What is repentance according to the Bible?

But let us enquire what repentance is. It is the more important to be careful as to this, owing to the loose and insufficient answers frequently given to this question. Some say that it is sorrow for sin; some that it is a change of mind, dwelling upon the literal meaning of the word; while others affirm that it comprises the determination both to forsake sin and also to do the will of God in time to come. In truth it is none of these, nor all of them combined together, though some of the things mentioned may constitute a part of scriptural repentance. That sorrow for sin does not amount to repentance is seen from the apostle's words: "Godly sorrow [sorrow according to God] worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of." (2 Cor. 7:10.) Mere sorrow for sin may spring from the sense of shame, or from the bitter consequences which sin often entails, and may often have no reference to God; and even sorrow according to God, as in the above scripture, is not, though it works, repentance. Much less could change of mind, or the vain effort to forsake sins and to do the will of God, be accepted as answering to it. No; scriptural repentance is nothing less than our identification with God in His judgment of our sins, our taking His part against ourselves, and our consequent bowing in the dust before Him in true self-judgment. This involves our hatred of sin, inasmuch as the moment, through grace, we side with God in His judgment upon our deeds, we are so far in communion with Him, as to His thoughts and feelings, about our sins. When we thus repent, we justify God and condemn ourselves. This can never take place but in His presence, when His light, the light of His holiness, reveals sin to us as it appears in His sight; so that we are able to say with Job, "I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee. Wherefore I abhor myself; and repent in dust and ashes." (Job 42:5-6.) Or again, with the psalmist, "Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest." (Psalm 51:4.)

But let us enquire what repentance is. It is the more important to be careful as to this, owing to the loose and insufficient answers frequently given to this question. Some say that it is sorrow for sin; some that it is a change of mind, dwelling upon the literal meaning of the word; while others affirm that it comprises the determination both to forsake sin and also to do the will of God in time to come. In truth it is none of these, nor all of them combined together, though some of the things mentioned may constitute a part of scriptural repentance. That sorrow for sin does not amount to repentance is seen from the apostle's words: "Godly sorrow [sorrow according to God] worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of." (2 Cor. 7:10.) Mere sorrow for sin may spring from the sense of shame, or from the bitter consequences which sin often entails, and may often have no reference to God; and even sorrow according to God, as in the above scripture, is not, though it works, repentance. Much less could change of mind, or the vain effort to forsake sins and to do the will of God, be accepted as answering to it. No; scriptural repentance is nothing less than our identification with God in His judgment of our sins, our taking His part against ourselves, and our consequent bowing in the dust before Him in true self-judgment. This involves our hatred of sin, inasmuch as the moment, through grace, we side with God in His judgment upon our deeds, we are so far in communion with Him, as to His thoughts and feelings, about our sins. When we thus repent, we justify God and condemn ourselves. This can never take place but in His presence, when His light, the light of His holiness, reveals sin to us as it appears in His sight; so that we are able to say with Job, "I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee. Wherefore I abhor myself; and repent in dust and ashes." (Job 42:5-6.) Or again, with the psalmist, "Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest." (Psalm 51:4.)

Verse 10. "For godly sorrow works repentance to salvation," etc. We have here a criterion, by means of which the quality of all real and lasting sorrow may be estimated. For grief may arise, and even reach a passionate extreme, and yet be as unproductive of any alterative effect upon its subject as the summer dew upon a rock. But of such self-allaying sorrow he takes here no account. There is a sorrow which is not only sincere, but which is "according to God," both in its producing motive and its aim. There is a sorrow also equally sincere, but "of the world." The root of the first is faith in God, and its cause the discovery, by whatever instrumental means, of a moral distance from its trust. "Surely when I was turned, I repented; when I was instructed, I smote upon my thigh" (Jer. 31:19), is the language of a heart into which God has freshly shined in the discerning power of His word. Wrong actions, or imaginings, are then judged justly in the light, and repented of sincerely by the soul that views them there. The distinction between sorrow and repentance is thus clearly marked. The first leads to the second. The one is transient; the other is of lasting operation and effect. Godly sorrow indicates a state of feeling; repentance is an active purpose of the heart, which grows, by its nature, to a habit. The former respects itself; the latter is the fruit of right-mindedness to God. Repentance cannot be repented of, since it is a turning from evil to good, and from oneself to God. It is, therefore, unto life and salvation in its very nature. It is an operative thing, and its effect is conversion in a sinner, and restoration in a saint. In either case its end is peace.

