Psalm 51 · Value 37 of 41 · Featured Study
Repentance
In Scripture, repentance is a turning of the whole person from sin back to God.
Paul told the council at Athens that God “now commands all people everywhere to repent” (Acts 17:30).
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.
- Anchor text
- Psalm 51:1 to 17 “Have mercy on me, O God, according to…”
- Its opposite
- The hard and unrepentant heart
- Hold in memory
- Psalm 51:17
Summary
Scripture sets repentance at the start of every return to God. The Law, the prophets, the Gospels and the letters all call sinners to turn back, and each call carries a promise of mercy for those who turn. God receives the sinner who turns, however great the sin. Psalm 51 gives the prayer of a king who had sinned and asked God for a clean heart.
- God grants repentance as well as commanding it, and His kindness leads the sinner to it.
- Every sin is first a sin against God, so repentance turns to Him before it turns to the people wronged.
- Sorrow for sin belongs to repentance, yet sorrow that never turns to God ends in death.
- Repentance is the first step of faith and the work of a whole life after it.
What Repentance Is
One Hebrew verb and two Greek words carry what Scripture means by repentance.
What does Scripture mean when it calls a sinner to repent, and what does the turn look like in a life? This study of repentance answers from the text. It gives the Hebrew and Greek words, the key texts from the Law to Revelation, the ground of repentance in God's call and kindness, and the preaching of Jesus. It shows the people who repented, the practice and the hard heart that refuses. It then names the stories, the church's witnesses, the voices of the centuries and three questions on which readers disagree. Six studies take each part further.
Shuv, to turn back
1056 uses in the canon
The Hebrew verb shuv (H7725) means to turn back or return, and the prophets used it for a people coming home to God: “let him return to the LORD, that He may have compassion.”
Metanoeo, to repent
34 uses in the canon
The Greek verb metanoeo (G3340) means to think differently and so to reconsider, and the Twelve were sent out with it: “So they set out and preached that the people should repent.”
Metanoia, repentance
22 uses in the canon
The Greek noun metanoia (G3341) names the repentance itself, and Paul told the elders of Ephesus that he had preached “repentance to God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Shuv, to turn back, Metanoeo, to repent, Metanoia, repentance, The Words Shuv and Metanoia, the study in brief
The Key Texts on Repentance
Each text gives the call to turn and what God promises with it.
Law
and when you and your children return to the LORD your God and obey His voice with all your heart and all your soul according to everything I am giving you today,
Moses makes a wholehearted return to the LORD the hinge of Israel's restoration after exile.
History
and if My people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, forgive their sin, and heal their land.
The LORD answers Solomon's prayer at the temple with the terms on which He will forgive.
Wisdom
Then I acknowledged my sin to You and did not hide my iniquity. I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the LORD,” and You forgave the guilt of my sin. Selah
The psalm sets the confession of sin beside the forgiveness that answered it.
Psalm 32:5BSB
Prophets
For the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel, has said: “By repentance and rest you would be saved; your strength would lie in quiet confidence—but you were not willing.”
Isaiah names repentance and rest as the way of salvation that Judah refused.
Isaiah 30:15BSB
Return, O Israel, to the LORD your God, for you have stumbled by your iniquity. Bring your confessions and return to the LORD. Say to Him: “Take away all our iniquity and receive us graciously, that we may present the fruit of our lips.
Hosea's last chapter calls Israel home and gives the words to say on the way.
Gospels
In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.”
Matthew opens the preaching of the gospel with John's call, which Jesus took up in the same words (Matthew 4:17).
Acts
Repent, then, and turn back, so that your sins may be wiped away,
It shows the apostles making to Israel, after the resurrection, the call that John and Jesus had made.
Acts 3:19BSB
Epistles
The Lord is not slow in keeping His promise as some understand slowness, but is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish but everyone to come to repentance.
Peter explains the delay of the Lord's coming by His patience toward sinners.
2 Peter 3:9BSB
Revelation
Those I love, I rebuke and discipline. Therefore be earnest and repent.
The risen Christ ties His rebuke of Laodicea to His love for the church.
2 Chronicles 7:14, Psalm 32:5, Isaiah 30:15, Hosea 14:1 to 2, Matthew 3:1 to 2, Acts 3:19, 2 Peter 3:9, Revelation 3:19
Repentance Rests on God's Call and Kindness
Ezekiel and Joel heard God call His people back, and Paul traced the turn to the kindness of God.
