How would you define repentance?
Your friend says they are a Christian. Maybe they said they made a confession of faith or joined a certain church. Or they may have said they walked an aisle and shook the preacher’s hand.
So you watch this person, and you see no change in their lifestyle whatsoever.
Or how about the Christian who struggles with sin? They tell you they confess their sins and try to change but find themselves doing the same things over again.
What is the answer? Let’s focus on God’s call to genuine repentance.
Luke 24:45-47 says, “Then opened He their understanding that they might understand the scriptures, and said unto them; Thus it is written, and thus it behooved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead on the third day: And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.”
Matthew 3:1 says, “In those days came John the Baptist preaching in the wilderness of Judea, and saying, Repent ye, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Later in Matthew (chapter 4, verse 17) it says, “From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
So what is and what is not genuine repentance?
In the New Testament Greek, there are two types of repentance:
-Heartfelt sorrow (genuine); a change is about to take place.
-Heartfelt sorrow for sin and a firm commitment to forsake it, meaning to walk away from it.
You can cry, be teary-eyed, be ashamed, be embarrassed for being caught, but none of those things are repentance!
We live in a time where people don’t even respect God. They don’t reverence Him. True repentance is a commitment to turn from sin and to follow Jesus Christ.
God is a Holy God and cannot tolerate sin. Some may say, “My God wouldn’t be like that.” Friend, if that is your God, you’re living in idolatry. You believe in a God that doesn’t exist, one that is man-made.
God does love us unconditionally, but that does not mean He overlooks willful sin in our lives. True repentance means in Hebrew “to change.”
2 Chronicles 7:14 says, “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways: Then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.” It doesn’t say just to pray; it says to turn from our wicked ways.
We live in a nation of tolerance, but we cannot refrain from speaking the truth of God’s Word, as it cannot be changed to fit a changing culture. God hates sin, all types of sin, for the simple reason that He loves us. He knows what it does in the life of His children (believers). He sees what it does in the life of an unbeliever, and He hates it.
There is no such thing as repenting of sin and continuing in it as a way of life; there must be a change.
Now, what about Scripture that does not mention repentance but uses the word believe? For instance, John 3:16 reads, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
One may say, “I have always believed in Jesus.” This is not the belief the Bible is talking about. The very word believe when it comes to Christ involves repentance; they all understood that.
If someone professes to know Christ, but is living a lifestyle of unrepentant sin and claiming to feel fine about it, that person is not a legitimate child of God. Every time someone in the New Testament believed, there was action; something happened.
When we place our faith in Jesus Christ in genuine repentance, trusting Him alone as our Savior and Lord, Christ will send His Holy Spirit to indwell us forever. We have a new beginning, a new start in life.
This doesn’t mean you will clean up your life. When you follow Jesus, He will, through the Holy Spirit, clean your life up and enable you to live out the life He has for you. When you come to God with a genuine heart of repentance and a commitment to turn away from the life you have lived, Jesus promised He would not turn you away.
If you sense that the Lord is drawing you after reading these words, the Bible tells us in John 6:44 that no one can come to the Lord except the Father draws them, “and I will raise him up at the last day.”
I pray you will respond to God by seeking forgiveness and eternal life through Jesus Christ. God bless you as you take this step in faith.
Lance Stevens is an evangelist with Southeastern Evangelistic Group. He and his wife, Judy, are formerly of Greenfield. This weekly column is written by local clergy members.
