As we contemplate the Season of Lent and its focus on examining ourselves and, if there is anything that needs change in our lives, repenting of it, I have to admit that repentance was a concept I didn’t understand in my early years as a Christian. But once I understood that repentance was different from confession, then I saw its value.
To “repent” is to turn 180 degrees away from the path you are on and to go a different route, even going back and starting all over again. To “confess” means to admit a sin. To “repent” means to stop doing that thing you have confessed. It reminds me of the story of a boy who did a wrong thing and after confessing it to his father hearing his dad say to him, “Ok. You’ve confessed. Good for you. Now, stop doing it!” That’s repentance.
Jesus began his ministry by saying, “The time has come. The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!” (Mark 1:15) So, repentance is
an essential starting point of the Christian journey. As Pastor Jim Butcher said, “We begin our walk with God by admitting that we need Jesus’ sacrifice and expressing our sorrow for the sin in our life. If we’ve had a genuine moment of repentance, we should necessarily see the fruits of repentance in our lives.”
Butcher also has listed four fruits of repentance, the first one being humility.
We cannot earn our way into heaven, acknowledging our sin and questionable motives, speaking out our need for Jesus’ blood, asking for God to forgive us – there is a humility that comes into our hearts that cannot come in any other way. We are sinners and yet God has forgiven us anyway – that is a humbling place to be, because you have received what you did not deserve.
A second fruit of repentance, according to Butcher, is urgency.
When we come to a point of repentance, we realize our sins are not excusable. We recognize that, though we might be able to argue that our individual sins are small, the accumulated weight of even small sins puts us in a most dangerous situation. We assess the truth of the situation and figure out: I’m in much worse shape than I thought I was. With repentance comes the awareness of the seriousness of our sins and the desire that flows from that: to get this horrible problem taken care of right now.
A third fruit of repentance, writes Jim Butcher, is change. The church in North America has for too long presumed that you can be a “Christian” even with absolutely no evidence of that in your life. George Barna did a survey of 152 separate items comparing the lost world and the churches, and he said there is virtually no difference between the two.” That is a serious accusation. The Bible knows nothing of a faith that does not lead to a changed life. Jesus was very straightforward: “If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. . .. He who does not love me will not obey my teaching” (John 14:23-24). An essential part of genuine repentance is that it leads to a changed life.
A fourth fruit of repentance, claims Butcher, is dependence. We serve a mighty Lord who is able to provide all the resources we need for victory in our journey. The key is that we must recognize our need to depend on Him and trust in His strength. Too many of us are trying to experience “Victory in Jesus” via our own power, smarts, and insight. We will inevitably fail. Those who have started at the point of repentance will remember their failure and turn to the One who is able to bring them through.
So, during this Season of Lent, let’s reflect on our lives and see if the four fruits of repentance outlined here are in evidence in our lives.
