Young's concordance defines "repent" and "repentance" as “to have another mind” and “to have a change of mind” respectively. Those are probably the broadest and catch-all meanings that can work in any context. What that change of mind involves depends on context. Many may define the word as “turning from sins,” but that may be more of a fruit of repentance (see , depending on context. It can't be “turning from sins” as we saw in God's response to the Ninevites, in which God “relented” (Jonah 3.10) of the disaster he was going to bring. Even my “resolve to think or do differently” could be more of a fruit of repentance. Concerning the Ninevites, we see in Jonah that they believed God, while Jesus said they repented (Matthew 12.41 and Jonah 3.5 ). Some believe repentance can mean the same as to believe, because faith is a change of mind from unbelief. But I think that is too simplistic. Belief in a message would precede repentance—as would be the case with the Ninevites. Belief could follow repentance, depending on what the repentance is in reference to. However one understands repentance, it should not contradict that eternal salvation is by faith alone. The gospel of John never uses the word “repent,” and many Scriptures about salvation never use the word. But where the word is used with reference to salvation, it needs to be understood in context as to who it is speaking to and what is expected. To the gentiles, repentance could be a call to a change of mind about the nature of God (see Acts 17:29-30 and Acts 20:20-21), or it could be a call to get right with God, which obviously is not complete until one believes in Christ for salvation (see Acts 11:18). If a person is asking how to be saved, repentance isn't necessary to seek, since by their question, they are already seeking to be right with God. And so the answer is the one Paul gives in Acts 16.31, or the answer Peter gives in Acts 10.43.
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I think it’s significant that "repent" translates the Hebrew nacham (relent) and not shub (turn) in the LXX for God in Jonah 3:9-10. "9 Who can tell if God will turn [shub] and relent [nacham], and turn away [shub] from His fierce anger, so that we may not perish?
10 Then God saw their works, that they turned [shub] from their evil way; and God relented [nacham] from the disaster that He had said He would bring upon them, and He did not do it." Jonah 3:9-10The turning is a result of the relenting.
I don’t know if “resolve” to think or do differently would be the same as repentance or be a result of repentance. (I have said in the past that repentance is a resolve to think or do differently but maybe a resolve is a result of repentance.) Turning would be a result.
Could repentance in some texts be a resolve to get right with God, which wouldn’t be complete until one believes in Jesus for salvation? I think it is. Therefore, to repent and believe involves a resolve to get right with God which is complete by believing in Jesus for salvation. "I kept back nothing that was helpful, but proclaimed it to you, and taught you publicly and from house to house, 21 testifying to Jews, and also to Greeks, repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ." Acts 20:20-21
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Other Scriptures referenced above:
"Brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 8 Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance, 9 and do not think to say to yourselves, We have Abraham as our father.' For I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones." Matthew 3:7-9
"41 The men of Nineveh will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and indeed a greater than Jonah is here." Matthew 12:41
"5 So the people of Nineveh believed God, proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest to the least of them." Jonah 3:5
"Therefore, since we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, something shaped by art and man's devising. 30 Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent," Acts 17:29-30
"18 When they heard these things they became silent; and they glorified God, saying, "Then God has also granted to the Gentiles repentance to life." Acts 11:18
"29 Then he called for a light, ran in, and fell down trembling before Paul and Silas. 30 And he brought them out and said, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?"
31 So they said, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household." Acts 16:29-31
"43 To Him all the prophets witness that, through His name, whoever believes in Him will receive remission of sins." Acts 10:43
updated 3/19/2025
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