- Apr 9, 2011
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I want to share some thoughts with you about repenting. I’m not particularly talking to one person, because a lot of people here have similar beliefs on repenting, though there may be some minor differences. So please don’t think I’m talking to just one person.
I absolutely believe one must repent before God. There isn’t a question about that. I’m also not really against what most people say the definition of repent is. I’m not totally for it either.
Since most of you are aware of the Strong's Greek and Hebrew dictionary definition, I'll skip giving them to you. However, I have seen a lot of people define it (not necessarily outright, but by implication) as, “to feel sorry for doing something, then to stop doing it, and never do it again”.
Now again, I’m not saying any one particular person has said this. It is an overall feeling I get from reading many posts. Furthermore, it is my opinion that this is what many believe. My opinion of course, is fallible and could be wrong.
So, if my opinion is correct, I strongly believe that when one repents a sin, it is not effective in saving anyone, nor does it do much good spiritually.
Here’s the reason: You have repented from that sin, but not all the other sins you have done. Even if you are successful in your repentance of that sin (you are sorry for doing it in the past, and you never do it again), there are a plethora of others you failed to repent from. So, you are still guilty of sin.
Let me give you a case scenario. Adultery; I am against it and I suspect everyone here, whether they are guilty or not, will agree it’s wrong.
Suppose a person has an affair and realizes it’s wrong and repents from it. They admit they were wrong before the Lord and promises never to do it again. Also, until they die, they keep it. Well, praise God! I think it’s terrible that they did it, but they kept their word and did their best to make amends. I don’t know anyone here that would say that God forgave them of that.
However, that is just one sin. Undoubtedly, that person is going to have more than just one fault. I believe that because we all do. I am not going to go into confession mode, but I have a multitude of things I’ve done wrong in the past, and the present, and probably will in the future. If you will agree with me on that, I will spare you the list of things we do everyday that were against God’s Law that he gave to Moses.
So the next step is to repent of every sin you know you’ve done. That could take some time. But if you spend a year examining your life and then repent – and even if you are successful at stopping those things – you must realize that perhaps you forgot some of them, or have never heard of some things that are sin. Or perhaps you simply can't keep all of them (which I believe to be the case for everyone).
The next step is that if you so much think a sin, you are guilty. This is really hard to do. I take you to Matthew 5:28 which says if you look at a woman to lust, you have committed adultery in your heart (and that is what God is looking at). So whatever is a sin, you can't actually carry through with it (that's a given) but we can't even think about it. Not even for a split second.
So, let me make my point clear. When you “repent” from a sin, you are still a sinner. You have not gained favor with the Lord, except for that one sin. That one sin is forgiven. But you have a lot of other charges the Lord has against you. And he will hold them against you. Somewhere in the Bible, there is something you are guilty of. And it’s going to be brought up if you are at the White Throne Judgment. So if you drink, you smoke, you flirt with others, and you find a bunch of other sins and quit doing them… I think that’s wonderful and I do believe you are going to reap rewards. God is going to bless you, but there are still others you didn’t repent for.
Repenting for each of the sins you know you do isn’t going to get you total forgiveness unless you repent from every single sin you have ever done, and quit doing them. That's impossible for anyone. And real quickly, some will jump on "Well with God, all things are possible!" Ok. Has it been possible for God to give you that power? Have you quit sinning? That is a whole other topic that perhaps I'll expound on later, but I don't want to get side tracked.
Now I want to introduce you to a different way to repent, that is totally effective in gaining forgiveness. Quit the things you can do now, and that’s good. But don’t repent from just those. Follow two Bible examples and repent for being a sinner.
I want to bring up the Words of Jesus from Luke 18:10-14:
“Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as the other men are, extortioners, unjust, adultererers, or even as this publican. I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess.”
Let me break here to say that this was pretty good. This Pharisee kept the law to a degree. He didn’t commit any of these sins. We look down on the Pharisee’s because of what they did to Jesus. However, they did live pretty “holy”. Let me continue:
“And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner. I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.”
The point of this story is that we can’t exalt ourselves. However, there is a side lesson to be learned. Look how the publican repented. He simply admitted he was a sinner, and asked mercy for it. He didn’t give God a list of things he did… He admitted he was a sinner.
I would like to take another example from Matthew 6, and what most people call the Lord’s Prayer. From verse 12 we get the words: “Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.” It goes on in verse 14 to interpret “debts” as trespasses. Again, there is not the notion of asking forgiveness of a single sin or a set number of sins. It also says to forgive others who have trespassed against you. But my point is that it is a blanket type asking of forgiveness. Both these examples don’t say anything about stopping sinning, but asking forgiveness for being what we are: sinners.
Conclusion:
You can repent for the sins you know you are guilty of, and even stop doing them completely. Some might say that if you experience a moment of weakness and commit them again, you can re-repent and start over. I don’t have a problem with that, and perhaps you should repent from particular sins and stop them. However, this style of repenting falls short in that you haven’t repented from all your sins.
But if you simply break down and say, “Lord, I’m a sinner and I need your forgiveness”, you’ve covered all your sins. Clearly, you are not going to stop breaking God’s law in the flesh. None of the patriarch’s could stop, and no one other than Jesus Christ has ever succeeded. Yet, because he did, we don’t have to succeed. I encourage others to do their best and remember that the many Laws God put forth are for our good. They are good rules to follow! Just don’t account them to your righteousness and don’t think you are measuring up to them, because if you break one law, your guilty of the whole law (Jas 2:10).
