REPENTANCE-DEFINITION
[Repentance]
is not a merely intellectual change of mind or mere grief, still less doing
penance, but a radical transformation of the entire person, a fundamental
turnaround involving mind and action and including overtones of grief, which
result in (spiritual) fruit.
D.A. Carson
Matthew, The
Expositor's Bible Commentary, Zondervan, 1984, p. 99.
The first
spiritual step on the Calvary road of radical obedience to Jesus is repentance.
Repentance includes remorse for inward corruption and sin. Repentance is not
only remorse. It is a change of mind and heart about sin and righteousness and
about Christ. It is a turning from the broken cisterns of the world to the
fountain of life.
John Piper
Brothers, We Are Not Professionals, Bethlehem
Baptist Church, 2002, p. 119.
To
repent is to accuse and condemn ourselves; to charge upon ourselves the desert
of hell; to take part with God against ourselves, and to justify Him in all
that He does against us; to be ashamed and confounded for our sins; to have
them ever in our eyes and at all times upon our hearts that we may be in daily
sorrow for them; to part with our right hands and eyes, that is, with those
pleasurable sins which have been as dear to us as our lives, so as never to
have more to do with them, and to hate them, so as to destroy them as things
which by nature we are wholly disinclined to. For we naturally love and think
well of ourselves, hide our deformities, lessen and excuse our faults, indulge
ourselves in the things that please us, are mad upon our lusts, and follow
them, though to our own destruction.
Francis
Fuller
What is repentance? It is turning from the sins you
love to the holy God you’re called to love. It is admitting that you’re not
God. It is beginning to value Jesus more than your immediate pleasure. It is
giving up those things the Bible calls sin and leaving them to follow Jesus.
Mark
Dever
The
Gospel and Personal Evangelism, Crossway, 2007, p. 57.
Repentance is
more than just sorrow for the past; repentance is a change of mind and heart, a
new life of denying self and serving the Savior as king in self's place.
J.I. Packer
Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God,
InterVarsity Press p. 71.
Repentance,
as we know, is basically not moaning and remorse, but turning and change.
J.I. Packer
Marks of Revival, Revival Commentary,
v. 1, n. 1.
Repentance means
that you realize that you are a guilty, vile sinner in the presence of God,
that you deserve the wrath and punishment of God, that you are hell-bound. It
means that you begin to realize that this thing called sin is in you, that you
long to get rid of it, and that you turn your back on it in every shape and
form. You renounce the world whatever the cost, the world in its mind and
outlook as well as its practice, and you deny yourself, and take up the cross
and go after Christ. Your nearest and dearest, and the
whole world, may call you a fool, or say you have religious mania. You may have
to suffer financially, but it makes no difference. That is repentance.
Martyn Lloyd Jones
Studies in the Sermon on
the Mount, Eerdmans, www.eerdmans.com,
1959, 2:248.
Repentance is
an inner change of the mind...toward one's self, toward God and toward others
that leads to an outer change of life. It may or may not result in restitution,
as required, but, when genuine, always results in the desire and the attempt to
abandon old sinful lifestyles and to adopt new, biblical ones. Repentance is a precondition
to all biblical change that has to do with overcoming sin.
Author Unknown
The Christian Counselor’s Workbook, p.
77.
Repentance is
a change of mind regarding sin and God, an inward turning from sin to God,
which is known by its fruit – obedience (Mt. 3:8; Acts 26:20; Lk. 13:5-9). It
is hating what you once loved and loving what you once
hated, exchanging irresistible sin for an irresistible Christ.
Jim Elliff
The Unrepenting Repenter, Christian Communicators Worldwide, www.CCWtoday.org. Used by Permission.
Remorse
precedes true repentance. Changed behavior follows true repentance. But this
necessary prelude and postlude of true repentance are not themselves the
essence of repentance. True repentance is a denial that anything in us ever
would or ever could satisfy God’s holiness or compel His pardon. We humbly
concede that we can offer nothing for what He alone can give. Then we rest in
His promise to forgive those who humbly seek Him… Repentance, therefore, is
fundamentally a humble expression of a desire for a renewed relationship with
God – a relationship that we confess can be secured only by His grace.
Bryan Chapell
Holiness by Grace, Crossway, p. 83-84.
Repentance
confesses to God, “God, forgive me. The allure of this temptation was more real
to me than the beauties of your promises and presence.”
Bryan Chapell
Holiness by Grace, Crossway Books, p. 84.
Repentance is
the true turning of our life to God, a turning that arises from a pure and
earnest fear of Him; and it consists in the mortification of the flesh and the
renewing of the Spirit.
John Calvin
Repentance is
more than simply being sorry for sin. It is agreeing with God that you are
sinful, confessing your sins to Him, and making a conscious choice to turn from
sin and pursue holiness (Isaiah 55:7).
Grace to You Ministries
All rights reserved. 1991. Used by
permission. Printed copies of this tract are available for purchase. Call 800 55-GRACE for information.
Repentance
unto life is a saving grace, whereby a sinner, out of true sense of his sin,
and appreciation of the mercy of God in Christ, doth, with grief and hatred of
sin, turn from it unto God, with full purpose of, and endeavor after, new
obedience.
Westminster Shorter Catechism
The Greek
word (metanoeo)
behind repent means more than regret or sorrow; it means to turn around, to
change direction, to change the mind and will. It does not denote just any
change, but always a change from the wrong to the right, away from sin and to
righteousness… Repentance involves sorrow for sin, but sorrow that leads to a
change of thinking, desire, and conduct of life.
