This article is part of the 10 Things You Should Know series.
1. Repentance is an occasion of joy.
Scripture repeatedly emphasizes that repentance is a time of celebration. Jesus taught that repentance leads to the sort of celebration that takes place when a lost son comes home and his father rushes out to receive him and then throws his son a party (Luke 15:11–32). Levi the tax collector repented and hosted a great feast (Luke 5:27–32). So did Zacchaeus (Luke 19:1–10). Psalm 32, one of the penitential psalms (or psalms of repentance), concludes, “Be glad in the LORD, and rejoice, O righteous, and shout for joy, all you upright in heart! (Ps. 32:11). If you long for a place of joy, gladness, and rejoicing, then repentance is for you.
2. Jesus began his ministry with a call for repentance.
From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” (Matt. 4:17)
This alone, that Jesus began his preaching of the good news of the kingdom with a call for repentance, should motivate us to meditate on repentance. Jesus’s emphasis on repentance was not confined to his introduction. Robert Reymond wrote this rich summary of Jesus’s emphasis on repentance:
The glorified Christ placed beyond all doubt that repentance is to be a part of gospel proclamation, when he declared on the evening of his resurrection from the dead: “This is what is written: that the Messiah should suffer and rise from the dead the third day, and that repentance for . . . forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed . . . in his name to all nations” (Luke 24:46–47) . . . Jesus himself preached repentance [as a command] (Matt. 4:17; Mark 1:15), characterized the very purpose behind his coming to people in terms of calling sinners to repentance (Luke 5:32), warned that unless sinners repented they would perish (Luke 13:3, 5) and unless they were converted . . . and became as little children, they would never enter the kingdom of heaven (Matt. 18:3), denounced whole cities that would not repent while commending Nineveh for repenting at the preaching of Jonah (Matt. 11:20–21; 12:41; Luke 10:13; 11:32), and declared that heaven rejoices over one sinner who repents (Luke 15:7, 10).1
Drawing on Scripture and the Westminster Shorter Catechism, this practical theology on repentance invites readers to experience abiding gladness by turning away from sin and toward Jesus.
3. Repentance references a spiritual 180—an about-face.
Paul’s speech before King Agrippa reflects this definition. He summarized that wherever he travelled, he challenged his audiences “that they should repent and turn to God, performing deeds in keeping with their repentance” (Acts 26:20). This, then, is biblical repentance: an about-face of mind, heart, and will that bears fruit.
Question 87 of The Westminster Shorter Catechism, gives a rich and beautiful definition of repentance. “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 endeavor after, new obedience.”
4. Repentance and faith are inextricably connected to one another.
They are inseparable—two sides of the same coin. Repentance is turning from sin. Faith is turning to Christ. It is not possible to have repentance without faith or faith without repentance. John Murray (1898–1975) wrote, “The faith that is unto salvation is a penitent faith and the repentance that is unto life is a believing repentance. . . . Saving faith is permeated with repentance and repentance is permeated with faith.”2
5. Repentance is an occasion of joy but also of grief.
Repentance is turning away from sin. This includes grieving sins committed and sorrow for remaining sin. In 2 Corinthians 7:5–13, an important passage that contrasts godly grief with worldly sorrow, Paul encourages the Corinthians that they were “grieved into repenting” (2 Cor. 7:9). Likewise, Psalm 6, another psalm of repentance, vividly describes the grief of repentance.
If it seems strange to say that repentance is both an occasion for grief and sorrow but also one of joy, think of it this way. Repentance involves understanding something about us—namely, that we are sinners who have rebelled against God. And this is a source of grief. But true repentance also involves seeing the beauty of Christ. And this is a source of great joy. Picture what the Prodigal Son must have experienced when he returned home and saw his father rushing out to greet him. On the one hand, he could see the lines of care on his father’s face and would have been struck at how much his father aged in his absence. On the other hand, he was overjoyed to go home. He was at once grieved and joyous.
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6. Repentance is a gift.
The Bible is clear that repentance is a gift (Acts 11:18; 2 Tim. 2:25). Prodigals can come to their senses only because God gives them the gift of repentance. Those who are spiritually dead do not resuscitate themselves (Eph. 2:1–10).
Not understanding that repentance is a gift is one of the ways people are most confused about repentance. They view it as something they must produce in themselves or others rather than a gift to be unwrapped. This is an exhausting way to live. But when we see that repentance is, as the Westminster Shorter Catechism says, “a saving grace,” then it will change how we approach our own repentance and how we pray for it in the lives of people we love.
7. Repentance is not only the way into the Christian life; it is the way of the Christian life.
This truth was at the heart of the Reformation. When Luther posted his Ninety-Five Theses on the door at Wittenberg on October 31, 1517, his first thesis focused on repentance: “When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said ‘Repent,’ he intended that the entire life of believers should be repentance.”
Scripture is clear that repentance should be ongoing for the believer. The Lord’s Prayer teaches us to pray, “Forgive us our sins.” The psalms of repentance, or penitential psalms, are written for believers and call for ongoing repentance (Pss. 6, 32, 38, 51, 102, 130, 143). John and James likewise encouraged believers to repent of sins in an ongoing way (James 5:15: 1 John 1:7–9).
Prodigals can come to their senses only because God gives them the gift of repentance.
8. We must work at repentance.
In his classic book Precious Remedies Against Satan’s Devices, the Puritan Thomas Brooks warned that one of Satan’s tactics is to persuade people that “the work of repentance is an easy work, and that therefore the soul need not make such a matter of sin.” Instead of lightly dismissing our sins, Christians must work out their salvation with fear and trembling, knowing that even our work is a gift of God’s grace (Phil. 2:12–13). Our work at repentance should take place using the ordinary means of grace that include Scripture, sharing life with other believers, worship, and prayer.
9. True repentance must be distinguished from counterfeit repentance.
There is an eternal difference between the remorse of those who are only sorry they got caught and those who are truly repentant. But evaluating the authenticity of repentance is not easily done. Only God knows the hearts of people and we are easily deceived about the authenticity of repentance whether our own or someone else’s. Thankfully the Bible gives explicit instruction that equipped us to see the differences between godly grief and worldly sorrow (2 Cor. 7:10–13). Scripture also contrasts the lives of King Saul and David, the Rich Young Ruler and Zacchaeus, Judas and Peter. Studying those contrasts allow us to carefully consider the character of true repentance.
10. We must learn how to lovingly and wisely communicate repentance to those we have sinned against and to receive the repentance of those who have sinned against us.
Scripture explicitly calls for people who have offended someone else to ask for forgiveness (Luke 17:3–4). However, asking for forgiveness can be delicate and difficult. It is far too easy to give qualified apologies that only deepen wounds rather than heal them. Likewise, we must be wise and discerning when receiving the repentance of someone else. Christians must always love and be willing to graciously forgive. But we must likewise understand that there are times to be on our guard (2 Tim. 4:14–16).
Notes:
- Robert L. Reymond, A New Systematic Theology of the Christian Faith (Thomas Nelson, 1998), 722–23..
- John Murray, Redemption Accomplished and Applied (Eerdmans, 1955), 113.
Chris Brauns is the author of The Way of Repentance: Embracing God’s Gift for a Transformed Life.
