Sin (4) Jesus' Message

After Jesus rose from the dead, he explained to his disciples the message that would be preached to the entire world.

Repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations (Luke 24:47).

To understand this message, we need to think a bit more about the Greek words used. We have already covered “amartia”.

Repent
The Greek word usually translated as “Repent” is metanoeo”. “Turn from sin” is a distorted and very narrow translation. The literal meaning of “metanoeo” (verb) and “metanoia” (noun) is to “change your mind, think differently, reconsider”. The modern English word repent does not really do it justice. It is not grovelling in tears before God, pleading for him to accept us.

“Metanoeo” is a much broader concept. It means a complete change of thinking, including getting a better knowledge of God, changing your attitude toward him, understanding how the spiritual powers of evil have deceived and enslaved you, and understanding how Jesus has defeated them and set them free. It includes regret for mistakes made in the past, but that is only a small part of what is encompassed by “metanoeo”.

Jesus explained the gospel clearly to Paul when he called him to ministry. “I am sending you to them to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me” (Acts 26:17-18). This is much broader than just remorse for sins. It includes an understanding that we need to be rescued from the power of the spiritual powers of evil.

Aphesis
The Greek word usually translated “forgiveness” in Luke 24:47 means ‘freedom, liberty, deliverance’. It can also mean forgiveness or pardon, but that is an additional metaphorical meaning imposed on the word by religious people. The core meaning of the word is freedom from bondage or imprisonment. It comes from a verb meaning “send away”.

Once we understand that the human problem is being slaves of darkness trapped by the spiritual powers of evil, it becomes clear that our greatest need is to be set free. They would like us to think our problem is that God is antagonistic to us, but that is distortion of the truth. We need to be set free from the powers of evil far more than we need to be forgiven by God. Romans 3:25 explains that God had already “passed over sins previously committed” when he sent Jesus to die on the cross to pay the ransom demanded by the spiritual powers of evil.

In this context, it would make more sense to translate aphesis as freedom. We have missed the mark because we became slaves of the spiritual powers of evil. We need to be set free from their power so we can serve God in the way that he desires. “Aphesis amartia” could be translated as “forgiveness of sin”, but “freedom from missing the mark” is equally valid, but carries a very different meaning; one that makes more sense in the context of our being enslaved by the powers of evil.

A different, but valid, paraphrase of Luke 24:47 would be,

“Change your way of seeing the world to get deliverance from the consequence of missing the mark” will be preached in his name to all nations (Luke 24:47).

Ransom
Hebrews 9:22 is quoted frequently in this form.

Without shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness.

However, it could just as easily be translated as follows.

Without shedding of blood, there is no freedom.

If the spiritual powers of evil are demanding blood as a ransom to set us free from slavery, the latter translation makes more sense. Jesus supported this meaning when he said,

The Son of Man came to give his life as a ransom for many (Mark 10:45).

Jesus gave his life as a ransom payment. Who was he paying? Some theologians assume that Jesus paid the ransom to God, but that does not make sense. God would not stoop to demanding ransoms, like ISIS kidnappers.

However, the spiritual powers of evil would stoop to demanding a ransom. And they have the authority to do so because humans unwittingly placed themselves under their evil power.