Reference: Repentance
American
A change of mind, accompanied with regret and sorrow for something done, and an earnest wish that it was undone. Such was the repentance of Juda, Mt 27:3; and so it is said that Esau found "no place of repentance" in his father Isaac, although he sought it with tears, Heb 12:17; that is, Isaac would not change what he had done, and revoke the blessing given to Jacob, Ge 27. God is sometimes said to "repent" of something he had done, Ge 6:6; Jon 3:9-10; not that he could wish it undone, but that in his providence such a change of course took place as among men would be ascribed to a change of mind. But the true gospel repentance, or "repentance unto life," is sorrow for sin, grief for having committed it, and a turning away from it with abhorrence, accompanied with sincere endeavors, in reliance on God's grace and the influences of the Holy Spirit, to live in humble and holy obedience to the commands and will of God. This is that repentance which always accompanies true faith, and to which is promised the free forgiveness of sin through the merits of Jesus Christ, Mt 4:17; Ac 3:19; 11:18; 20:12.
See Verses Found in Dictionary
Yahweh was sorry that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him in his heart.
Who knows whether God will not turn and relent, and turn away from his fierce anger, so that we might not perish?" God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way. God relented of the disaster which he said he would do to them, and he didn't do it.
From that time, Jesus began to preach, and to say, "Repent! For the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand."
Then Judas, who betrayed him, when he saw that Jesus was condemned, felt remorse, and brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders,
"Repent therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out, so that there may come times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord,
When they heard these things, they held their peace, and glorified God, saying, "Then God has also granted to the Gentiles repentance to life!"
For you know that even when he afterward desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place for a change of mind though he sought it diligently with tears.
Easton
There are three Greek words used in the New Testament to denote repentance. (1.) The verb metamelomai is used of a change of mind, such as to produce regret or even remorse on account of sin, but not necessarily a change of heart. This word is used with reference to the repentance of Judas (Mt 27:3).
(2.) Metanoeo, meaning to change one's mind and purpose, as the result of after knowledge. This verb, with (3) the cognate noun metanoia, is used of true repentance, a change of mind and purpose and life, to which remission of sin is promised.
Evangelical repentance consists of (1) a true sense of one's own guilt and sinfulness; (2) an apprehension of God's mercy in Christ; (3) an actual hatred of sin (Ps 119:128; Job 42:5-6; 2Co 7:10) and turning from it to God; and (4) a persistent endeavour after a holy life in a walking with God in the way of his commandments.
The true penitent is conscious of guilt (Ps 51:4,9), of pollution (Ps 51:5,7,10), and of helplessness (Ps 51:11; 109:21-22). Thus he apprehends himself to be just what God has always seen him to be and declares him to be. But repentance comprehends not only such a sense of sin, but also an apprehension of mercy, without which there can be no true repentance (Ps 51:1; 130:4).
See Verses Found in Dictionary
I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you. Therefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes."
Have mercy on me, God, according to your loving kindness. According to the multitude of your tender mercies, blot out my transgressions.
Against you, and you only, have I sinned, and done that which is evil in your sight; that you may be proved right when you speak, and justified when you judge. Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity. In sin my mother conceived me.
Purify me with hyssop, and I will be clean. Wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.
Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all of my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God. Renew a right spirit within me. read more. Don't throw me from your presence, and don't take your holy Spirit from me.
But deal with me, Yahweh the Lord, for your name's sake, because your loving kindness is good, deliver me; for I am poor and needy. My heart is wounded within me.
Blessed are you, Yahweh. Teach me your statutes.
But there is forgiveness with you, therefore you are feared.
Then Judas, who betrayed him, when he saw that Jesus was condemned, felt remorse, and brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders,
Hastings
Repentance, in the sense of turning from a purpose, is frequently predicated of God in the OT (Ge 6:6-7; Ex 32:14 etc.). Repentance for sin is commonly expressed by 'turn' or 'return' (e.g. De 4:30; Isa 55:7; Eze 3:2; Ho 14:2). Repentance has a prominent place in the NT, alone (Mt 4:17; Lu 15:7; Ac 2:38 etc.), or in conjunction with faith (Mr 1:15; Ac 20:21 etc.), as an Indispensable condition of salvation. The word ordinarily used (metanoia) means literally 'change of mind.' The change, however, is one in which not the intellect only, but the whole nature (understanding, affections, will), is involved. It is such an altered view of God and sin as carries with it heartfelt sorrow for sin, confession of it, and decisive turning from it to God and righteousness (Lu 15:17-18; Ro 6:17-18; 2Co 7:10-11 etc.). Its reality is tested by its fruits (Mt 3:8; Lu 6:43-46). From this 'godly sorrow', which works 'repentance unto salvation' (2Co 7:10-11), is distinguished a 'sorrow of the world' which 'worketh death' (2Co 7:10), i.e. a sorrow which has no relation to God, or to the intrinsic evil of sin, but only to sin's harmful consequences. There may be keen remorse, and blaming of one's self for one's folly, yet no real repentance.
