What Is Repentance, and Why Does It Matter?

Confession isn’t the end of the story. Here’s why repentance matters—and what it means.

Here’s a little story about how you can teach a new word to five-year-olds so that they remember what it means. I guarantee that after you read and visualize this scene, you will also remember what it means.

A few months ago, the Sunday school lesson for my class of preschoolers and kindergartners was on the prophet Jeremiah and his call to the people of Israel for repentance—not the easiest lesson concept for this age group. So we went out into the long hallway and lined up at one end. The line leader marched us down the hallway toward the other end, and then suddenly held up his or her hand while shouting, “Repent!” At this signal, we all turned around and started marching back in the other direction. At which point the new leader (whoever was now in the front of the line) would suddenly hold up his or her hand and shout “Repent!” And we would all turn and march the other way. And then a new leader would shout, we would turn, a new leader would shout, we would turn, etc. This was hugely fun for as long as five-year-olds want to shout “Repent” and march in a new direction, which is actually quite a long time.

Then several months later, that same Sunday school class had a lesson on John the Baptist, and before beginning the story, I needed to review “repent” with them. I reminded them about our march in the hallway months before. “Do you remember the word we shouted before we turned around to go in the other direction?” I asked. Even after all those months had passed, one of the students did indeed remember that word. Her eyes lit up and she enthusiastically yelled, “Repent!” Everyone immediately remembered how we marched in one direction, then “repented” and turned and marched the other way. And how we did this over and over and over again.

That lesson with five-year-olds was fun and memorable. And the implications it has for us as adult Christians are important and life-changing.

Why does repentance matter? How does the Bible show us the importance of repentance in our relationship with God and our walk with Christ?

Throughout Israel’s history, God makes it clear that the people of Israel will be blessed only if and when they repent of their sins. King Solomon knew this and prayed for the people’s repentance in 1 Kings 8:46-52. Also during this time, many prophets (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Joel, Jonah, and more) called the people to repentance so that God wouldn’t deal harshly with them. Even Job, whose story takes place centuries before the book of Kings, was “blameless and upright” (Job 1:1), yet it took four friends, a firm and dramatic talking-to from God, and forty-two chapters for him to confess and repent.

Later, before we meet Jesus in the New Testament, we first meet John the Baptist, who isn’t just baptizing—he’s also repeatedly saying to the people, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matthew 3:2). Not long after, Jesus begins his public ministry with these same words: “From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matthew 4:17). When Jesus sent out the twelve apostles, “they went out and proclaimed that people should repent” (Mark 6:12). In the Gospels, the book of Acts, and throughout the letters of the New Testament, repentance is stressed over and over—including a dozen times in the book of Revelation alone (“Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent” Revelation 3:19).

Isn’t it enough to just confess our sins to God?

It’s true that we ought to confess our sins. Confession is important, and it is biblical. The Bible speaks of two types of confession: confessing Jesus (stating your belief) (“Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God” 1 John 4:15), and confessing our sin (“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” 1 John 1:9). Confession is important, but it’s not the end of the story.

What does repentance actually mean?

When Jesus and John the Baptist told people to repent, the word used in the Bible is metanoia, a Greek word meaning to change your mind, change your direction, and change your heart. Picture those little Sunday school students I mentioned above. You are going along in one (wrong) direction, and you repent—metanoia—meaning that you turn and go the other direction. You turn away from sin and turn toward Jesus. Do you see why the visual of those children in the hallway shouting “Repent!” is so helpful?

And remember how many times we went back and forth in that hallway? Over and over and over again. Repentance isn’t “one and done.” It must be done repeatedly, daily, perhaps hourly or minute by minute. Like Lot’s wife, we may be tempted to look back on our sinful ways with longing—just one more quick glance, indulgence, or time with thoughts, words, or deeds we have confessed and turned away from. And even though Jesus says, in kindness and grace, “Go and sin no more” (John 8:11), he knows that we can’t fully do that yet. While we’re on this earth we need to repent of our sins more often than we can count.

Confession ought to be a part of our daily prayer life, and for many of us, it already is. We confess, we ask forgiveness … but don’t forget the rest of what God is asking us to do. John the Baptist admonished his followers to “bear fruits in keeping with repentance” (Luke 3:8). Paul risked his life in order to convince people to “repent and turn to God, performing deeds in keeping with their repentance” (Acts 26:20).

If the visual helps (it helps me!), then picture little children marching in a Sunday school hallway and remember to repent—turn away from sin and toward Jesus—and repeat as needed.