Repentance – How Can I Be Sure?

The words repent and repentance are Bible words, words hardly ever used outside of a religious context. In reading one’s New Testament, beginning with the gospel accounts, the first preaching that is recorded is that of John the Baptist preaching in the wilderness saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” (Matt. 3:2 NKJV) In Matt. 4:17 we see Jesus preaching the exact same message. The call to men from inspiration from the very beginning of the unfolding of the New Testament was a call to repentance. Jesus said it was a matter so important that it was repent or perish, an either or proposition. (Luke 13:3, 5)

Repentance is a command to all men everywhere in all time to come as long as the earth shall stand. Paul, in his speech in the midst of the Areopagus in Athens, made this statement:

“Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent, because He has appointed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by the man whom he has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising him from the dead.” (Acts 17:30-31 NKJV)

After his resurrection while meeting with his apostles Jesus said, “Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day, and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.” (Luke 24:46-47 NKJV) It was thus essential then and essential now that repentance be preached. We see the beginning of such preaching shortly thereafter.

In the very first gospel sermon ever preached, after Christ’s ascension back to heaven and the Holy Spirit’s descending upon the apostles on the Day of Pentecost in Acts 2, the conclusion of Peter’s inspired sermon was, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins.” (Acts 2:38 NKJV) Repentance was made essential to salvation (as was baptism unless you have a good set of scissors which many do).

Who must repent? Sinners. “For we have previously charged both Jews and Greeks that they are all under sin. As it is written: ‘There is none righteous, no, not one.” (Rom. 3:9-10 NKJV) “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (Rom. 3:23 NKJV)

Well, if I am commanded to repent on the penalty of repent or perish what is it I must do? What does it mean to repent? It is very common to find people who do not understand and who simply think to repent means to be sorry.

If sorrow was repentance then Judas, the betrayer of the Lord, was a saved man. The Bible says, “Then Judas, his betrayer, seeing that he had been condemned, was remorseful and brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders.” (Matt. 27:3 NKJV) His sorrow was so great he went out and hung himself.

All of that be as it may Jesus said of Judas, “The Son of Man goes as it is written of him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been good for that man if he had not been born.” (Matt. 26:24 NKJV) That could not have been said if Judas was to be saved.

Besides this statement we have Paul’s comment in 2 Cor. 7:10 that “the sorrow of the world produces death.” (NKJV) In view of the fact that we can know assuredly that the sorrow Judas had led to death (spiritual for he was not saved according to Jesus) we know his sorrow was of the world. A lesson we ought to learn from this fact is that a man or woman can be as sorry as sorry can be and yet not repent nor be pleasing to God.

Paul speaks of another kind of sorrow in the same passage in 2 Cor. 7, a sorrow that leads to repentance. He says, “Now I rejoice, not that you were made sorry, but that your sorrow led to repentance. For you were made sorry in a godly manner, that you might suffer loss from us in nothing.” (2 Cor. 7:9 NKJV) From this we learn not that there is a type of sorrow that leads to repentance.

In 2 Cor. 7:10 it is called “godly sorrow.” “For godly sorrow produces repentance to salvation, not to be regretted.” (NKJV) Peter is an example of godly sorrow. He denied Jesus 3 times when Jesus was in the custody of those who would be responsible for his death. Peter had deep regret and sorrow and went away and “wept bitterly.” (Matt. 26:75 NKJV)

What then is the difference in the 2 different types of sorrow, say the sorrow of a Judas versus the sorrow of a Peter? Namely this, godly sorrow leads one back to God. Judas fled from God. That was not something he had to do. Peter said on the Day of Pentecost to those assembled there that day, “God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.” (Acts 2:36 NKJV) See also Acts 2:23. They were guilty of crucifying the Lord as much as Judas was and yet we see later in that same chapter 3,000 of them repenting of that sin that very day, being baptized, and becoming Christians. Judas could have done that also but he chose another course. Peter, while he had denied the Lord after the Lord’s arrest, came back to the Lord.

There are a couple of lessons here for us. (1) Do not under estimate God’s love and willingness to forgive. Did Judas do that? (2) Do not destroy yourself by despair. I speak of destroying yourself spiritually as did Judas (although, admittedly, he destroyed himself physically as well). There are men and women who are sorry for the things they have done but will not turn to God for forgiveness thinking they have been too evil to be forgiven. They despair. This is a worldly sorrow. It shows a lack of faith in God’s love and willingness to forgive and thus a lack of faith in God and in his word.

