What does Scripture say about Confession and repentance?

¹⁷ From that time, Jesus began to preach, and to say, “Repent! For the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.”

¹⁴ Now after John was taken into custody, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the Good News of God’s Kingdom, ¹⁵ and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and God’s Kingdom is at hand! Repent, and believe in the Good News.”

¹¹ He said, “A certain man had two sons. ¹² The younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of your property.’ So he divided his livelihood between them. ¹³ Not many days after, the younger son gathered all of this together and traveled into a far country. There he wasted his property with riotous living. ¹⁴ When he had spent all of it, there arose a severe famine in that country, and he began to be in need. ¹⁵ He went and joined himself to one of the citizens of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed pigs. ¹⁶ He wanted to fill his belly with the pods that the pigs ate, but no one gave him any. ¹⁷ But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many hired servants of my father’s have bread enough to spare, and I’m dying with hunger! ¹⁸ I will get up and go to my father, and will tell him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight. ¹⁹ I am no more worthy to be called your son. Make me as one of your hired servants.”’ ²⁰ “He arose and came to his father. But while he was still far off, his father saw him and was moved with compassion, and ran, fell on his neck, and kissed him. ²¹ The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ ²² “But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring out the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet. ²³ Bring the fattened calf, kill it, and let’s eat and celebrate; ²⁴ for this, my son, was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found.’ Then they began to celebrate.

¹⁹ “Repent therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out, so that there may come times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord,

⁹ I now rejoice, not that you were grieved, but that you were grieved to repentance. For you were grieved in a godly way, that you might suffer loss by us in nothing. ¹⁰ For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, which brings no regret. But the sorrow of the world produces death. ¹¹ For behold, this same thing, that you were grieved in a godly way, what earnest care it worked in you. Yes, what defense, indignation, fear, longing, zeal, and vindication! In everything you demonstrated yourselves to be pure in the matter.

³ Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy great mercy; and according to the multitude of thy compassions blot out my transgression. ⁴ Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. ⁵ For I am conscious of mine iniquity; and my sin is continually before me. ⁶ Against thee only have I sinned, and done evil before thee: that thou mightest be justified in thy sayings, and mightest overcome when thou art judged. ⁷ For, behold, I was conceived in iniquities, and in sins did my mother conceive me. ⁸ For, behold, thou lovest truth: thou hast manifested to me the secret and hidden things of thy wisdom. ⁹ Thou shalt sprinkle me with hyssop, and I shall be purified: thou shalt wash me, and I shall be made whiter than snow. ¹⁰ Thou shalt cause me to hear gladness and joy: the afflicted bones shall rejoice. ¹¹ Turn away thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities. ¹² Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit in my inward parts. ¹³ Cast me not away from thy presence; and remove not thy Holy Spirit from me. ¹⁴ Restore to me the joy of thy salvation: establish me with thy directing Spirit. ¹⁵ [Then] will I teach transgressors thy ways; and ungodly men shall turn to thee. ¹⁶ Deliver me from blood-guiltiness, O God, the God of my salvation: [and] my tongue shall joyfully declare thy righteousness. ¹⁷ O Lord, thou shalt open my lips; and my mouth shall declare thy praise. ¹⁸ For if thou desiredst sacrifice, I would have given [it]: thou wilt not take pleasure in whole-burnt-offerings. ¹⁹ Sacrifice to God is a broken spirit: a broken and humbled heart God will not despise.

¹ And the Lord sent Nathan the prophet to David; and he went in to him, and said to him, There were two men in one city, one rich and the other poor. ² And the rich [man] had very many flocks and herds. ³ But the poor [man had] only one little ewe lamb, which he had purchased, and preserved, and reared; and it grew up with himself and his children in common; it ate of his bread and drank of his cup, and slept in his bosom, and was to him as a daughter. ⁴ And a traveller came to the rich man, and he spared to take of his flocks and of his herds, to dress for the traveller that came to him; and he took the poor man's lamb, and dressed it for the man that came to him. ⁵ And David was greatly moved with anger against the man; and David said to Nathan, [As] the Lord lives, the man that did this thing shall surely die. ⁶ And he shall restore the lamb seven-fold, because he has not spared. ⁷ And Nathan said to David, Thou art the man that has done this. Thus says the Lord God of Israel, I anointed thee to be king over Israel, and I rescued thee out of the hand of Saul; ⁸ and I gave thee the house of thy lord, and the wives of thy lord into thy bosom, and I gave to thee the house of Israel and Juda; and if that had been little, I would have given thee yet more. ⁹ Why hast thou set at nought the word of the Lord, to do that which is evil in his eyes? thou hast slain Urias the Chettite with the sword, and thou hast taken his wife to be thy wife, and thou hast slain him with the sword of the children of Ammon. ¹⁰ Now therefore the sword shall not depart from thy house for ever, because thou hast set me at nought, and thou hast taken the wife of Urias the Chettite, to be thy wife. ¹¹ Thus says the Lord, Behold, I will raise up against thee evil out of thy house, and I will take thy wives before thine eyes, and will give them to thy neighbour, and he shall lie with thy wives in the sight of this sun. ¹² For thou didst it secretly, but I will do this thing in the sight of all Israel, and before this sun. ¹³ And David said to Nathan, I have sinned against the Lord. And Nathan said to David, And the Lord has put away thy sin; thou shalt not die.

