Repentance of Sin
Once you've recognised your sin, the next step in dealing with it is to repent of it.
We read in Acts: "When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, 'Brothers, what shall we do?' Peter replied, 'Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ.'" (Acts 2:37-38)
It's no good recognising sin and then doing nothing about it! What good is it to be informed of an illness and then not allow the doctor to fix it?
Many people, recognising their sin, shrug their shoulders and say it's just the way I am! They'll say God made me this way, He'll understand - instead of realising that it was the broken, sinful world that bred that sin inside of them, and that it needs to be renounced.
Richard S. Taylor says: "The proper Christian attitude toward sin is one of abhorrence." He's right. Our sin should cause us horror, because of how it messes up the good gifts of God and separates us from Him and others. Sin is damaging - to people, to society, and most of all to the image of God that the world needs to see. When we recognise it, we need to renounce it.
The Church's Neglected Message
Perhaps one of the great mistakes the church has made in recent years is not pressing home Jesus' message of repentance enough. God's call was always to repentance - listen to what He says to the Israelites when they were in exile in Babylon: "You Israelites, I will judge each of you according to your own ways, declares the Sovereign Lord. Repent! Turn away from all your offences; then sin will not be your downfall." (Ezekiel 18:30) God wanted them to deal with their sin because it had become their downfall.
Jesus continued this tradition. Like all the prophets, He called the people to repentance. At the beginning of His ministry we read: "Jesus began to preach, 'Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.'" (Matthew 4:17). Later on, we read a verse that is not usually brought up when people talk about Jesus these days: "Jesus began to denounce the towns in which most of his miracles had been performed, because they did not repent." (Matthew 11:20)
This is not an "Old Testament" message. Repentance is God's will for each of us. He knows that our sickness needs to be dealt with. If we don't turn from the things that make us sick, He hands us over to our sickness - and I am convinced that He does so with tears of sadness.
The Cure That Takes Effect
To all who do repent, who see the things that are poisoning their lives and renounce those things, the cure begins to take effect. In fact the cure for sin only really begins to work when we renounce our sin. As Richard S. Taylor wrote: "To benefit by the death of Christ and obtain the eternal life provided, one must break the combination of causes which produce death by renouncing and forsaking sin."
Honest question: have you repented? Have you renounced and forsaken your sin? Have you gone down on your knees and said to God, I see this sin. I am done with it! Or have you only confessed it, with no intention of renouncing it and leaving it behind?
Maybe you bought into the lie that says God doesn't really mind your sin, that He just shrugs it off. But why would the Great Surgeon, the Great Doctor of our souls, shrug off our sin when He could cure it? The sin sickness is curable by the grace of God. He doesn't want to merely overlook your sin. He wants to cure it.
Come to Him in repentance, friends. Renounce your sins. Reject them. Turn away from them.
There’s no dealing with the sin problem if you’re not willing to repent.
Recognising sin is only the first step - God calls every one of us to repent, renounce, and turn away from it. Come to Him today, not just confessing your sin, but truly turning from it.