Difference between God Repenting and Man Repenting

Repent literally means "to change one's mind." 

God's repentance (Genesis 6:6) did not result in change because what He was doing was already good and right. Our repentance should motivate change because what we do is wrong.

Many modern translations use the words "regret" or "sorrow" in Genesis 6:6. God repented in that He felt the sorrow that He knew would come; but He did not change His master plan.

The word applied to us means to change one's mind. We repent in that we recognize that our sins are evil and that they condemn us. Abandoning our self-righteousness, we surrender to God's mercy and grace; and then rather than us changing ourselves, He changes us.

In the context of God repenting in the times of Noah, it means He sorrowed about having created man, even though He knew ahead of time what would happen. It's like the difference between knowing in theory that something's going to hurt and then knowing the pain by experience. 

There's a similar concept where it says Jesus learned obedience. That is, He knew the concept and was perfectly obedient; yet experiencing it brought a new dimension to it. 

Repentance in Genesis 6:6 does not mean that God changed His perfect plan. Whereas God repented about what's right and did not change His plan or actions, we repent from what's wrong, and as God enables us, our repentance motivates changed actions, "fruits worthy of repentance."

We repentant concerning:

• rationalizing our sins
• denying that our sins are sinful
• ignoring the consequences of our sins ("God will just forgive me.")
• ignoring responsibilities ("Am I my brother's keeper?")
• false gods
• false approaches to God (e.g., Catholic mixture of faith and works)

There's a spreading heresy to watch out for. Many are overreacting to the sloppy agape of New Evangelicalism. New Evangelicalism preaches redemption without the need for redemption. It promotes Jesus as friend and provider without explaining sin and God's provision for forgiveness.

The new message is an old one. It claims that repentance means you have to overcome your sins before putting faith in Christ. This is a heresy because it mixes works and faith. Repentance from self-righteousness means surrendering to your inability. The man accepted by Christ says, "I cannot overcome my sins; I deserve damnation. I give up! God, help me!"

Copyright 2019, Richard Wheeler. Permission granted for personal use, but please give credit where credit is due.