SCENE ONE: John Seeks Counsel
John is a church member who has been struggling with a besetting sin. He is meeting with an elder in the church for counsel and the elder defines repentance for him this way:
“Repentance is a turning away from sin to God that is motivated by love for God and hatred for sin.”
The elder explains each part.
“Repentance isn’t just confessing your sin or feeling sorry for your sin; repentance is turning away from your sin; to repent of a sin is to stop sinning in that way . . .”
“When you repent, you are not just turning away from sin, you are turning to God. You replace the sinful action with acts of worship. You replace unbelief with faith. You replace satisfaction in sin with satisfaction in God . . .”
“Repentance is impossible without a heart that loves God and desires to give him glory. True repentance is motivated by a heart that is thankful for God’s love in Jesus Christ and desires to live for him in response. Repentance starts by looking at God’s love in the Gospel. We love because he first loved us . . .”
SCENE TWO: John Repents
After meeting with the elder and being instructed on what repentance is, John went home and confessed his sin to the Lord. He meditated on Isaiah 53 – “he was crushed for our iniquities” – and as he did the Holy Spirit overwhelmed him with a sense of God’s deep love for him. John began praying for true repentance to take place in his life, and devoted himself to live in response to this love of God. He did something similar to this every morning.
Over the next few weeks, when John had in the past normally given into temptation to sin, he found spiritual strength in the Gospel to say no. He was believing the promise that God is better than sin, something he knew to be true as he reflected on Christ’s death for him. John repented, and was walking in repentance . . .
SCENE THREE: John Seeks Counsel Again
John entered the home of his elder with total discouragement in his heart. “I thought that I had really repented, but after sinning in that way again . . . It’s like I took two steps forward and three steps back. This is hopeless.”
His elder disagreed. He reviewed with John the past two weeks, the consistent time reflecting on the Gospel, the dependence John had been cultivating in prayer, the victories over temptation he had had before falling. He suggested, “Maybe you’ve taken three steps forward and two steps back, but that means you’ve taken one step forward still!” He encouraged him to keep on stepping forward in the Gospel, to keep on confessing and praying and repenting, to keep on looking to Christ crucified every day . . .
“And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another” (2 Corinthians 3:18).