HOW
TO REPENT .
In my pastoral work, a
number of times I have been called upon to help a flock that has strayed in to
sin. A few have stayed on in their sin and had to be removed from church
membership, while the majority have repented of their sin and were forgiven by
the church and restored. However in both cases, it was clear to me that the
understanding of sin and repentance is not as easy as many would think. There
are a number of issues that lead to biblical repentance of which I want to
bring to the attention of not only errant church members but also the pastors.
Psalm 51 and Hosea 14 will be my reference passages.
The understanding of
sin.
Many terms have been
used in describing what sin is: Missing the mark, falling short of God’s
standard etc. Whatever term is used, sin is an affront against God. ALL sins
committed are done against God. After prophet Nathan confronted David with his
many sins that he committed against Uriah’s house, David responded not by
apologizing to the remaining relatives of Uriah (which is not bad) but in Ps
51:4 he sees clearly that what he did was an affront against God and confesses
thus: ‘Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your
sight.’ Any crime done against God is crime against humanity. When we are right
with God we will be right with man. The point here is that David understood
that his sins, like all the sins that man commits, were committed against God
first. In Hosea 14:1 the same is seen, the call is to return to the one that
has been offended-God.
On the other hand we
need to understand that everyone is born a sinner and we do not acquire sin as
we grow up in life. Sin is ingrained, we are born sinners and we only need a
temptation to trigger the act. We carry sin with us. Man is like a gun with
deadly bullets in it and only need an index finger to pull the trigger. When
David repents he does not say ‘Aah God you know this sin just came in to my
mind when I saw her at the open Bath room.’ Instead he says ‘in sin did my
mother conceive me.’
Need to call sin, sin.
The greatest vice in my
country that the government is ‘fighting’ is the issue of corruption. Somebody
was bold enough one day to declare that corruption is a human right in this
land. As far as I know, the Bible calls this sin and sin can’t be human right.
Human beings do not have a right to sin. Anyway, Christians are equally
overwhelmed with this vice and many times they have fallen but when confronted,
they baptize it with terms like ‘I just gave a token of appreciation.’ Or ‘I
just ministered to a need that I saw.’ The problem here is that some of these
tokens of appreciations and needs are given to very rich people in the land. In
short, sin is not seen as sin but given some nice name. King David did not turn
around and say ‘you know Mr. Nathan; I was just admiring the beauty of God’s
creation in Bathsheba.’ In V3 he says: ‘For I know my transgressions and my sin
is ever before me.’ Hosea in the same vein encourages Israel to take words with
them before the Lord v2, words that say we are idolatrous and have forsaken you
God.
Need to take
responsibility.
This is the challenging
part to repentance. It is humiliating and humbling hence we want to pass the
blame. Excuses like ‘Ooh it is because the pastor has not visited me for the
last one month.’ ‘Oh it is my boss who is so inconsiderate.’ So long as there is
a straw of excuse for a sinner to hang, he will not see the seriousness of his
sin and offer acceptable repentance. David might as well have blamed Bathsheba
for making her bath room directly opposite to the King’s palace and said for
that matter she deserved it.
While still on this,
let me address an issue that is commonly happening in many churches today in
Africa. A person will come forth confessing sins of adultery or whatever his
besetting sin is. Instead of being asked to call it sin and take responsibility
of his/her sins, the pastor will direct him to some imagined ancestral curses.
The battle is then directed to the ‘ancestors’ while meanwhile the fellow
continues in his sin. When you sin, you are the sinner, not the ancestors. In
Hosea and other Prophets, when Israel sinned, God dealt with Israel as a nation
as the sinner without passing the blame. But in his sovereignty over the
nations on earth he also descended on Babylon, Egypt and Assyria. This did not
mean that he exonerated Israel of her own sins because of the nations that
tempted her. There is a need to say: ‘God I am responsible for this sin’
without passing the back or enjoining someone in your mistakes. Taking
responsibility of your sin is an integral part to biblical repentance. Here again,
Hosea exhorts ‘take with you words.’
Genuine repentance.
In a case of church
discipline, I once confronted a man who had fallen in to adultery and taken the
lady as a second wife. In the process, he was very remorseful and ‘repented’.
But when I asked him what he will do with his second wife (two months in to
marriage) he said he will keep her and somehow God will understand. I asked
him: ‘In the event that I stole 10,000 Shillings from you and got convicted
that I have done wrong and came back to you and said, you Know George(not his
name), I am the one who stole the 10,000, and in fact, it is still intact in my
pocket, I have not used it, but I am very sorry forgive me for stealing your
money, but anyway, since I am in need of money badly, I will not return it to
you.’
Now the point is,
genuine repentance requires forsaking the sin and doing what is right. If you
have the money in your pocket return it, Luke 19:8-10.
Ordinarily, man would
not like to ‘return’ the money yet wants everyone plus God to believe that he
has genuinely repented. If this happens, it is clear that the sinner has not
appreciated all the above points that I have put up in as far sin and
repentance is concerned: He does not understand what sin is, he has not called
it sin and neither has he clearly chosen to take responsibility of his sin.
Like in the case above, the fellow was quick to blame his first wife. One may
want to challenge this view by asking why King David did not ask Bathsheba to
go back to Uriah’s family to show genuine repentance. God willing, we will meet
one day and discuss that. But for now may I draw your attention to some fellows
in Rome who were telling Apostle Paul that it is good to keep on sinning for
grace to abound more because sin provides a fertile ground for grace to
flourish. Apostle’s reply to them was ‘not at all.’ (Rom 6: ff). In fact if you
continue in your sins, it proves that you haven’t experienced that grace at
all. You are still a slave to sin. Any sin un-repented and not forsaken will
invite his uncles and cousins to come and pitch their tents in you.
God’s grace in
forgiving sinners. Hosea 14.
That popular verse in
1John 1:9 is heartwarming to fallible sinners like us: ‘If we confess our sins
he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all
unrighteousness.’ Surely His grace forgives all kinds of sin. This has been the
nature of God since OT.
In Hosea 14, the
prophet speaks God’s words to Israel by saying ‘return’ (repent) to the Lord
your God.’ In a manner of speaking he encourages them thus: ‘Take your words,
and go to God, tell him that you have messed yourself in sin as a nation and that
running for help from other nations will not help the situation until we come
back to you our God in repentance of our sins.’ In the spirit of John above God
responds: If they will realize their sins, acknowledge it and take responsibility
then God says in Hosea 14: 4, ‘I will heal their apostasy; I will love them
freely, for my anger has turned from them.’ Yes, sinners who repent Jesus will
receive freely. We must never fear repenting of our sins and forsaking them
whatever they may be and as the Father forgives freely, so freely we must
forgive repentant sinners.
Written
by Pastor Sam Oluoch
Bible
reference ESV.
