Tag: repent

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Bible Terms

Bible Term: Repent

repent

The Bible uses the word repent to refer to an attitude of sorrow or remorse that causes a person to turn away from a life that displeases God towards a new, God-honoring life.

The Amplified Bible explains the word repent to mean when people “change their minds for the better and heartily amend their ways, with abhorrence of their past sins” or “feel sorry for having sinned.”

Repentance is the act of repenting.

Key verse about Repent: “Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:38 NIV).

A lifelong student of the Bible, Peter DeHaan, PhD, wrote the 1,000-page website ABibleADay.com to encourage people to explore the Bible. His main blog and many books urge Christians to push past the status quo and reconsider how they practice their faith in every area of their lives.

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Bible

Always Forgive?

In my post on forgiveness, I cited the instructions of Jesus: when someone treats us wrongly we are to first confront (“rebuke”) them about the issue. If they apologize or acknowledge their error (“repent”), then we are to forgive them.

From this, we can infer a three-step process:

  1. We confront
  2. They apologize
  3. We forgive

Which evokes several questions:

  • Must apology proceed forgiveness?
  • If the offending person refuses to apologize are we still expected to forgive?
  • What about us and Jesus, do we need to apologize (“confess” and “repent”) to him before he will forgive us?

Frankly, I don’t know the answers to these questions. Although this passage implies one set of answers, other verses in the Bible suggest the opposite.

Could the real answer to each question be “maybe?” Perhaps God wants to keep us from turning his words into a simple three-step procedure. Instead, he gives us guidelines to study, interpret, and apply as appropriate.

[Luke 17:3-4]

A lifelong student of the Bible, Peter DeHaan, PhD, wrote the 1,000-page website ABibleADay.com to encourage people to explore the Bible. His main blog and many books urge Christians to push past the status quo and reconsider how they practice their faith in every area of their lives.