SURPRISE NUMBER TWO
PAUL ON REPENTANCE AND FORGIVENESS
The Surprise
Christianity has typically placed a heavy emphasis on repentance and
forgiveness. In fact, most Sunday-morning worship services include a prayer in
which people confess their sins and ask God for forgiveness. And the prayer is
often followed by a statement such as, “I declare to you, in the name of Jesus
Christ, that you are forgiven.” Jesus himself, if we are to believe the Synoptic
Gospels, placed a lot of emphasis on repentance and forgiveness. In fact, the
Gospel of Mark has Jesus begin his public ministry by proclaiming, “The time is
fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel”
(Mark 1:15), and the Gospel of Matthew has him saying, “Repent, for the kingdom
of heaven is at hand” (Matthew 4:17). And in Luke’s version of The Lord’s
Prayer, Jesus instructs his disciples to say, “Forgive us our sins, for we ourselves
forgive every debtor of ours” (Luke 11:4). Along the same lines, the Book of Acts
portrays Paul as calling for repentance (17:30; 20:21; 26:20) and promising
forgiveness of sins (13:38; 26:18). Perhaps the classic statement of this is found in
First John 1: 8-9, which reads, “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves,
and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just, and will
forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
In other words, the basic human problem is that we are all “sinners,” and the
only remedy for sin is “forgiveness,” and the prerequisite for forgiveness is
“repentance.” And so it comes as a real surprise when we find that the letters of
Paul have virtually nothing to say about either repentance or forgiveness.
Repentance. Let’s look first at repentance. Outside the letters attributed to
Paul, the Greek words for “repentance” (metanoia) or “repent” (metanoein) appear
a total of fifty-one times in the New Testament—seven times in Matthew, three
times in Mark, fourteen times in Luke, eleven times in Acts, three times in
Hebrews, once in Second Peter, and twelve times in Revelation. But in the thirteen
letters attributed to Paul, “repentance” occurs only four times (including twice in
the same passage), and “repent” occurs only once. In Second Corinthians 7:9-10,
Paul rejoices that his readers have “repented” (that is, changed their attitude toward
him), and, in Second Corinthians 12:21, he expresses the hope that those who have
“sinned” will “repent.” Otherwise, “repentance” appears only at Second Timothy
2:25, which probably was not written by Paul,1 and at Romans 2:4, which may not
1
It is widely believed by scholars that Second Timothy, together with First Timothy and Titus, was written not by
Paul but rather by a later “Paulinist” who claimed the apostle’s name and authority in order to address a new set of
issues.
have been.2 In short, the notion of repentance is almost totally absent from Paul’s
letters.
Forgiveness. And what about forgiveness? Here, the matter is somewhat
more complicated, because the Greek words for “forgiveness” (aphesis) and
“forgive” (aphienai) have a rather wide range of other meanings. The root idea is
that of “release,” and a decision has to be made in each individual case as to
whether the specific notion of “forgiveness” is intended. Outside the letters
attributed to Paul, the noun aphesis appears a total of fifteen times in the New
Testament, and the verb aphienai some 143 times. In the thirteen letters attributed
to Paul, however, the noun appears only twice and the verb only five times. Both
occurrences of the noun (Colossians 1:14 and Ephesians 1:7) carry the meaning
“forgiveness,” but both are in letters that most likely were not written by Paul.3
And so Paul himself probably didn’t use the noun “forgiveness” at all. Only once
(Romans 4:7) does the verb have the meaning “forgive,” and here Paul is simply
quoting from Psalm 32:1. In short, the notion of forgiveness, like that of
repentance, is almost totally absent from the letters of Paul.
I have argued (William O. Walker, Jr., “Romans 1.18-22: A Non-Pauline Interpolation?,” New Testament Studies
45, 4 [October 1999], 533-552) that this verse is part of a later, non-Pauline interpolation (Romans 1:18-2:29), but
most scholars would not agree.
3
Both Ephesians and Colossians (line First Timothy, Second Timothy, and Titus) are widely as having been written
not by Paul but rather by later “Paulinists.”