It is literally an after or changed thought, a judgment formed by the mind on reflection, after it has had another or previous one; habitually, in its use in scripture, the judgment I form in God's sight of my own previous conduct and sentiments, consequent on the reception of God's testimony, in contrast with my previous natural course of feeling. Of course this may be more or less deep. It is not the sorrow itself: that works repentance if it is godly sorrow. Not the regret or remorse: that is μεταμέλεια not μετάνοια;" words used sometimes one for another, but not in scripture. Judas had remorse and hanged himself, not repentance. Godly sorrow works repentance never to be regretted. Repentance is the judgment we form, under the effect of God's testimony, of all in ourselves to which that testimony applies. Hence it is always founded on faith: I do not say the faith of the gospel. That may be its source; but we may repent through the testimony of God to the soul, and afterwards receive those glad tidings. Conversion itself may follow repentance; that is, conversion as the full deliberate turning of the heart to God. "Repent," says Peter, "and be converted." (Acts 3:19.) Conversion is the turning of the will to God. Repentance (μετάνοια) is the changed thought, or judgment, we have of things, bringing in with it often, when it concerns self, the sense of a change of feeling. The use of it in classical writers will shew us the meaning of the word in itself; Scripture, the scriptural use of it.

But some may ask, What is repentance? Let us turn to scripture to find out. It is not a mere change of mind on certain points (this will confound it with faith); but the Lord preached, "Repent ye, and believe the gospel" (Mark 1:15). It is not simply a conviction of having done wrong; for, when the multitude were pricked to the heart, Peter exhorted them to repentance (Acts 2:38). It is not sorrow for sin, "for godly sorrow works repentance to salvation not to be repented of" (2 Cor. 7:10). Nor is it synonymous with conversion; for Peter tells the Jews to "repent and be converted" (Acts 3:19). But it is a change of mind, a judgment of self, ways, and sins, which is evidenced by a change of life. It is God's gift (Acts 11:18; 2 Tim. 2:25) bestowed by the risen and ascended Christ (Acts 5:31). It is fruitful; for there are works meet for (worthy of) repentance (Matt. 3:8; Acts 26:20). It gives God His right place in the conscience of His creature, so it is "towards God" (Acts 20:21); and it is "to life" and "salvation" (Acts 11:18; 2 Cor. 7:10).

Further, we have precious light from God here as to that great work in the awakened soul, repentance. it is quite distinct from regret or change of mind. Even sorrow however deep is not repentance, though sorrow according to God works it out. Again, it is not correct to confound repentance with conversion to God, which is surely a turning from sin with earnest desire for holiness. Repentance is the soul as born of God sitting in judgment on the old man and its acts, its words and its ways. And as repentance for remission of sins was to be preached in Christ's name, so He was exalted to give both. It is not a changed mind however great about God in Christ, which is rather what faith is and gives; it is the renewed mind taking account of the man and his course according to God's word and nature. Hence it is said to be not about God, but "toward God" or Godward; for the conscience then takes His side in self-judgment before Him, and all is weighed as in His sight. It is of course of the Spirit, not intellectual but moral. "Surely after that I was turned, I repented." It follows conversion and consequently that application of the word which arrests the soul by faith, though it be not yet the faith of the word of truth, the gospel of salvation, which brings into peace.

