Repentance: An Issue of Life and Death

Tough love, when received properly, cultivates godly sorrow. Received improperly, it produces ungodly sorrow. There is a vast chasm between the two. While one person is reeling from offending God, the other is focused on self.At some point prior to his writing the second epistle to the Corinthians, Paul wrote what is known as the “severe letter”. We don’t have it as part of the completed canon of scripture, but we know it existed because of Paul’s allusion to it in the Bible. When he wrote that letter, it caused a stir in the Corinthian church, which, as Paul put it, produced a godly sorrow that led to a godly repentance.For though I caused you sorrow by my letter, I do not regret it; though I did regret it — for I see that that letter caused you sorrow, though only for a while — I now rejoice, not that you were made sorrowful, but that you were made sorrowful to the point of repentance; for you were made sorrowful according to the will of God, so that you might not suffer loss in anything through us.

For the sorrow that is according to the will of God produces a repentance without regret, leading to salvation [deliverance], but the sorrow of the world produces death.

I have written about this topic in the past, trying to capture the difference between the guilty child who says, “I’m sorry” to their wounded sibling and meaning it, versus the one that doesn’t, at least not in the righteous sense. An arrogant, self-centered child might mutter the words their parents want to hear, but they are only sorry about being caught. Any modifications to obedience are a function of selfishness. This is very different than the child who suddenly realizes they have hurt someone they love. Are we, as adults, so very different, I ask??? Godly repentance, which sorrow is certainly a part of, is a gift from God, making it permanent, as well. We cannot recognize the darkness of sin if we are standing in darkness. Man, on his own, cannot manufacture godly repentance from sin! We can only recognize and reject sin if we have the Light of life abiding in us. “Then Jesus again spoke to them, saying, “I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life” (John 8:12). In other words, only a true believer receives the gift of repentance. As scriptures tells us, there are lots of professing “Christians” that do not possess godly repentance because God hasn’t given it to them. Their sorrow is fleshly, selfish, and only exists because of the penalty they perceive as a disruption to their current lifestyle, or possibly even eternity.Consider the person who says they “believe” because they don’t want to “go to Hell”. They are only focused on the penalty of sin, not the power of it. We humans are born into both aspects of sin, which means that we need salvation (deliverance) from both aspects, not merely from its penalty. “For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive” (1 Corinthians 15:22). We are all born with fallen natures, spiritually dead. Think about it - a newborn hasn’t had time to sin, personally, yet they are in need of a savior. A savior from what, exactly? - a savior from the realm of sin, spiritual death. When that baby grows up, they will need to make a decision about the sin issue and Jesus Christ, the solution. This will be either their introduction to or their rejection of godly repentance concerning sin.

You see, my friends, repentance has much more to do with life and death than it does punishment. The person who repents from sin, itself, is different from the one who repents from punishment alone. The prior represents a true believer’s heart, the latter, an unbeliever’s.

Practically speaking, everyone hates being punished, right?…but only a person made alive in Christ will truly hate sin (death). This hatred is a gift from God, just like its fruit, repentance. Because every gift from God is perfect, unwavering (James 1:17), a true believer carries this hatred with them forevermore. It is never recanted because God’s grace never fails. When a person receives eternal life (John 3:16), they never desire to be dead again, do they??? The very thought of spiritual death is repulsive to them.I beg you not to brush off the previous three paragraphs. They describe what is among the most important considerations any human being can ponder. We are talking about life and death. Let that sink in. We are talking about the realm of each, not just the blessings versus the punishments. We are talking about separate dominions, separate power. Sin/darkness doesn’t just carry punishment with it, it carries power (death). Likewise, righteousness/light doesn’t just carry blessings, it carries power (life). Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.Godly repentance considers the power of sin and hates it. A repentant believer is a person who realizes that sin sometimes gets the best of them, influencing them through its power in the flesh. “Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death” (Romans 7:24)? Paul hated his flesh because it still influenced him. Even though Jesus Christ has defeated death already (2 Timothy 1:10), it lingers in our bodies, where its power still exists. Chapter seven in the Book of Romans is a wonderful illustration of a man (Paul) expressing his distaste for the power of sin over his body. He knew, as a true believer, that he was freed from the penalty of sin, but he also knew it still had power over his flesh. His repentance was from the result of that power getting the best of him, even as his new self despised it. On the one hand, he was a “new creature” (2 Corinthians 5:17) made “alive in Christ” (1 Corinthians 15:22), but on the other hand, he still lived with a flesh that was born dead in sin (Romans 7:24). Such is the true believer’s plight.When God, by grace through faith, gives us a repentant heart at salvation, it isn’t simply concerned with the penalty of sin. Much more so, it is ever aware of the power of sin. “How shall we who died to sin still live in it” (Romans 6:2b)? This is a rhetorical question from Paul. His point is that it is impossible for a new creature, made alive in Christ, to live in sin. A true believer’s very nature has been absolutely changed and placed under the dominion of righteousness forevermore (remember, our new self goes to Heaven while our corruptible bodies go to the grave). This is not some judicial reality that may or may not be realized in time in a true believer, as some function of his free will - that would imply (wrongly) that man has the ability to stop God in His tracks at salvation, to frustrate perfect grace, to say, “Give me Heaven, but let me keep my old nature.”The Bible speaks dogmatically about the fact that if God changes you, and He does if you are truly saved, then you have been given a totally new nature that despises sin, every aspect of it, the penalty, the power, and even its presence. This is why a true believer repents as a way of life, for they cannot even help themselves (1 John 1).

The sin nature’s perspective is always from the vantage point of death, which means it cannot even distinguish its own depravity, for it is in complete darkness. However, the righteous nature’s perspective is always from the vantage point of life, which means it can clearly distinguish such things because it is in the light.Paul often wrote about these perspectives when dealing with perversions in the churches.Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness? But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed, and having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness. 

I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, resulting in further lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, resulting in sanctification. For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. Therefore what benefit were you then deriving from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the outcome of those things is death. But now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your benefit, resulting in sanctification, and the outcome, eternal life.

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.My friends, repentance truly is an issue of life and death. When God saves us, we are delivered from both the penalty and the power of sin. God’s grace makes us new, not just by judicial standards, but by our very nature. The new creature is wholly perfected, made righteous, and undefiled. This part of us, being made alive in Christ, hates death and therefore its agent, sin. Nonetheless, the great “paradox” for believers is that we are saddled with the vestiges of sin because we are stuck with this “body of death”, our flesh, which loves sin and abides in death.To understand how God’s grace makes a person new is to understand why they repent wholly from sin, not just the penalty of it.

Love in Christ,

Ed Collins