Matthew 1-7, Moody, 1985, p. 53.
True
repentance first of all involves understanding and insight, intellectual awareness
of the need for moral and spiritual cleansing and change. Second, it involves
our emotions. We come to feel the need that our mind knows. Third, it involves
appropriate actions that result from what our mind knows and our heart feels.
Matthew 1-7, Moody, 1985, p. 66.
Repentance
as Jesus characterized it…involves a recognition of one’s utter sinfulness and
a turning from self and sin to God (cf. 1 Thessalonians 1:9). Far from being a
human work, it is the inevitable result of God’s work in a human heart. And it
always represents the end of any human attempt to earn God’s favor. It is much
more than a mere change of mind – it involves a complete change of heart, attitude,
interest, and direction. It is a conversion in every sense of the word.
John MacArthur
The Gospel According to Jesus, ©
John MacArthur, 1988, p. 32.
Repentance is
NOT:
1. Merely being ashamed or sorry over sin, although genuine
repentance always involves an element of remorse.
2. Merely a human work. It is, like every element of
redemption, a sovereignly bestowed gift of God.
3. A pre-salvation attempt to set one’s life in order. It is
a command to recognize one’s lawlessness and hate it, to turn one’s back on it and flee to Christ, embracing Him with
wholehearted devotion.
John MacArthur
Excerpted from: The Gospel According to
Jesus, © John MacArthur, 1988, p. 163.
[Repentance
is] a threefold action. In the understanding it means knowledge of sin; in the
feelings it means pain and grief; and in the will it means a change of mind.
Erich Sauer
The Triumph of the Crucified, Eerdmans, 1951,
p. 67.
True
repentance is no light matter. It is a thorough change of heart about sin, a
change showing itself in godly sorrow and humiliation – in heartfelt confession
before the throne of grace – in a complete breaking off from sinful habits, and
an abiding hatred of all sin. Such repentance is the inseparable companion of
saving faith in Christ.
Commentary, Matthew 4.
Repentance is
the tear of love, dropping from the eye of faith, when it fixes on Christ
crucified.
Gorham Abbott
The Family at Home, 1833.
It is one
thing to love sin and to force ourselves to quit it; it is another thing to
hate sin because love for God is so gripping that the sin no longer appeals.
The latter is repentance; the former is reform. It is repentance that God
requires. Repentance is “a change of mind.” To love and yet quit it is not the same as hating it and quitting
it. Your supposed victory over a sin may be simple
displacement. You may love one sin so much (such as your pride) that you will
curtail another more embarrassing sin which you also love. This may look
spiritual, but there is nothing of God in it. Natural men do it every day.
Jim Elliff
Disinterestedness, Christian
Communicators Worldwide, www.CCWtoday.org. Used by Permission.
Repentance is
repeatedly tapping into the blessings of being united to Christ.
David Osborne
Pastoral
Wisdom, Tabletalk, October 2008, p. 71. Used by Permission of Ligonier
Ministries.
Repenting is
telling Christ exactly why you need Him.
David Osborne
Pastoral
Wisdom, Tabletalk, October 2008, p. 71. Used by Permission of Ligonier
Ministries.
Repentance
means turning from our sins to God. We need to identify the sin, confess it to
God, put off the sinful practices, and put on godly practices. In this process we
will feel remorse and experience the love and forgiveness of God.
Karl Graustein
Excerpted from: Growing Up Christian, P&R, 2005, p.
74.
Used by Permission.
Repentance
is a conscience attitude of regret, a changing of the mind or a turning from
sin to God. This includes a reorientation to God. In the Greek, metanoia (repentance)
is the noun form of the verb metaneo (repent). The noun repentance indicates a reversal or turning around. The verb implies
thinking differently. Repentance is active. “Producing fruit in keeping with
repentance” (Luke 3:8).
Jerry White
Copied
from Dangers Men Face by Jerry White © 1997, p. 124. Used by Permission of
NavPress – www.navpress.com. All rights
reserved.
Our Lord’s idea
of repentance is as profound and comprehensive as His conception of
righteousness. Of the three words that are used in the Greek Gospels to
describe the process, one emphasizes the emotional element of regret, sorrow
over the past evil course of life, metamelomai; Matt.
12:29-32; a second expresses reversal of the entire mental attitude, metanoeo, Matt. 12:41, Luke 11:32; 15:7, 10; the
third denotes a change in the direction of life, one goal being substituted for
another, epistrephomai; Matt. 13:15 (and parallels); Luke
17;4, 22:32. Repentance is not limited to any single faculty of the mind: it
engages the entire man, intellect, will and affections… Again, in the new life
which follows repentance the absolute supremacy of God is the controlling
principle. He who repents turns away from the service of mammon and self to the
service of God.
Geerhardus Vos
The Kingdom of God and
the Church, P&R, 1972, p. 92-93, Used by Permission.
To forsake
sin, is to leave it without any thought reserved of returning to it again.
William Gurnall
A Puritan Golden Treasury,
compiled by I.D.E. Thomas, by permission of Banner of Truth, Carlisle, PA. 2000, p. 281.
Repentance is
one of the most positive words in the Christian vocabulary! It refers to
turning from a destructive path and moving instead into God’s abundant life.
G. Richard Blackaby
Corporate Hindrances to Revival,
Revival Commentary, v. 2, n. 2.