Why repentance?

In our prayer gathering last Wednesday evening, it was noted that one besetting sin of the modern church is acknowledging our sin but not truly repenting of it.  

According to the Lexham Survey of Theology, repentance is "the act whereby one turns from his or her sin, idolatry, and creaturely rebellion and turns to God in faith."  While the NT teaches that repentance is of particular importance at conversion (Acts 2:38; 3:19; 17:30), it is also intended to be a practice continued throughout the Christian life.  Martin Luther included in his Ninety-Five Theses, “When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said, ‘Repent,’ he willed the entire life of believers to be one of repentance.”  This seems clear in that even though we have been justified, we still wrestle with the desires of the flesh and struggle to walk in the Spirit (Rom 8:13; Gal 5:16-26).

But, why?  Why is repentance a pre-requisite for justification?  And why upon our conversion doesn’t the Lord just allow us to continue in sin?  Why does He call us to repent as a way of life as believers?  Why repentance?

There are a number of answers, but I’d like to focus on two in this article:

First, God is holy.  Because of our recent study in Leviticus, I won’t belabor this point.  God is holy and His holiness places a standard upon His people.  “You shall be holy, for I the LORD your God am holy” (Lev 19:2).  One cannot embrace the holy God while simultaneously embracing unholy things.  A choice must be made.  It’s that simple.  Indeed, Paul characterizes "learning Christ" as putting off the old, corrupted self and putting on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness (Eph 4:20-24).  This is why Christ’s forerunner came with a message of repentance (Matt 3:1-3) before Jesus’ own gospel began with the same call to repentance (Matt 4:17).  

Second, God is kind.  A wonderful text for demonstrating this is Jeremiah 7.  Jeremiah writes to Judah, who in the aftermath of Israel’s exile stubbornly follows in the footsteps of her faithless sister.  I won’t reproduce the entire chapter here, but three themes come to the fore:

1. Sin is harmful to the sinner.  Verse 6 notes that among Judah’s offenses is going after other gods “to your own harm.”  In other words, sin is its own punishment.  Jeremiah shows this early in the book, saying, “Your evil will chastise you, and your apostasy will reprove you” (2:19).  Similarly, later in chapter 7, God says, “Is it I whom they provoke? declares the Lord. Is it not themselves, to their own shame?” (7:19).  Sin shames the sinner.  By calling for repentance, God in His kindness would relieve the sinner of the harmfulness of sin.

2. Sin moves the sinner to trust in deceitful ritual rather than the Lord.  Guess where the Lord tells Jeremiah to station himself in order to deliver his call to repentance?  Outside the false temples?  Outside the houses of ill repute?  No, rather outside the temple of Yahweh!




The people were entering the temple of the LORD to “worship,” that is, offer outward sacrifices disconnected from any true faith in Him.  Therefore, Jeremiah was instructed to go there to tell them, “Do not trust in deceptive words: ‘This is the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD.”  That is, don’t think that your formal worship will be accepted when your informal worship is false.  




As Isaiah would say, “this people draw near with their mouth and honor me with their lips, while their hearts are far from me” (Isa 29:13).  This is what sin does.  It moves the sinner to trust in empty ritual, rather than engage in worship as an emblem of inner devotion and faith.  By this, it deceives the sinner into thinking he is spiritually safe (7:10).  God is too kind to leave us in this state of deception and danger. 

3. Without repentance, the sinner will continue in sin to his own harm.  According to vv9-10, these thieves, murderers, adulterers, liars, and idolaters would come to offer ritual sacrifices at the temple only to continue in their sin.  The pattern was: sin…empty formal worship…sin…empty formal worship…sin…  And with each cycle, the harm of sin deepens.  Only repentance—turning from the sin—breaks that cycle so that worship becomes indicative of hearts wholly His.  

God is kind.  He wants what is good for His people.  That is why He calls for repentance.  And that is why in Jeremiah 7, He forecasts the removal of the people’s ability to continue in empty worship (Jer 7:13-15).  

To what end?  “It may be that the house of Judah will hear all the disaster that I intend to do to them, so that every one may turn from his evil way, and that I may forgive their iniquity and their sin” (Jer 36:3).  That is, He puts them in a position to feel the weight of their sin so that they will repent and be forgiven.  Indeed, Paul notes this very thing.  In a section of Romans exposing the righteous wrath of God, he asks, "Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?" (Rom 2:4).  

God calls us out of our sin because He is holy and kind.    Sin is unbecoming of one called by His name, and it is harmful to one called by His name.  Therefore, we could say that God calls for repentance for His glory and our good.  

With what habitual sin are you struggling—or failing to struggle?  Consider that sin in light of the above.  Consider God’s holiness and how His character makes that sin incompatible with discipleship.  Consider also the harmfulness of that sin and how kind it is of God to call you out of it. 

Let us consider these things…and repent.