WHAT IS REPENTANCE?

Introduction: Have you ever had the experience of driving in a strange city and suddenly realizing you were going the wrong way on a one-way street? 

What you do next is very much like the biblical idea of repentance. You make a U-turn and change your direction as fast as you can.

So, today we want to look at “REPENTANCE TOWARDS GOD!” “Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord” (Acts 3:19).

What will happen if you refuse to repent?  Jesus said, “I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish” (Lk. 13:5).

What is repentance? It is very important that we understand what repentance is. Repentance is not an emotion. It is a decision. It does not spring from your emotions. It springs from your will. 

If you can reach person’s will, and change his will, we shall see a permanent conversion. So many conversions we see in the church today are not permanent because the will of the person concerned has not been reached and changed. 

Such people just had an emotional experience, may be they got excited and felt wonderful for a few weeks, months or even years, but in the end they backslide because their will was never touched.

What then is repentance? Repentance is literally a change of mind, a change of one’s attitude towards God. 

“But Daniel purposed (determined) in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king's meat, nor with the wine which he drank: therefore he requested of the prince of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself” (Dan. 1:8).

Repentance is being sorry for your sins and being committed to a new way of life serving God.

In Matthew 3:1-3 Jesus said, “Turn from your sins and turn to God.”

Repentance is changing your mind about how you have been living. You have been living according to your own desires, and not according to the will of God. But now you say, “From now on I am going to live to please Jesus, my Saviour.” It is a decision which you must make after hearing the undiluted Word of God.

You can never repent without hearing the raw Word of God. This is because it is only the Word of God that can reach your spirit man and challenge your will.

“Now when they heard this (the Word of God), they were pricked in their heart (spirit man), and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do? 38 Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost” (Acts 2:37-38).

In 2 Chronicles 7:14 God said, “If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.”

Only the word of God can reach your spirit man. 

“For the Word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart” (Heb. 4:12).

The Word of God is the sword of the Spirit. “…and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God” (Eph. 6:17).

Repentance has nothing to do with how you feel. You can repent without any obvious emotions, (goose pimples). 

This is true: You cannot repent without a change of your will. “The time is fulfilled, and the Kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel” (Mk. 1:15).

Do you know that about 50% of the problems of professing Christians today is because they have never really repented (they have never changed their mind)?

They have never made a decision. They have never really surrendered to the Lord Jesus. So we have many double minded people in the church. 

Such people are coming to church but they have never made up their minds to forsake their sins and follow Christ.

And the Bible declares, “A double minded person is unstable in all his ways” (Jam. 1:8). 

He does not have a solid foundation. His foundation is faulty. Therefore, he cannot stand as a Christian. If you are a double minded person, you are unstable in all your ways, and you have a split personality. That is to say that you cannot be trusted. You are out of the corridors of integrity.

Right now I request that you ask yourself a question: “Have I ever truly repented or am I still double minded?”

On Sunday, am I a Mr. please Jesus, but on Monday, I am a Mr. please myself? 

My sincere prayer is that you hearken to the voice of the Lord while it is still day, for the night is fast approaching when no man can work.

• Your friend, I. I. Madubunyi (Senior Pastor, HOG).