These are the Words...

Teshuvah
תשובה

Definition

Teshuvah means "turning", and is the scriptural word for repentance.

Meaning in Ancient Israel

In scriptures and in ancient Israel the verb shoov, "turn", was used in the phrase "turn to God".

The word teshuvah appears in scripture eight times. In six places it means "turning" in the sense of a person returning to a place or the calendar returning to the beginning of the year. Twice, in the book of Job, it refers to a verbal reply.

Only after the return from the Babylonian Exile did Jewish scholars began to disucss what it means to turn to God and to develop a mature, named concept of teshuvah.

Meaning in the First Century

By first century (and continuing afterwards), Jewish sages had created different but quite similar lists explaining the steps of teshuvah. Here is one such list, to which we have added scriptural references:

humbling your heart (Psalm 34:18)
forgiving others (Matthew 6)
introspection and prayer (Psalm 139:3)
apologizing to all for whom God shows a need to do so (Matthew 5:33)
accepting blame from what God showed us in #3, #4
remorse (Second Corinthians 7:10)
willingness to suffer consequences of sin (Second Samuel 12:13-14)
confession before God and sometimes other people (James 5:16)
reconciliation and restitution with God and people (Jeremiah 31:34, Acts 13:38, Luke 19:8, Luke 3:9-13)
not repeating the sin (First Kings 8:35, Second Chronicles 6:26 and 7:14, Ezekiel 33:11-20)

Notice that scripturally, as well as in Jewish philosophy, there are two kinds of humility and both are part of repentance. (Please see our vocabulary essays on anah and kana for more information.)

While the Temple was in use, repentance often involved bringing offerings to the Temple. After the Temple was destroyed, different Jewish sects wondered and discussed how much God would still respond with forgiveness to people's repentance.

Meaning for Messianic Jews in Modern Times

Assurance that Repentance Brings Forgiveness

As followers of Yeshua, we can be certain, as John explains, that whenever we repent we will be forgiven (First John 1:8-9).

If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Our forgiveness is assured because Yeshua, in heaven, intercedes before the Father on our behalf (First John 2:2).

My little children, I write these things to you so that you will not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an advocate with the Father, Yeshua the Messiah, the righteous one.

Our assurance of forgiveness means we must be very careful not to take God's forgiveness for granted, and not to allow the scope and importance of teshuvah to be diminished in our eyes.

Furthermore, we should interecede for others who need forgiveness (First Timothy 2:1), even though we have no assurance God will extend forgiveness to them (Jeremiah 7:16).

Ending the Circulation of Wickedness

Forgiveness and teshuvah are linked in another important way: our teshvuah directly relates to how well we can forgive others.

As followers of Yeshua we are called to "deny ourselves" and "take up our cross" (Luke 9:23), to "suffer with Messiah" (Romans 8:17) and "suffer on his behalf" (Philippians 1:29), letting "the suffering of Messiah abound in us" (2nd Corinthians 1:5) that we may in "fellowship of his sufferings be conformed to his death" (Philippians 3:10). What does this mean?

One answer is found in how people pass wickedness around like a game of Hot Potato or children cooperatively making a snowball: imagine, for example, someone saying something mean to you, putting you in a bad mood so you snap at someone else; then that other person is bothered and drives rudely, cutting off another driver who is made angry; and so forth...

Yeshua died to provide the ultimate end to this behavior. His followers, through teshuvah, can bring any wickedness they carry to him. Then, at his cross, that wickedness is judged and destroyed.

We "suffer with Messiah" when we repay evil with good, forgiving others and actively bringing the wickedness they produce to Yeshua to take it out of circulation.

Any person trying to be good can do this a little. People of noble intent and a forgiving nature can hold on to some wickedness, not passing it along when they are hurt by another. But it takes knowing Yeshua, having God's Spirit, and being saved from slavery to sin to be able to do this every time.

M. Scott Peck writes about this dynamic in People of the Lie:

I cannot be any more specific about the methodology of love than to quote these words of an old priest who spent many years in the battle: "There are dozens of ways to deal with evil and several ways to conquer it. All of them are facets of the truth that the only ultimate way to conquer evil is to let it be smothered within a willing, living human being. When it is absorbed there like blood in a sponge or a spear into one's heart, it loses its power and goes no further."

Needless to say, if we are carrying around our own wickedness this dynamic is blocked. Only by practicing teshuvah constantly can our hearts be completely free to best help God rid evil from the world in this manner.

Eventually, God will say, "Enough!" and there will be a Day of Judgement. But God's wrath is directed an wickedness, not the people that carry it (Romans 1:18). He would prefer sin to be taken out of circulation than punished on that last day.