Ezekiel preached to the exiles by the River Kebar in the land of the Chaldeans. They quoted a proverb that laid their ruin on their fathers: “The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the teeth of the children are set on edge” (Ezekiel 18:2). The chapter answers the proverb and closes with a call.
Therefore, O house of Israel, I will judge you, each according to his ways, declares the Lord GOD. Repent and turn from all your transgressions, so that your iniquity will not become your downfall. Cast away from yourselves all the transgressions you have committed, and fashion for yourselves a new heart and a new spirit. Why should you die, O house of Israel? For I take no pleasure in anyone’s death, declares the Lord GOD. So repent and live!The call to repent rests on God's own will that the sinner should live.
Joel called Judah to a fast as the Day of the LORD drew near, and his call reached past the outward signs of grief to the heart.
“Yet even now,” declares the LORD, “return to Me with all your heart, with fasting, weeping, and mourning.” So rend your hearts and not your garments, and return to the LORD your God. For He is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, abounding in loving devotion. And He relents from sending disaster.Joel grounds the call to return in the mercy the LORD proclaimed of Himself.
The Kindness of God Leads to Repentance, the study in brief
Christ and Repentance
The Gospels record repentance in Jesus' preaching from His first days in Galilee to the day He rose from the dead.
He opened His preaching with itMark 1
Mark gives the time and the place where the preaching began: “After the arrest of John, Jesus went into Galilee and proclaimed the gospel of God” (Mark 1:14). The news of the kingdom comes first, and the two commands rest on that news.
“The time is fulfilled,” He said, “and the kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe in the gospel!”
Mark 1:15BSB The verse sets the command to repent beside the command to believe, both resting on the nearness of the kingdom.
He called sinners to itLuke 5
Jesus called Levi from his tax booth, and Levi left everything and held a great banquet for Him. When the Pharisees and their scribes complained that He ate with tax collectors and sinners, Jesus answered, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick” (Luke 5:31).
I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.”
Luke 5:32BSB Jesus names the people He came for and what He came to call them to.
Read the page on Jesus 33 sections, 41 verses set out
He warned that all must repentLuke 13
Some in the crowd told Jesus about Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. He denied that they had been worse sinners than the other Galileans, and then He raised a second disaster, from Jerusalem.
Or those eighteen who were killed when the tower of Siloam collapsed on them: Do you think that they were more sinful than all the others living in Jerusalem? No, I tell you. But unless you repent, you too will all perish.”
Luke 13:4 to 5BSB Jesus closes His answer about Siloam with the warning He gave about the Galileans, so no listener can read either disaster as the judgment of someone else.
He sent His apostles to preach itLuke 24
After He rose, Jesus opened the minds of His disciples to understand the Scriptures and told them, “This is what is written: The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day” (Luke 24:46). The preaching He gave them follows from His death and rising.
and in His name repentance and forgiveness of sins will be proclaimed to all nations, beginning in Jerusalem.
Luke 24:47BSB The commission joins repentance to forgiveness and sends both to every nation from Jerusalem outward.
He called sinners to it (Luke 5), He warned that all must repent (Luke 13), He sent His apostles to preach it (Luke 24)
Luke 13:4 to 5, Luke 24:47
Who Repented
Five people of the Bible humbled themselves, wept or made amends when they saw their sin.
The word of the LORD came to Elijah: “Have you seen how Ahab has humbled himself before Me?”
1 Kings 21:29The LORD said He had heard him “because your heart was tender and you humbled yourself before the LORD.”
2 Kings 22:19
Josiah, Peter, Zacchaeus
The Practice of Repentance
Scripture names eight practices of repentance, each in the words of the verse that gives it.
- 1Confess your sins to God“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”1 John 1:9
- 2Renounce them“He who conceals his sins will not prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them will find mercy.”Proverbs 28:13
- 3Humble yourself“Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will exalt you.”James 4:10
- 4Bear fruit that fits it“Produce fruit, then, in keeping with repentance.”Matthew 3:8
- 5Repay what you took“He must make full restitution, add a fifth to its value, and give all this to the one he has wronged.”Numbers 5:7
- 6Be reconciled first“First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift.”Matthew 5:24
- 7Confess to one another“Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.”James 5:16
- 8Forgive the one who repents“If your brother sins, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him.”Luke 17:3
Renounce them, Humble yourself, Bear fruit that fits it, Repay what you took, Be reconciled first, Confess to one another, Forgive the one who repents
What Stands Against Repentance
Scripture names the hard heart that hears the call and will not turn, from the prophets to the last plagues of Revelation.
