The Gift of Repentance
When we speak about our walk with God, it seems that repentance is one of the hardest aspects of faith. If you think about the themes that are written about in modern worship songs and popular sermon topics, rarely is the topic of repentance spoken of. When I looked up the top ten Christian worship songs, these titles came up, - “That’s who I praise” “Angels” “Worship through it”, “Gratitude”, “I thank God” were in the top list. While it is great to talk about God’s goodness and to praise Him, there was no mention of repentance. Why is that?
I can personally attest to the fact that repenting for sin doesn’t come naturally. When I do my devotions, I follow the acronym, PRAISE: praise, repentance, ask, intercession, silence (listening to God speak to me), and expectation. For about 90 percent of my time of devotion, I devote to praise. When I go through the day and think about how God has been good to me, I have a lot of things to praise God about. It feels good and natural to do this.
But when I get to “R” for repentance, it always stumps me. I really have to contemplate what I need to repent about. For some reason, it doesn’t feel pleasant to dwell on repentance compared to being thankful. Why is it that repenting seems more unnatural than praising God?
I was thinking about this especially as we prepare for ECKCM 2025 where our theme will be on chapter 3 and 4 of Steps to Christ, “repentance” and “confession.” The theme is “hearts made pure” with 1 John 1:9 as our theme verse. “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
As Seventh-day Adventists, we are so blessed to have the book, Steps to Christ, by Ellen G White to give us such a Spirit filled explanation of what repentance is. Whenever I read it, I am so amazed at how complex topics are explained in simple but wise words. Each sentence is so full of clarity and understanding.
I am really inspired by the following aspects of the chapter. True repentance is the response of the sinner to God’s calling. “It is the virtue of Christ that goes forth from Christ, that leads to genuine repentance.” “We can no more repent without the Spirit of Christ to awaken the conscience than we can be pardoned without Christ.” p. 26 Many of us feel like we need to straighten our lives before we can come to God, and maybe this is one of the reasons why it feels hard to repent. Because it seems so daunting to get our acts together. Any sign of wanting to repent is coming from God, and not us trying to do something ourselves. “Christ is the source of every right impulse. He is the only one that can implant in the heart enmity against sin. Every desire for truth and purity, every conviction of our own sinfulness, is evidence that His Spirit is moving upon our hearts.” p. 27
Christ is constantly planting a desire for something better, an intangible longing that can only be satisfied in God. How good is He to do this when we constantly rebuff Him and reject His love. “Through influences seen and unseen, our Saviour is constantly at work to attract the minds of men from the unsatisfying pleasures of sin to the infinite blessings that may be theirs in Him.” p. 28
Another fallacy of people’s thoughts about repentance is that we can choose when to do it. That is, that we will live a life of sin and at some point at the end of our lives, we will decide to come to God. Like the thief on the cross, repenting at the last moment of your life will give you the double benefit of a life of freedom from obedience to God and also attain eternal life. “The experience, the education of a lifetime, has so thoroughly molded the character that few then desire to receive the image of Jesus”. p. 34 You may think that you will get the best of both worlds if you repent at the last minute, but you don’t realize that you’ll be a different person when you reject the Spirit’s calling.
Like David, we need to cry out to God, to “create in me a clean heart and renew a right spirit within me.” Psalm 51:10 For my own self, I pray this prayer, that God will melt my heart of stone and restore it to a heart of flesh. That I would feel the urgency to answer the call of God. “Be as earnest, as persistent, as you would be if your mortal life were at stake.” p. 35
Repentance is a gift from God. I pray that you and I won’t shun this precious gift and open our hearts to Him. Please read Steps to Christ if you haven’t done so or reread it. It will refresh your faith and you will be blessed.