¹² Now therefore, saith the Lord your God, turn to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with lamentation: ¹³ and rend your hearts, and not your garments, and turn to the Lord your God: for he is merciful and compassionate, long-suffering, and plenteous in mercy, and repents of evils.

⁹ He also spoke this parable to certain people who were convinced of their own righteousness, and who despised all others: ¹⁰ “Two men went up into the temple to pray; one was a Pharisee, and the other was a tax collector. ¹¹ The Pharisee stood and prayed by himself like this: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like the rest of men: extortionists, unrighteous, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. ¹² I fast twice a week. I give tithes of all that I get.’ ¹³ But the tax collector, standing far away, wouldn’t even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his chest, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ ¹⁴ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

²¹ Jesus therefore said to them again, “Peace be to you. As the Father has sent me, even so I send you.” ²² When he had said this, he breathed on them, and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit! ²³ If you forgive anyone’s sins, they have been forgiven them. If you retain anyone’s sins, they have been retained.”

¹⁹ I will give to you the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will have been bound in heaven; and whatever you release on earth will have been released in heaven.”

¹⁸ Most certainly I tell you, whatever things you bind on earth will have been bound in heaven, and whatever things you release on earth will have been released in heaven.

¹⁸ But all things are of God, who reconciled us to himself through Jesus Christ, and gave to us the ministry of reconciliation; ¹⁹ namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not reckoning to them their trespasses, and having committed to us the word of reconciliation. ²⁰ We are therefore ambassadors on behalf of Christ, as though God were entreating by us: we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.

⁶ This punishment which was inflicted by the many is sufficient for such a one; ⁷ so that, on the contrary, you should rather forgive him and comfort him, lest by any means such a one should be swallowed up with his excessive sorrow. ⁸ Therefore I beg you to confirm your love toward him. ⁹ For to this end I also wrote, that I might know the proof of you, whether you are obedient in all things. ¹⁰ Now I also forgive whomever you forgive anything. For if indeed I have forgiven anything, I have forgiven that one for your sakes in the presence of Christ,

¹⁴ Is any among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the assembly, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord; ¹⁵ and the prayer of faith will heal him who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. If he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. ¹⁶ Confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The insistent prayer of a righteous person is powerfully effective.

⁸ If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. ⁹ If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us the sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

¹⁸ Many also of those who had believed came, confessing and declaring their deeds.

⁶ Speak to the children of Israel, saying, Every man or woman who shall commit any sin that is common to man, or if that soul shall in anywise have neglected the commandment and transgressed; ⁷ [that person] shall confess the sin which he has committed, and shall make satisfaction for his trespass: he [shall pay] the principal, and shall add to it the fifth part, and shall make restoration to him against whom he has trespassed.

¹³ He that covers his own ungodliness shall not prosper: but he that blames [himself] shall be loved.

⁵ Jesus, seeing their faith, said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven you.” ⁶ But there were some of the scribes sitting there and reasoning in their hearts, ⁷ “Why does this man speak blasphemies like that? Who can forgive sins but God alone?” ⁸ Immediately Jesus, perceiving in his spirit that they so reasoned within themselves, said to them, “Why do you reason these things in your hearts? ⁹ Which is easier, to tell the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven;’ or to say, ‘Arise, and take up your bed, and walk’? ¹⁰ But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—he said to the paralytic— ¹¹ “I tell you, arise, take up your mat, and go to your house.” ¹² He arose, and immediately took up the mat and went out in front of them all, so that they were all amazed and glorified God, saying, “We never saw anything like this!”

⁵ For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,

⁵ I acknowledged my sin, and hid not mine iniquity: I said, I will confess mine iniquity to the Lord against myself; and thou forgavest the ungodliness of my heart. Pause.