How do I repent? How do I know when I have repented? If repentance is a gift from God, then what is my role? If I think I have repented but then commit the same sin again, does that mean that I did not in fact repent?
The devil’s name gets at his game. He is far less interested in tempting us into peculiarly heinous sins than he is in accusing us. He is the accuser, the slanderer. His great strength lies in his ability to discourage us, to cause us to doubt the very promises of God. One such promise, one that I wrote about in my book Believing God: 12 Biblical Promises Christians Struggle to Accept, is found in I John, “If we confess our sins He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1:9). This verse is foundational to our hope. We know that we are sinners, and if we forget, Satan is always there to remind us. What we need to remember is that God is in the business of saving sinners.
How do we repent? We enter into the gravity of our sin. We mourn for our rebellion against the true and living God. We do not seek to minimize our sin, nor to rationalize it. We next, however, cry out for forgiveness in Christ. We ask that our Father in heaven might in His grace cover our sin with His blood. And then, we walk away from our mourning, and move into dancing. We celebrate the sure promises of God. We do not prove our former sorrow by wallowing in it, for such is unbelief. We do not parade our sadness as if our sadness could atone for our sins. We rejoice that Christ not only can cover our sin, but has done so.
Then, we endeavor by His grace to put our sin behind us. We seek, as much as is possible, to make right what we have made wrong. And we beseech the God of heaven and earth, that His Spirit might work in us such that we overcome this particular sin.
How do you know when you have repented? When you have done the above. And since, not if, but since repentance is a gift from God, what is your role? All of the above. That God gives you a heart that is able to repent, that He convicts you of your sin doesn’t mean that He repents for you. You repent. And when, not if but when, you commit the same sin again, such does not mean you haven’t repented. It instead means that you need to repent again. As you do so, however, remember that from the moment you embraced the work of Christ for the first time, all your sins, past, present and future, were forgiven once for all. The moment Christ died on Calvary, your sins, past, present and future were atoned for. Remember that in the midst of your repentance your Father in heaven isn’t angry at you, waiting for you to get your repentance right. He is instead loving you as a father, and teaching you how to live a more godly life.
Please remember that the most sincere God-honoring repentance is still tainted with insincerity. Were we wise we would repent often for the anemia of our repentance (as well as for the anemia of our celebration of His forgiveness). Here is where the Devil seeks a toe-hold. The right response is to spit in his face, and to stand under the shadow of the Cross.
My counsel for all those struggling with guilt and repentance is to look to the model. Psalm 51, written under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, and written after David is confronted by Nathan over his sin with Bathsheba, shows us what repentance looks like, as well as reminds us of the joy of our salvation. Study it carefully, and study it often.
Absolutely fantastic. We all struggle with what is, at the end of the day, unbelief in the promises of God.
Your daily articles are a blessing to me and all of your readers. Carry on knowing that you are helping many Christians in their walk with God.
Thank you,
Thank you brother for the encouraging word.
Since being totally depraved from the fall of sin, and like approaching Jesus is granted (John 6:65) by The Father, isn’t repentance also granted by God according to 2 Tim 2:24-25? (24 And a servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient, 25 in humility correcting those who are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth, 26 and that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his will.) In view of 2 Tim, do you think that repentance, being granted – or not (… if perhaps…) – would be defined as, knowing the truth “.. so that they may know the truth,” and as a result of knowing the truth, coming to our pre-sin senses, having a changed mind,”.. (26) and that they may come to their senses…”? Please notice that “may” is used as granting approval to coming to our senses. If “can” was used, then “may not” has a possibility of of existing.” Once made known of our “captive in the Devil’s snare” existence, The Light is turned on, so to speak, and we can see clearly to escape the snare. It would appear that God initiates repentance, since man is not capable on his own. What say you good Sir?
I say “And since, not if, but since repentance is a gift from God…” Of course repentance is a gift of God, just like faith. Such doesn’t mean, of course, that it is God’s faith or God’s repentance. He gives them to us, and they our ours. We repent and we believe. Hope that helps brother.
Thanks!
Thanks!
“Heal me, Lord, and I will be healed; save me, and I will be saved, for You are my praise.” Jeremiah 17:14
At the end of the day we find rest in His Word of promise alone, the final and decisive “Yes” and “Amen” that is Christ crucified for our transgression and risen for our justification, not our pious attempts at sorrow for sin and rejoicing over the gift, as both are half-hearted at best. The old Adam dies hard, but Christ is the Author and Perfecter of our faith! What He starts in exposing unbelief, He is faithful to finish through His Word of forgiveness, apart from the law (1 Thess. 5:23, Phillipians 1:6, Romans 1:16-17).
“See now that I alone am He; there is no God but Me. I bring death and I give life; I wound and I heal. No one can rescue anyone from My hand…it is I who sweep away your transgressions for My own sake and remember your sins no more.”
Deuteronomy 32:39, Isaiah 43:25