Repentance or repenting from the sins and believing in Jesus Christ are the most urgent things that humans must do in their lives, because their eternal destiny is at stake. Jesus Christ while being on the earth has said: “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent and believe in the gospel” (Mark 1:15).
From the time that the Son of the living God came to the earth to save people from their sins, the entrance to the kingdom of God is available for every person who will sincerely repent from his or her sins and believe in Jesus. Without repentance nobody is ready or fit for the rule and reign of God. Unrepented people cannot enter or experience the kingdom of God, but will be judged by God.
When the kingdom of God comes, it will not tolerate any sin or rebellion. So everybody must genuinely repent in order to be fit for the kingdom of God, for when it comes no other kingdom or rule will continue to exist, except God’s rule and kingdom. The kingdom of God means the end of all human and satanic rule on the earth, but a complete and full reign of God. The kingdom of God means also the end of your own rule over your personal life and affairs. In the kingdom of God, no human being can be his or her own boss.
The Bible declares the following about repentance: “Therefore, indeed, having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to human beings that all everywhere should repent,because He has set a day in which He is about to judge the inhabited (world) in righteousness, by a Man Whom He has appointed, having given assurance to all, having raised Him out of the dead”(Acts 17:30-31). All people from every nation, tribe and religion must repent, otherwise they will perish.
God’s Word describes the fall of humans in the following way: “For all have sinned and are falling short of the glory of God”(Romans 3:23). It also says: “For even though they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, or give thanks; but they became vain in their reasonings, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools” (Romans 1:21-22).
The darkened mind of humans plunged them into all kinds of sinful and vain activities, through which they are dissipating, wasting away their own lives in useless and destructive things, whereas they are headed to eternal destruction, because of their sins. But God does not want that any should perish; He desires all humans to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth (1 Timothy 2:4); and He did not spare even His own Son for them.
We must remember that there is nothing more urgent for humans to do, than to repent from their sins. The word repentance can be translated from Greek as “change of mind.” The repentance includes: a change of mind and thinking, a change of intentions and motives, a change of heart, mentality and opinions, a change of the goal and the purpose of life. Repentance includes also the turning away from wrong value system and genuinely accepting the values of Christ. It results in a change of lifestyle, actions, speech, attitude and behavior.
In the New Testament this word basically has the meaning of “turning from evil, wicked, sinful mind, mentality, heart, actions, lifestyle to a God-pleasing mind, heart, mentality, behavior and lifestyle.” Repentance is turning away from doing your own will, and doing God’s will. God commands all people to turn away from their sins, and return to Him and live according to His will. The key element in repentance is sincerity or honesty. If somebody repents, he or she must do it sincerely, with a broken heart. People must turn away from any sinful action wholeheartedly and renounce it completely.
A true repentance or self-deception
There is story in the Bible concerning false repentance. When God’s judgements were being poured out on Egypt, there were several times when Pharaoh asked Moses, the prophet of God, to pray for deliverance from these judgements, and Moses did. But as soon as the deliverance would come, he would turn back and harden his heart, and obstinately disobey God. In Exodus 8:15 we read: “But when Pharaoh saw that there was relief, he hardened his heart and did not listen to them, as Yahweh had said.” Yahweh is the name of the living God.
It is so sad that many people do not really repent; instead, they are saying some empty words and are deceiving themselves, for they do not really want to change their lives, but are trying to avoid the consequences of their sins. They are trying to avoid the fearful consequences by a superficial confession of the wrong they have done. But it is a superstition to do that. None can deceive the living God Who knows all things. Until the true repentance has taken place, the punishment will continue, and the consequences will continue, no matter if a person sees them or not.
If the repenting is done with the purpose of avoiding the punishment that has come or is coming on the person who sinned, it is not a true repentance, for once the punishment is removed, the person will return to his or her evil ways, as did the pharaoh. If “repentance” is done with the purpose of coming out of a difficult situation or a pressure that a person has brought on himself or herself by choosing to do evil, that is not a true repentance, because in that case, a person seeks to come out of a difficult situation that is hard to bear. In that case, he or she does not really repent, and does not change his or her mind and approach towards the sin that he or she has committed, nor is there any genuine desire to obey God, and do what is right. As soon as the relief comes and the pressure is gone, that person will return to his or her evil ways. That is why many times, the pressure remains and even grows in the life of a person, because there is no true repentance.
