When I tell people that repentance includes both grief and joy, I say think about the parable of the prodigal son.

As his father gets closer and he sees the lines of grief in his father's face.

Does he feel grief, of course?

And then he sees his father who's receiving him back to a party.

It's also an occasion of joy.

Think about it carefully.

The more you do, the more you will see both grief

and joy overturning to the beauty of our Lord Jesus. Chris Bronze serves as senior pastor at

the Red Brick Church in Stillman Valley, Illinois. He's also the author of a number

of books, including his newest from Crossway, The Way of Rependance, Embracing God's Gift

for a transformed life. Chris, thanks for joining me today on the Crossway podcast.

Thanks so much for having me. Looking forward to our discussion. Yeah.

So the first question I think that might be on our listeners' minds as they think about an interview on repentance is just, what is repentance?

How would you briefly define that term?

It strikes me as a term that we hear a lot in Christian circles,

but sometimes it can feel a little bit more amorphous than something like faith or forgiveness or love.

Repentance, we can kind of feel a little unsure.

Just on the very simplest level, repentance is an about face.

It's a change in direction. To use the imagery of the

parable of the prodigal sun, it's turning from a far country to go home for joy.

Yeah, I love that, that emphasis on joy that I think characterizes the whole book that you've written on this topic,

that repentance is fundamentally something related to joy. It's about joy. Speak to that a little

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