Repentance in Holy Scripture – the New Testament
“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matthew 4:17). This cry was first raised by the one who turned many of the sons of Israel to the Lord their God (Luke 1:16-17), namely John the Baptist, opening the door of hope in the Kingdom, calling people to confess their sins, to bear fruit that befits repentance (Matthew 3:8) and to set their lives right (Luke 3:10-14).
Christ repeats John the Baptist’s words, calling people to repentance because the Kingdom of God is about to be fulfilled; but “He does not merely announce that the Kingdom of God is near, He brings it about by His power.” Christ came to call sinners to repentance (Luke 5:32) and to bring the lost sheep back to the fold (Luke 15:4-7). He came to free us from the clutches of death, sin and corruption. So all the believer has to do is turn to Christ with their whole being, turning to the Lord and to no one else.
That is why the New Testament insists that no one can serve two masters (Matthew 6:24): either a person lives with the Lord or lives with sin, for “No one born of God commits sin; for God’s nature abides in him, and he cannot sin because he is born of God” (1 John 3:9).
So the sinner must come back in repentance after falling (2 Corinthians 2:12; Matthew 13:24-43 and 18:15-22), fully trusting that the Lord will welcome him with joy, like the prodigal son and the lost sheep.
Repentance in the New Testament, then, is the sacrament that renews baptism, grace and the purity of soul lost through sin, and a call to live by the Lord’s commandments on the journey toward the Kingdom.
The Church received the sacrament of repentance and confession from the apostles, who in turn received it directly from the Lord when He breathed on them and said: “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained” (John 20:22-23).
The importance of the sacrament of repentance and confession:
There is no doubt that through baptism a person receives forgiveness for all the sins they have committed. But since they can fall at any moment, there must be a sacrament that brings them back into the Father’s arms, since baptism cannot be repeated. So the Lord instituted for us the sacrament of repentance and gave it to us as a second baptism, which reconciles a person with God if they sin after baptism. Through this sacrament, the repentant believer receives, by the power of the Holy Spirit, forgiveness for all the sins they confess, and turns to God with their whole being. “True repentance is a revolution that shakes the depths of a person’s inner being and changes it radically, so that God becomes the centre of their life.”
In addition, the sacrament of repentance reconciles a person with themselves and with others, since sin does harm on three levels: God, the other and oneself. The importance of this sacrament lies in its effective role in restoring the bond between God and the person, and between the person and others, through cleansing from the sin that offends God, the other and oneself.
When deep repentance is present in the soul, it soon gives rise to a need to confess and acknowledge one’s sins, which is usually done before a priest who grants forgiveness and the guidance needed for the believer’s continued spiritual life. And since doing evil causes pain to all the members, “If one member suffers, all suffer together” (1 Corinthians 12:26).
So sin hurts the whole Church. That is why confession is necessary to return to the Church’s embrace and to make right what was done. “There is no reconciliation with others without meeting face to face and heart to heart, and no reconciliation with the Master outside this human fellowship of ours, in the place where He is revealed, that is, in the Church.” Hence the need to confess before the priest, who in his person represents the whole Church.
Some deny the need to confess before a priest, justifying themselves with a private confession, or settling for having the prayer of absolution read over their heads without any confession. But this is in fact useless and contrary to the Church’s tradition. It denies the authority Christ gave His apostles, and the bishops and priests, to loose or retain sins: how can sins be retained or loosed without being known or spoken?
And how can a doctor treat a patient without knowing the illness? The priest is like the doctor, and hidden sin, in the words of Saint Basil the Great, “is an incurable disease of the soul.”
The penitent should also understand that their confession is not only before the priest, but directly before God in the priest’s presence. It is the Holy Spirit who forgives sins through the priest, and who makes the spiritual life grow. The priest is but a “steward of the mysteries of God”; therefore “it is necessary to confess one’s sins to those entrusted with dispensing the mysteries of God” (Saint Basil the Great).
So the penitent should keep in mind that not confessing is a shameful embarrassment, and that acknowledging one’s sins before a person in order to be healed is far better than standing before that great scene when the books will be opened and everything hidden and secret revealed. Therefore: “My son… do not be ashamed to confess your sins” (Sirach 4:26).
