Repentance: Learning to Walk Outside of Sin

I nanny for a family with the cutest boy in the world. He is so cute, in fact, that this three-year-old boy can pretty much get away with anything as long as he smiles at me and says sorry in his sweet sing-songy voice. Although his parents told me to put him in a timeout when he was being naughty, I naively believed that if we just talked about his actions, he would realize his wrong doings, feel deep remorse, and behave for the rest of his life.

It wasn’t until his parents came home one day and he immediately proclaimed, “Hey! I was NOT nice today, and Lindsay didn’t put me in a timeout!!” that I realized he had been taking advantage of me. He knew what he was doing was wrong, but he also knew that I loved him and that there would be no serious consequence, so he continued to walk in disobedience.

Sometimes I think this is how we look at God’s grace. We continue to walk in sin, even knowing it is wrong, because we see no serious consequence. Or we justify our sin by banking on the fact that God will always love us and offer us forgiveness.

But did Jesus really die a brutal death so that we could live however we want and, like my cute three-year-old boy, take advantage of forgiveness?

In Matthew 5:29, Jesus says,

“If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lost one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell.”

This verse tells us that sin is serious. It is not something that can be downplayed because everyone does it or because it is “natural.” Sin is disobedience to God that requires death as it’s penalty (Romans 6:23). Sin has a serious consequence, and therefore, needs to be fought with serious intention.

We celebrate that Jesus has defeated sin by taking on death to offer eternal life, but we often forget that Jesus also commanded that we no longer walk in sin while on earth (Romans 6:10-12, 1 John 3:9).

So, how do we fight our flesh when we fall to sin? (Romans 7:23)

The first step is to change our mindset to believe what Jesus tells us in Matthew; that getting rid of sin in our lives should be a fight of high importance. That cutting off the source of our sin, even if it means giving up money, status, entertainment, consumption, or a relationship, is worth it.    

When we truly view sin with the seriousness attributed to it in this passage and believe that it leads us closer to death than life, we cannot be content in it. So, what do we do?

When Jesus started His ministry, the very first thing He said recorded in Mark 1:15 was, “the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”

Jesus tells us to repent from sin. But what does that even mean?

One time when I was little, I got into a big fight with my brother. He was mad because I traded his favorite, most powerful Pokémon card for a crappy one. In my defense, I thought it was a fair trade because the new card was cute and resembled a baby deer. After our fight, my mom made me apologize. I wasn’t apologizing because I realized what I had done, or was truly sorry for my actions, but simply because I knew it was what I was supposed to do. And it wasn’t long before we had the same fight again because I traded another card for one that looked like a Hawaiian hedgehog.

Unlike my apology to my brother, repentance is truly having remorse over your actions (2 Corinthians 7:10). Repentance is seeking forgiveness, not because it is what you are supposed to do, but because you agree with God that your actions are wrong. The goal of repentance is not to seek a pass so we can keep on sinning in comfort, but to turn away from sin entirely as we seek to walk justly with the Lord (Romans 2:4). And when we repent, God is faithful and just to forgive our sins (1 John 1:9).

J.D. Greer in his book, Stop Asking Jesus into Your Heart, says “Repentance is not merely changing your actions; it is changing your actions because you have changed your attitude about Jesus’ authority and glory” (56).

But what if even though you want to follow Jesus, you can’t seem to change your attitude about His authority? Or even though you want to walk in obedience, you feel as though you could never stop loving your sin?

Hear this good news: We don’t become obedient, seek repentance, or understand the depravity of our sin fully by our own efforts, but by God changing our hearts through His Spirit (Romans 8:13).

Ezekiel 36:25-27 says,

“I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you… And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.”

When God removes our worldly, sinful hearts, He replaces them with new ones led by His Spirit. Although the process may sometimes be slow, when you continue to seek Him, the Spirit will strip you of the desire for sin, lead you away from seeking idols that give you a false identity, and create a love and steadfastness for walking in obedience to Jesus (Romans 6:17).

How amazing is it that our God doesn’t command us to fight sin on our own, but actually works within us so we can know and follow Him more deeply? The Apostle Paul says it best: “…it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me…” (Galatians 2:20).

Don’t let His sacrifice go to waste: seek the Spirit and his strength to overcome the sin Jesus died to defeat.