October
18
2015

A summary of repentance

A summary of repentance

One of my favorite theologians, James Leo Garrett, gives ten statements that summarize the biblical teaching about repentance. Here are the relevant portions. Use them to widen your understanding of repentance, or even better, to help you to explain repentance to someone else.

  1. The most basic idea in repentance seems to be turning from sin to God…
  2. Sorrow for sin is most likely an essential ingredient of true repentance, but it is not the essence of repentance. It may be the “porch,” as Jeremy Taylor suggested, but not the living room. Remorse or regret for sin, as in the case of Judas Iscariot, is not the equivalent of true repentance…
  3. Repentance, especially in the New Testament usage, brings to the repentant one a new mind… It must involve a new Godward allegiance, new attitudes, and a new lifestyle.
  4. True repentance is necessarily the accompaniment of true faith, and spurious faith is normally accompanied by a lack of repentance…
  5. … To be responsible for impenitence human beings must actively participate in repentance (Acts 17:30), and for repentance to lead to God, God must enable humans to repent (Acts 11:18). Hence some have been prone to refer to repentance both as a “grace” and a “duty.”
  6. Repentance, especially as set forth in Luke-Acts, is an essential condition of and leads to the forgiveness or remission of sins.
  7. Although the majority of the New Testament usages of “repent” and “repentance” may represent repentance as a condition of conversion to God or to Jesus Christ, in the letters to the churches in Revelation it is professed Christians who are called on to “repent.” We…ought to recognize that Christian believers or disciples also need to repent.
  8. …there is indeed a place for confession of sin, especially of wrongs against others... Also there may be need for restitution (Luke 19:8).
  9. Genuine repentance has usually characterized movements of spiritual renewal…
  10. True repentance is the occasion for heavenly rejoicing (Luke 15:7, 10) and leads to life (Acts 11:18).

 

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