent of Jesus, the whole drift of His teaching implies. But it is specifically shown in those sayings of His which reveal His view of the inherent sinfulness of human nature: 'If ye being evil' (irov-ripol SrTes, Mt 711) ; ' a corrupt tree cannot (ov Svvarai, v.^^) bring forth good fruit ' ; and that terse statement of the whole situation which in one epigrammatic sen- tence sums up all that St. Paul says in the seventh and eighth chapters of Ronmns : ' That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit' (Jn 3«). It is what St. Paul calls 'the mind of the flesh.' and as good as calls the mind of sin (see Ro T^''-^").
Repentance, as used in the Synoptic Gospels, covers, as a rule, the whole process of turning from sin to God (as in Lk 24-'''). So that in the broad, comprehensive sense of the Synoptics, it includes faith, ^Yhich is a part of the process, the last step of it. It is so used also in the discourses I of the early chapters of the Book of Acts. There
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the comprehensive condition of admission to the brotherhood of believers and of participation in the life of the Spirit is repentance (Ac 2-^8 310 ssi)^ Faith is not mentioned, though, in the nature of the case, it is included.
In the Fourth Gospel the reverse is the case. There faith is the condition of salvation (Jn 315. 16. .W) , ]3^t; -while repentance is not specifically mentioned, it is included in the notion of faith. Faith is the trustful commitment of one's self to God for forgiveness of sin and deliverance from sin ; but it is psychologically impossible to commit one's self thus to God without renouncing and turning avfay from all that is contrary to God. And this impossibility is expressed or implied in the discourses of the Fourth Gospel. For they clearly set forth the moral conditionality of faith. A man cannot exercise faith whose heart is not right, whose moral condition and attitude of will are opposed to the right (S*-*). And this moral con- ditionality of faith is exactly what is meant by repentance, in its narrower sense. Faith is the condition of entrance into the experience of salva- tion, the enjoyment of eternal life ; but repentance is the psychological and moral condition of faith. As eternal life is unattainable without faith, faith is iinattainable without repentance.