Sincere repentance is equivalent to the rebuilding of the Temple, the restoration of the altar, and the offering of all the sacrifices (Pesiqta, ed. Buber, 25:158; Midrash Leviticus Rabbah 7; Talmud Sanhedrin 43b).
Yom Kippur, the day of atonement, derives its significance only from the fact that it is the culmination of the ten penitential days with which the Jewish religious year begins; and therefore it is of no avail without repentance; (Midrash Sifra, Emor, 14.).
The Protestant reformer John Calvin said that repentance "may be justly defined to be a true conversion of our life to God, proceeding from a serious fear of God, and consisting in the mortification of the flesh and of the old man, and in the vivification of the Spirit. He further said that "it will be useful to amplify and explain the definition we have given; in which there are three points to be particularly considered." "In the first place, when we call repentance a conversion of the life to God, we require a transformation, not only in the external actions, but in the soul itself; which, after having put off the old nature, should produce the fruits of actions corresponding to its renovation. . . .In the second place, we represented repentance as proceeding from a serious fear of God.
Many church fathers have made reference to it as the "gift of repentance" or as the "gift of tears". God calls all to repent through the hearing of the Gospel.
Furthermore, this message must be preached in the power of the Holy Spirit (1 Thess. 1:5-10). Rev. 3:19; Heb. 12:6, 10-11. The chastisements of God are sometimes for the purpose of bringing His wandering children back to repentance. 2 Tim. 2:24-25. God often uses the loving, Christian reproof of a brother to be the means of bringing us back to God.
Source: Wikipedia > Repentance
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