Zechariah said of the generation before the exile, “They made their hearts like flint and would not listen to the law” (Zechariah 7:12).
Prophets
I have listened and heard; they do not speak what is right. No one repents of his wickedness, asking, ‘What have I done?’ Everyone has pursued his own course like a horse charging into battle.
Jeremiah hears no one in Judah ask the question with which repentance begins.
Jeremiah 8:6BSB
Epistles
But because of your hard and unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of wrath, when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.
Paul sets the cost of a hard heart directly after the kindness of God in Romans 2:4, so the reader sees what refusing that kindness brings.
Romans 2:5BSB
But exhort one another daily, as long as it is called today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.
The letter names the daily encouragement that keeps believers from being hardened.
Hebrews 3:13BSB
Revelation
And the people were scorched by intense heat, and they cursed the name of God, who had authority over these plagues; yet they did not repent and give Him glory.
It shows that judgment alone does not soften a hard heart.
Romans 2:5, Hebrews 3:13, Revelation 16:9
Jeremiah 8:6, Romans 2:5, Hebrews 3:13, Revelation 16:9, Godly Sorrow and Worldly Sorrow, the study in brief
Repentance in the Stories of the Bible
Three stories tell of a king who prayed in captivity, a city that fasted and a son who came home.
Manasseh's prayer2 Chronicles 33
Manasseh became king of Judah at twelve and reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem, and he “did evil in the sight of the LORD by following the abominations of the nations” (2 Chronicles 33:2). The commanders of the king of Assyria captured him, “put a hook in his nose, bound him with bronze shackles, and took him to Babylon” (2 Chronicles 33:11).
And in his distress, Manasseh sought the favor of the LORD his God and earnestly humbled himself before the God of his fathers. And when he prayed to Him, the LORD received his plea and heard his petition; so He brought him back to Jerusalem and to his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the LORD is God.
2 Chronicles 33:12 to 13BSB The account shows that no king's evil puts him beyond the reach of repentance.
Nineveh repentsJonah 3
The word of the LORD came to Jonah a second time, and this time he went to Nineveh. On the first day of his walk into the city he proclaimed that in forty days it would be overturned. The people fasted and put on sackcloth, and the king left his throne for ashes and ordered everyone to call on God and turn from violence.
When God saw their actions—that they had turned from their evil ways—He relented from the disaster He had threatened to bring upon them.
Jonah 3:10BSB It shows God answering a change of deeds in a city outside Israel.
Read the story of Nineveh Repents 8 sections, 13 verses set out
The prodigal's returnLuke 15
Jesus answered the grumbling of the Pharisees and scribes with three parables of things lost and found. In the third a younger son spends his share of the estate in a distant country and ends up feeding pigs in a famine. He sets out for home with a confession rehearsed.
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 15:20BSB The father's compassion runs ahead of the son's confession.
Read the story of the Prodigal's Return 8 sections, 31 verses set out
Nineveh repents (Jonah 3), The prodigal's return (Luke 15)
Repentance in the Church's History
Three accounts tell of an emperor barred from church, a teacher of rhetoric who wept in a garden and a seaman who cried for mercy in a storm.
Theodosius and Ambrosethe fourth century
Theodoret tells in his Ecclesiastical History (book 5, chapter 17, translated by Blomfield Jackson, 1892) that the emperor Theodosius, angered by a riot at Thessalonica, let his soldiers kill without trial, and “it is said that seven thousand perished.” Ambrose met him outside the church at Milan and forbade him to enter. When the emperor asked to be loosed, Ambrose asked, “What repentance have you shown since your tremendous crime?” and required an edict that held sentences of death for thirty days.
Augustine in the gardenthe fourth century
Augustine wrote in his Confessions (book 8, chapter 12, translated by J. G. Pilkington, 1887) that he lay weeping “in the most bitter contrition of my heart” in the garden of his lodging when he heard a child's voice chant, “Take up and read.” He opened the apostle's letters and read the words of Romans 13:13 to 14, which end, “make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof.” He wrote, “No further would I read, nor did I need.”
John Newton1748
John Newton wrote in An Authentic Narrative (the edition of 1765, letter 8) that he had kept the tenth of March as a day to remember since 1748. That day he worked the pumps of a ship taking on water at sea, and “the Lord sent from on high, and delivered me out of deep waters.” He sailed as a ship's commander in the slave trade from 1750 to 1754, and he wrote that in those years he “never had the least scruple as to its lawfulness.”
