“I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”
Thus, Jesus summed up his mission to mankind. He did not come to heal the sick, make the blind see, or make the lame walk. These were signs of his power and authority. But he came to lead sinners to repentance, and by believing and repenting, receive the gift of eternal life.
Jesus also came to earth to die for the sins of the redeemed, and those who are redeemed are redeemed through God’s sacrifice of his son. This was Jesus’ mission for mankind. Who can understand this? Fortunately, we are not asked to understand this, but to believe:
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
True repentance, however, will not come without belief. As a Calvinist, I believe that God’s chosen are first regenerated. We are born again or receive new birth or are reborn from above. Regeneration is followed, perhaps instantaneously, by faith, which is belief that Jesus is my Lord and that he died for my sins and was raised from the dead, alive today as you or me. Regeneration and Faith is followed by repentance, again this can be instantaneous. But it is elementary that you must repent to be saved. And this is saving faith.
But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior,
But what is it about true belief that leads to repentance? In our encounter with the holy, with a holy and perfect God of all creation, we recognize that we are sinners who need to be reconciled to a Holy God. We need forgiveness for sin and we experience the gift of godly sorrow:
For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted; but the sorrow of the world produces death.
Godly sorrow is a gift. Oswald Chambers has described it wonderfully in one of his daily devotions in the Christian classic, My Utmost for His Highest:
Conviction of sin is best described in the words:
My sins, my sins, my Savior,
How sad on Thee they fall.Conviction of sin is one of the most uncommon things that ever happens to a person. It is the beginning of an understanding of God. Jesus Christ said that when the Holy Spirit came He would convict people of sin (see John 16:8). And when the Holy Spirit stirs a person’s conscience and brings him into the presence of God, it is not that person’s relationship with others that bothers him but his relationship with God— “Against You, You only, have I sinned, and done this evil in your sight . . .” (Psalm 51:4). The wonders of conviction of sin, forgiveness, and holiness are so interwoven that it is only the forgiven person who is truly holy. He proves he is forgiven by being the opposite of what he was previously, by the grace of God. Repentance always brings a person to the point of saying, “I have sinned.” The surest sign that God is at work in his life is when he says that and means it. Anything less is simply sorrow for having made foolish mistakes— a reflex action caused by self-disgust.
The entrance into the kingdom of God is through the sharp, sudden pains of repentance colliding with man’s respectable “goodness.” Then the Holy Spirit, who produces these struggles, begins the formation of the Son of God in the person’s life (see Galatians 4:19). This new life will reveal itself in conscious repentance followed by unconscious holiness, never the other way around. The foundation of Christianity is repentance. Strictly speaking, a person cannot repent when he chooses— repentance is a gift of God. The old Puritans used to pray for “the gift of tears.” If you ever cease to understand the value of repentance, you allow yourself to remain in sin. Examine yourself to see if you have forgotten how to be truly repentant.
Chambers exhorts us to examine ourselves. He likely means to examine ourselves at least daily. Repentance is not a one-time initiating event in the life of a Christian. The great 19th century British preacher Charles Spurgeon put it like this:
Sincere repentance is continual. Believers repent until their dying day. This dropping well is not intermittent. Every other sorrow yields to time, but this dear sorrow grows without growth, and it is so sweet a bitter, that we thank God we are permitted to enjoy and to suffer it until we enter our eternal rest.
Spurgeon on 2 Corinthians 7:10.
After 42 years of Christian life, one would think that I have less sin to confess each day. However, it seems my sins have not diminished, just changed. It is like a whack-a-mole game. You get control of one type of sin, and another one pops up. A loss of self-control, and angry unnecessary comment, when we notice and remember, needs to be confessed. I thank God I don’t remember all my failures, and that I remember so few. Jesus said:
You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder, and whoever murders will be in danger of the judgment.’ But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment.
Or all of a sudden, my memory punishes me with a thought of the sins of my youth. How could I have done that? And I ask God’s forgiveness, even 45 years after the fact.
There are Scriptures that seem to say once saved, the Christian no longer sins. For example, from the King James Version:
Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.
However, this is mistranslated from the Greek text. Modern translations recognize that the Greek verbs are referring to continuous sinful conduct. Here is the recent English Standard Version, a translation whose General Editor is the scholar Wayne Grudem, a conservative reformed Evangelical theologian.
No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God.
This conforms to the Scriptural fact that we have a sinful nature which remains in the flesh after salvation, to be wrestled with daily with the help of the Holy Spirit. As Jesus admonished us:
Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.
Further, when he gave us the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus reminded us that we do not cease sinning when we are saved, and that we must ask God’s forgiveness daily. In addition for thanking God for our daily bread, we pray as well
Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us. And lead us not into temptation.
To help me with confession and forgiveness, I have composed a Prayer of Confession that I put on my Amazon kindle which I read in my daily devotions. My prayer begins with a Scriptural acknowledgement of my sin:
If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Once acknowledged, realizing that we must approach God sincerely and personally, one-on-one, my prayer follows with Scriptural encouragement and further acknowledgement of the privilege of the redeemed in Christ:
Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession . . . Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
Finally, my prayer ends with a confession, adapted from the Holy Eucharist service in the Anglican/Episcopal Book of Common Prayer, with a pause where I can insert those specific sins that the Holy Spirit brings to my attention and prompts my memory to reveal to me:
I will confess my sins unto Almighty God
Most merciful God,
I confess that I have sinned against you
in thought, word, and deed,
by what I have done,
and by what I have left undone.[Specifically, I have . . .]
I have not loved you with my whole heart;
I have not loved my neighbors as myself.
I am truly sorry and I humbly repent.
For the sake of your Son Jesus Christ,
have mercy on me and forgive me;
that I may delight in your will,
and walk in your ways,
to the glory of your Name.Amen.
All together now, here is my daily prayer of confession:
A Prayer of Confession
If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. [1 John 1:8-9]
Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession . . . Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. [Hebrews 4:14, 16]
I will confess my sins unto Almighty God
Most merciful God,
I confess that I have sinned against you
in thought, word, and deed,
by what I have done,
and by what I have left undone.[Specifically, I have . . .]
I have not loved you with my whole heart;
I have not loved my neighbors as myself.
I am truly sorry and I humbly repent.
For the sake of your Son Jesus Christ,
have mercy on me and forgive me;
that I may delight in your will,
and walk in your ways,
to the glory of your Name.Amen.
BETWEEN TWO CITIES 
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