Repentance - The Starting Point
April 1, 2007 by Church of God International
Filed under Personal Development, Repentance, Reviews
Jesus said, “Repent ye, and believe the gospel!” John the Baptist shouted, “Repent!” Peter, on the Day of Pentecost announced, “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:38). Later he said, “Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord” (Acts 3:19).
To repent means to be deeply sorry for having sinned. It means coming to a sincere, honest, deeply felt remorse over having broken God’s laws—all of them. It means being totally bereft of any feelings of self-pity or broken-hearted remorse over what we have done and what we have been; what we are!
Assuredly, along with being deeply sorry to the point of real emotion expressed toward God for our past sins, repentance means fervent resolve that, with God’s help, we will quit sinning!
Real repentance takes knowledge and deep understanding mixed with sincere emotions. It is not an embarrassing, selfish feeling of self-pity and sorrow that one has been caught or suffers loss that so often is characterized by the ‘sorrow of the world.’ Instead, it is a full, genuine, completely honest understanding of how wrong, sinful, and worthless our life has been and how far we have strayed from God’s perfect will for our personal lives.
The only way a person can really repent is to understand these major points:
- Understand what sin is; that it is the breaking of God’s Ten Commandments in any of the broadest possible applications as Jesus Christ defined by His life’s example and by His teachings, notably the Sermon on the Mount.
- Understand that we have been sinners; that we were living arrogantly, pridefully, willfully contrary to those laws and the teachings of Christ.
- Understand that our own personal rejection of God and His Son Jesus Christ, the way of life They have willed for us, was what took Christ’s life. We need to know He died for us personally.
- To see ourselves for the first time as God sees us: selfish, prideful, innately rebellious toward God, and resisting the suggestion that we may have been wrong. We must come to be disgusted with the self, to say with Job, “I abhor myself,” and with Paul, “O wretched man that I am” and mean it!
- We must sincerely cry out for God’s forgiveness that He will remove the burden of guilt we have been carrying.
- We must be baptized (Acts 2:38; Romans 6) as a symbol of the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and as a symbol of the death and burial of the “old man,” the person we were in the past.
- We must receive the “laying on of hands” by the direct representatives of Jesus Christ (Acts 2:38, Acts 8:17, Acts 19:6) for the receiving of the Holy Spirit; and then know and have the faith to believe we have been forgiven and that God will now empower us to live a life of daily overcoming. We must understand we are no longer our own person, but belong to God (1 Corinthians 6:19-20; 1 Corinthians 7:23).
Millions of sincerely contrite people have come forward to the emotional cries of an evangelist who did not understand these seven vital points.
They were sincere. They may have changed their lives in some important ways. Those changes could have been for the good. But, if their sorrow was only the “sorrow of the world;” if their understanding failed to include the entire biblical truth about repentance; and, if they were not willing to be baptized and receive God’s Holy Spirit exactly as your Bible requires, then they did not really repent!
Peter said,
Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing come from the presence of the Lord” (Acts 3:19).
To be converted is to be changed. Paul wrote,
“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed (completely changed, converted) by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God” (Romans 12:1-2).
When one repents, is baptized, and receives the Holy Spirit of God, a profound change comes over their whole character and personality.
A truly repentant person is through arguing with God. A repentant person realizes the great price Jesus paid to purchase them with His own suffering and blood. They are so overwhelmed by God’s great mercy, that they approach the Bible with trembling and awe. To such a person, it is unthinkable that one would attempt to compromise God’s laws; unimaginable to rationalize away the requirement to obey God, and to humbly follow Christ’s example, as a believer of His Word. May God show you your deep personal need for repentance.
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wellman on Thu, 14th Jun 2007 10:51 am
Can you be forgiven if you commit the unpardonable sin? I have been tormented by this
Lloyd Cary on Thu, 14th Jun 2007 7:12 pm
Dear Friend,
Thank you for writing. It gives us great pleasure to hear from those we serve. You asked, “Can you be forgiven if you commit the unpardonable sin? I have been tormented by this.”
No, you cannot be forgiven if you commit the unpardonable, or unforgivable, sin. Unfortunately, most who fear they may have committed it do not understand what it is, and have probably not committed it. While the term “unpardonable sin” is not in the Bible, the concept of it certainly is. When properly understood, “the unpardonable sin” should more correctly be called “the unpardonable attitude” rather than a specific, singular, individual sin.
