What does repentance mean in the Bible?
In the Bible, repentance means more than feeling sorry: it means turning, a change of direction. The Hebrew verb used in the Old Testament means "to return," and the prophets repeatedly call the people to "return to the LORD." The Greek word in the New Testament means a "change…
In the Bible, repentance means more than feeling sorry: it means turning, a change of direction. The Hebrew verb used in the Old Testament means "to return," and the prophets repeatedly call the people to "return to the LORD." The Greek word in the New Testament means a "change of mind": a transformation of thinking that then reshapes living. The first proclamation of both John the Baptist and Jesus opens with the same call: "Repent!" In Acts, Peter tells his hearers at Pentecost, "Repent, and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins"; repentance is the first step of the earliest Christian message. The Bible shows what repentance looks like through examples. Psalm 51, attributed to King David, is a prayer of repentance that openly confesses wrongdoing and asks for a clean heart. In the parable of the lost son in Luke's Gospel, repentance is pictured as the son returning to his father "when he came to himself" — and strikingly, the return is met not with punishment but with an embrace. In the book of Jonah, the repentance of the people of Nineveh shows that turning can be communal as well as personal. Repentance in the Bible is not a one-time ritual but a posture of life; nor is it hopeless self-condemnation: 1 John pairs confession with forgiveness, and Acts links repentance to the promise of "times of refreshing." The theme is gathered on this site's repentance topic page, together with the chapter references.