Repentance

Date: August 3, 2025

Title: Living a Life of Repentance

Passage: Matthew 3:8

Repentance.

We tend to think of the Christian life as a life of faith… Which it is!

Just as it takes two legs to walk, so it takes faith and repentance to walk the Christian life.

These aren’t things to separate.

Faith and repentance are intertwined realities that work together.

That needs to be underscored, especially in our present evangelical culture, where it seems like people are almost alergic to the word repentance.

But it’s a good word—biblical word that needs to be understood.

Read Matthew 3:1-10

INTRODUCTION

In the very familiar account before us, we see that the call to repent was one of the chief aspects of John’s preaching. John the Baptist preached a message of repentance. That’s what he was sent to do: as the very one who was entrusted with the privilege and responsibility to prepare people for the coming of the Messiah, he made it abundantly clear that the only way by which people’s hearts would be prepared to receive Him was through repentance.

This, as we know, didn’t sit too well with the religious leaders of Israel. They didn’t want to repent because they didn’t see a need to repent.

The Pharisees and Sadducees believed they were already doing just fine, particularly because of how devoted they were: they were committed to living a pure life; they spent a lot of time studying so that they knew what to believe; they went out of their way to be extra careful in their observance of the Law; they had much to show for.

But despite that being the case, the reality is, what most of these religious leaders had to show for was nothing but outward religious garb that was devoid of any real transformation of heart, which is precisely why they, too, needed to repent.

And this is important for us to take heed to as we think about what it means to repent, because if we confuse the fruit of repentance with repentance itself, then we will end up walking down the same road of moralism that the Pharisees and Sadducees walked.

That is, we’ll end up pursuing righteousness in a way that leads to hell. We’ll aim to better ourselves—maybe even pull ourselves together in a way that exhibits tremendous religious ferver and self-discipline; but the truth is, regardless of how strong and resilient we are in our efforts to chase down a life of holiness, if we go about it in a way that never really addresses the underlying issues of the heart, then we will be left extremely disappointed, and whether we say out loud or not, we will showcase an attitude that says, ‘Christ must decrease and I must increase.’

This is the kind of mindset we need to steer away from.

We need to recognize that self-sufficiency plays right into the hand of the flesh. It may have the appearance of good fruit, but if the root is bad, then there’s no way around it: the apple on that tree is going to be infested with worms.

So, we want to make sure we’re getting to the root of the issue, otherwise we’re never going to fulfill the call to bear fruit in keeping with repentance, for the specific reason that bearing fruit in keeping with repentance is fruit that flows out of repentance.

That’s what we want: not fruit separated from repentance, but fruit that is in keeping with repentance. In other words, fruit that bears witness to the fact that we have repented.

Now, as we think further about how repentance is to shape our lives as Christians, and how we can become more of a repentant people, we first need to know what repentance is, so let’s give this some thought. What is repentance?

Well, the Greek for repentance is metanoia which essentially means to change one’s mind; it’s coming to grips with the reality of who you are in light of who God is, which has the effect of utterly transforming your perspective.

Now, that’s not to say that repentance only takes place on an intellectual level.

The late great R.C Sproul rightfully said that repentance, “carries with it not only an intellectual assessment but also an emotional or visceral response. The feeling most often associated with repentance in Scripture is that of remorse, regret, and a sense of sorrow for having acted in a particular way. Thus, repentance involves sorrow for a previous form of behavior.”

This is a good working definition. Repentance is whenever we change our mind with respect to our sinful behavior such that it moves our heart to turn to God as our only source of hope: that’s what repentance is—it is reflected in someone who turns away from sin by turning to God for mercy.

And special emphasis needs to be placed upon that latter statement: repentance is returning to God. Now, you might think, ‘well of course it is—what else or who else would we turn to?’ But the truth is, what God says through the prophet, Jeremiah, sheds some needed light on this point:

Jer 4:1, “If you return, O Israel, declares the LORD, to me you should return.”

When you hear that, it almost sounds redundant, because if Israel—the people of God, are being admonished to return, do they really need to be told to return to God? Shouldn’t that be obvious? Well, we might think so, but the reality is, people who are looking to deal with their sin and get rid of their sin, don’t always return to the one to whom they should turn.

Instead of returning to God, they turn to all kinds of other things: it might be religious duties; going back to church; reading their Bibles again, praying some scripted prayers, performing a few extra acts of penance; they might even go so far as trying to live a monastical way of life to really show they’re doing their best to make up for their past mistakes. But all of this is a very sad recourse because, in effect, it is turning the grace of repentance into a work by treating it as something you have to do in order to re-earn God’s favor.

But this kind of repentance is the kind that needs to be repented of, because it’s not true repentance.

Repentance is not trying to be a better you. It’s not becoming a little more religious today than you were yesterday. It’s not turning over a new leaf. It’s not even turning from sin to righteousness. Repentance does not have anything to do with you, doing all you can to morally renovate your life.