Others are also sorry for their sins but it is because they have been caught in them and have suffered as a result (adulterers are a classic example). They are sorry for a reason but it is not a sorrow that has anything to do with God or God’s laws. This is another type of worldly sorrow.

Godly sorrow on the other hand leads one to throw himself upon God and his mercy and grace. Godly sorrow is not repentance but is the thing that leads to it. If you are being led to a thing you have not yet arrived although you will in due time.

Repentance is the actual surrendering of one’s will to God’s will. It is a determination to turn from sin to God, from unrighteousness to righteousness; it is a matter of the human mind and will. The idea is that I will cease being my own boss in life. Jesus will now be my Lord. His will will be my will. It is a determination to follow God. It is the determination to make Jesus my Lord and Savior with all that implies.

It is not yet reformation of life for reformation is the fruit of repentance. John the Baptist commanded “bear fruits worthy of repentance.” (Matt. 3:8 NKJV) Reformation is, to a degree, a measure of repentance. A man who truly repents reforms his life.

Let me clarify that last statement. There are sincere people who truly have repented who come to doubt their conversion at this very point. When we obey the gospel we have it in our minds that we are going to live an almost perfect life thereafter. We are committed as we ought to be. Unfortunately, we never live the perfect life. When we next sin we begin doubting our conversion. Did I really repent? If I did why did I commit this sin? Doubts arise about our conversion. We begin to wonder am I doomed to just live my life a hopeless sinner.

There is no such thing as living a sin free life after conversion unless of course you die almost immediately upon being converted. The apostle John in speaking to Christians says, “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:8-9 NKJV)

Repentance, unlike baptism, is not just a onetime act. While there is no true conversion without repentance we are unable to live sin free over any extended period of time. David Lipscomb once made the comment that he doubted that any man ever lived a single day without sin. Whether or not that is true I do not know but my suspicion is that if not true it is not far from it. There are sins of commission, sins of omission, sins of ignorance, sins of the mind, of heart, and attitude. We are what we are and none of us will live without any future sin after our conversion.

We must also bear in mind that if we could be perfect law keepers we could be saved by law, by works, and that is clearly not the case. All who are sincere in their Christian life will readily bear witness to the fact that despite their best efforts they fail in keeping the law of Christ from time to time. We can bear witness for we can name our sins. We know our failures.

The law of Moses was designed to bring the Jews to Christ by showing them this very thing; namely, you cannot keep God’s law perfectly and thus the road to salvation cannot be found in perfect obedience. (Gal. 3:24, Gal. 3:10) That was true under the law of Moses and under the laws of God under which we live today (the New Testament). The need for God’s grace is obvious.

The New Testament is full of admonitions to those who are already Christians but who are involved in sin to repent. Read 1 and 2 Corinthians. Even the apostle Peter needed to repent (read Gal. 2:11-13). In the books of 1 and 2 Corinthians Paul does not raise the question whether or not those brethren who were caught up in sin were genuinely converted. They were true Christians but they had nevertheless sinned after their conversion and needed to repent. Let me list a few examples.

There was the man who had his father’s wife in a sexually immoral relationship (1 Cor. 5:1); there were those he wrote of in 2 Cor. 12:21 who he feared might not have “repented of the uncleanness, fornication, and licentiousness which they have practiced.” (NKJV) They were also taking one another to courts of law (not an act of love). (1 Cor. 6:7)

We could also read about various churches in the book of Revelation chapters 2 and 3 who needed to repent in one way or another. We could talk about the Galatians.

But my point is this – if you were sincere in heart at that point in time that you obeyed the gospel with regards to your repentance and you then followed through and completed your obedience of faith as per Acts 2:38 being baptized for the remission of sins (Acts 2:38, Acts 22:16), baptized into Christ (Gal. 3:27, Rom. 6:3), then there is no cause down the road to look back and wonder if you ever were really converted, to doubt your conversion. Many have done that and we need more teaching about it so minds can be set at ease on the point.

You will never live perfectly. If you are a human being, and I think you are, you will sin again after your conversion (dare I say many times?). That does not mean you were never converted. It does mean you need to repent just as Peter needed to in Gal. 2. Having repented confess your sin and pray and ask for God’s forgiveness and for the forgiveness of any you may have personally sinned against. (1 John 1:9, James 5:16) God will forgive if we will repent and ask his forgiveness.