Repentance is of prime importance and it’s the first step towards salvation. It’s God’s essential condition that we all must meet before we can come back to him. Since we have all rebelled against our creator and gone our own way, we first have to turn from that way, back to him. That is the act of repentance. The sacrificial death of Jesus as payment for our rebellion, that is the truth that enables us to turn back to God.
A common misconception is that repentance isn’t needed if you’re living a good life, or you’re essentially a good person. I’ve spoken to people who believe this and are counting on this argument to win them over with God when the time comes. There are some issues with this line of thinking though. Essentially, it’s a veiled attempt at skirting around the issue of sin — that somehow we are beyond the corruption of sin, just because, well, “I’m a good person”. It is highly presumptuous to assume that our version of “good” is anywhere even close to what God sees as good. The Bible calls it out plainly,
For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard.
(Romans chapter 3, verse 23)
It is true that righteousness is what God requires. Righteousness is right-ness with God and living right by his standard. And righteousness is actually a gift, it cannot be earned. It is a gift from God himself that is only given to those who turn in repentance and accept Jesus’ sacrificial death as payment for their un-righteousness (sin, wrongdoing, rebellion).
After the initial fall, we were all born into a world already given over to sin and we had no say in it. Our own attempts at being good are completely overshadowed by sin and aren’t good enough to register with God. Anything we try in our own efforts is just religion that at best equates only to self-righteousness. But God, in his abounding love has given us a way out, a way back to him. Only one way actually — through Jesus. We need to accept the truth of Jesus’ sacrificial death for our sin wholeheartedly and take the appropriate action of repentance, otherwise it will never be possible to return to God.
There are benefits here-and-now for true repentance. A life lived in the brilliant light of God’s forgiveness and acceptance is truly priceless. The human heart is completely transformed when the heavy weight of guilt and shame have been removed. Can you imagine yourself living in that kind of freedom?
