The Impenitent Sinner's Hope

Repentance is a prerequisite to salvation as well as its accompanying faith.  We must have a radical change of heart, will, and mind with fruits bearing witness to it--it must be proven by our lives in real-time or in our actions.  We don't just change our opinions but our wills are affected enough to renounce our sin.  But we must acknowledge our sin first as Job One.  We must also feel contrition or genuine remorse, not simple regret that we are sorry but not sorry enough to quit.   Once more, our repentance is progressive and we must always keep short accounts with God and not conceal or hide our sin from God (no repentance without confession, which we willingly confess in order to obtain mercy).

NB: Martin Luther's first thesis was that it's not a one-time event but an ongoing lifelong continuing resolution or process of renewal and recommitment.   Repentance is not fire-insurance or a security blanket, but a sign of regeneration.

There can be no genuine repentance without saving faith as the flip side--they go hand in hand and are distinguished but not separated (juxtaposed in Heb. 6:1; Acts 20:21).  That's why Reformed theologians refer to penitent faith or believing repentance as the instrumental means of salvation.  NB:  Repentance, like faith, is the result of the regenerative work of God and act of grace in our hearts.  Often we don't feel up to repentance, but we repent not when we feel like it, but so we will feel like it. 

Some people feel that they cannot repent and something is wrong with them.  But we can do nothing apart from God's grace ("Apart from me you can do nothing," --John 15:5).  The real reason they can not repent is they don't trust God, they are trying to please God in their own right. We must trust, not try!  But the bigger our God, the more we can trust!  Due to the juxtaposition of faith and repentance and the terms linked in Scripture, when we cannot repent it's probable that we lack faith, and if we lack faith, we probably are unrepentant.  We all experience both extremes of the spectrum at times and must learn by them.

Repentance is a mandate or imperative and must be evident in fruit to be genuine.  Bring forth fruits in keeping with repentance!  (cf. Luke 3:8).  When we show contrition, and this the sacrifice that pleases God, we are cleansed of all wrongdoing, our slate is cleaned, and God's memory bank about it deleted.  We shouldn't keep drudging up old sins because God says, "What sin?"  As far as the east is from the west (cf. Psalm 103:12), God just blots out our sin and forgets (cf. Isa. 43:25), and like a mist that is swept away (cf. Isa. 44:22); and our sins are cast into the depths of the sea (cf. Micah 7:19)--they couldn't be more neutralized than that!  Why do we get hang-ups about them or let them make us feel guilty then?

The motif of repentance is common in the Old and the New Testaments.  The thankless job of the prophets during the dark ages of Israel was to call them to repentance.  The New Testament opens with John the Baptist preaching a baptism of repentance, while Jesus opened His ministry preaching repentance and belief in the gospel.  Repentance is from the Greek metanoia or to change one's mind.  We must not only make an about-face, U-turn, 180-degree turnaround, New Year's resolution, or turn over a new leaf, but our hearts must be renewed in Christ's image and from the inside out.  Times of refreshing will come from the presence of the Lord (cf. Acts. 3:19).

The heart in tune with repentance echoes David's prayer of contrition in Psalm 51 after the prophet Nathan told him of his sin with Bathsheba.  Finally, repentance is by grace:  "... 'So then, even to Gentiles God has granted repentance that leads to life'" (Acts 11:18, NIV; cf. 5:31).  God commands repentance be preached (cf. Luke 24:47) and we must repent now (cf. Acts 17:30; 3:19; 2:38).

In sum, we are never good enough to be saved; however, we are all bad enough to need salvation.  And in order to realize how bad we are, we must try to be good, and we cannot be good without realizing how bad we are--the catch-22.  Actually, the closer we get to God, the more cognizance of our sin; like when Peter said, "Depart from me, O Lord, for I am a sinful man" (cf. Luke 5:8).   Soli Deo Gloria!