Disputes have arisen in theology as to the priority of faith or repentance, but unnecessarily, for the two, rightly viewed, are but the positive and negative poles of the same state of soul. There can be no evangelical faith which does not spring from a heart broken and contrite on account of sin; on the other hand, there can be no true repentance which has not the germ of faith in God, and of hope in His mercy, in it. The Law alone would break the heart; the Gospel melts it. Repentance is the turning from sin; Gospel faith is the turning to Christ for salvation. The acts are inseparable (Ac 20:21).
James Orr.
See Verses Found in Dictionary
Yahweh was sorry that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him in his heart. Yahweh said, "I will destroy man whom I have created from the surface of the ground; man, along with animals, creeping things, and birds of the sky; for I am sorry that I have made them."
Yahweh repented of the evil which he said he would do to his people.
When you are in oppression, and all these things are come on you, in the latter days you shall return to Yahweh your God, and listen to his voice:
let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return to Yahweh, and he will have mercy on him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
So I opened my mouth, and he caused me to eat the scroll.
Take words with you, and return to Yahweh. Tell him, "Forgive all our sins, and accept that which is good: so we offer our lips like bulls.
Therefore bring forth fruit worthy of repentance!
From that time, Jesus began to preach, and to say, "Repent! For the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand."
and saying, "The time is fulfilled, and the Kingdom of God is at hand! Repent, and believe in the Good News."
For there is no good tree that brings forth rotten fruit; nor again a rotten tree that brings forth good fruit. For each tree is known by its own fruit. For people don't gather figs from thorns, nor do they gather grapes from a bramble bush. read more. The good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings out that which is good, and the evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings out that which is evil, for out of the abundance of the heart, his mouth speaks. "Why do you call me, 'Lord, Lord,' and don't do the things which I say?
I tell you that even so there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents, than over ninety-nine righteous people who need no repentance.
But when he came to himself he said, 'How many hired servants of my father's have bread enough to spare, and I'm dying with hunger! I will get up and go to my father, and will tell him, "Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in your sight.
Peter said to them, "Repent, and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
testifying both to Jews and to Greeks repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus.
testifying both to Jews and to Greeks repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus.
But thanks be to God, that, whereas you were bondservants of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching whereunto you were delivered. Being made free from sin, you became bondservants of righteousness.
For godly sorrow works repentance to salvation, which brings no regret. But the sorrow of the world works death.
For godly sorrow works repentance to salvation, which brings no regret. But the sorrow of the world works death. For behold, this same thing, that you were made sorry in a godly way, what earnest care it worked in you. Yes, what defense, indignation, fear, longing, zeal, and vengeance! In everything you demonstrated yourselves to be pure in the matter.
Morish
The idea conveyed in this term is of great importance from the fact of its application not only to man but to God, showing how God, in His government of the earth, is pleased to express His own sense of events taking place upon it. This does not clash with His omniscience. There are two senses in which repentance on the part of God is spoken of.
1. As to His own creation or appointment of objects that fail to answer to His glory. He repented that He had made man on the earth, and that He had set up Saul as king of Israel. Ge 6:6-7; 1Sa 15:11,35
1Sa 15:2. As to punishment which He has threatened, or blessing He has promised. When Israel turned from their evil ways and sought God, He often repented of the punishment He had meditated. 2Sa 24:16, etc. On the other hand, the promises to bless Israel when in the land were made conditionally on their obedience, so that God would, if they did evil, turn from or repent of the good that He had said He would do, either to Israel or in fact to any nation. Jer 18:8-10. He would alter the order of His dealings towards them, and as to Israel He said, "I am weary with repenting." Jer 15:6. In all this the responsibility of man is concerned, as well as the divine government.
But the unconditional promises of God, as made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, are not subject to repentance. "The gifts and calling of God are without repentance." Ro 11:29. "God is not a man that he should lie; neither the son of man that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it?" Nu 23:19; 1Sa 15:29; Mal 3:6. And this must hold good in regard to every purpose of His will.
