Repentance: Change of Mind.

What does it look like and feel like to be truly repentant? We might want to ask this question as we consider another person’s actions or their “apologies” directed toward us. But the best place to first address this question is to our own person. “Am I repentant?” Have I experienced what the Greek definition of repentance signifies – a change of mind? Am I mindfully sorry for my sin? Am I offended that I have erred in my ways and upset that I have angered a holy God? Or, am I only sorry that my sin has caught up with me and I am like a child with his/her hand caught in the cookie jar (still wanting the cookie)?

Godly repentance is not an easy thing to accomplish. In fact, when the Bible talks about repentance or godly repentance it speaks about pain that the person experiences in the mind: a type of grief, sorrow, or affliction that reflects what God feels when sin is perpetrated. As we grow in our faith, we realize that each sin is a slap in the face of God. If we are still not in faith, that doesn’t matter to us. But as believers, the more and more we contemplate this and the more and more we grow in faith, sin truly bothers us. And that is not just other people’s sins; it is especially OUR sins against our loving God.

Repentance means that we are grieved that someone is hurt. We are filled with sorrow that our wife or husband is bleeding because of our actions. We agonize over the pain that stings another life; and most importantly, we ache because our sinful attitude bites at God; and we love God [as a believer].

2 Corinthians 7 relates Paul’s thankfulness for the presence of godly repentance in the life of one of the Corinthian believers:

“For even if I made you grieve with my letter, I do not regret it—though I did regret it, for I see that that letter grieved you, though only for a while. 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. For see what earnestness this godly grief has produced in you, but also what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what longing, what zeal, what punishment! At every point you have proved yourselves innocent in the matter” (2 Corinthians 7:8-11).

This believer in Corinth was grieved to the point where it produced in their thinking a change of attitude toward that particular sin in their life. This person went from guarding and excusing their actions (maybe even defending their attitude) to feeling really, really bad about what they had done. That is a HUGE transformation in the heart and mind of a believer. There was genuine sorrow and sadness for that particular action.

You see, sin is for each of us, very personal. We hold onto it and even protect it in some cases. An alcoholic knows that drunkenness is wrong but because it lives in them, they are more likely to excuse it until they see the depth of pain it causes another person. When that occurs (as the Spirit awakens such insight in them) there is repentance – a change that occurs in their line of thinking.

One Christian that I counseled many years ago had an addiction issue but had matured to the point of saying that this particular sin was “evil”. That was a huge step in his life. He recognized that this sin, this evil, was destructive in so many ways. When a believer realizes the destruction that is caused by their words, their attitudes, their actions or inaction, their stony indignation, it is because the Holy Spirit has produced a work in them. That is true repentance. It comes from the Spirit of God and it manifests as true grief.

I challenge you to assess your own exclamations of sorrow for what you have done. Do they take on the nature of this phrase: “I’m sorry that you feel hurt by this; apparently you are just immature” ? That’s not repentance; that is regret for being caught.

Real repentance acknowledges that another person was dismantled and torn down by your actions. Real repentance, created by the Holy Spirit in our hearts and mind, drives us to tears and regret. We would literally take back any of the hurt and extinguish our desire for that sinful performance.

The Cross of Jesus is the best place to start that hike toward godly repentance. At the cross we see the pain that Christ endured. This pain was not imposed on Him; rather, He voluntarily took it on so that we could be relieved of an eternity of painful suffering. His love is so great that Jesus did all that was necessary to erase the agonizing justice we would have incurred if He did not step in to absorb all of God’s righteous justice that was screaming down at us. None of that will be incurred by us as believers. How can we not feel godly sorrow? Our sentence of eternal afflictions has been removed from us and was completely experienced by Jesus on the cross. How can that leave us unchanged? By the power of the Spirit it does change us. By the power of the Holy Spirit we do live in true repentance - our minds have been remodeled and we now grieve over our sin.

Blessings as you consider this incredible topic of repentance!