Question:
“WHAT IS TRUE REPENTANCE?”
Answer: “IT’S
ABOUT WHO YOU ARE …
NOT
WHAT YOU’VE DONE”
“Hang
on! That’s a bit strong isn’t it?”
“No …
far from it! It hits the nail on the head!”
It’s
like nut grass that you pull
out of the same
piece of ground … week after week … it’s the soil that is contaminated.
Similarly,
your sins come out of a contaminated
you … like garden weeds out of bad soil.
Read
on … we take the following scripture …
“For godly sorrow worketh
repentance to salvation not to be repented
of: but the sorrow of the world worketh
death.” (2 Corinthians 7:10)
As
we see there are two types of sorrow: …
godly and wordly.
1.
The former being sorry
for WHO YOU ARE … that’s the vile Job
(Job 40:4; 42:6) and Isaiah’s “Woe is me!”
(Isaiah 6:5)
2.
The latter being for WHAT
YOU’VE DONE … Judas (Matthew 27:3);
Pharaoh (Exodus 9:27) … you know … being remorseful … generally
resulting
from being caught … or not being able to work things out yourself.
What
is the world’s version of sorrowful repentance?
Movie
after movie depicts the world’s
version of repentance … “One day
I’ll confess
my sins to God … he’ll forgive me … and he’ll let me into heaven … and
oh! … I
might even get to a Roman Catholic priest to help me.”
But
let’s take Peter and Judas … both being
apostles with the Lord for three and a
half years, both healing, ministering, water baptized … you couldn’t
tell the
difference.
However
Peter repented with ‘godly
sorrow’ while Judas with ‘worldy sorrow’.
Peter
wept
bitterly with godly sorrow (Luke
22:62) while Judas confessed he’d made a mistake … having a wordly
sorrow over
shedding innocent blood.
True
repentance is not
just being sorry for what you’ve DONE … but for who
you ARE!
And
here’s the difference:
Worldly
sorrow says this … “I’ve made a
mess of things! I’ve ruined my marriage! I’ve wrecked my life! I’m
hopeless!
I’m a failure! I’ve wasted my money! I’ve never amounted to anything! I
wish I
was dead! … and then you take a gun and blow your brains out … perhaps
after
getting drunk/drugs for several weeks/months.
Godly
sorrow says this … “I’m no good
… never have been and never will … I’m a sinner before men and before
you God …
at my best I’m altogether vanity. God I hate myself … I loathe myself …
and
unless you do something for me, and to me, and with me,
I am worthless! God I try to do good but the opposite happens. My best
intentions are worthless. Help me Lord! I trust you to do something
with me.”
The
man with godly sorrow sees that there is something in himself that makes
him do the
wrong thing again and again … and sees that his sins are against a holy
God …
and flees to God with nothing in his hand to bargain with … casting
himself
down to the lowest level.
When a man simply sees that
only his sins are wrong, bad and terrible, he attempts to fix things up
himself
… this is worldly sorrow.
Armed
with the lie “God
loves the sinners but hates the sin”, it’s no
wonder that the world sees repentance is simply confessing
your sins as seen in the movies.
Furthermore,
this is backed up with the wrong interpretation of viewing the
following verse
as addressed to the worldly unsaved man … not the Christian …
“If we confess our sins, he
is faithful and just to forgive us our sins,
and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
(1 John 1:9)
Let’s take another example
of repentance with God revealing a deep sin.
Let’s
take Job … and how God
brought about Job’s response for his self-righteousness … … and was
not aware he had!
Hands
up Dear Reader … who does know?
(Proverbs
21:2)
“Moreover the
LORD answered Job, and said, Shall he that contendeth with the Almighty
instruct him? he that reproveth God, let him answer it. Then Job
answered the
LORD, and said, BEHOLD, I AM VILE; what shall I answer thee? I
will lay
mine hand upon my mouth.”
(Job 40:1-4)
and again …
Wherefore I
ABHOR MYSELF, and repent in dust and ashes.” (Job 42:6)
Job could see that there
was something terribly wrong deep down within himself … and ONLY
the
LORD could show that to him … Job could not.
He had to come to the LORD
…. utterly bereft … with not a spiritual cent in his bank
account …
bankrupt … riddled with sin … and unable to shake the ‘monkey
off his
back’ … doomed before an Almighty Holy God.
Who can know the ways of
God in dealing with all of us? (Isaiah 55:8-9)
Harley
Hitchcock
June 2026
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