What is repentance?

Don Hart explains in this video that one of the classic definitions of repentance is the act of turning from the direction of which you are going and doing an about-face and going in another direction.

Yet, what we think of as repentance often focuses too much on the act of "turning" and not enough on what we do after we "turn." If we are saved, we will not only turn away from sin, but we will turn towards Christ. We will follow Him. It is the fruit of being saved. It is the evidence. 

Repentance is a duty that we have as Christians and one that we cannot fulfill unless He has changed our heart and made it into a heart of flesh instead of a heart of stone.  Only God can allow us to turn away from our sin and follow Him. 

Joel 2:12-13 (NKJV) - "'Now, therefore,' says the Lord, 'Turn to Me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning.' So rend your heart, and not your garments; return to the Lord your God, for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness; and He relents from doing harm."

One of the classic definitions of repentance, with which I expect most are familiar, most Christian people would be familiar, is the act of turning from the direction we're going and doing an about face and going in another direction. Often that picture of repentance focuses too much on the act of turning and not nearly enough on what we do after we turn. Repentance is a fruit that can no more be divorced from that act than any part of it. And so If we are saved, if God has given us that gift of faith, we will not only turn away from sin, but we will turn toward Christ. And we won't just stand there, we'll follow Him.

It is absolutely the heart of Christian life. It is the fruit of being saved. It is the evidence, the fruit, and yet it is that to which we are called. And it is a duty which we have as Christians, and yet it is a duty that we cannot fulfill unless God has changed this wicked rebellious heart at enmity with Him and put in its place friendship and made a heart of flesh out of a heart of stone and given us the gift of faith which would lead us to repent, to repent of our sin, to turn away from that enmity against God and toward God, turn away from our sin and follow Christ. You