Read the story of John Newton and Amazing Grace 7 sections, 3 verses set out
Augustine in the garden (the fourth century), John Newton (1748)
Voices on Repentance, by Century
Five quotations from Tertullian in the third century to Jamieson, Fausset and Brown in 1871, each under the line it teaches.
Tertullian (died 220)
On Repentance
A third-century reading: heaven is glad when a sinner returns.
“The heavens, and the angels who are there, are glad at a man's repentance. Ho! you sinner, be of good cheer! you see where it is that there is joy at your return.”
on Luke 15:7Patristic
Apostolic Constitutions (died 380)
The Ecclesiastical Canons of the Same Holy Apostles
A fourth-century reading: the church must receive the sinner who returns.
“If any bishop or presbyter does not receive him that returns from his sin, but rejects him, let him be deprived; because he grieves Christ, who says, ‘There is joy in heaven over one sinner that repenteth.’”
on Luke 15:7Patristic
Matthew Henry (1662 to 1714)
Commentary on the Whole Bible
An eighteenth-century reading: God accepts the sinner who turns late in life.
“There is hope for old sinners; for if, in sincerity, they turn to God, they shall doubtless be accepted; true repentance is never too late. There is hope of old sinners, that they may be brought to true repentance; nothing is too hard for Almighty grace to do, it can change the Ethiopian's skin, and the leopard's spots; can set those to work, who have contracted a habit of idleness.”
on Matthew 20:4 to 7Puritan
John Wesley (1703 to 1791)
Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament
An eighteenth-century reading: the conviction of sin differs from the change of heart.
“Repentance is of two sorts; that which is termed legal, and that which is styled evangelical repentance. The former (which is the same that is spoken of here) is a thorough conviction of sin. The latter is a change of heart (and consequently of life) from all sin to all holiness.”
on Matthew 3:8Evangelical
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown (1802 to 1910)
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
A nineteenth-century reading: trust in God's mercy is where true repentance starts.
“They are at the same time persuaded of the mercy of God, which persuasion is the starting-point of true repentance, and without which men would not seek, but hate and flee from God. Though our wound be severe, it is not past hope of recovery; there is room for grace, and a hope of pardon.”
on Hosea 6:1Reformed
Matthew Henry, John Wesley, Jamieson, Fausset & Brown
How Repentance Has Been Taught
Clement of Rome in the first century and John Calvin in the sixteenth taught the place God gives to repentance and what it is.
Clement of Rome taught that God has given a place of repentance in every generation.1 paragraph
Clement of Rome wrote to the church at Corinth in his First Letter (chapter 7, translated by John Keith, 1896). “Let us turn to every age that has passed,” he urged them. He wrote that “from generation to generation, the Lord has granted a place of repentance” to all who would turn to Him.
John Calvin taught that repentance is a real conversion of the life to God.1 paragraph
John Calvin gave his definition of repentance in his Institutes of the Christian Religion (book 3, chapter 3, section 5, translated by Henry Beveridge). He said that the turn comes “from sincere and serious fear of God” and that it consists “in the mortification of our flesh and the old man, and the quickening of the Spirit”.
The Studies of Repentance
Each study takes one part of repentance into more depth.
The texts
2 studies
- Passages and psalms · 9 verses set outCreate in Me a Clean Heart
Psalm 51 is a prayer of nineteen verses in which King David confesses his sin and asks God for mercy and a clean heart.
- Passages and psalms · 14 verses set outGodly Sorrow and Worldly Sorrow
Second Corinthians 7:8 to 11 sets two kinds of grief over sin side by side and names the end that each one reaches.
- Passages and psalms · 9 verses set outCreate in Me a Clean Heart
The stories
3 studies
- Stories · 3 verses set outJohn Newton and Amazing Grace
John Newton (1725 to 1807) commanded ships in the trade in enslaved people before he became curate of Olney, where he composed the hymn now called Amazing Grace.
- Stories · 13 verses set outNineveh Repents
Jonah 3 is the account of how the city of Nineveh answered the warning God sent it by the prophet Jonah.
- Stories · 31 verses set outThe Prodigal's Return
Luke 15:11 to 32 is the third of three parables about the lost being found, and it follows a father and two brothers.
