True Repentance, part 4: What is it?

In Sinclair Ferguson's helpful book The Christian Life, he defines repentance as: 1) inseparable from faith. 2) It is a turning from sin to God, which is 3) rendered in the heart and produces outward effects. 4) Repentance takes place not just at conversion, but is a life-long process of reconciliation to God. To understand repentance more fully, one must look at each of these in turn. First, repentance is inseparable from faith. If our faith is genuine, it will be truly penitent. If our repentance is genuine, it will be truly believing. Bruce Demarest says that “repentance and faith are related to one another as two sides of a coin. They are interdependent responses, each incomplete without the other.” Jesus said in Mark 1:15: “repent and believe in the gospel.” In addition, Paul said to the elders at Ephesus, “I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable…testifying both to Jews and to Greeks of repentance toward God and of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ” (Acts 20:20-21). Repentance is only truly evangelical when it is based upon faith in Jesus Christ.

Second, repentance is described as a turning from sin to God. In order to turn from sin to God, one must first comprehend his sin in light of God’s revelation of himself. He must confess his sin by acknowledging it to God and agree with God regarding its nature. And he must choose not to pursue that sin any longer but to pursue Christ. Paul affirmed the Thessalonians repentance to be genuine because they “turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come” (1 Thes. 1:9-10). This turning includes living no longer for self, but for Christ. “For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised” (2 Cor. 5:14-15). One must turn away from sin and toward Christ. Both of these must be in place. To simply turn away from sin is placing trust in one’s own ability to mortify sin which will inevitably fail. One must also pursue Christ if this turning away from sin is to be complete.

Third, repentance is an inward change that produces outward effects. Repentance must begin within. In Joel 2:13, God says to Israel, “rend to me your hearts, not your garments.” Psalm 34:18 says “The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.” Those whose hearts are plagued by godly grief will respond in confession and then bear fruit in keeping with repentance (Luke 3:8). This inward change that produces outward fruit can be seen in Psalm 51. In verses 1-12, David humbly confessed his sin to God and asked for forgiveness. David acknowledged that it is God who cleanses and renews hearts. All the sacrifices of men are insufficient if God does not restore those who are truly broken (v. 16-17). In response to God’s forgiveness and the occurrence of this inward change, David then promised to teach transgressors God’s ways, declare God’s praise, and offer right sacrifices (v. 13-15, 18-19).

Fourth, repentance takes place not just at conversion, but is a life-long process of reconciliation to God. Martin Luther said: “When the Lord and Master Jesus Christ said, “Repent,” he intended that the entire life of believers should be repentance. This word repentance cannot be understood to mean the sacrament of penance, or the act of confession and satisfaction administered by the priests. Yet it does not mean inward repentance only, as there is no inward repentance that does not manifest itself outwardly through various mortifications of the flesh. The penalty of sin, therefore, continues so long as hatred of self, or true inward repentance, continues, and it continues until our entrance into the kingdom of heaven." Just as faith is continual trust in Christ throughout life, so also repentance is a constant part of Christian living. Paul spoke of the continual need for Christians to walk in the Spirit in order to not gratify the desires of the flesh (Gal. 5:16-25). Although Christians are justified upon faith and repentance at conversion, life is a process of sanctification whereby they are dying to the flesh (mortification) and made alive in Christ through the Spirit (vivification). Because Christians still battle with their remaining sin nature, they must continue to identify and repent of sin in their lives.

Unfortunately, churches often make little of this fact. Richard Lovelace stated that: "It is therefore not surprising that many congregations which are full of regenerate people are nevertheless not very alive spiritually, since spiritual life demands metanoia, a new mind of repentance, and this requires more than an initial setting of the heart against the shallow expressions of sin which the believer is aware of at the time of conversion . .. Most congregations of professing Christians today are saturated with a kind of dead goodness . . . surface righteousness which does not spring from faith and the Spirit’s renewing action, but from religious pride and conditioned conformity to tradition." Rather than gambling as lukewarm Christians (Rev. 3:15-16), believers must put to death the deeds of the body, through the Spirit, by repenting of and forsaking sin and living to Christ (Rom 8:12-13).

In faith-filled obedience may we continually turn our hearts from sin and seek the Lord with all that we are: heart, mind, soul, and strength. Next up in the True Repentance series, the finale: The Fruit of Repentance.