Former location of "The Kingdom of the Heavens" blog, written by an incurable fool who is trying to become a holy fool!
As the parable of the two sons in Matthew 21:28-32 shows, repentance is merely changing our minds so that we start to do what the Father asks. Repentance does not require remorse, payment of a penalty, or even in all cases a spoken apology, and the forgiveness that it produces cannot be sold.
Salvation cannot happen without repentance. But this repentance isn’t remorse, it is changing my mind, turning from my own works and my other idols and turning to the true God. It is never really present without a change in the way I live. But my new way of life does not come from me, but from God who has prepared it for me and lives it through me.
Both John the Baptist and Jesus preached that repentance is required now, because God’s kingdom is now all around us. But the focus of that required repentance was right treatment of each other, not religious works.