Bible says it is essential to repent before getting water baptized. The Greek word for repent is μετάνοια, (Metanoia). The closest literal English meaning of the word is to have a change of mind.
Many bible theologians believe that repentance means just change of mind. But the biblical understanding of repentance is not just change of mind but to confess, renounce sins and turning to God.
Let us check some biblical examples.
Matthew 3:1 In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, 2 and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!”
Matthew 3:6: “… and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.”
Also
Mark 1:4 John came baptizing in the wilderness and preaching a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins.
Mark 1:5 “And all the country of Judea and all Jerusalem were going out to him and were being baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.”
Here john the Baptist told the people to repent and people understood it, they came forward confessing their sins to get baptized in water. You may say that John the Baptist is still in the Old Testament. Here is an example in the New Testament –
Acts 19:18-19: “And many who had believed came confessing and telling their deeds. Also, many of those who had practiced magic brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all.
They confessed their sins and renounced it.
Also in the book of 1 john is written to the believers. Here john writes if a born again person fall into sins, then they need to come out from it.
1 John 1:9: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
Here instead of repentance, john writes to confess our sins.
God is very serious of our sins. We cannot ignore sin. We have to be honest before God for our sins. We need to acknowledge our sins and receive forgiveness through Christ Jesus.
So confession of sin is a part of repentance. Repentance is not just changing understanding in our mind but in action too.
The best example of repentance is mentioned in book of Luke.
Luke 15:11-32 is the story of the two sons. The younger son left the father with his possession and one day he lost everything. He understood his mistake and he took a decision to return back to his father. When he reached his father he confessed his sins. Just understanding our mistake in our mind and changing it in our understanding is not enough. We need to take necessary action to change it.
When a person wants to turn from his sinful condition to God then nothing can stop him from confession of sins. He will not be fearful or shameful but he will be open to confess his sins. One he confess his sins and renounce it , the sin has no power over him.
During repentance process we need to confess our sins personally to God. But it is always good to confess it in front of another believer who is willing to help us to deal with any particular sinful area in our life. Sometime confession and renouncing helps us in deliverance of demonic. So it is always helpful to confess our sins in front of another believer.