Here of course it is the repentance of saints who had sinned. But it is the same principle, and in contrast with the world's grief which, knowing not God, gives itself up to despair and works out death. However overwhelmed may be the believer, God takes care that there shall be enough hope in His mercy to guard from the despairing fear which Satan wields for his deadly purposes.

One text remains which gives its character and full force to repentance, "repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ." (Acts 20:21.) He looked, not merely that crimes and wickedness should be judged, but that a man should judge all his state in the light of God's own presence, and in reference to His divine character and authority over him, and in the thought of His goodness. This is true repentance; man judged and judging himself in the presence of God, to whom he belongs and to whose nature he has to refer with mercy before him. Faith in our Lord Jesus Christ meets this; because there God has judged sin according to His own nature and authority, and His love is perfect, and we are reconciled to God according to that nature and righteous claim. But this requires a word of explanation. It is not that repentance comes first by itself and then in an absolute way faith. But that repentance, the judgment of what we are before God and in God's sight, is one great effect of the truth; it refers to God as God with whom we have to do; whereas faith in our Lord Jesus Christ is faith in that sovereign intervention of God in which in grace He has met our state in the gift of His Son. Repentance is not change of mind as to God, though this may produce it, but self-judgment before Him, the soul referring to Him who is over us, with whom we have to do. It is not that repentance precedes faith. We shall see that it is not so: but it is first the heart returned into divine light, and then faith in the blessed intervention of God that fitted the state it finds itself in.

224 Practical repentance then is the estimate a man forms of sin, of his own ways as a sinner, on reflection, through the light of God penetrating into his soul, with some sense of goodness in Him, and setting up withal divine authority there. This may be through divine warnings as in the case of Jonah, or the lamenting of a John Baptist announcing that the axe is laid to the root of the trees. It is always mercy. He gives repentance to Israel, grants repentance unto life: His goodness leads us to it. That is, instead of visiting sins according to man's desert, He opens the door to return to light and grace through grace. Hence, when grace is fully announced, when the truth is there, repentance is on the footing of God's perfect revelation of Himself in grace, in Christ. I Repentance was to be preached in His name, and remission of sins. In coming to God it is always the first effect in the soul when it is real, and the turning of the will to God, and faith in the redemption and forgiveness the gospel announces comes after. Hence it is said, "Repent and be converted," "Repent and believe the gospel." But this just shews us how faith is the only and necessary source of repentance. It is by the testimony of the word it is wrought. Be it prophets, or Jonas, or John, or the Lord Himself, or the apostles, who taught that men should repent and turn to God, it was wrought by a testimony of God, and a testimony believed. Now, this testimony is the testimony to Christ Himself. Repentance, as well as remission of sins, was to be preached in His name. It is by the revelation of God, whether in judgment or in grace, grace in any case working in the heart, that repentance is wrought. When the prodigal came to himself he repented; he is converted when he said, "I will arise and go to my Father;" the gospel is realized when he meets his Father and gets the best robe. But he that comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him; and there is always in true repentance some sense of goodness. "How many servants of my Father's have bread enough and to spare." There would be no returning if there was not hope, it may be very vague, but still a hope of being received, and goodness trusted to. Even the Ninevites say, "who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not?" In the gospel the full grace of God is made the very ground of a call to repentance, still in view of judgment. "Now he calls all men everywhere to repent, seeing he hath appointed a day wherein he will judge the world in righteousness, by that man whom he hath ordained." Goodness leads to it, the door to flee is open, but to flee from the wrath to come, to flee to God, who assures of forgiveness in coming through the perfect work of Christ.

