The Truth About Repentance

Three-year olds are willful creatures. We can tell them not to do something, but the lure of the forbidden and their lack of self-control often spells disaster. Case in point…My grandson Bryce has developed the habit of playing with the locks on doors. He has been told multiple times to stop touching them, but he has willfully continued to play with them. Until his latest incident. 

On that particular night, Bryce had locked the back door as he and his parents went outside to play in the backyard. Nobody realized there was a problem until they were ready to go back inside. The door was locked, and they did not have a key with them to unlock it. 

My son-in-law Ross intensely labored to get into the house by jiggling the door, using tools, and doing anything he could to break in without damaging the door. Bryce knew his parents were upset. He knew he had done wrong. He kept saying, “I sorry. I no get a spanking. I sorry. I no get a spanking.” It seemed suddenly he was ready to repent of his sin only after three things had happened. There were bad consequences. His parents were upset. And he felt the conviction to admit he had done something wrong.

After an hour, they finally did get the door open. As I later laughed about the incident, I realized how much like a three-year-old we can be as well. We step into sin, often willfully knowing we are in the wrong. And we often continue in sin until those same things that happened to Bryce happen to us. We suffer the consequences of our choices. We realize our Father is grieved. We know we have to agree with our Father that we have done wrong.

Have you ever willfully sinned, knowing that you were doing wrong? Of course. We all have. So what makes us repent? Is it the consequences? Sometimes. But being repentant is more than being sorry about the consequences. It is about being restored to a right relationship with our Father and being sorry that we have grieved Him. 

God does indeed use consequences to bring us to repentance. The whole book of Judges paints the sad picture of Israel’s cycle of rebellion, facing consequences of their sin, repentance, freedom, then going back to rebellion. I can think of times in my life when I was on that same merry-go-round. True repentance, however, not only wants to get off the merry-go-round, but it commits to leave the amusement park. 

Consider these two people and how they responded to the same sin. Judas betrayed Jesus. And Peter betrayed Jesus. Same sin. But vastly different outcomes. Why?

Matthew 27:3-5 tells the sad story of how Judas was filled with remorse over his sin. But remorse is not repentance. We can be sorry about our sin but not repent. Even though Judas was remorseful, he never returned to Jesus for reconciliation. He never repented with a desire to be right again in obedience. And it destroyed him. He hung himself, dying without the salvation Christ had so freely offered him. 

Peter, on the other hand, is beautifully reconciled to Christ in John 21:15-19. He affirms his love for Christ and his desire to serve his Savior in obedience. He acknowledges that Jesus can see into his sinful heart.  And Jesus not only welcomes Peter back, He gives him a ministry and a position of leadership. Despite Peter’s sin. And that is the difference repentance makes!

Forgiveness. Restoration. God made a plan even before the creation of the world to reconcile sinful man to Himself. Jesus didn’t come to make us perfect; He came because we couldn’t be perfect. God knew that we would fail so He planned to provide forgiveness. This forgiveness is not something God begrudgingly dishes out in small portions with the warning that we’ve met our quota for the day. Isaiah 30:18 says, “Yet the Lord longs to be gracious to you; therefore he will rise up to show you compassion.” God longs to shower us with His compassionate forgiveness. But He can’t do it unless we return to Him in repentance. 

Have you gotten off the merry-go-round but are still hanging around the amusement park? Repentance is so much more than remorse. It brings peace to our soul by reconciling it to our Creator. “Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord” (Acts 3:19). 

Starting Over

Lord, this time I’ve really messed up.
I don’t see how You can forgive.
You must be disappointed
By the way You’ve seen me live.
I don’t really know what happened.
I don’t know how the sin crept in,
But I lay my guilt before You
And ask for strength to start again.

I turn from my rebellion, Lord.
Though I fell, I’m up again.
When my will is Yours, I just can’t stand
To lie there in my sin.
It’s been a painful lesson,
But I’m learning over time
To focus and abide in You-
Fruit grows when on the vine.

I know at my salvation
That Jesus set me free,
But the grip of sin is tight and strong,
And my past still tugs on me.
There is strength within Your Spirit, though,
And a power I can’t express
As I’m learning how to use Your Word
In this battle of the flesh.

It hurts to know I’ve failed, You, Lord.
My desire is to obey.
Please cleanse me and remind me
All disgrace is washed away.
The accuser likes to bring it back-
That guilt from sin that’s past.
Though You have long since cleansed me,
I let Satan’s false guilt last.

I turn from my rebellion, Lord.
Though I fell, I’m up again.
When my will is Yours, I just can’t stand
To lie there in my sin.
It’s been a painful lesson,
But I’m learning over time
To focus and abide in You-
Fruit grows when on the vine.
c. Bobbie Perkins