21 Bible Verses About Confession and Repentance

Psalm 32:5

“I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity; I said, ‘I will confess my transgressions to the LORD,’ and you forgave the iniquity of my sin.”

Reflection: David’s psalm first describes what keeping silent cost him: “my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long” (verse 3), and “day and night your hand was heavy upon me” (verse 4). The psalm opens by calling blessed the one “whose sin is covered” (verse 1), and in verse 5 David stops covering his iniquity himself. The forgiveness comes in the same sentence as the confession.

Proverbs 28:13

“Whoever conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy.”

Reflection: The proverb sets two people side by side. One conceals his transgressions and does not prosper; the other confesses them and forsakes them. The mercy is promised to the one who does both.

1 John 1:9

“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

Reflection: The verse sits between two false claims: “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves” (verse 8) and “If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar” (verse 10). The letter writes “we”, counting its writer among those who confess. The promise rests on God being “faithful and just,” and it covers two things, forgiving the sins and cleansing “from all unrighteousness.”

Psalm 51:17

“The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.”

Reflection: Psalm 51 is headed as David’s prayer “when Nathan the prophet went to him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba.” In the verse before, David says God does not delight in sacrifice or take pleasure in a burnt offering; the sacrifice God will not despise is a broken and contrite heart. The psalm does not set offerings aside for good: verse 19 expects “right sacrifices” again once the walls of Jerusalem are built up.

Luke 18:13-14a

“But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified…”

Reflection: Jesus told this parable “to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt” (verse 9). The Pharisee thanks God that he is not like other men and lists his fasting and tithes; the tax collector stands far off, calls himself “a sinner” and asks for mercy. Jesus says the tax collector went home justified “rather than the other,” and adds that “the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”

Daniel 9:4-5

“I prayed to the LORD my God and made confession, saying, ‘O Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, we have sinned and done wrong and acted wickedly and rebelled, turning aside from your commandments and rules.’”

Reflection: Daniel prays after reading in Jeremiah that the desolations of Jerusalem would last seventy years (verse 2), and he comes “with fasting and sackcloth and ashes” (verse 3). He confesses as “we” and goes on, “We have not listened to your servants the prophets” (verse 6). Nehemiah 1:5-7 opens with the same address to “the great and awesome God” and makes the same kind of confession: “Even I and my father’s house have sinned.”

Ezra 10:1

“While Ezra prayed and made confession, weeping and casting himself down before the house of God, a very great assembly of men, women, and children, gathered to him out of Israel, for the people wept bitterly.”

Reflection: Ezra’s confession concerns the marriages to “foreign women from the peoples of the land” (verse 2), and in the chapter before he had prayed, “we are before you in our guilt” (Ezra 9:15). A crowd of men, women and children gathers and weeps with him. Shecaniah answers that “even now there is hope for Israel in spite of this” and proposes a covenant to put away the wives and their children (verses 2-3).

Lamentations 3:40

“Let us test and examine our ways, and return to the LORD!”

Reflection: The call to examine “our ways” follows a question: “Why should a living man complain, a man, about the punishment of his sins?” (verse 39). Verse 41 turns it into prayer, lifting “hearts and hands to God in heaven,” and the confession in verse 42 ends, “We have transgressed and rebelled, and you have not forgiven.”

2 Chronicles 7:14

“if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.”

Reflection: God speaks these words to Solomon at night, after the house of the LORD and the king’s house were finished (verses 11-12). The promise answers the disasters named in verse 13: heavens shut so that there is no rain, locusts devouring the land, pestilence. It is addressed to “my people who are called by my name,” and the turning from wicked ways comes before God hears, forgives and heals the land.

Isaiah 1:18

“‘Come now, let us reason together,’ says the LORD. ‘Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.’”

Reflection: The invitation follows a list of commands: “cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow’s cause” (verses 16-17). Scarlet sins made white as snow is offered together with that change of conduct, and verses 19-20 set out both outcomes: those who are “willing and obedient” eat the good of the land, and those who “refuse and rebel” are eaten by the sword.

Isaiah 55:7

“let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the LORD, that he may have compassion on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.”

