Becoming a Christian
What does it mean to repent?
To repent is to turn round. It means changing your mind about God and about your sin, and then changing direction: you stop going your own way and come back to him.
The meaning of the word
The Greek word the New Testament uses means a change of mind. It is the word you would use of a traveller who realises he is on the wrong road and turns back. Repentance was the first thing Jesus asked for when he began to preach.
The time is fulfilled, and God’s Kingdom is at hand! Repent, and believe in the Good News.
More than feeling sorry
It is possible to feel terrible about something and carry on doing it, or to be sorry only that you were found out. Repentance goes further. It includes sorrow, but it ends in a turn.
- Admitting it: agreeing with God that what you did was wrong, without excuses.
- Being sorry: for the wrong itself, and not only for its consequences.
- Turning from it: being willing to stop, and to put right what you can.
- Turning to God: asking for his forgiveness and his help to change.
Repent therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out, so that there may come times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord.
Repentance doesn’t earn forgiveness
Repenting is not a way of paying God back. Forgiveness is free because Jesus has already paid for it. Repentance is simply the way we stop running and come to receive it. It always goes hand in hand with faith: you turn from sin and you turn to Jesus.
How God responds
Jesus told a story about a son who insulted his father, left home and wasted everything he had been given. At last he turned for home, rehearsing his apology.
But while he was still far off, his father saw him, and was moved with compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him.
The father doesn’t wait for the speech. That, Jesus said, is how God receives anyone who repents.
I tell you that even so there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents, than over ninety-nine righteous people who need no repentance.
A way of life, not a single moment
Becoming a Christian begins with repentance, but Christians go on repenting for the rest of their lives. Whenever they see that they have gone wrong, they turn back again. If you find yourself repenting of the same thing more than once, you have not failed. That is what the Christian life looks like.
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us the sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Is it too late?
As long as you are able to turn, the door is open. God is patient precisely because he wants people to come back.
The Lord is not slow concerning his promise, as some count slowness; but is patient with us, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.