GraceLife Articles
 

The Meaning of Repentance: Quotes from the Ancients, Lexicons, and Theologians

Jonathan Perreault, December 2021

  Download PDF

EDITOR'S PREFACE


The quotes presented in this article describe and explain repentance in its true Scriptural signification & meaning, as a change of mind or heart. This is the testimony of both the Old and New Testaments, and of Jesus and the apostles (Matt. 4:17; Mk. 1:15; Lu. 13:3, 15:7, 24:47; Acts 2:38, 3:19, 17:30, 20:21, 26:20, etc.). In the context in which Jesus and the apostles used the word repentance (Gr. metanoia) in the New Testament, it signifies a change of mind about sin, salvation, and the Savior (as Robert Lightner has said in his book by that title). It is not sorrow, although sorrow may, and oftentimes does, lead to and accompany biblical repentance (cf. 2 Cor. 7:9-10).

Some of the quotes in this article use King James English that is over four-hundred years old. I have endeavored to retain as much as possible the spelling and punctuation of the original statements. In some of the older quotes from the 16th and 17th centuries, for example, the words are often archaic (e.g. bade, betokeneth, doth, ye, etc.) and the spelling can be somewhat different from the way that we spell those same words today (e.g. “hart” for heart, “minde” for mind, “agayn” for again, “beleeve” for believe, “eternall” for eternal, etc.). Please take this into consideration when reading the quotes. These words are probably not misspelled; it’s just old English.

As you read this article, I hope you enjoy this trip through time in regards to The Meaning of Repentance!

—J. PERREAULT.

Download Paper in PDF above.

Get Involved

Want to get involved?

All works are peer reviewed by a team who volunteers for GraceLife and determines that it meets a minimum level of graduate quality of work. When applicable, all work submitted should reflect the main tenants of Free Grace theology, but should not be construed to speak for GraceLife. For guidance or more information on GraceLife's views, you can view our Statement of Faith.

If you wish to have your work reviewed, get in touch with us via the contact us page and let us know about yourself and the work you wish to have added to the Grace Research Room.

All papers should be sumitted using the following MS Word Submission Template. This will be reviewed and upon approval will be converted to pdf for download.

NOTE: All submissions should be the sole work of the author or used with permission from the original author. Work found to contain plagiarism or content used without permission will immediately be removed.