Repentance

A change of mind and direction

Jesus began his preaching in Galilee with a call to repent:

“The time is fulfilled,” He said, “and the kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe in the gospel!”

Mark 1:15

The noun is metanoia (μετάνοια), literally a change of mind; in Scripture it means a change in the whole direction of a life, back toward God. The prophet cried, "rend your hearts and not your garments, and return to the LORD your God" (Joel 2:13). Repentance begins in sorrow but does not stay there: "Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation without regret, but worldly sorrow brings death" (2 Corinthians 7:10). Matthew Henry gathered up what such repentance holds: "Deep humility before God, hatred of all sin, with faith in Christ, a new heart and a new life, make repentance unto salvation" Matthew Henry.

The lost son "came to his senses" and went home (Luke 15:17). Ambrose saw in this the meaning of repentance: "he who returns to God restores himself to himself" Ambrose. Jesus said there is "more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents" (Luke 15:7). Repentance is a command, and it is also a gift. When the church in Jerusalem heard that Gentiles had turned to God, they said, "So then, God has granted even the Gentiles repentance unto life" (Acts 11:18).

How the church came to say it

In the first of his Ninety-five Theses (1517) Martin Luther wrote that when our Lord Jesus Christ called people to repent, he willed the whole life of believers to be one of repentance Luther, Ninety-five Theses. The Westminster Shorter Catechism gives a careful definition:

Repentance unto life is a saving grace, whereby a sinner, out of a true sense of his sin, and apprehension of the mercy of God in Christ, doth, with grief and hatred of his sin, turn from it unto God, with full purpose of, and endeavour after, new obedience.

Westminster Shorter Catechism, Q. 87

Every part of it counts: a true sight of sin, a grasp of God's mercy in Christ, grief and hatred of sin, turning, and new obedience. Sorrow that never sees the mercy of Christ becomes despair; sorrow that never turns remains regret. Repentance and faith are two sides of one conversion and cannot be pulled apart.

Where the traditions differ

All the churches confess that there is no forgiveness without repentance, and that forgiveness comes from God through Christ. They differ on how repentance after baptism is practised, and on how repentance and faith are ordered. The Catholic and Orthodox churches teach that sins committed after baptism are forgiven above all in the sacrament of penance, or confession. The Catholic Church describes it as the penitent's contrition, confession and satisfaction, together with the priest's absolution Catechism of the Catholic Church. Most Protestant churches teach that anyone may confess their sins directly to God through Christ; Lutherans and Anglicans have kept private confession and absolution as a help, not a requirement.

Protestants explain the link between repentance and faith in slightly different ways. The Augsburg Confession teaches that repentance has two parts, contrition and faith in the gospel Augsburg Confession, art. 12. John Calvin taught that repentance not only follows faith but is born of it Calvin, Institutes 3.3. John Wesley taught a repentance before justifying faith, the conviction of sin, and a repentance of believers after it, the awareness of the sin that remains in them Wesley, The Scripture Way of Salvation. They order the steps differently, but all hold repentance and faith together, as Mark 1:15 does. See also What is repentance?