Two examples of an unforgivable sin are described in Matthew 12:22-32 by the Pharisees, and in Mark 3:22-30 by the Scribes. These passages came after Jesus Christ’s repeated and widespread public triumph over Satan and his demons. The sin Jesus was confronting was their spiteful attitude, their deliberate rejection of that which they knew to be of God (cf. John 11:48; Acts 4:16). Nicodemus, a Pharisee, said, “We know that thou art a teacher come from God” (John 3:2). They could not deny the reality of what Christ had done through the Holy Spirit, so they attributed to Satan a work they knew was of God (v. 24; Mark 3:22). It is important that we have an understanding of the historical context in which Christ spoke of the sin that would not be forgiven. The Scribes and Pharisees stood in a unique place in history. While claiming to be God’s representatives to Israel, they deliberately lied and wilfully attributed Jesus’ power and miracles to demonic sources. They were deliberately blaspheming by attributing Christ’s work done through the Holy Spirit to satanic power (Mark 3:30)!
The term “blasphemy” may be generally defined as the act of insulting, showing contempt for, or “defiant irreverence” for God. We could apply the term to such sins as cursing God or wilfully degrading things relating of God. It is attributing evil to God, or denying Him some good that we should attribute to Him. The case of blasphemy illustrated above is a specific one, called “the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 12:31).
People living today are not in the position to personally reject Jesus Christ in the same way the Pharisees did, but it is still possible to commit an unpardonable sin by harbouring the same attitude!
Hebrews 6:4-6 warns, “For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened [knew the truth], and have tasted of [consciously experienced] the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, and have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, if they shall fall away [deviate from the faith once delivered and turn from their allegiance], to renew them again unto repentance, seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame.” The apostle Peter goes on to say, “For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning. For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from [literally, "to turn back"] the holy commandment delivered unto them (2 Peter 2:20-21).
Reading only these verses, today tens of thousands of people are literally terrified and have suffered unmanageable torments thinking they may have committed the unpardonable sin. Again, many wonder, just what is the unpardonable sin and is it possible I may have committed it? This is indeed a tragedy, considering the fact that their very fear, worry, or desire to repent is evidence that the Holy Spirit is still working in their lives! If God had “given up” on them, they would have no desire — no calling (John 6:44, 65) — for a right or renewed relationship with Him! Those who have committed the unforgivable sin have knowingly and deliberately shunned Him and have hardened their hearts and moral capacity for genuine repentance — they have, in effect, “seared,” or desensitized, their conscience (1 Timothy 4:2).
The Bible definition of “sin” is plain: “sin is the transgressing [breaking] of the law” (1 John 3:4). The unforgivable,or unpardonable, sin today can be ANY sin that one refuses to repent of. It is “unpardonable” because the sinner neither seeks nor asks for pardon or forgiveness. Thus, the sacrifice of Christ is no longer applicable to him. He has deliberately and knowingly turned his back on the truth and decided to continue in his own way, denying the truth of the Gospel for the remainder of his life.
We are all sinners (Romans 3:23). Sometimes our sins are horrendous. Sometimes we sin knowing we are sinning as we sin. And sometimes we have trouble forgiving ourselves. But the ultimate sacrifice of God’s Son is efficacious to cover all our sins. When we repent — when recognize our sin by the light of God’s Word, and are sorrowful to the point of turning from it and crying out to God for forgiveness — our sins are totally forgiven and forgotten. Need proof? Please read Isaiah 1:18; Hebrews 8:12 and 10:17 in your own Bible! If God says our sins are blotted out, who are we to call Him a liar? That is what redemption is all about: loving, caring, forgiving.
Remember this very important point: NO ONE has committed the unpardonable sin — the sin against the Holy Spirit — if he or she is concerned, worried, or troubled about having committed it! A person who sins against the Holy Spirit has no love for God nor any desire to be reconciled to Him. The good news is that anyone who wants to repent CAN! For a more detailed study on this important issue, be sure to request our free booklets, What Is The Unpardonable Sin? and Ten Facts You Should Know About Repentance or view it here
Thank you for your interest. If you have additional Bible questions, please feel free to send them to us. We will be happy to answer them for you.
May God be with you as you study His Word and follow Him.
Yours in Christ’s service,
Lloyd Cary