What Is Repentance? A Biblical Answer
When I call someone to repentance, I am not asking him to make himself worthy of Christ’s forgiveness. I am asking him to admit his sin and return to the God he has refused to obey. Regret can be part of that response, but feeling terrible about what happened is not the same as turning to the Lord. Scripture explains both why that return is necessary and why a guilty person can come with hope.
Return to Me
Joel preached to Judah after locusts had devastated the fields and vineyards. The ruined harvest threatened their food supply, and Joel 1 describes grain and drink offerings cut off from the Lord’s house. As the prophet warned of the coming day of the Lord, God called the people to return to Him:
“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.
The invitation was “Turn to Me.” The people could have wanted their crops restored while remaining unwilling to obey the Lord. He called them to face the rebellion that had drawn their hearts away from Him. Returning to Him would mean giving up that rebellion, even before they knew whether their fields would recover.
A man may stop cheating because he is afraid of losing his job, while wishing he could find a safer way to get away with it. His outward restraint may prevent further harm, but it does not mean he has returned to God. Repentance requires him to stop defending the conduct and acknowledge the Lord’s judgment of it. Wanting a better reputation or fewer repercussions is not enough.
Joel adds “with all your heart.” In biblical usage, the heart includes our thinking and will as well as our desires. God calls the whole person back to Him. I cannot answer that call by improving what other people see while insisting that a private part of my life must remain beyond His authority.
Tearing one’s garments could express grief or fear and sometimes accompanied repentance. Joel told the people to rend their hearts because a gesture could be imitated without the inward response. God knew whether the person beneath the torn clothing was genuinely returning to Him.
Joel’s call to fast, weep, and mourn makes it clear that he was not forbidding visible grief. Sorrow over sin can be deeply felt and honestly expressed. Yet tears and humble language can also persuade an audience while concealing a refusal to change. We therefore need to consider whether the person is returning to God, rather than treating an emotional display as proof.
Public wrongdoing may require public confession, and private sin needs to be acknowledged honestly before God. Neither requires a person to make a spectacle of his despair. Admitting guilt does not mean concluding that mercy is beyond reach. Joel gives the sinner a reason to return by describing the character of the God who is calling him.
The Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abundant in kindness. Joel was recalling what God had already revealed about Himself to Moses:
And the LORD passed before him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth.”
God did not become merciful because His people finally repented well enough. His mercy was already the reason He called them back. We are not trying to persuade a reluctant God to care about us; we are responding to the mercy He has made known.
That does not mean He overlooks guilt. Exodus 34 also says that He will by no means clear the guilty. His justice requires us to admit that our conduct deserves judgment, rather than ask for forgiveness while insisting there was nothing to forgive.
When Joel says that God relents from doing harm, he is speaking about threatened judgment. The Lord has not discovered that His warning was mistaken. He genuinely calls people to turn and may withhold the judgment He warned of when they humble themselves. Joel’s next verse leaves the requested relief in God’s hands. His mercy gives them reason to return without giving them control over how He must respond.
What Repentance Means
The Hebrew verb shuv means to turn back or return. It expresses the prophets’ repeated call, “Return.” Their hearers had turned away from God and needed to come back to Him. Acquiring more religious information would not answer that call if they still intended to disregard what He said.
In the New Testament, metanoia, commonly translated repentance, involves a change of mind. Its biblical use concerns our response to God and sin. Instead of justifying my rebellion, I agree with His judgment of it and turn toward Him. Recognizing who Jesus is also requires me to reconsider my claim to govern my life independently of Him.
This does not produce instant maturity. A new believer still has much to learn, and an experienced Christian may need a sharp reprimand. We should not confuse struggling against sin with insisting on the right to practice it. If Scripture exposes wrongdoing, repentance requires me to receive that correction instead of devising a reason God’s command should not apply to me.
Repentance and Faith
Paul described what he had preached to Jews and Greeks in these terms:
testifying to Jews, and also to Greeks, repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.
In repentance, I stop defending my rebellion and turn toward God. In faith, I entrust myself to Jesus Christ for the salvation I cannot provide. I cannot honestly ask Him to save me while insisting He has no authority over me. Neither can I save myself by admitting my guilt without turning to Him.
Jesus also joined the commands to repent and believe when He announced the kingdom of God:
The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel.
