The New Life Which Follows Repentance

Our Lord’s idea of repentance is as profound and comprehensive as His conception of righteousness. Of the three words that are used in the Greek Gospels to describe the process, one emphasizes the emotional element of regret, sorrow over the past evil course of life, metamelomai; a second expresses reversal of the entire mental attitude, metanoeo; the third denotes a change in the direction of life, one goal being substituted for another, epistrephomai; Repentance is not limited to any single faculty of the mind: it engages the entire man, intellect, will and affections… Again, in the new life which follows repentance the absolute supremacy of God is the controlling principle.

~ Geerhardus Vos (1862-1949)