2
And so this is the surprise: The letters of Paul have virtually nothing at all to
say about either repentance or forgiveness. And this is particularly striking in light
of the fact that both repentance and forgiveness figure so prominently elsewhere in
the New Testament. And so how do we explain the fact that Paul has virtually
nothing to say about repentance or forgiveness?
Possible Explanations for the Surprise
One possible explanation is that Paul simply has a number of other
metaphors for what James D. G. Dunn calls “The New Beginning.”4 And this is
surely the case! Paul speaks of “justification,” “redemption,” “deliverance” or
“liberation,” “reconciliation,” “salvation,” “adoption,” and so on. But I think we
have to ask the question, Why does Paul prefer these other metaphors over
“repentance” and “forgiveness”? Why does he have almost nothing to say about
“repentance” and “forgiveness” per se?
At least in part, I think it is because repentance and forgiveness presuppose
that the human condition apart from Christ is to be characterized in terms of “sin,”
and Paul has a somewhat unique understanding of sin. To be sure, sin is a
critically important issue for Paul. In his seven undisputedly authentic letters, the
word “sin” (either hamartia or hamartēma in Greek) appears some sixty-one
4
James D. G. Dunn, The Theology of Paul the Apostle (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company,
1998), 323-333.
times,5 “sinner” (hamartōlos) occurs six times,6 and the verb “to sin”
(hamartanein) is found fourteen times.7 In addition, “trespass” (paraptōma)
appears eleven times.8 In a number of these references, “sin” clearly refers to
specific acts that are contrary to the will of God.9 For the most part, however, this
is not the case in Paul’s letter to the Romans, which is probably his latest surviving
writing. Here, “sin” typically doesn’t refer to individual acts of transgression.
Instead, the word appears in the singular (“sin”), not the plural (“sins”), and it
refers to an alien power to which humans are enslaved and from which they need
liberation.10 Paul speaks about sin coming into the world (Romans 5:12-13) and
“dwelling” in people (Romans 7:17-20, 23); about being people being “deceived”
by sin (Romans 7:11), being “under the power of sin” (Romans 3:9), being
“slaves” or “captives” to sin (Romans 6:6, 16-22; 7:23); and about sin “reigning”
(Romans 5:21; 6:12) or “having dominion” (Romans 6:14). In short, in Romans,
sin is not so much something that people do as it is the enslaving power that causes
them to do wrong. In fact, we could almost say that “Sin” (singular and
5
An additional six times in the disputed letters.
An additional two times in the disputed letters.
7
An additional three times in the disputed letters.
8
An additional five times in the disputed letters.
9
First Thessalonians 2:16 (which is probably a later interpolation); First Corinthians 6:18; 7:28, 36; 8:12; 15:3
(which is apparently part of a pre-Pauline “tradition”); 15:17, 34; Second Corinthians 5:19;11:7; Galatians 1:4; 6:1;
Romans 2:12; 3:23, 25; 4:7-8 (a quotation from Psalm 32:1-2); 4:25; 5:12, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18; 6:15; 11:11, 12, 27
(apparently a paraphrase of Isaiah 59:20-21); 14:23.
10
See especially Romans 5:12-21; 6:6-23; 7:5-8:10.
6
capitalized) here becomes Paul’s functional equivalent of “Satan” or “the Devil.”11
Instead of saying, “The Devil made me do it,” Paul more likely would say, “Sin
made me do it.” And so people “yield” themselves either to “sin” or to “God”
(Romans 6:13); they are “slaves” either of “sin” or of “God” (Romans 6:20-22).
With this understanding of sin, the remedy is not repentance and forgiveness but
rather deliverance or liberation. And so Paul speaks about being “set free” from
sin (Romans 5:18, 22; 8:2), not about having one’s sins forgiven.
