This Is Repentance Toward God

The Holy Bible has a lot to say about repentance, but most Christians ignore it, and almost none understand it!

At the very beginning of His ministry, Jesus said, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel” (Mark 1:15). At the very beginning of the Christian Church, the Apostle Peter preached a sermon, inspired by the Holy Spirit. When those who heard him were convicted by his message and asked him what to do, he said, “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 [Spirit]” (Acts 2:38; see also Acts 3:19; 5:31).

Repentance is at the heart of the plan of God!

For a true Christian, true repentance is a daily part of living. It is sobering, convicting, moving, motivating and inspiring. It comes from God, and it revolutionizes your life!

God and the Word have lived for eternity in perfection and love. This way of life they have conveyed to man through the law of God in the Word of God, the Holy Bible. But man has chosen to determine “the knowledge of good and evil” for himself—living the way of sin.

God’s law is “holy, and just, and good.” Sin is the transgression of God’s law; all of us have sinned, and the wages of sin is death! (Romans 7:12; 1 John 3:4; Romans 3:23; 6:23).

Repentance means turning away from sin, from our own definition of good and evil, from our own way of life, and turning to God’s law, God’s definition of good and evil, God’s way of life—the way of love.

It’s something you must do every day, with God’s active help. The goodness of God leads us to repentance (Romans 2:4).

Did Jesus come to do away with the holy, just and good law that shows us God’s very way of life? He refuted this idea, saying, “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil” (Matthew 5:17).

These are not the teachings of Christian churches today, but they are the teachings of Jesus Christ!

Only the Holy Bible defines sin and repentance of sin! And we need that definition to live a life of repentance and obedience, every day. The Holy Bible is the Word of God: It is Jesus Christ, the Word, in print.

But if God’s law is holy, just and good, does that mean that Christians are justified and saved from eternal death by keeping the law? Some few—very few—Christians have thought that they can be saved by their good deeds. But as Herbert W. Armstrong wrote in The Plain Truth About Healing, “The purpose of the law is not to forgive, to justify, to wash away, to cleanse. Only the blood of Christ can do that! The purpose of the law is to tell us what sin is ….”

Here is the biblical principle of repentance: God’s law is holy, just and good because it is His way of life—the way of love. He reveals it to us so it can serve as a mirror that reflects to us the dirt on our faces, the sin, so we can stop sinning (James 1:23-25). Yes, there is something we must do: We must strive to obey God’s holy, just and good law! Does that forgive, justify, wash away, cleanse us from our sins? No! Only the blood of Christ can do that!

This is the principle of real Christian living. You must read and believe God’s law in His Word. You must be pricked in the heart, as those who heard Peter were, and be cleansed by the blood of Jesus Christ for the remission of your sins. But this is not merely remorse that you experience once in your life before you “give your heart to Jesus” to be instantly “saved” without further need of repentance, faith and obedience. This is a deep, difficult change of life! It is coupled with striving with all your might—with the added power of God’s Holy Spirit—to repent of and conquer sin, to do the Word, and to bring forth “fruits meet for repentance” (James 1:22; Matthew 3:8).

This is true Christian conversion. It is an ongoing process between you and God in which you repent of your sins and are forgiven through Christ’s blood, and by God’s power, you sin less and less and obey what is truly holy, just and good more and more. This is real faith and real obedience. This is what you need in your life. This is what it means to repent!