Repentance is returning to God. It’s saying, God, “against you, and you only, have I sinned.” There’s no rationalizing it. There’s no justifying it. You’re not saying, ‘God, I know what I did was wrong, but it wasn’t really my fault because the woman you gave me — or the man you gave me — or my mean neighbor you placed right next to me…’ Fill in the blank… We’re not saying any of that. We’re recognizing the sin for what it is and we’re coming to God as the only one who can heal us and help us.

Unfortunately, however, that’s not the way people always go about making things right with God. Rather than returning to the Lord in their grief and brokenness, they try to fix it themselves by taking things into their own hands.

It’s a way silencing their conscience that in the end, always leads to death. It’s a counterfeit repentance that may bear some of the external marks of repentance, but it’s not the real thing. 2 Cor 7:9-10.

Corinthian church had some things they needed to repent of.

If our repentance has no higher motive than to save our own skin, then it’s not true repentance.

2 Cor 7:9-10, “As it is, I rejoice, not because you were grieved, but because you were grieved into repenting. For you felt a godly grief, so that you suffered no loss through us. For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death.”

There is a kind of regret, a kind of grief even, that Paul’s not that impressed by. He doesn’t just want to see people say the right things and exhibit the right ethos; he wants to see them grieved into repenting—that’s what he rejoices over—that’s what delights his soul. Whenever someone humbles themself before the Lord and turns to Him in their brokennes, it’s like there is a flood of joy that overwhelms Paul’s heart, specifically because he knows it’s going to result in their saving.

But that’s only true of godly grief: Paul clearly distinguishes between worldly grief and godly grief. Worldly grief, as we’ve seen, may indeed have some of the outward features of repentance. In other words, it may be reflected in someone who feels bad about their sin, and even mourns over their sin, but because such grief isn’t God-oriented, that is, because it doesn’t move them to turn to God, it is a kind of grief and sorrow that can never produce true repentance, leading to salvation.

We know people like this. We’ve seen it personally, and we’ve seen it in our study of scripture.

Judas for example was someone who brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests, even after having just received that money when he betrayed Christ. Judas was temporarily sorrowful, but it was a sorrow leading to death.

Or what about Saul? Think of Saul, and place him next to David.

Both Saul and David, these two men whom God had called to rule Israel were guilty of some pretty serious sins. Saul was a self-ruly kind of person who rejected the Lord’s counsel, and when you read through the book of 1 Samuel, it’s almost like there’s this question mark over Saul, isn’t there?

Because at times, like when Samuel confronted him over his sin, or when he was rejected by God and had to give up the throne, there were a couple of instances where we see real manifestations of remorse and regret in his life which kind of gives you a ray of hope, but then when you honestly examine the totality of his reign from beginning to end, after all was said and done, there’s a lot of red flags there hanging over his head that still makes you wonder: was Saul a true believer? The fact that you have to ask that question shows that Saul never vindicated himself.

But that’s not true of David, is it? With David, there isn’t this question mark over his life. Now I suppose it’s true that we have the benefit of looking back at what happened.

Surely it would have been more difficult for the people of his day to know exactly what was going on in his heart when they were living through that period of his life when he was backsliding. They probably thought to themselves, ‘Oh no… is David going to be another Saul? Is he going to flatline? How’s this going to end up? Will he prove himself true and faithful, or will he prove himself to be what most people end up becoming when they get into power?

Well, how happy of a day it would have been when David came to his senses. There was a brokenness there, and not just any brokenness but a godly brokenness that moved him to turn to God His Savior, in true repentance.

It’s amazing to think about how, even though David was guilty of adultery, murder, deceit, and hypocrisy, we never question his salvation to this day: why? It’s because David’s character was vindicated through the transformation God had brought about in his life, after he cried out to God to thoroughly cleanse him of his sin.

1 “Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. 2  Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin! 3  For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. 4  Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment.”

That’s the confession of a repentant heart!! which demonstrates that in the end David was totally unlike Saul. Saul experienced a worldly grief, resulting in death; but David—a godly grief, resulting in the restoration of his soul.

That’s why we need to repent of our sins, too. Without repentance, there is no restoration. We cannot experience the nearness of God in our lives apart from living a life of repentance. So, it’s not just a one time thing. Repentance isn’t just a one-time thing that jump-starts the Christian life and that’s it; it’s an aspect of the Christian life that is to be continuously progressing.

There ought to be an ongoing, frequent, daily, coming before the Lord to confess your sins, and your absolute need for Him to forgive you of all your debts.

This is something we need to do, not only with respect to those bigger and more noticeable sins—there are those kinds of sins that we all instinctively know is wrong and must be repented of.

But there are more subtle forms of disobedience: respectable sins you might say, that can easily pass under the radar. Think about unbelief, failing to love God as we ought, evil thoughts, anxiousness, being slow to hear and quick to speak, lack of concern for the lost, not treasuring the gospel, jealosy, fear of man, selfish ambitions, discontentment. All of these things are sins that need to be repented of.

John said to bear fruit in keeping with repentance.

There is this correlation between good fruit and repentance.

You cannot be producing one without the other.

If you’re not repeatedly coming back to the Lord, again, and again, and again, to plead with Him to purge all the carnal desires out of your heart—to be ridding you of all manner of uncleanness—to be purifying you of all the remaining corruption that dwells within you, than the fruit you bear will not be very good. There will be something unsavory about it; something distasteful about it.

