What is repentance?

What the Bible says

The word is in the first sermon Jesus preached in Galilee.

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

Mark 1:15

The news that God's kingdom is near comes first, and the invitation to turn around follows. At Pentecost, people who were cut to the heart by Peter's preaching asked, "Brothers, what shall we do?" Peter answered:

Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Acts 2:38

Later he says, "Repent, then, and turn back, so that your sins may be wiped away" (Acts 3:19). In these passages repentance is a change of mind and also a change of direction. And as John the Baptist said, "Produce fruit, then, in keeping with repentance" (Matt 3:8).

The deepest picture of repentance is David's prayer. He had sinned against Bathsheba and Uriah and was confronted by the prophet Nathan. Psalm 51 comes from that moment.

Have mercy on me, O God, according to Your loving devotion; according to Your great compassion, blot out my transgressions.

Ps 51:1

David makes no excuses. "Against You, You only, have I sinned and done what is evil in Your sight" (Ps 51:4). He asks not only to be forgiven but to be made new: "Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me" (Ps 51:10). And he says how God receives such a heart.

The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.

Ps 51:17

Repentance is not a payment we bring to God. It is the broken heart God accepts. Jesus told of a son who wasted his father's property and came home.

So he got up and went to his father. But while he was still in the distance, his father saw him and was filled with compassion. He ran to his son, embraced him, and kissed him.

Luke 15:20

And Jesus says how heaven responds: "there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous ones who do not need to repent" (Luke 15:7). Finally, the Bible says repentance is also a gift. When the Jerusalem church saw the Gentiles believe, they glorified God: "God has granted even the Gentiles repentance unto life" (Acts 11:18). And Paul says that God's kindness leads us to repentance (Rom 2:4).

The church's witness

The church has long understood repentance as a direction more than a feeling. Commenting on Mark 1:15, Pseudo-Jerome says: "For he who would have the kernel, breaks the shell; … the hope of health takes away from the painfulness of medicine" Pseudo-Jerome. The bitterness of repentance is borne for the good it leads to.

On the prodigal son, Ambrose says of the Father: "He runs then to meet you, because He hears you within meditating the secrets of your heart" Ambrose. God runs to meet the returning first.

Matthew Henry, on 2 Corinthians 7, sums up true repentance: "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.

Christians differ on how repentance is practised. Catholic and Orthodox Christians receive forgiveness for sins after baptism above all in the sacrament of confession: Christ gave his apostles authority to forgive sins (John 20:23), and through the priest's absolution Christ himself forgives. Most Protestant churches teach that anyone may confess directly to God through the one Mediator, resting on 1 John 1:9: "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins." Lutherans and Anglicans have kept private confession and absolution as a help rather than a requirement. All agree that forgiveness comes from God through Christ, and that Mark 1:15 joins repentance and faith.

In the original languages

The New Testament word is metanoia (μετάνοια), with the verb metanoeo (μετανοέω). Literally it means "to change one's mind." But in the New Testament it means a change in the whole direction of life, not only inside the head. When Paul declares that people "should repent and turn to God, performing deeds worthy of their repentance" (Acts 26:20), he shows what the word means.

The Old Testament word closest to it is shuv (שׁוּב), an ordinary verb meaning "to return." Hosea cries, "Come, let us return to the LORD" (Hos 6:1), and Joel says, "rend your hearts and not your garments, and return to the LORD your God" (Joel 2:13).

In Matthew 27:3, when Judas is "filled with remorse," the verb is metamellomai (μεταμέλλομαι), a different word from metanoia. It refers to sorrow over what happened: regret. The Bible does not always keep the two words strictly apart, but the word offers a clue to the difference between regret and repentance.

Common objections

"I have done too much to be forgiven." This is not to be brushed aside. Some harm cannot be undone, and an apology does not erase it. The sense of being unworthy often comes from an honest conscience. But Scripture does not rest forgiveness on how large our wrongs are. Isaiah 1:18 says, "Though your sins are like scarlet, they will be as white as snow." David committed adultery and arranged a murder, yet when he confessed, "I have sinned against the LORD," he heard, "The LORD has taken away your sin" (2 Sam 12:13). Peter denied the Lord three times and was called again on the lakeshore (John 21:15). What blocks forgiveness is rarely the size of the sin. It is more often a hesitation to turn. Forgiveness does not erase the consequences of the past, but God walks that road with the one who returns.

"Isn't repentance just beating yourself up with guilt?" Some preaching has given that impression. But the Bible separates repentance from self-torment. Paul says, "Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation without regret, but worldly sorrow brings death" (2 Cor 7:10). Judas and Peter show the difference. Judas said, "I have sinned by betraying innocent blood," and returned the silver, but he went and hanged himself (Matt 27:3-5). Peter, when the Lord turned and looked at him, "went outside and wept bitterly" (Luke 22:61-62). Both were in anguish. The difference was where each turned. Matthew Henry says of Judas, "He confessed, but not to God" Matthew Henry, and of Peter that "It was not the mere look from Christ, but the Divine grace with it, that restored Peter" Matthew Henry. Scripture speaks soberly of Judas (Matt 26:24), but the point of the contrast is not to pronounce on his end. What matters is where sorrow points. Repentance is going to the Father.

"Is repentance something I simply decide to do, or does God have to give it?" The Bible speaks of both. Jesus and the apostles command people to repent, yet Acts says God "has granted" repentance (Acts 11:18), and 2 Timothy speaks of the hope that "God may grant them repentance" (2 Tim 2:25). The Reformed tradition reads this to mean that God's grace first opens the heart. The Wesleyan-Arminian tradition reads it to mean that God's grace gives everyone the ability to respond, and that a person freely responds or refuses. Both agree that the one who repents cannot boast, and that the wish to turn is already God's touch.

Going further

Repentance is not God telling people to go away. It is an invitation to come close. God says, "Do I take any pleasure in the death of the wicked? … Wouldn’t I prefer that he turn from his ways and live?" (Ezek 18:23).

You might ask yourself: Where am I putting off a turn? When I say I confess, am I really staying in regret or fear? If God is waiting for me, what would I most want to say first?

To read further, see What is sin?, What is grace? and How is forgiveness possible?.