Many are deceived, and they want to sin but never reap the consequences of their sin.
Let us read what God says about the true and false repentance: “And Yahweh has given His voice before His power; for very great is His camp, for mighty is he who does His word. For great is the day of Yahweh and very awesome, and who can endure it? And also, now “utterance of Yahweh,” Return to Me with all your heart, and with fasting, weeping and mourning; And rend your heart and not your garments. Now return to Yahweh your God, for He is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, abounding in lovingkindness, and relenting from the evil” (Joel 2:11-13).
God says, “Rend your hearts and not your garments.” A person must not just confess his or her sins outwardly, or do some religious actions or ceremonies, but must “rend” his or her heart before God and pass through a deep sorrow of heart for his or her sins, and must wholeheartedly and radically turn away from the evil course, from the evil values and evil ambitions and evil mentality.” In James 4:8-10 we read: “Come near to God and He will come near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify hearts, you double-minded. Be afflicted, mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy to gloominess. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will lift you up.”
A person, who has been practicing sins for a time, must understand that he or she has been sinning against God. So he or she must hate and turn away from those sins, from those evil values, from that sinful way of life, from that evil and wicked mentality, even if there were no punishments, pressures or difficulties that these sins would bring on him or her.
Every person who has sinned, must repent and turn away from sins. But the reason for doing so, must not be in order to avoid a punishment or difficult circumstances, but because those things are against God. The motive must be to love and to please God, and obey His Word.
Sometimes the punishment and the terrible consequences of a sinful, proud lifestyle will not come for a long time, but do not be deceived, sin will certainly bring destruction. The Word of God declares the following: “Because the sentence for an evil deed is not carried out quickly, the heart of the sons of men are full within them to do evil. Although a sinner does evil a hundred (times), and it is prolonged for him, surely, I know that it will be good to those who fear God, who fear from His face” (Ecclesiastes 8:11-12).
What is seen with human eyes after the sin, can be misleading, for the person who has sinned may seem getting away with it for a long time, and outwardly he or she can seem to be happy, but everybody must know with certainty that there is no escape from the judgement, unless the sinner genuinely repents.
We read in Proverbs 29:1 the following: “A man of reproofs who hardens his neck, will suddenly be broken and without remedy.” God in His mercy and goodness brings conviction of sins many times and reproves the person who sins, giving him or her many chances to repent, but when a person continually ignores them and suppresses them by false excuses and justifications, then suddenly will come the destruction, and there will be nor remedy for that person. Nothing can replace the genuine repentance, and nobody must take lightly the repentance, because his or her destiny depends on it.
Please repent sincerely, and follow Jesus Christ, and you will have eternal life!
Repentance from sins
There are so many sins that people must repent from and we will mention many of them. We will begin to list of sins from which people must repent, by mentioning firstly the sins that can be considered as roots who caused all other sins.
Here are some of the sins of which people must repent:
- First sin to be repented of is the sin of not glorifying God as God, and being unthankful towards Him, not trusting in Him, not loving Him supremely.
We read in Romans 1:21-22 the description of the root of the fall of humans: “For even though they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, or give thanks; but they became vain in their reasonings, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools.”
Every person must repent from the sin that caused all sins, which is the refusal to acknowledge the Creator God for Who He is, and being unthankful towards Him, and not trusting in Him and loving Him. It was a willful sin committed by everybody, beginning from Satan and demons (spiritual beings that are now enemies of God and humans) and then continued by Eve and Adam and their descendants.
Let us again read the first part of Rom 1:21, “For even though they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, or give thanks.” We see that they knew God and were not ignorant of Who the Creator God is, because the scriptures reveal that God gave them this knowledge: “Because that which is known of God is manifest in them, for God manifested to them” (Rom 1:19). People, just by looking at the creation, can know that there is a powerful and wise Creator Who created all the things that exist, so they are without excuse (Rom 1:19-20).
So the first thing from which every person must repent and turn away from is the refusal to acknowledge, to glorify God and be thankful to Him. People must turn away from that horrible sin of refusal to acknowledge God and His existence, and begin to acknowledge Him the way they must acknowledge Him. And they must begin to treat Him as God, and give Him all the glory and the place He deserves in their lives. They must also, begin to thank God for everything, the way that He deserves to be thanked, and they must trust in Him.