Of course none of this is to encourage anyone to go out and sin so that you have something to repent of. Trust we when I say, we already have more than enough sin to repent of… and part of the process of growing as a Christian is in actually becoming more conscious, aware, and alert to sin, because insofar as we are growing into the likeness of Christ, we are simultaneously growing in our ability to identify sin where it exists.

The closer you get to Christ, the more the scales come off your eyes.

You have greater perception.

Your love for Christ, your obedience to Christ, and your joy in Christ, grows; but your recognition of sin and hatred for your own sin, grows with it.

The great preacher, Charles Simeon (Not Spurgeon), said, “One of the most fundamental marks of true repentance is a disposition to see our sins as God sees them.”

This is a great point: one of the necessary ingredients of repentance is to see sin as God sees it—to view it through His lens.

When all of these things are bourne in mind, it reminds us that growing in grace isn’t about reaching a place in our lives where we no longer need to repent. It’s not like we can graduate from this thing so that we no longer need to repent.

The truth is, growing closer to Christ results in repenting more, not less. Now, that doesn’t mean we’re becoming more sinful—that’s not the case at all! but what it does mean is that our repentance is going deeper.

You see, over the course of the Christian life, though our repentance will never be perfect, the degree to which we repent should be increasingly penetrating new depths so that it’s moving from 4 ft deep, to 6 ft deep, to 7 ft deep, to 18 ft deep, to 50 ft deep.

It’s like the more we walk with the Lord, the more we learn to maintain a posture of repentance, not in the sense that you live in a constant state of sorrow and misery, because we have learned to rest in Christ and rejoice in His finished work on the cross, but nevertheless there still is this rising longing in our hearts to be rid of all sin!

We mourn the fact that our hearts are so often divided.

We want to be all that we can be for the Lord, but because there is this evil principle at work within us, hindering us from doing the very things want, we just cry out to God, saying, ‘Lord, forgive me for being such a divided man. At times, I don’t even understand my own actions and emotions, but I know it’s all worthy of death, so Lord, would you have mercy on me and please change me from the inside out’

What are we doing when we say that? We’re repenting.

We’re taking sin seriously. We’re bringing it to the Lord, and laying it all before Him because we know that only God has the power to transform our hearts, and to make room for us to experience the sweetness of His presence again.

CONCLUSION

I hope you can see how important it is to live a life of repentance, and to bear fruit in keeping with repentance.

Jesus said, “Unless you repent, you will perish.” There is no such thing as an unrepentant Christian.

Christians are people who repent: not perfectly, but truly. We feel the sting of sin. We feel sorry for the wrongs we commit. We are broken over our lack of conformity to Christ. We feel compelled to make things right when we offend a brother or violate our conscience. We experience grief when we grieve the Holy Spirit of God. There is this healthy life-giving sorrow in the heart of every follower of Christ.

Now, don’t misunderstand me: I’m not saying that repentance is a mere flutter of the heart, where we feel a certain way—perhaps even sorry for ourselves, or sorry for others. That’s not quite what it is.

We wouldn’t want to say that growing in repentance is just a matter of mourning over your sin for a little longer and a little louder today than you did yesterday.

Now, maybe that’s actually what some of you do need to do: I’m sure we could all use a few more tears in our life, including myself! Sin is an affront to God, and that ought to break us.

But we don’t want to mistake feelings of sorrow with repentance itself, because that’s only part of it.

Repentance, fundamentally, is a return to God—it’s turning to the only God and Savior to mold you into the image of Christ. It’s turning away from sin and turning unto God in faith, which is something that will most certainly be accompanied to varying degrees, by feelings of sorrow, a desire to forsake sin, renounce sin, and to have one’s ways mended.

Knowing this to the case, Christian, when was the last time you repented? When was the last time you returned to your Creator and Redeemer with a truly repentant heart? Where you said, ‘Lord, I am sorry for what I did; it was wrong, and I’m asking you to forgive me.’

If you come before the Lord with that kind of attitude, you have every reason to believe that He’s going to receive you.

Brethren, never fear coming before your loving heavenly Father in repentance, because the amazing thing about the character of our God is that He will always show Himself faithful to restore, confirm, and strengthen all those who come to Him as they are, no matter how great the need.

If you’re not a Christian here today, the same holds true for you, too! Providing you recognize your need for a Savior, God will save you too, but you need to repent.

Now, I know there are some confused Christians out there today who want to say that repentance is only for believers, not unbelievers… but don’t listen to any of that because that’s a bunch of baloney: before Jesus ascended into heaven, (Lk. 24:47) He told His disciples “that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.”

Which means, you, unbeliever, need to repent. God will forgive you of all your sins—every last one of them will be completely washed away, but He’s only going to forgive you if you turn to Him in repentance. This is a responsibility of yours. God calls all people everywhere to repent, for he has fixed a day on which He is going to judge the world in righteousness. So repent. God is not willing that you should perish, but you must repent! So turn to Him today and be saved.

Prayer.