As regards man, repentance is the necessary precursor of his experience of grace on the part of God. Two motives for repentance are presented in scripture: the goodness of God which leads to repentance (Ro 2:4) and coming judgement, on account of which God now commands all men to repent (Ac 17:30-31); but it is distinctly of His grace and for His glory that this door of return to Him is granted (Ac 11:18) in that He has approached man in grace and by His glad tidings, consequent on His righteousness having been secured in the death of Christ. Hence God's testimony is "repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ." Ac 20:21.
Repentance has been described as "a change of mind Godward that leads to a judgement of self and one's acts." 1Ki 8:47; Eze 14:6; Mt 3:2; 9:13; Lu 15:7; Ac 20:21; 2Co 7:9-10; etc. This would not be possible but for the thought of mercy in God. It is the goodness of God that leads to repentance. Ro 2:4.
Repentance is also spoken of as a change of thought and action where there is no evil to repent of. 2Co 7:8.
See Verses Found in Dictionary
Yahweh was sorry that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him in his heart. Yahweh said, "I will destroy man whom I have created from the surface of the ground; man, along with animals, creeping things, and birds of the sky; for I am sorry that I have made them."
God is not a man, that he should lie, nor the son of man, that he should repent. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not make it good?
When the angel stretched out his hand toward Jerusalem to destroy it, Yahweh relented of the disaster, and said to the angel who destroyed the people, "It is enough. Now stay your hand." The angel of Yahweh was by the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.
yet if they shall repent in the land where they are carried captive, and turn again, and make supplication to you in the land of those who carried them captive, saying, 'We have sinned, and have done perversely; we have dealt wickedly;'
You have rejected me, says Yahweh, you have gone backward: therefore have I stretched out my hand against you, and destroyed you; I am weary with repenting.
if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do to them. At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it; read more. if they do that which is evil in my sight, that they not obey my voice, then I will repent of the good, with which I said I would benefit them.
Therefore tell the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: Return, and turn yourselves from your idols; and turn away your faces from all your abominations.
"For I, Yahweh, don't change; therefore you, sons of Jacob, are not consumed.
"Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!"
But you go and learn what this means: 'I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,' for I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance."
I tell you that even so there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents, than over ninety-nine righteous people who need no repentance.
When they heard these things, they held their peace, and glorified God, saying, "Then God has also granted to the Gentiles repentance to life!"
The times of ignorance therefore God overlooked. But now he commands that all people everywhere should repent, because he has appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by the man whom he has ordained; of which he has given assurance to all men, in that he has raised him from the dead."
testifying both to Jews and to Greeks repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus.
testifying both to Jews and to Greeks repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus.
Or do you despise the riches of his goodness, forbearance, and patience, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?
Or do you despise the riches of his goodness, forbearance, and patience, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?
For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.
For though I made you sorry with my letter, I do not regret it, though I did regret it. For I see that my letter made you sorry, though just for a while.
Watsons
REPENTANCE is sometimes used generally for a change of mind, and an earnest wishing that something were undone that has been done. Esau found no place for repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears; he could not move his father Isaac to repent of what he had done, or to recall the blessing from Jacob and confer it on himself, Heb 12:17; Mt 3:2; 4:17. Taken in a religious sense it signifies conviction of sin and sorrow for it. But there is,
1. A partial or worldly repentance, wherein one is grieved for and turns from his sin, merely on account of the hurt it has done, or is likely to do, him; so a malefactor, who still loves his sin, repents of doing it, because it brings him to punishment.
2. An evangelical repentance, which is a godly sorrow wrought in the heart of a sinful person by the word and Spirit of God, whereby, from a sense of his sin, as offensive to God, and defiling and endangering to his own soul, and from an apprehension of the mercy of God in Christ, he, with grief and hatred of all his known sins, turns from them to God, as his Saviour and Lord. This is called "repentance toward God," as therein we turn from sin to him; and "repentance unto life;" as it leads to spiritual life, and is the first step to eternal life, Mt 3:2; Ac 3:19; 11:18; 20:12. God himself is said to repent, but this can only be understood of his altering his conduct towards his creatures, either in the bestowing of good or the infliction of evil: which change in the divine conduct is founded on a change in his creatures; and thus, speaking after the manner of men, God is said to repent.
See Verses Found in Dictionary
"Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!"
"Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!"
From that time, Jesus began to preach, and to say, "Repent! For the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand."
"Repent therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out, so that there may come times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord,
When they heard these things, they held their peace, and glorified God, saying, "Then God has also granted to the Gentiles repentance to life!"
For you know that even when he afterward desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place for a change of mind though he sought it diligently with tears.