The Forgotten Word - Final Part

Ok, this Sunday we finished this lesson on/about repentance. Interesting that this lesson was done several years ago and was finished in one Sunday. Sometimes God doesn’t lead me to a lesson concept and when this occurs I go back to my archives and look over lessons to see if the Spirit leads me toward one. It is now obvious that this one turned out to be the right one. Each part generated much discussion, quite candid discussion, honest discussion.

More On The Meaning of Repentance
Repentance is not…
1. Just Being Sorry or Feeling Guilty
This situation with Judas is interesting. Matthew wrote, “When Judas, realized that Jesus had been condemned to die, he was filled with remorse.” (Matthew 27:3b) Judas tried to give back the money he was paid for betraying Jesus and even said, “I have sinned,” (Matthew 27:4a) Now, many times this type of feeling of remorse can lead to true repentance, but for Judas it remained just a feeling of guilt and sorrow over wrongdoings. If Judas had been truly repentant he would have gone back to Jesus and would have asked forgiveness rather than committing suicide. He was sorry, but not sincerely repentant. Sorrow can be good but it is not the same as repentance.

There are people filled with guilt and sorrow, but then when they learn that some sort of change is expected in response, they don’t like it too much. Of course they may have been sincere in their sorrow, but there was absolutely no repentance. Often times they are not repentant and sorry that they did what they did, but they are sorry that they got caught. Now sometimes it does take our sin being exposed before we come to conviction over sin, but that doesn’t equal repentance.

2. Done to Escape Consequences
Sometimes we show remorse and offer change because we feel we have no other choice. Repentance is a choice we make, but we do it because we want to get right with God not because we don’t want to be in trouble or face consequences. Many times people say they are repentant over their sin because they hope that simply saying they are sorry will remove the earthly consequences for their sin, but that is not real repentance.

3. Admitting You Are Wrong
From time to time all of us have been known to be wrong on something. Often times that wrongdoing requires repentance. But admitting wrong, though noble, is not the same as repenting of the wrong. Just because you admit it does not mean any repentance took place. A “good old boy” (or girl) may say, “I said I was wrong, what more do you want?” Well…the answer is we want a sincere repentance.

B. Repentance is…
As mentioned earlier in the lesson, is a change of the mind, a change of the heart, and a change of the will that leads to a change in action.

1. A Change of the Mind
Repentance begins with a change of your mind or how you think. Along with repentance, your mind should change about God, who He is and what place He will have in your life. It should change how you view other people. It should change how we regard sin. Repentance should bring about a change to where you do not want to live a lifestyle of sin because you see the consequences of sin and no longer want to displease God.

2. A Change of the Will or what you “want” to do
Repentance should also involve a change of the will. What you want to do should change with real repentance. No longer do you want to please your sinful desires, but instead you want to submit to God’s will.

3. A Change of the Actions
The most important aspect of repentance for us to grasp is that true repentance involves a life change or a change of lifestyle. Remember the story of the “prodigal son” from last week’s lesson?

Throughout the Scriptures we read of people’s sins and mistakes, but along with that we also see many instances of a true and sincere repentance.

There is a VERY positive effect of sincere repentance of sin. There is joy in knowing our sins have been forgiven. “Oh, what joy for those whose disobedience is forgiven, whose sin is put out of sight!”(Psalm 32:1) “... if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness”. (1 John 1:9) And I really like this scripture, “He has removed our sins as far from us as the east is from the west.” (Psalm 103:12). And this is really big since this was written by David who had broken just about all of God’s commandments. Just a note here to mention that David still had to suffer some serious earthly consequences of his sins!

We need to understand that we, on our own, are not capable of the kind of repentance discussed in this lesson. Only the Holy Spirit can reveal to us how to achieve this! But when we allow the Spirit to lead us to repentance, He will begin to produce in us a new understanding of the glory of Christ. And he'll make it known to everyone around us!


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