Repentance

What is repentance? Many Christians see it as the one part of salvation that is entirely in our hands. We sin and so we repent by confessing our sins and asking for forgiveness. If we're truly remorseful, we won't wish to sin again. Yet, why do many of us still dwell in sin? Is it simply because of our flesh bodies, as Paul laments in Romans 7, or is there actually more to repentance?

Part of being Christian is being aware of our own sin and repenting. However, many people actually fall further into sin because of how we approach this concept. Many of us lose hope, give up and give in.

The truth is that we can't stop living in sin on our own. We can be told over and over again what is sin and try and try, but we will fail. That's why some people give up, because we're told we just need to be aware of sin and try harder to overcome it. We put all our focus on sin and that gives sin all the power because we've made focus on it the center of our life.

All of us need to repent. The problem is that some Christians have limited the definition of repentance. By making it just about specific sins, we have allowed ourselves to believe people who we think are more sinful need to repent more because they're sinners but we don't because we don't see ourselves as being as sinful. This has opened the door to all manners of hypocrisy and willful sinfulness, from those who say "I'm only a glutton on holidays" to those who say "I only gossip on social media" but then say "At least I'm not like them."

However, the original Greek word in the Bible for repentance means to have a complete change of mind, a 180° turning of thought. That's why in Acts, the apostles call people to repent and turn to Christ. They don't say to repent of your sins and once you overcome them Christ will accept you. Repentance doesn't stop at confessing your sins. It continues as you turn to Christ, because only through Christ can we be aware of sin, regret it, and seek repentance. Only though Him can we be born again.

The truth is we all need to repent. No one needs to turn to Christ more or less than anyone else in the same way no one needs eternal life more or less than anyone else. We may think, as the Pharisees did, that we are less sinful and have less sins to repent of than others, but that has more to do with hypocrisy than repentance.

God already loves us and is pursuing us. The Bible is clear He wants that all should come to repentance and He will save us while we are still sinners. Salvation is a free gift because God first loved us and is not something we earn. In fact, Christ stated that God draws us to Christ and Christ is the way to God. We are called to repentance but not left there to overcome our sins on our own.

When people repent, we do more than confess our sins. We realize that Christ is the way to God because of sin and we do a complete 180° turn around and focus on Him and not on the things of the world. When we are focussed on God, who not only forgives our sins but is also sinless, we naturally move away from our sins and toward God (see 1 John). It's like how Adam and Eve only became aware they were naked and felt shame after they turned from God to themselves. Turning from God's will to their own began sin and death.

See, sin is the absence of God. Christ taught that the greatest commandments are to love God and then to love your neighbor as yourself and Paul explained that those combine to fulfill God's laws. That's because God is love, so anything apart from His nature would be sin. But any time we simply turn away from God and follow our own desires, that can be sin too. When we repent of our sins, God is quick to forgive and cleanse our sins because we've turned back to Him and away from sin. If we don't repent, we never turn back to Him. He is the One who draws us to repentance through Christ and only through Christ can we overcome sin because He overcame it for us. Sin is death, but He is life.

However, there are some Christians who tell people to spend all their time focusing on either their own sins or other's sins. This approach makes us focus on the flesh and keeps us trapped in a cycle of guilt, shame and temptation, separating us from God's grace. The only way to overcome sin is not us constantly trying to overcome it ourselves though this limited definition of repentance that places the burden entirely on humans. The only way to overcome sin is to turn to God and give up our will for His will.

It may seem counterintuitive to look away from sin to overcome it, but we can't truly understand why sin is even an issue until we understand Christ's sacrifice and God's love and we will forever be stuck in the same sins over and over again if we just put all our focus on them and never accept God's forgiveness that washes us clean. Where our focus is, that's where our heart will be.

That's the real reason people who are convicted of sin give up and live in sin. They are told to put all their effort into constantly fighting and trying to overcome their sins and it doesn't work. It can't work. So they're told they just must not be trying hard enough or focusing on their sins enough or obsessing over wickedness or other worldly things enough.

This is destined to fail. It's like trying to lose weight by obsessing over food. But both many in the world and some in the church say that people need to focus on the flesh and on sin all the time, if not their own, than the sins of others. So what do you think they'll choose: be miserable focusing on sin or celebrate sin? This approach has made so many people willful sinners. The revelation of sin is supposed to bring us back to God, not keep us in sin.

The reason those who do not repent perish is because they never came to God, through Christ, not simply because they weren't ever sorry for anything they did or didn't try hard enough to make amends on their own. Christ is the way to God and to eternal life. God draws us to Him through His Son, draws us to repentance, and His Spirit works though us to bear fruits in keeping with repentance. The whole process is interconnected and depends on the One who sets us free from death, which is the result of sin.

Only turning to God and relenting our will to His Spirit working in us can we finally overcome those sins that He showed us and made us ashamed of, be they hatred, uncontrolled anger, bitterness, resentment or even sexual sins. God is holy, so focusing on Him and His love for us is how we move toward holiness. Only through Him can we be born again and remade in His image with His Spirit guiding us. It's that simple and easy.

In fact, apart from God, we won't regret our sins and seek repentance in the first place. Even many Christians have moved away from love for others toward condemnation of others and so have moved away from God, thus allowing them to excuse their own sins. Only our Lord can reveal in us our sins and help us move away from them and back to Him. Repenting isn't just about acknowledging your weakness. It's also about acknowledging God's strength.

Will we sometimes lose our focus and start to look back on the temporal things of this world? Of course. Our eternal souls are made new though Christ and the Holy Spirit resides in us, but we still dwell in flesh bodies in a fallen world. However, we can help others stay focused on God by being the light we're called to be and by letting God's love flow though us and touch others. Only the one who made us can remake us. We won't be perfect in this life, but we can be gradually perfected in God's Word, which is Christ.

We shouldn't place the burden at the feet of others and tell them to carry it. We should instead show how to give up the burden to God and acknowledge Christ's finished work on the cross.

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"For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." (Romans 3:23)

"For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 6:23)

"But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." (Romans 5:8)

"Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." (John 14:6)

"No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day." (John 6:44)

"Or do you despise the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?" (Romans 2:4)

"I tell you, unless you repent, you shall all likewise perish." (Luke 13:3)

"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life." (John 3:16)

"The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is patient toward us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance." (2 Peter 3:9)

"When they heard these things they fell silent. And they glorified God, saying, "Then to the Gentiles also God has granted repentance that leads to life."  (Acts 11:18)

"And he came into all the country about Jordan, preaching the baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins." (Luke 3:3)

"Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our God will call.” (Acts 2:38-39)

"For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body--whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free--and we were all given the one Spirit to drink." (1 Corinthians 12:13)

"What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us." (1 Corinthians 2:12)

"God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth." (John 4:24)

"For you have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but you have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father." (Romans 8:15)

"He saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit." (Titus 3:5)

"Produce fruit in keeping with repentance." (Matthew 3:8)

"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law." (Galatians 5:22-23)

"For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins." (2 Peter 1:8-9)

"But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you." (Romans 8:11)

"So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him." (1 John 4:16)

"This is how we know that we live in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God. And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus. There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love." (1 John 4:13-18)

"So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!" (Romans 7:21-25)

"I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God." (Ephesians 3:16-19)

"For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death." (Romans 8:2)

“Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law.” (Romans 12:8)