WHAT IS REAL REPENTANCE? by Leah Baugh Core Christianity
“Repent and believe” has been the cry of preachers ever since the time of Jesus. However, repentance can seem mysterious and sometimes contradictory to the gospel. Doesn’t the gospel say that I don’t have to do anything to be saved? Is repentance a work—something I do to be saved? How does it fit into the Christian life?
What Is Repentance?
Briefly defined, repentance is turning away from sin and self and looking to God for forgiveness and salvation. The Old Testament uses the word “turn” or “turning” to describe repentance. Those who repent turn their backs on their sin and come around to seek God; repentance is the conviction of guilt before God and the awareness that we are stained and in need of cleansing. This isn’t something we do, but it is something God works in us (Acts 5:31; 11:18). Like faith, it is necessary but given to us, not worked by us; rather, God works in us an inward acknowledgment of guilt which causes us to shrink away from our dirtiness before his perfect and holy character.
Repentance and the Law
Repentance is worked in us by the hearing of the Word of God, especially by the hearing of God’s law (Jer. 23:29; Rom. 3:10-12). Martin Luther describes it this way:
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Now this is the thunderbolt of God, by means of which he destroys both the open sinner and the false saint and allows no one to be right…this is not “active contrition,” a contrived remorse, but “passive contrition,” true affliction of the heart, suffering, and the pain of death.
(Martin Luther, “The Smalcald Articles” in Martin Luther’s Basic Theological Writings [Fortress Press, 2012], 352)
As Luther notes, we are passive recipients of repentance. The law convicts us of our guiltiness, leading us to pain and remorse over our sin. This is why the law is read in church: to remind us of our incapacity so that we might learn to lean more and more upon God.