Reflection: The verse before reads, “Seek the LORD while he may be found; call upon him while he is near.” The wicked are told to forsake both a way and thoughts and to return to the LORD, who “will abundantly pardon.” Verse 8 follows with the reason: “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways.”

Ezekiel 18:31-32

“Cast away from you all the transgressions that you have committed, and make yourselves a new heart and a new spirit! Why will you die, O house of Israel? For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Lord GOD; so turn, and live.”

Reflection: These are the closing lines of a chapter in which God says, “I will judge you, O house of Israel, every one according to his ways” (verse 30). The house of Israel is told to cast away its transgressions and make itself “a new heart and a new spirit.” God gives his reason for calling them: he has “no pleasure in the death of anyone,” and the chapter ends, “so turn, and live.”

Joel 2:13

“and rend your hearts and not your garments. Return to the LORD your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; and he relents over disaster.”

Reflection: The LORD’s words begin in verse 12, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning,” and end with the call to rend hearts rather than garments. The prophet then repeats the call, “Return to the LORD your God,” and gives God’s character as the reason: gracious, merciful, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love. Verse 14 does not claim to know the outcome: “Who knows whether he will not turn and relent, and leave a blessing behind him.”

Matthew 3:8

“Bear fruit in keeping with repentance.”

Reflection: Crowds from Jerusalem and Judea were being baptized in the Jordan “confessing their sins” (verse 6) when John the Baptist said this to the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism. He tells them that descent from Abraham will not stand in for the fruit (verse 9), and that “every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire” (verse 10).

Acts 2:38

“And Peter said to them, ‘Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.’”

Reflection: The crowd had just heard Peter say that God made “this Jesus whom you crucified” both Lord and Christ; they were “cut to the heart” and asked, “Brothers, what shall we do?” (verses 36-37). Peter’s answer joins repentance, baptism in the name of Jesus Christ, forgiveness of sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit, and he extends the promise to “you and for your children and for all who are far off.” Verse 41 records about three thousand baptized that day.

Acts 3:19

“Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out…”

Reflection: Peter tells his hearers, “I know that you acted in ignorance, as did also your rulers” (verse 17), and still calls them to repent. Repent and turn back are paired, and three results follow: sins blotted out, “times of refreshing” from the presence of the Lord, and the sending of the Christ appointed for them (verse 20).

2 Corinthians 7:10

“For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death.”

Reflection: Paul had sent a letter that grieved the church at Corinth. He does not regret it, “though I did regret it” (verse 8), and he rejoices, “not because you were grieved, but because you were grieved into repenting” (verse 9). He tells the two kinds of grief apart by what they produce. Verse 11 lists what godly grief produced in them: earnestness, eagerness to clear themselves, indignation, fear, longing, zeal and punishment.

Psalm 103:12

“as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us.”

Reflection: The picture of east and west comes after “He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities” (verse 10) and a comparison with the height of the heavens above the earth (verse 11). The psalm opens by blessing the LORD “who forgives all your iniquity” (verse 3). Its promise is made to “those who fear him,” and verse 13 likens it to a father’s compassion for his children.

Luke 15:7

“Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.”

Reflection: Jesus told the parable of the lost sheep after the Pharisees and scribes grumbled, “This man receives sinners and eats with them” (verse 2). The shepherd leaves the ninety-nine to find one sheep and calls his friends and neighbors to rejoice with him, and Jesus applies the story to heaven’s joy over one sinner who repents.

James 5:16

“Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.”

Reflection: The verse follows instructions for the sick: the elders of the church pray over the sick person and anoint him with oil, “and if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven” (verse 15). Verse 16 then links confessing sins to one another and praying for one another with being healed, and verses 17-18 give Elijah’s prayers about the rain as the example of a righteous person’s prayer. The Greek verb is exomologeo, the word Matthew 3:6 uses for the crowds confessing their sins at the Jordan.

Romans 10:9-10

“because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.”

Reflection: Here to confess is to declare something about Jesus, “that Jesus is Lord,” and the passage is about believing and being saved rather than about admitting sins. Paul is explaining “the word of faith that we proclaim” (verse 8) and pairs mouth with heart: the heart believes, the mouth confesses. Verse 13 widens it: “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”