Repentance

First of all, please don't think I chose this topic because I am any kind of expert on it. In fact, I actually just finished a research paper on this topic and realized how poor I truly am at repentance...at least a sincere biblical repentance. Can there be any other forms of repentance? Oh yes!

The Scriptures say in Second Corinthians 7:10, “For the sorrow that is according to the will of God produces a repentance without regret, leading to salvation, but the sorrow of the world produces death.” If there is a sorrow that leads to life and a sorrow that brings forth death, then certainly it is imperative that man knows the difference. When a believer turns from evil and intends to serve God, because of the remaining flesh, he cannot do that once perfectly for all time. He must choose day to day to turn from his sin and pursue Christ with his whole heart and being.

One commentator offers a solid picture of these two types of sorrow in comparing the lives of the apostle Peter and Judas Iscariot. He says that godly sorrow is evidenced in Peter’s repentance after his denial of Christ, while a worldly sorrow can be seen in Judas when he betrayed Christ. This conclusion can be reached in evaluating the differing responses: Peter’s repentance led him to serve God, while Judas’s repentance resulted in him ending his own life as he was overcome by his guilt. Peter rested in the cleansing righteousness of His Savior, while Judas gave into his own self-condemnation. Dr. John Street says, “Worldly sorrow is focused on self and self-consequences, not God. It is concerned with forgiving self, which places self above God. Instead of saying, ‘I can’t believe I did that sin,’ man should be saying, ‘I can’t believe I’m not worse.’ It is a complete change of mind that leads to a permanent change of life.”

How am I failing at true repentance? By practicing a self-revealed repentance, one that is characterized by penance and not a complete turning of the heart and mind and will. “Penance is ‘a religious attitude prompting men to attempt to pay for their sins through good works and suffering’.” The primary difference between repentance and penance then, is that penance relies upon the works of man, while repentance relies entirely upon the merits of Christ and His righteousness.

One poor example of repentance can be found in the book of First Samuel, where Saul failed to show full and true repentance. Though commanded to utterly destroy King Agag and his kingdom, Saul pursued his own selfish desires, allowing his people to keep some of the spoils. When he was confronted with his sin, he quickly expressed some measure of repentance, yet in the end showed his true colors by still asking Samuel to help him save face in front of his people. One author writes, “There are many who turn from sins, even odious ones, who do not turn to God. A drunkard may turn from his liquor to preserve his reputation or the health of his body, only to take up some other form of self-gratification or self-indulgence…Saul spared but one Agag, and that cost him his soul and his kingdom.” (Jonathan Edwards)

True repentance is specific, to the point of making public confession and restitution if that is what is necessary. True repentance does not fear the idea of gracious humiliation, and is willing to turn immediately – urgently – from his sin and to forsake it entirely. Saul showed no such willingness. Instead, he tried to excuse his actions, blaming it on the people and then trying to blame it on his own desire to please the people. He was more concerned with making a good impression than with pleasing God, and this was his demise. True repentance is radical in nature and produces radical results, as evidenced in Isaiah 55:6-7, “Seek the LORD while He may be found; call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return to the LORD, and He will have compassion on him, and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon.”

Romans 7:24-8:2:
Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin. Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.

Paul lives out the purpose of biblical counseling, to be able to use biblical truths about God to question and answer oneself to attain godliness. Here Paul provides a glimpse of a very important element of biblical repentance. The repentant individual cannot attain righteousness apart from a fixed meditation upon Christ and His finished work. The person who is sincerely repentant knows that there is no act of penance that could ever satisfy the Lord and because of Christ’s sacrificial death on the cross there is no need for such acts. Men often make repentance too difficult for themselves by refusing to rest in Christ and claim Him as their right standing. One writer quotes one of the Puritans on this very tendency, stating, “Brooks tells the tempted person, under the power of this distortion, to remember continually that Satan is a liar. Before you sin, he will tell you repentance is easy, but after you sin, he will tell you repentance is too hard! Both are lies.” Paul knew of the condemning accusations of the enemy, and he recognized the tendencies within toward self-condemnation and despair. True repentance boldly embraces the freedom that has been granted from Christ’s death and welcomes with joy the substitutionary atonement made on man’s behalf. There is no longer a need for atonement. The truly repentant man flees from sin and runs to the cross.

A primary hindrance to sincere repentance is self-love. Again, pride is the root of such tendencies and the result is a deceived heart, which never knows true repentance. In a recent sermon, one preacher stated:"Self-love renders itself to self-deception to maintain its position of authority and can only be healed by self-examination. It is a preferred willing deception. Men do such a thing because they love a god that is pliable to their own desires. Self-love will only move when it finds a place of greater happiness or contentment or when the current place of contentment and happiness is dismantled. True repentance shows up in contrition and humiliation, being cut off from previous self-trust and self-love. If we are in Christ then we will love Christ supremely. This is not a momentary examination, but lifelong." (Kent Pletcher)

One writer states, "The key to a godly life is not more and more self-generated effort. Instead, Jesus is saying, 'Love me and your obedience will flow naturally from that love.' The secret to obedience isn’t formulaic steps found in a self-help book. It is a relentless pursuit of love for him. How then do I cultivate the sincerity of love that motivates obedience? By focusing more intently on his love for me than on my love for him, more on his obedience than mine, more on his faithfulness than mine, more on his strengths than mine." (Elyse Fitzpatrick)

I am learning that my self-efforts will always fall short of pleasing God, and so by loving Christ supremely, I am pleasing to God because when He looks at me, He sees Christ. I am learning that my repentance is only true when it is focused entirely upon the merits of Christ and on the restoration of fellowship with the Father.

I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has strengthened me, because He considered me faithful, putting me into service, even though I was formerly a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent aggressor Yet I was shown mercy because I acted ignorantly in unbelief; and the grace of our Lord was more than abundant, with the faith and love which are found in Christ Jesus. It is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost of all. Yet for this reason I found mercy, so that in me as the foremost, Jesus Christ might demonstrate His perfect patience as an example for those who would believe in Him for eternal life. Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen. (I Timothy 1:12-17)