Quotes about Repentance

We're all sinners, every one of us. We've all done things we wish we hadn't.

We're all sinners. Everybody you meet all over the world is a sinner.

I believe in second chances and I have strong faith in God that he forgives our sins.

There are no unforgivable sins.

Cowards don't last long on their spiritual pilgrimages before they shrivel up and disappear. It takes enormous courage to repent and become a Christian, and then another strong dose of courage to follow God's leadings throughout your life.

Better the discomfort that leads to repentance and restoration than temporal comfort and eternal damnation.

Are you troubled by demons of fear or doubt? Submit those areas to God, repenting of your unbelief, and then yield yourself to Christ's faith within you. Are you troubled with spirits of lust and shame? Present those very areas of sin to God, repent of your old nature and draw upon the forgiveness of Christ and His purity of heart.

Finally, simply do what you know to do. If you stumble, get up. If you sin, repent. Whatever you do, in spite of your feelings, do not lose your vision of Christlikeness. Your vision is your surest hope. Guard it. If you are faithful to your goal of Christlikeness, God will give you the grace to live in His presence. And when Christ, who is your life, is revealed, you also will be revealed with Him in glory (Col. 3:3—4). —FRANCIS FRANGIPANE

At Sunday worship, as in every dimension of our existence, many of us pretend to believe we are sinners. Consequently, all we can do is pretend we have been forgiven. As a result, our whole spiritual life is pseudo-repentance and pseudo-bliss.

The saved sinner is prostrate in adoration, lost in wonder and praise. He knows repentance is not what we do in order to earn forgiveness; it is what we do because we have been forgiven. It serves as an expression of gratitude rather than an effort to earn forgiveness. Thus the sequence of forgiveness and then repentance, rather than repentance and then forgiveness, is crucial for understanding the gospel of grace.

The forgiveness of God is gratuitous liberation from guilt. Paradoxically, the conviction of personal sinfulness becomes the occasion of encounter with the merciful love of the redeeming God. "There will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner repenting..." (Luke 15:7). In his brokenness, the repentant prodigal knew an intimacy with his father that his sinless, self-righteous brother would never know.

More than three hundred years ago, Claude de la Columbiere, commenting on the dinner Jesus attended in the home of Simon the Pharisee, wrote, "It is certain that of all those present, the one who most honors the Lord is Magdalene, who is so persuaded of the infinite mercy of God that all her sins appear to her as but an atom in the presence of this mercy.