But I think there may be still a further reason why Paul has virtually nothing
to say about repentance or forgiveness. I think Paul may have found the very idea
of repentance theologically problematic. Now why in the world would repentance
be theologically problematic for Paul? Beverly R. Gaventa, a professor of New
Testament at Princeton Theological Seminary, suggests that Paul avoids talk of
repentance because repentance is something that people do in order to be restored
to a right relationship with God.12 If people repent, they will be forgiven. But
notice the “if.” And I think it is this “if” that Paul would find theologically
objectionable. With Paul, there is no “if.” With Paul, it is not what we do that
counts; it is what God does. And so, my own suggestion, prompted by Beverly
In the undisputed letters, “Satan” appears only seven times (First Thessalonians 2:18; First Corinthians 5:5; 7:5;
Second Corinthians 2:11; 11:14; 12:7; and Romans 16:20); also at Second Thessalonioans 2:9 and First Timothy
1:10; 5:15. “The Devil” never appears in the undisputed letters, but it does at occur eight times in the disputed
letters (Ephesians 4:27; 6:11; First Timothy 3:6, 7, 11; Second Timothy 2:26; 3:3; and Titus 2:3.
12
Beverly R. Gaventa, From Darkness to Light: Aspects of Conversion in the New Testament (Philadelphia: Fortress
Press, 1986), 44.
11
Gaventa’s observation, is that Paul avoids talking about repentance and forgiveness
because repentance is something that people do in the hope of attaining a right
relationship with God.
But, as I noted last week, Paul believes that there is nothing that a person can
do to attain a right relationship with God. At this point, I am reminded of the
famous sermon that was preached and then published by the great theologian, Paul
Tillich, back in the 1950s. The sermon is entitled “You Are Accepted,” and it is
based on Romans 5:20, which reads, “Moreover the law entered, that the offence
might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound.” To me,
the most powerful part of Tillich’s sermon is the following:
You are accepted. You are accepted, accepted by that which is greater than
you, and the name of which you do not know. Do not ask for the name now;
perhaps you will find it later. Do not try to do anything now; perhaps later
you will do much. Do not seek for anything; do not perform anything; do
not intend anything. Simply accept the fact that you are accepted!”13
In Paul Tillich’s view, this is the “gospel according to Paul”: no “ifs,” “ands,” or
“buts”; simply, “You are accepted.”
And I think this may be the reason why Paul’s letters, unlike much of the
rest of the New Testament, have almost nothing to say about repentance and
Paul Tillich, Chapter 19: “You Are Accepted,” in The Shaking of the Foundations (New York: Charles Scribner’s
Sons, 1955).
13
forgiveness. Repentance is something that people do in order that they may
receive “forgiveness.” But for Paul, the basic gospel (“good news”) message is
simply this: “You are accepted—just as you are and quite apart from anything that
you do or don’t do.”
Addendum and Conclusion
I think it’s important to note that Paul isn’t the only New Testament writer to
say almost nothing about repentance or forgiveness. The same is true of the
Gospel of John. Neither the noun “repentance,” the verb “repent,” nor the noun
“forgiveness” appears a single time in the entire Gospel of John, and the verb
“forgive” appears only in John 20:23: “If you forgive the sins of any, they are
forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” I think we have been
much too inclined to read both Paul’s letters and the Gospel of John in light of the
other New Testament writings, and have failed to read them in their own right as
independent testimonies to the real diversity of early Christian faith.
Well, there you have it, another surprise in the letters of Paul: Paul has
almost nothing to say about repentance and forgiveness. He describes what James
D. G. Dunn calls “The New Beginning” in different terms. And I have suggested a
possible reason as to why this is the case. Repentance is something that people do
in order that they may be forgiven and thus brought into a right relationship with
God. Being in a right relationship with God is dependent on something that we do.
But Paul’s view is that there is nothing that people can do to achieve a right
relationship with God. This can only be brought about by God.
Next week, we’ll talk about “justification” and “faith.” And I think we’ll
find another “surprise” when we do. And so, if you haven’t already done so, I
suggest that you read Galatians and Romans with the question in mind, What do
they say about “justification” and “faith”? And I promise not to change the order
of the “surprises” for next week.