Repentance is key to every believer’s salvation; without it we have no part in Jesus Christ Acts 3:19. God opens the heart to recognizing our sinfulness and the need of repentance and accepting Christ as savior. Acts 20:2, 2:38. Walking down an aisle or joining a church or church attendance doesn’t mean you have a part in Christ. There are some Christians who think after they’ve come to Christ and all their sins are forgiven, therefore they don’t need to repent.
Repentance is important for the maturing of believers who have fallen. We have not achieved perfection, yet. The road to perfection is a transformation work, where God is imprinting His Spirit on the believer’s soul. It’s a process where God is doing the work as we walk in faith and obedience to Him Romans 8:29.
Road to Perfection
Only Jesus walked perfectly. As long as we are here, we are a work in progress. We make mistakes and sin, many sins we recognize and correct, overcoming those sins as we renew our thinking. But there are those behaviors that crop up and go unrecognized as sinful; or repeated sin is being caught up in wrong thinking and unless stopped, they become habitual behavior. When that happens, it’s time to repent.
Paul warns us, saying:
Self Righteous or Repenter
We have heard of those caught in sin and then deny and justify themselves to one another. Self righteousness is being caught in sin asking for man’s forgiveness but refusing to repent before God. Repentance takes courage. It takes courage to say remorsefully, “God you are right, I am wrong, help me Father”. God likes repentance, otherwise He wouldn’t tell us to do it so many times.
The Holy Spirit in believers will highlight sin in your life if you are listening. The Holy Spirit will direct your steps to the way back if you humble yourself and repent. 2 Chronicles 7:14. Be humble and confess your sins before the Lord. Other times, another believer might point out your error. When you don’t heed the warnings and repent, you risk chastisement from your Father God.
Check Yourself Before You Wreck Yourself
You can avoid being disciplined by God by following the bible principle of self-examination before God. Prophet David said “Examine me Lord, inspect me my heart and mind” Psalm 139:23 Apostle Paul agrees saying “examine yourselves seeing whether you are in the truth unless you fail? 2 Corinthians 13:5. By continuously examining ourselves, we can uncover any imperfections and repent before it gets worse. King David sinned more than any other prophet in scripture. We know this because next to expressing his love for God; he was constantly confessing and repenting before God, therby teaching us in the Psalms. God said “David was a man after the heart of God” Acts 13:22.
Psalms 119:133
Appreciate Repentance
As I spiritually matured and learned the meaning and purpose of repentance, I’ve learned to both appreciate repentance and avoid God’s chastisement. We need to appreciate repentance because unless you’ve already arrived and achieved perfection. It provides the way back to a right relationship with God when we fail. Repentance is nothing to be ashamed of. Repentance is the path to restoration. Be ashamed if you don’t repent.
We have been born again to mature into the image of Christ. We are being transformed as we obey God’s will. Sin is going in the wrong direction and derails your transformation and you will lose rewards at judgment. As Christians, we will stumble, but we do not live a lifestyle of continued, unrepentant sin. All of us have weaknesses and can fall into sin, even if we don’t want to. Even the apostle Paul did what he didn’t want to do because of the sin at work in his body. Our response is to hate the sin, repent of it, and ask for His grace to overcome it Romans 7:24–25.