We should not teach repentance as a way to purchase salvation. Yet removing it from the gospel can leave someone claiming faith in Jesus while openly refusing His authority. Paul describes salvation as God’s gift and then explains the good works that follow it:
For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.
Salvation is God’s gift, received through faith. If I repay money I wrongfully took, I am returning what already belonged to another person. I have not given God something that obliges Him to forgive me. Tears cannot make that payment either. Verse 10 goes on to describe believers as created in Christ Jesus for good works. Their obedience follows from the new life they have received; it does not buy that life.
Paul’s correction of the Corinthian church helps us see how sorrow can lead to that changed conduct. His letter grieved them, and at first he regretted sending it. When Titus brought news that they were eager to address the wrong, Paul rejoiced because their sorrow had led to repentance. He explained the difference between sorrow that leads us to God and sorrow that ends in death:
For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted; but the sorrow of the world produces death.
Godly sorrow acknowledges sin against the Lord and leads a person toward Him. Worldly sorrow can be intense because of what the wrongdoing has cost. Someone may be devastated at the prospect of losing a relationship or a good reputation while still insisting that his conduct was justified. The pain is real, but it has not brought him to agree with God about the sin.
Judas felt remorse after betraying Jesus and tried to return the money. Matthew records his response when he saw that Jesus had been condemned:
Then Judas, His betrayer, seeing that He had been condemned, was remorseful and brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders.
Judas admitted that he had betrayed innocent blood. Matthew then records his despair and death, without describing a return to Christ for mercy. Acknowledging the wrong and giving up the money did not, by themselves, amount to a return to God.
I cannot measure repentance by the strength of someone’s emotion. I need to consider whether the person is returning to the Lord, including how he responds to the wrong he has confessed. Feeling ashamed may awaken someone to his need, but shame cannot provide the mercy he needs from Christ.
John the Baptist likewise directed attention to the conduct that should follow repentance:
Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance.
John was addressing Pharisees and Sadducees who came to his baptism, warning them against relying on their descent from Abraham. The fruit he called for would show that their response to God was real; it would not purchase forgiveness. Zacchaeus gives us a later example of how that response could change a person’s dealings with others.
Zacchaeus was a wealthy chief tax collector in Jericho. His work was associated with Roman authority and opportunities to exploit people. He joyfully received Jesus when the Lord chose to stay at his house, although the crowd complained about Jesus becoming a sinner’s guest. What Zacchaeus then said addressed his wealth and his treatment of other people:
Then Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord, I give half of my goods to the poor; and if I have taken anything from anyone by false accusation, I restore fourfold.”
Jesus then announced that salvation had come to that house. Zacchaeus was prepared to share his wealth with the poor and put right any fraud for which he was responsible. Those commitments showed that receiving Jesus had affected his conduct, although they could not purchase salvation.
Restitution should address the actual harm wherever that is possible and lawful. If I spread a false accusation, I should be willing to retract it before the people who heard it. Saying I feel terrible does not remove that accusation from their minds. Where harm cannot be undone, I can still stop defending it and accept the repercussions.
Nor can restitution become a way to regain control of the person who was harmed. An apology does not entitle someone to demand renewed contact or immediate forgiveness. I cannot use my confession to pressure another person into trusting me again. Repentance accepts appropriate boundaries and consequences while seeking to put right what can be repaired.
We should expect repentance to affect the very conduct a person had been defending. But grace does not wait until he can present a flawless record. Christians still need instruction and correction as they learn to obey the Lord who has saved them.
Pharaoh’s confession in Exodus gives us a contrast to Zacchaeus’s response. During the seventh plague, hail devastated Egypt while Goshen was spared. The king summoned Moses and Aaron, and his confession named both his own sin and God’s righteousness:
And Pharaoh sent and called for Moses and Aaron, and said to them, “I have sinned this time. The LORD is righteous, and my people and I are wicked.”
Pharaoh asked Moses to pray for the thunder and hail to stop, promising to release Israel. Moses warned him that neither he nor his servants yet feared the Lord. When Moses prayed and the storm ended, Pharaoh sinned again and hardened his heart. He still refused to let Israel go, despite the promise he had just made.
If I will admit wrongdoing only while the consequences threaten my comfort, then return to it once the pressure eases, I am following that same pattern. I need to consider whether I ever agreed with God about the sin or was only looking for a way to escape its consequences. Proverbs brings confession and forsaking together:
He who covers his sins will not prosper, But whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy.
