I thought it would be a good idea to follow up yesterday’s post with one on repentance. Rose made the comment that many people don’t want to come and seek God because they don’t really want to face themselves. This raises an important question, “what is repentance?” I don’t know very many people who are all that afraid to say ’sorry’ to God. Usually it is a relief to get things of your chest; make a clean slate of it all and forget about it. However, it is a much different thing to actually come to the place of giving something over to God and abandoning a way of life that you have been cherishing for so long.

Right off the bat we need to draw the distinction between feeling bad about something and repenting. Guilt is a natural consequence of sin and everyone feels this whether they like to admit it or not. Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 7, “As it is, I rejoice, not because you were grieved, but because you were grieved into repenting.”  Later he states, “For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death.” There is a clear distinction drawn here between just feeling bad and not doing anything about it, and actually repenting. Another great place to look for this concept is in Hebrews, where, at the end of chapter 12, we learn that Esau was not able to repent even though he sought it with tears.

I can relate to Esau. I remember a specific moment in my life when I was on the couch in my bedroom weeping bitterly. I felt miserable because I could not overcome the sin in my life on my own. I was completely in bondage and I knew it. I prayed as I wept, asking God to forgive me and rescue me from my pitiful situation. What God told me was far worse than silence to me. He told me that I didn’t feel bad enough. He told me that I felt guilty now, but tomorrow I would go back to my sin because I still loved it. I still wanted to rebel against him. This was crushing to me, and I knew that he was right. It took another several weeks before I hated my sin enough to actually change.

Repentance has become a religious byword and has lost most of its meaning. We use it today in a variety of contexts to mean anything from saying we are sorry to going up to the front of a church. The best way that I have found to understand the meaning of the word is to picture someone turning around and walking away. Repentance is to stop walking the direction you are going and turn back to God. To run, not walk, into his arms.

I’d like to be clear about what I’m talking about here. I’ve had this conversation many times. Usually about this point people get this indignant look on their face, and they’ll say something like “well nobody is perfect” or “we’re only human.” That isn’t at all what I’m referring to when I talk about repentance. Christian perfection is a subject for the theologians to take up at a later time. I think we can all agree, however, regardless of how degraded the human condition is, that it is possible for an alcoholic to stop drinking alcohol. It is possible for an abusive husband to stop beating his wife. I am talking about either ending the sin in your life that you knowingly continue in, or walking in open rebellion against God. So many people use the idea that nobody is perfect to jump to the conclusion that they can pretty much do whatever they want.

If you seek God at all, he will show you things in your life that have to go. At this point you are presented with a choice. You can either give it to him and he will give you the strength to overcome yourself, or you can reject him and continue to walk in darkness. There can be no further growth in your relationship with him if you insist on continuing in the things he has commanded you not to. Yes, that’s right, I’m speaking directly to those ‘Christians’ who go to a youth group on Friday night then spend the rest of the weekend getting drunk at parties. I will leave you with another scary verse from the new testament, “You know that he appeared to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him.” –1 John 3:5-6