(Vv. 4, 5) This leads to the assertion of the second great principle of God in regard to judgment, namely, God invariably gives space for repentance before He executes judgment. The execution of the judgment of God will most surely come, though, in the goodness of God, it may be long delayed. In His goodness God forbears to judge and suffers long with evil. It was so in the days of Noah, when God lingered for One hundred and twenty years before executing the judgment of the flood: it was so in the history of Israel, with whose evil ways God bore long before destroying Jerusalem and scattering the nation. It is so to-day when God in grace lingers over this judgment doomed world. How then does man treat this longsuffering of God? Alas! men despise the riches of His goodness. Because of this "for-bearance" men think that God will never judge: because of His "longsuffering" men think that God is indifferent to evil. Thus men despise the goodness of God, not seeing that the reason God "forbears" and "suffers long" is to give men space for repentance. The goodness of God thus makes manifest the hardness and impenitence of man's heart. God acts in goodness, and men despise "the riches of His goodness". God gives space to repent, and men are impenitent. Men condemn one another for doing evil, but they refuse to repent of their own evil. The fact that God gives space for repentance, shows that repentance is a necessity for each man in order to be right with God, and escape the judgment of God.

Paul sums up his gospel by saying he preached "Repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ" (Acts 20:21). Repentance is the confession toward God of our lost and ruined condition. Faith is the acceptance of the good news concerning Christ. One has said, "Repentance and faith are inseparable where there is reality; … as there is no genuine repentance without faith, so there is no faith of God's elect without repentance". Repentance is more than sorrow for having done wrong, or the shame that mere natural conscience may feel. Repentance is the change of mind in regard to self, produced by the knowledge of the grace of God. It is the consciousness and confession of my true condition before God. Repentance toward God is the acceptance of what God says about myself. Faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ is the acceptance of what God says about Christ. Peter repented when he said, in the presence of the Lord, "I am a sinful man". The publican repented when he said, "God be merciful to me the sinner": the prodigal repented when he said in the presence of the father, "I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight": the thief repented when he said, "We receive the due reward of our deeds". There may be different measures of repentance, even as there are different measures of faith. With some repentance may be deeper, and faith more distinct and simple than in others; but, wherever there is a work of God in the soul, there these two things will be found.

Having received these instructions, Paul had been faithful to his commission, and beginning where he was and widening out to the nations, he had showed to men everywhere what their response to the Gospel should be. They should repent; they should turn to God; they should do works in keeping with the repentance they professed. Repentance involves that coming into the light which enables one to see and judge one's own sinfulness, and then the confession of it before God. Now the more we see our own sin, the more we distrust ourselves; the more we distrust ourselves, the more we learn to trust in God: consequently turning to God follows this turning from ourselves. All this is an inward process of mind and heart of a more or less secret nature, but if it is real it soon produces actions and works in keeping with it. If there be no "works meet for repentance," we may be sure that the repentance professed is not the genuine article. Paul insisted on all three things, and he knew of course that not only are they God's appointed way in which the blessings of the Gospel are received, but they are themselves produced by the Gospel, where it is received in faith.

Repentance toward God then is not the gospel of His grace, nor is it remission of sins, but is that inward work in the conscience by the Holy Spirit's use of the word, without which the privileges of the gospel are vain and only hurry on the soul the more rashly to destruction. The low views which make repentance a human work as a preface to faith are no less objectionable than the so-called high views which merge all in faith making repentance no more than a change of mind. Neither legalism nor antinomianism are of God, but the grace and truth which came by Jesus Christ. Truth does not spare the flesh or its works, faith and repentance bow in self-loathing to Christ, and grace reigns through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Repentance then is not mere regret or remorse (which is expressly μεταμέλεια); μετάνοια is that afterthought, or judgment on reflection, formed by God's working through His word to which conscience bows, self and its past ways being judged before God. It is never apart from a divine testimony and hence it is from faith, God's goodness, not His judgment only, leads to it; and godly sorrow works repentance to salvation not to be regretted, as the sorrow of the world works death (2 Cor. 7:10). 'I have sinned against heaven and in Thy sight', 'God be merciful to me the sinner': such is its confession and cry in a broken and contrite spirit. The gospel, the good news of grace, is God's answer.