Do we need to repent?

All men are responsible to walk in the light that God has given them (Eph 5:8). Unbelief is not a passive thing. If you go to hell it is based solely on your sins. As much as redemption is only on the price that He paid, damnation is only on your transgressions you made. The sinner does not go to hell because Christ did not die for them but because they are rebels against God (Rom 1:18-20). In the justice of the Lord it is fixed so that those who die in their sins, those who die in unbelief are without excuse. Don Fortner wrote, “If you go to hell, you will have to scratch and claw your way there. Fighting to your last breath against the light God has given you.” God has commanded all to repent and believe the gospel (Mark 1:15). And those He died for shall be made willing and will freely repent. Those who do not see the necessity of faith and repentance in the presence of election and grace know not yet the depths of their sin and true mercy. For when you are brought to a place by the grace of God where you loathe your self you willfully and helplessly cry for this mercy and repent. Stated in the scriptures and as a commandment it is a necessity but more than a need it becomes for the broken sinner, presented for the first time with a grace filled heart, a desire. Does this contribute to redemption; no. This is the result of His work in you. Does not repenting and believing contribute to someone fallen into eternal damnation; yes. This is the result of their works (Heb 12:14).

So what is it to repent? What are we commanded to do? Repentance is toward God (Acts 20:21). It is not merely knowing your nature or confessing that you sin against someone but it is being brought to the knowledge that you have spit in the face of the Lord and your nature is total rebellion against His authority. Your repentance is toward the one whom you have offended, it is toward the one that suffered for that sin and nature, it is seeing that each sin against His holy law was one more hammer of the nail that drove into His flesh of His hand. It is weeping that yours and your nature alone was the spear that pierced His side. Repentance is a life long journey that continues to bring us closer to Christ (Rom 7:15-25). Both repentance and faith are necessary and we will not have one without the other. Without repentance releasing the filthy rags it once clung to, faith would not have had empty hands to grasp His grace. Without repentance hating what it once loved, faith could not love what it once hated. Faith could never cry for mercy, if repentance didn’t cry unclean. Repentance is more than just confessing your sins it is a state of heart (I Thes 1:9). It is loathing your flesh and praising His righteousness. It is turning from your sins and turning to God. And so I pray by His grace I shall carry both faith and repentance with me all the way to the gates of Heaven. For each day by His grace as I grow repentance shows me the evil and sins I abhor more and more while faith shows me the light and promise He has provided that I love and rest in more and more.

(I John 1:9-10) “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.”

posted by Eric Wilson @ 4:24 PM