Covering sin does not always require an outright denial. I may admit what has been discovered while concealing the part no one has proved. I can describe a calculated lie as a misunderstanding or blame the person I deceived for putting me under pressure. A joke or a spiritual explanation can also deflect attention from the wrong. These are ways of continuing to defend it while appearing to acknowledge it.
Repentance in the Christian Life
Repentance continues after new birth because Christians can still sin and need correction. Coming to God for forgiveness does not mean being born again each time. John puts confession within his teaching about walking in the light and fellowship with God:
If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Being God’s child does not give me permission to walk deliberately in darkness while claiming fellowship with Him. Confession acknowledges the wrong before God, and repentance turns from it. I cannot replace either with an argument that a believer’s sin is no longer serious.
Following Jesus includes obeying Him when I would prefer to do what is comfortable or advantageous to me. He was plain about what following Him involves:
If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.
On another occasion, He used the example of a builder calculating the cost of a tower to teach people to consider what discipleship would require:
For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it.
Jesus was not asking people to determine whether they had enough moral strength to save themselves. He was requiring them to consider what they would have to give up to follow Him. I cannot receive Him as Lord while reserving the right to disobey whenever obedience threatens something I want to keep.
Continuing repentance need not leave us permanently gloomy. Because I trust Christ’s mercy, I can admit wrongdoing without spending my life protecting an appearance of innocence. I can receive correction, seek to repair the harm, and learn to obey without pretending that my effort is what earns forgiveness.
Christ gives eternal life to His sheep, and no one can snatch them from His hand. Those who have genuinely been born again are indwelt and sealed by the Holy Spirit, eternally secure in the Savior. He keeps them despite their failures as they learn to obey Him. Their obedience is evidence of new life, but it neither earns nor keeps salvation.
That does not make every profession of faith genuine. Strong emotion, church membership, and baptism cannot produce new birth. In 1 John 2:19, John describes people who left the apostolic fellowship and denied the truth about the Son, explaining that they had never truly belonged to Christ. Regeneration is genuine new birth, and a Christian label cannot take the place of the new life that should become evident in our conduct.
A troubled believer does not need to make his repentance impressive enough to persuade Christ to keep him. If he is bringing his sin to Christ, we should direct him to the Savior’s promise rather than tell him to produce a more convincing display of grief. Someone who is defending his sin needs a different response. We cannot assure him that his profession of faith makes his refusal to turn irrelevant.
Calvinism distinguishes a gospel call heard by many people from a saving call it regards as irresistible and given only to the elect. I reject that distinction because I believe God’s invitation gives every sinner a real opportunity to respond. I also reject the Arminian teaching that a truly born-again believer can lose salvation. People can resist God’s appeal, while those who truly repent and believe are made new and kept by Him.
Peter explained God’s patience while answering scoffers who treated the apparent delay of Christ’s return as proof that His promise would fail. The Lord does not measure time as we do, and His delay did not mean He had forgotten His word. It gave sinners time to repent before the coming judgment:
The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.
That does not mean everyone will eventually be saved. People can resist and finally reject the truth. It does mean that God’s patience is an opportunity to return to Him, rather than a reason to assume that His warning has become empty. We should respond to His mercy while He gives us time.
The invitation rests on Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, fully God and fully man. He lived without sin and voluntarily gave Himself to be slain as the perfect sacrifice for the sins of the whole world. Wicked men mocked, beat, and crucified Him according to God’s foreknown saving purpose, but the Father neither punished nor abandoned His Son. Father and Son acted in unity, and Christ’s shed blood and death completed His saving sacrifice before His burial and bodily resurrection. Forgiveness is possible because Christ redeemed us with His blood, rather than because God has decided that sin does not deserve judgment.
If God is pressing on your conscience, you do not need to make yourself presentable before coming to Christ or punish yourself into peace. Jesus came to seek and save the lost, and He receives those who come to Him in faith. Admit the sin and turn from it, trusting the Savior whose grace you cannot earn. You do not have to defend the wrongdoing or pretend it never happened to come to Him for mercy.
My Final Thoughts
I do not want to explain repentance in a way that leaves a guilty sinner afraid to come to Christ. Nor do I want to assure someone that grace gives him the right to keep rebelling. God calls us to return to Him, and He has provided the Savior we need. I can admit my sin without excusing it or trying to pay for it myself. Trusting Christ’s mercy gives me reason to begin obeying Him.