Penitent

The penitent in Scripture is the person who turns from sin in genuine contrition and returns to God — the opposite of the impenitent. The biblical vocabulary of penitence includes nacham (to feel sorrow, regret), shub (to turn, return), metanoeo (to change the mind), and epistrepho (to turn back). Psalm 51, attributed to David after his sin with Bathsheba, is the paradigmatic penitential prayer: "The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise" (Ps. 51:17).

The penitent's return is met with divine welcome rather than condemnation. Isaiah 55:7: "Let the wicked forsake his way... let him return to the LORD, who will have compassion on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon." Jesus's three parables of Luke 15 — the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the prodigal son — all dramatize the joy of heaven over the return of the penitent. The father's running embrace of the returning son has become the defining NT image of God's response to genuine repentance. Paul distinguishes the "godly grief" that produces repentance leading to salvation from worldly sorrow that produces only death (2 Cor. 7:10).