- Stories · 3 verses set outJohn Newton and Amazing Grace
The words
1 study
- Symbols and words · 14 verses set outThe Words Shuv and Metanoia
The Hebrew shuv and the Greek metanoia carry what Scripture means by repentance.
- Symbols and words · 14 verses set outThe Words Shuv and Metanoia
Godly Sorrow and Worldly Sorrow, John Newton and Amazing Grace, Nineveh Repents, The Prodigal's Return, The Words Shuv and Metanoia
Where Readers Disagree
Six readings answer three questions, each with its holders, the work that argues it and the objection raised against it.
Whether repentance comes before faith
| Reading | Held by | Work | Objection |
|---|---|---|---|
| Repentance follows faith and is produced by it | John Calvin (Reformed) | Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion (1559), book 3, chapter 3, section 1 | Wesley later held that repentance and its fruits are in some sense needed before justification, and Mark 1:15 names repentance before belief. |
| Repentance and its fruits go before justifying faith, though not in the same sense or degree as faith | John Wesley (Methodist) | Wesley, The Scripture Way of Salvation, sermon 43 (1765), part 3, section 2 | Calvin had argued in 1559 that no one can turn from sin to God who has not first embraced the grace the gospel offers. |
Whether Christ's call to repent means the sacrament of penance
Read the study of the words shuv and metanoia 8 sections, 14 verses set out
| Reading | Held by | Work | Objection |
|---|---|---|---|
| It means the whole life of believers, and the word cannot be understood of sacramental penance | Martin Luther (Lutheran) | Luther, Disputation on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences (1517), theses 1 and 2 | The Council of Trent held that the full remission of sins requires the three acts of contrition, confession and satisfaction in the sacrament. |
| Penance is a sacrament whose matter is contrition, confession and satisfaction | The Council of Trent (Roman Catholic) | The Council of Trent, Session 14 (1551), canons on penance, canon 4 | Luther had argued in 1517 that Christ's word reaches the whole life of the believer and is not confined to an act administered by a priest. |
Whether one who sins gravely after baptism can repent again
| Reading | Held by | Work | Objection |
|---|---|---|---|
| There is opportunity to repent but once | The Shepherd of Hermas (Early Christian) | The Shepherd of Hermas, Mandate 4, chapter 3 | Cyprian later answered from Revelation 2:5 that the Lord calls the one who has fallen to repent and do the first works. |
| Repentance and pardon are to be granted to the lapsed | Cyprian of Carthage (Patristic) | Cyprian, Epistle 51, to Antonianus, section 22 | Hebrews 6:4 to 6 says it is impossible for those who have fallen away to be restored to repentance. |
Sources
Scripture is the Berean Standard Bible.
- STEP Bible, Translators Brief lexicon of Extended Strongs for Hebrew and for Greek (Tyndale House, Cambridge), CC BY 4.0, with the Greek brief lexicon based on Abbott-Smith (1922)
- Theodoret of Cyrus, Ecclesiastical History, book 5, chapter 17, translated by Blomfield Jackson (Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, second series, volume 3, 1892)
- Augustine of Hippo, Confessions, book 8, chapter 12, translated by J. G. Pilkington (Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, first series, volume 1, 1887)
- John Newton, An Authentic Narrative of Some Remarkable and Interesting Particulars in the Life of ********* (first published 1764), the London edition of 1765, letter 8 and the letters after it.
- Clement of Rome, First Letter to the Corinthians, chapter 7, translated by John Keith (Ante-Nicene Fathers, volume 9, 1896)
- John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion (1559), book 3, chapter 3, sections 1 and 5, translated by Henry Beveridge.
- John Wesley, The Scripture Way of Salvation, sermon 43 (1765), part 3, section 2.
- Martin Luther, Disputation on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences (the Ninety-five Theses), 31 October 1517, theses 1 and 2, in English with the Latin text.
- The Council of Trent, Session 14 (25 November 1551), the canons on the sacrament of penance, canon 4.
- The Shepherd of Hermas, book 2, Mandate 4, chapter 3, translated by F. Crombie (Ante-Nicene Fathers, volume 2, 1885)
- Cyprian of Carthage, Epistle 51, to Antonianus, section 22, translated by Robert Ernest Wallis (Ante-Nicene Fathers, volume 5, 1886)
- Tertullian, On Repentance.
- The Ecclesiastical Canons of the Same Holy Apostles (the Apostolic Canons, 380)
- Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710), on Matthew 20:4 to 7.
- John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755), on Matthew 3:8.
- Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871), on Hosea 6:1.
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