We read the following in Proverbs 3:5-6: “Trust in Yahweh with all thy (your) heart, and do not lean on thy own understanding.In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He will make thy paths straight.” We read 1 Thessalonians 5:18: “In everything give thanks, because this (is) God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”
They have to love God with all their being, for this is the greatest commandment (Matthew 22:37-38), and the violation of this greatest commandment, is the greatest sin. People must also believe in His Son, Jesus Christ Whom God has sent to save them from their sins (Matthew 1:21, John 3:16). Seeking any other means (another name, another religion, some human works) in order to be justified before God, instead of His Son, Jesus Christ, is a horrible sin that will bring a person to eternal destruction (Jean 3:16, Rom 5:10).
The sin of not loving God is expressed also by another root sins which are the love of money (1 Ti 6:10) and the selfishness (2 Ti 3:2), expressed also by the love for pleasures (2 Ti 3:4). In 1 Timothy 6:10, we read that the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil. Jesus said that the one who loves money, cannot love God, and cannot serve God (Matthew 6:24).
- is the sin of not loving one’s neighbor as oneself, but being selfish, indifferent or hateful towards others. To love one’s neighbor as oneself is the second commandment, which, according to Jesus, is like the first commandment (Matthew 22:38-39). This sin (selfishness), which is also expressed by the love of money and pleasure, is also a root sin that can cause many other sins.
The other sins simply follow from theses two sins mentioned above, from which all people must repent. In all other sins mentioned after, we can see the diverse expressions of these two great sins (not acknowledging, not loving, not trusting, not glorifying God and His Son, not giving thanks to Him, and not loving one’s neighbor as oneself). Some of the lists of sins that you can find in the Bible are found in Mk 7:21-22, Rom 1:18-32, 1 Cor 5:11, 6:9-10, Gal 5:19-21, Eph 5:5, 2 Ti 3:1-5, Rev 21:8, 22:15.
These are many sins that every person must repent of:
- pride, arrogance, selfish ambitions, conceit, haughtiness, presumption, boastfulness, insolence
- hating people, murder, wickedness, animosity, evilness, malice, ruthlessness, heartlessness, brutality, inventing evils, viciousness
- hypocrisy, lies, manipulation, deceits, falsehood, flattery, wiles, ruses, fraud, guile, cunningness, hypocrisy, pretense, duplicity, dishonesty, slyness and scam,
- unfaithfulness, treacherousness, disloyalty, infidelity, betrayal, illegitimate divorce
- defiance, rebellion, obstinacy, disobedience to parents and other persons in authority, not honoring one’s parents
- insult, blasphemy, cussing, cursing, speaking evil things
- gossip, slander, calumny, backbiting, defamation,
- evil thoughts, envy, jealousy, evil eye, desiring bad things to happen to people
- unforgiveness, bitterness, resentment, revengefulness
- criticism, faultfinding, judgementalism, condemning, accusing
- complaining, murmuring, muttering, unthankfulness, ungratefulness
- laziness, slothfulness, recklessness, idleness,
- sinful human wrath, rage, anger, fury
- senselessness, foolishness, folly, silliness
- strife, discord, fights, factions
- all sexual sins.
The sexual relations are allowed only between a husband (who is a male human being) and his own wife (female human being). All others sexual activities either in the heart or in outward actions are categorically forbidden by God and the persons who do them must repent, or they will perish. Among them are: adultery, fornication, prostitution, incest, pornography, promiscuousness, uncleanness, sexual relations between the humans with the same gender, bestiality and all other sexual sins in the heart and in outward actions.
- Idolatry (idol worship of any kind), worship of man-made or imagined gods, demon worship
- greed, avarice, covetousness
- gluttony, drunkenness, use of narcotics (drugs), orgies
- Sorcery, occultism, witchcraft, consulting demons, consulting the spirits of dead, magic, enchantment
- Theft, stealing, robbery, cheating
The most urgent thing that any human being must do, is to repent sincerely from all of his or her sins and believe in Jesus Christ. Every person can receive forgiveness of sins and deliverance from sins through God’s Son, Jesus Christ. After the repentance and accepting by faith Jesus Christ as his or her personal Lord (Owner) and Savior, a person must be baptized in the name Jesus Christ (also in the name of the Father, and Son and the Holy Spirit), as soon as possible. And by doing so he or she will become a disciple of Jesus and must follow Him all the days of his or her life.