{"id":98038,"date":"2026-09-17T10:22:39","date_gmt":"2026-09-17T15:22:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/?p=98038"},"modified":"2026-09-17T10:22:39","modified_gmt":"2026-09-17T15:22:39","slug":"confession-contrition-and-repentance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/confession-contrition-and-repentance\/","title":{"rendered":"Confession, Contrition, and Repentance"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\t<p>by Chadwick Brewer<\/p>\n<p>Sometimes we conflate these three things as being the same thing. While it is true that ideally they would all happen together, they are in fact different and distinct. Let&#8217;s take a moment to define them and see what happens when they don&#8217;t happen concurrently.<\/p>\n<h2>Confession<\/h2>\n<p>The act of stating that what you have done is wrong. In Greek, it is \u1f41\u03bc\u03bf\u03bb\u03bf\u03b3\u03af\u03b1, which means &#8220;to say the same thing&#8221; or &#8220;to agree with.&#8221; It is the act of saying the same things about your actions as God does. I.e., &#8220;I have lied by being dishonest and deceptive.&#8221;<\/p>\n<h2>Contrition<\/h2>\n<p>The state of being humbled and crushed. It is the state of the heart of someone who feels the weight of the guilt and wrong that they have done. It is being poor in spirit and lowly due to their guilt.<\/p>\n<h2>Repentance<\/h2>\n<p>To change one&#8217;s mind, reconsider, turn from one&#8217;s former way of thinking or acting. The Greek word often used in the New Testament speaks of the change of mind; New Testament usage goes beyond merely changing one&#8217;s opinion. It involves a change of mind that produces a change in direction and conduct.<\/p>\n<p>While these ought to work together, people often separate them.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Confession without contrition or repentance does nothing to change the person or their actions.<\/li>\n<li>Confession and contrition without repentance can be called worldly grief (II Corinthians 7:10), which focuses on oneself without producing any real change towards God.<\/li>\n<li>Repentance without confession or contrition can produce outward change without inward acknowledgment. A person may change his behavior because he dislikes the consequences of his actions without ever admitting that he has sinned or feeling the weight of what he has done.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>True repentance is more than simply changing behavior. It is a turning of the heart and life toward God.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by Chadwick Brewer Sometimes we conflate these three things as being the same thing. While it is true that ideally they would all happen together, they are in fact different and distinct. Let&#8217;s take a moment to define them and see what happens when they don&#8217;t happen concurrently. Confession The act of stating that what&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27],"tags":[51,463,50],"class_list":["post-98038","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-confession","tag-humility","tag-repentance"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":5001,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/do-we-have-to-do-penance\/","url_meta":{"origin":98038,"position":0},"title":"Do we have to do penance?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 30, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Do we have to do penance? If we sin and we ask for forgiveness is it enough or do we need someone to give us a penance? Answer: Penance is a Roman Catholic concept which is not found in the Bible. If we stayed with the actual definition of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":18886,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/can-there-be-repentance-without-confession\/","url_meta":{"origin":98038,"position":1},"title":"Can there be repentance without confession?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 23, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I have a question about repentance.\u00a0 I have always wondered if there was such a thing as a lack of repentance? For example, when someone lies to another and later on they repent and change their mind about lying, but they don\u2019t want to bring up the details of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":52729,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/does-a-confession-need-to-be-taken-before-baptism\/","url_meta":{"origin":98038,"position":2},"title":"Does a confession need to be taken before baptism?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 27, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: We are having a problem with words in our congregation. When you baptize someone should you say the words \"I baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit for the remission of your sins?\" Or should you just immerse them and say nothing?\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":23716,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-is-the-proper-thing-to-say-as-you-are-baptizing-someone\/","url_meta":{"origin":98038,"position":3},"title":"What is the proper thing to say as you are baptizing someone?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 31, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hi Jeff, I read an article that asks what does someone says before they baptize someone else. It almost answered my question but not completely. I have always been taught that it is not a proper baptism unless the proper things were said. After taking their confession and then\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":15189,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-if-a-person-dies-after-accepting-god-but-before-he-can-be-baptized\/","url_meta":{"origin":98038,"position":4},"title":"What if a person dies after accepting God but before he can be baptized?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 27, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I have a question about baptism. People always ask what if a person is about to die and accepts God into his heart, does he go to heaven or hell? My response is two things: I tell them the guy had chances before, so God would be just in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":68764,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-umbrella-nature-of-the-term-faith\/","url_meta":{"origin":98038,"position":5},"title":"The Umbrella Nature of the Term \u201cFaith\u201d","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 7, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton One preacher (Stephen Whitsett) argued the following: \"In the same way, it would be possible that Acts 2:38 is indeed communicating the fact that they were to be baptized \"as the result of\" or \"because\" they already had believed and in doing so had already received\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Article&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98038","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=98038"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98038\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=98038"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=98038"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=98038"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}