I absolutely believe one must repent before God. There isn’t a question about that. I’m also not really against what most people say the definition of repent is. I’m not totally for it either.
Since most of you are aware of the Strong's Greek and Hebrew dictionary definition, I'll skip giving them to you. However, I have seen a lot of people define it (not necessarily outright, but by implication) as, “to feel sorry for doing something, then to stop doing it, and never do it again”.
Now again, I’m not saying any one particular person has said this. It is an overall feeling I get from reading many posts. Furthermore, it is my opinion that this is what many believe. My opinion of course, is fallible and could be wrong.
So, if my opinion is correct, I strongly believe that when one repents a sin, it is not effective in saving anyone, nor does it do much good spiritually.
Here’s the reason: You have repented from that sin, but not all the other sins you have done. Even if you are successful in your repentance of that sin (you are sorry for doing it in the past, and you never do it again), there are a plethora of others you failed to repent from. So, you are still guilty of sin.
Let me give you a case scenario. Adultery; I am against it and I suspect everyone here, whether they are guilty or not, will agree it’s wrong.
Suppose a person has an affair and realizes it’s wrong and repents from it. They admit they were wrong before the Lord and promises never to do it again. Also, until they die, they keep it. Well, praise God! I think it’s terrible that they did it, but they kept their word and did their best to make amends. I don’t know anyone here that would say that God forgave them of that.
However, that is just one sin. Undoubtedly, that person is going to have more than just one fault. I believe that because we all do. I am not going to go into confession mode, but I have a multitude of things I’ve done wrong in the past, and the present, and probably will in the future. If you will agree with me on that, I will spare you the list of things we do everyday that were against God’s Law that he gave to Moses.
So the next step is to repent of every sin you know you’ve done. That could take some time. But if you spend a year examining your life and then repent – and even if you are successful at stopping those things – you must realize that perhaps you forgot some of them, or have never heard of some things that are sin. Or perhaps you simply can't keep all of them (which I believe to be the case for everyone).
The next step is that if you so much think a sin, you are guilty. This is really hard to do. I take you to Matthew 5:28 which says if you look at a woman to lust, you have committed adultery in your heart (and that is what God is looking at). So whatever is a sin, you can't actually carry through with it (that's a given) but we can't even think about it. Not even for a split second.
So, let me make my point clear. When you “repent” from a sin, you are still a sinner. You have not gained favor with the Lord, except for that one sin. That one sin is forgiven. But you have a lot of other charges the Lord has against you. And he will hold them against you. Somewhere in the Bible, there is something you are guilty of. And it’s going to be brought up if you are at the White Throne Judgment. So if you drink, you smoke, you flirt with others, and you find a bunch of other sins and quit doing them… I think that’s wonderful and I do believe you are going to reap rewards. God is going to bless you, but there are still others you didn’t repent for.
Repenting for each of the sins you know you do isn’t going to get you total forgiveness unless you repent from every single sin you have ever done, and quit doing them. That's impossible for anyone. And real quickly, some will jump on "Well with God, all things are possible!" Ok. Has it been possible for God to give you that power? Have you quit sinning? That is a whole other topic that perhaps I'll expound on later, but I don't want to get side tracked.
Now I want to introduce you to a different way to repent, that is totally effective in gaining forgiveness. Quit the things you can do now, and that’s good. But don’t repent from just those. Follow two Bible examples and repent for being a sinner.
I want to bring up the Words of Jesus from Luke 18:10-14:
“Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as the other men are, extortioners, unjust, adultererers, or even as this publican. I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess.”
Let me break here to say that this was pretty good. This Pharisee kept the law to a degree. He didn’t commit any of these sins. We look down on the Pharisee’s because of what they did to Jesus. However, they did live pretty “holy”. Let me continue:
“And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner. I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.”
The point of this story is that we can’t exalt ourselves. However, there is a side lesson to be learned. Look how the publican repented. He simply admitted he was a sinner, and asked mercy for it. He didn’t give God a list of things he did… He admitted he was a sinner.
I would like to take another example from Matthew 6, and what most people call the Lord’s Prayer. From verse 12 we get the words: “Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.” It goes on in verse 14 to interpret “debts” as trespasses. Again, there is not the notion of asking forgiveness of a single sin or a set number of sins. It also says to forgive others who have trespassed against you. But my point is that it is a blanket type asking of forgiveness. Both these examples don’t say anything about stopping sinning, but asking forgiveness for being what we are: sinners.
Conclusion:
You can repent for the sins you know you are guilty of, and even stop doing them completely. Some might say that if you experience a moment of weakness and commit them again, you can re-repent and start over. I don’t have a problem with that, and perhaps you should repent from particular sins and stop them. However, this style of repenting falls short in that you haven’t repented from all your sins.
But if you simply break down and say, “Lord, I’m a sinner and I need your forgiveness”, you’ve covered all your sins. Clearly, you are not going to stop breaking God’s law in the flesh. None of the patriarch’s could stop, and no one other than Jesus Christ has ever succeeded. Yet, because he did, we don’t have to succeed. I encourage others to do their best and remember that the many Laws God put forth are for our good. They are good rules to follow! Just don’t account them to your righteousness and don’t think you are measuring up to them, because if you break one law, your guilty of the whole law (Jas 2:10).
