Confusion about repentance

Jesus began His ministry by exhorting people to repent from sin towards God. This makes good sense when we remember that the mission of Jesus was to save us from our sins (Mt.1:21). This cannot begin unless we want to turn away from our sinful life to a life of obedience to God, which is the opposite of sin. But there is a lot of false emphasis these days about just believing, to the extent of eliminating repentance. If people think that salvation is only by believing and nothing else, they tend to conclude that repentance is like making ourselves right with God, doing something to qualify for receiving grace, replacing the idea of salvation by grace alone, etc. That is where the confusion is.

Salvation is by grace, unmerited favour, from God, which we cannot earn by anything we do. But how do we receive this free gift? By faith (Ep.2:8,9). The emphasis in this verse is that we cannot get salvation by anything that we do, about which we can boast. But if we don't understand salvation properly, we are in danger of treating faith as merely believing certain facts. They like to quote Ro.10:9, as if it is a standalone statement about salvation. It is not. Isn't it easy to say things with our mouth that we don't understand or mean, and isn't it easy just to believe that Jesus rose from the dead without understanding its significance for us personally?

The result of such thinking is that many people imagine that they are on the way to life without actually entering through a narrow gate and deciding to walk along the narrow path (Mt.7:13,14). See how strongly Jesus has warned about that! What is missing is repentance, the choice they have to make to give up sin and follow Jesus.

The whole point of salvation is to save us from our sins. How can we think of wanting to be saved unless we are are trembling under the conviction of the Holy Spirit telling us that we are sinners and that what we deserve is judgment (Ac.2:37)? But it is only when we are told that it was our sins that killed Jesus on the cross and that a holy and just God will be compelled to punish us unless we repent, that we repent. But what people hear mostly these days is that Jesus is waiting to bless us and help us with all our earthly problems, and that all we have to do is to 'accept' Him!

Repentance is simply to turn away from our old sinful life to the life of God that He offers us through Jesus. It is a decision, or a choice that we make when we hear about our sin and salvation that Jesus has come with. After that, our wanting to deny ourselves and to do God's will show that this repentance was real. It doesn't mean that we have to confess every single sin in our life, which is impossible because we can't remember them all, nor do we recognise all our sins as sins because of ignorance. Repentance does not also mean that we must have ceased from every sin we confess, which is, again, impossible. But it is a change of heart from sin to God.