Are you a Saint? Part 2
Conviction and Repentance
Now that we affirmed our status in Christ that we are saints. One of the signs of our new status is conviction of sins. We feel bad for every wrongdoing and want to quickly make amends. Convictions can be subjective, in other words, what I am convicted about, another person may not be (see Romans 14). It is the effectual work of the Holy Spirit (see John 16:8). Hence, we should be very mindful of the presence of the Holy spirit in our lives, because if he is not present, we will not be convicted of wrongdoings.
Repentance is a change of mind which leads to change in direction. It is the admittance of our convictions and the step to make amends. In other words, repentance follows conviction.
True and False Repentance
True repentance is that which comes from contrition — regret for the offence against God’s love. False repentance is that which comes from attrition — regret for sin prompted by a fear for oneself: “Oh, no. I got caught. What will happen to me?”
The two are acceptable by God because of his mercy or to put it bluntly — “with the pure you will show yourself pure and with the devious you will show yourself shrewd” (see 2 Samuel 22:27). They are indicatives of the transformative work of Christ in us. True repentance produces godly sorrow (see 2 Corinthians 7:10), which implies hatred for sin. On the contrary, false repentance is a fear of reprisal rather than hatred for sin. In other words, one leads us to live a holy life, while the other does not.
The Conceit of Self righteousness
Repentance is a choice. We may be convicted personally by the Holy spirit of wrongdoings and refuse to repent. God is so merciful that if we are convicted personally, he also makes sure we are convicted externally such as an unplanned rebuke from a pastor during a sermon who has no clue of our wrongdoings or sometimes by a prophet or sometimes from faithful brethren or even by unbelievers.
Why we do not repent is simply because we rationalise against the Word of God. We form our own righteousness, aside from that of God. That is what is called self-righteousness — righteousness birthed by self and not from convictions of the Holy spirit. Having convictions of our sins but not repenting is a sign that we are on a slippery road to destruction (see Exodus 9).
Why should we repent?
Repentance is paramount to Christian living; God will not require us to repent if it is not.
- Repentance cultivates the transformative work of Christ in us. It is the surgical blade to cut off the cancer of inadequacies and progress towards perfection. It is like driving on a road to a particular destination, we may miss a turn and then reroute to get back on the road to the destination. We may miss it today, but as long as we repent we are sure one day we will not miss it again.
- A little leaven leavens the whole lump. A person who does not repent is contagious and his beliefs or rationale for not repenting is capable of contaminating other believers (see 1 Corinthians 5). This I believe is one of the troubles facing Christianity today — unrepentant individuals portrayed as models thereby erecting unholy culture.
- Restoration of joy of salvation. Convictions by the Holy spirit comes with restlessness. This is a result of loss of joy of salvation that occurred when we sinned. To restore our right relationship with the Holy spirit we must repent. Then we can have unspeakable joy blooming inside our hearts and the Holy spirit speaking to us again. This is why David wrote in Psalm 51:12 — “Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit”.
Weary of repentance?
Unfortunately, many Christian culture of today encourages contentment. That we live by grace and cannot progress towards perfection. This motive ensued due to weariness of repentance, and this has resulted in contentment with a lifestyle that is not in sync with the nature of God. Well, God commands us “Be holy for I am holy”. Christ echoes the same “Be perfect as your father in heaven is perfect”. Instead of contentment repentance should be our lifestyle as believers. It is the quality that shows our genuine dependence on God’s grace to lift us out of the shackles of sin and God’s mercy to save us from judgement. Therefore, we shouldn’t be weary.
But by faith we eagerly await through the Spirit the hope of righteousness. — Galatians 5:5
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