Why Repent? What Is It to Repent?

repent (v.)

c. 1300, "to feel such regret for sins or crimes as produces amendment of life," from Old French repentir (11c.), from re-, here probably an intensive prefix (see re-), + Vulgar Latin *penitire "to regret," from Latin poenitire "make sorry," from poena (see penal).

Men, un-repented sin will cause failure and negative consequences in our lives, make no mistake about it.

The word “repent” is a word that’s used almost exclusively in religious circles. We see it when we’re driving down the highway on Billboards through rural areas. Why is that? It invokes mixed emotions with people, because just about everybody in America has been exposed to the gospel from some source or the other. Every man has a conscience, and it’s used to make us think. Make no mistake, there are people everywhere in the world who not only disbelieve in Christianity, but they openly persecute its precepts, and the people who believe in it. Chiefly, because rebellious hearts don’t like to be told what to do, they want to live openly in sin and not be judged because of it. It’s like being corrected as a child. When we grow up, when we’re not able to be controlled by our parents, the stakes get much higher. We ought to love correction, in fact in the book of Proverbs it says the wise love correction.

My interest is in talking about repentance from a perspective of theology and doctrine. It’s a verb, it’s associated with an action, and it has a specific meaning.

Proverbs 28:13 - You will never succeed in life if you try to hide your sins. Confess them and give them up; then God will show mercy to you.

One definition of “repent” is to fear or express sincere regret or remorse about one’s wrongdoing or sin.

I listed the verse in Proverbs above because repentance of sin and wrongdoing is at the very core of the Christian faith. All variations of the word “repent” is listed about 60 times in the Bible depending on the translation. And when it’s listed, it’s usually accompanied by some pretty severe language on what’s going to happen to a person if they don’t repent.

One of my previous pastors, Robert Morris at Gateway Church in Southlake Texas used to summarize it with an ink pen pointed in one direction. He would say to repent means to “stop” what it is that we’re doing wrong, he would then turn the pen 180 degrees in the opposite direction, and say “go the other way”. It’s pretty simple. I just means stop!

So what is the significance of repenting? The significance is this: and I don’t care what the sin is. If we don’t stop committing willful acts of disobedience (sin) there WILL be negative consequences in our lives.

Those consequences can be great or small. From my experience, the degree of consequences depends on the severity of the sin or wrongdoing, and whether or not it’s a besetting sin. A besetting sin is a sin that is chronic in our lives, and one that can cause significant damage to myself or others if allowed to grow and get out of control.

Let’s face it, we’ve ALL lied about something. While we may not get caught lying, it doesn’t mean that damage isn’t done or things don’t work out in a way that would have otherwise happened had all the facts been known. There’s the lie, and then there’s likely a sin the lie is used to cover up. It compounds, one sin leads to another sin, and so on.

It’s a requirement of God in the Holy Bible that we repent of our sins in order to receive mercy from God. In other words, IF we stop and repent sin, then we can receive His mercy. That just means that God is going to give us grace and love and forgive us. It doesn’t mean we won’t still suffer the consequences of our actions. Let me say that again, it doesn’t mean we won’t still suffer the consequences of our actions. What it does mean is that we can receive forgiveness from God, and he removes it as far as the east is from the west from His memory. He erases it in His mind. That’s not what I said, that’s what God said, in His word, yep he removes it. Not recorded, not remembered.

So do we want to have mercy shown to us? Do we want to receive the ultimate reprieve from sin? Repent, stop what we’re doing and run the other direction. This will get us mercy and grace from God, if we confess it and ask God to forgive us.

Long story short, repentance is about receiving mercy from your maker, not man. Don’t confuse the two. Do the best you can to change the things about yourself that you can change, and give yourself grace about the things in your life that you’re still working on. We’re all working on something.