Sin, repentance, forgiveness

Sin after believing

After coming to faith, you may be dismayed to find yourself still losing your temper or telling lies. That does not mean your faith is fake. The apostle John, one of the witnesses Jesus sent out, wrote to the church, the people who belong to Jesus: "If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us" (1 John 1:8).

In the Bible, sin is deeper than a few bad deeds: "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23). Sin is turning from God and missing what he made us for, and, as Jesus said, it comes "from within the hearts of men" before it shows in what we do (Mark 7:21). On where sin comes from, see the doctrine course's Original sin and its effects and What is sin?

The son who came home

To repent is to turn from sin towards God: "Repent, then, and turn back, so that your sins may be wiped away" (Acts 3:19). Jesus told a story about a son who left home and wasted everything he had. Starving, "he came to his senses" and set off back to his father (Luke 15:17):

So he got up and went to his father. But while he was still in the distance, his father saw him and was filled with compassion. He ran to his son, embraced him, and kissed him.

Luke 15:20

The father ran before the son had said a word. So God receives those who come back, and he has promised:

If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

1 John 1:9

God is faithful: he keeps his promise. And he is just in forgiving, because "we have an advocate before the Father — Jesus Christ, the Righteous One" (1 John 2:1), who speaks for us. Christ has already died for our sins, so God's forgiveness is just as well as kind.

David, king of Israel, prayed Psalm 51 after he had taken another man's wife and had her husband killed: "Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me" (Psalm 51:10). God does not despise "a broken and a contrite heart" (Psalm 51:17); to be contrite is to be truly sorry for sin. Godly sorrow, Paul says, brings repentance that leads to salvation, but worldly sorrow brings death (2 Corinthians 7:10). Repentance is not sitting down in self-hatred, but getting up and going to the Father.

In 1517 Martin Luther began his Ninety-five Theses by saying that when Jesus called us to repent, he "intended that the whole life of believers should be penitence" Ninety-five Theses, 1. Penitence is another word for repentance: it is the road of every day, not only the door into the Christian life.

The Reformed confessions on repentance

The Reformed churches grew from the sixteenth-century Reformation, a movement to renew the church by Scripture, in the line of teachers such as John Calvin. Presbyterians are the best known; the Reformed churches of continental Europe are another branch, and among Baptists the Reformed Baptists confess the same faith. The Heidelberg Catechism (1563), a catechism that teaches by questions and answers, calls true repentance ‘the dying of the old man, and the quickening of the new’, its coming to life Q. 88: ‘heartfelt sorrow for sin’ Q. 89 and ‘heartfelt joy in God’ Q. 90. Repentance holds joy as well as tears. The Westminster Shorter Catechism (1647) adds that the repenting sinner, grasping God's mercy in Christ, turns from sin to God ‘with grief and hatred of his sin’ Q. 87.

The Westminster Confession (1646), a confession of faith or written statement of what a church believes, is clear that repentance is no ‘satisfaction for sin’, no payment: pardon is ‘the act of God's free grace in Christ’, grace being God's kindness to those who have not deserved it. Yet no one may expect pardon without repentance 15.3. Then it comforts us:

As there is no sin so small but it deserves damnation, so there is no sin so great that it can bring damnation upon those who truly repent.

Westminster Confession 15.4

Damnation is condemnation: being judged guilty and lost. Some believers fear they have committed the one sin Jesus said would not be forgiven, "the blasphemy against the Spirit" (Matthew 12:31); the Holy Spirit is God, one with the Father and the Son. Matthew Henry, an English pastor of around 1700, answers that "those who fear they have committed this sin, give a good sign that they have not" Matthew Henry. The fear itself shows a tender conscience. Read What is the unforgivable sin?, and if the fear will not leave you, talk to your pastor. See also the Reformed course's Guilt, grace and gratitude.

Confessing to whom?

We confess our sins to God first; David prayed, "Against You, You only, have I sinned" (Psalm 51:4). Where we have wronged someone, we confess to them too and put it right. Jesus said that if you remember at the altar that your brother has something against you, "First go and be reconciled to your brother" (Matthew 5:24). James writes, "confess your sins to each other and pray for each other" (James 5:16).

The Reformed and most Protestant churches, the churches that came from the Reformation, do not require confession to a minister for forgiveness: anyone may confess directly to God through Christ. Still, talking and praying with a pastor helps with heavy guilt. The worship of many churches, their gathering to hear God's word, praise him and pray, includes a prayer of confession and a word of pardon: Calvin's Genevan service began with confession The Genevan Form of Prayers, and in the Church of England's Book of Common Prayer the whole congregation says, "We have erred, and strayed from thy ways like lost sheep" The Book of Common Prayer.

The Catholic Church and the Orthodox churches of the East keep confession to a priest, one of their ordained ministers, and Christ's forgiveness through him, as a sacrament, a holy rite given by Christ. Catholics call it the sacrament of penance or reconciliation, and ground it in the risen Jesus' words to his disciples: "If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven" (John 20:23; Catechism of the Catholic Church). Lutherans, too, keep private confession to a pastor, with absolution, the declaration of forgiveness in Christ's name; Luther's Small Catechism teaches us to receive it ‘as from God Himself’ Small Catechism.

Forgiven, we forgive

In the Lord's Prayer, the prayer he gave his disciples, Jesus taught us to pray, "And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors" (Matthew 6:12).

Be kind and tenderhearted to one another, forgiving each other just as in Christ God forgave you.

Ephesians 4:32

Asked how often to forgive, Jesus told Peter, "not just seven times, but seventy-seven times!" (Matthew 18:22). We can forgive because we have first been forgiven far more.

But forgiving is not calling the wrong right. It names the wrong as wrong, and leaves the paying back to God: "Do not avenge yourselves, beloved, but leave room for God’s wrath" (Romans 12:19). Nor is a relationship always mended at once: Paul says to live at peace with everyone "if it is possible on your part" (Romans 12:18). Above all, forgiving never means staying in danger. If you are suffering violence or abuse, get to a safe place first, and seek the help of your pastor or someone you trust, and where needed a counsellor or the police. See also How is forgiveness possible? and What is repentance?

This week

Pray Psalm 51 slowly. Read a few verses a day aloud, as your own prayer. If there is a sin you have wanted to hide from God, name it to him, and hold on to the promise of 1 John 1:9.

If you have wronged someone, put it right. Say you are sorry, and repay what you owe. If meeting them would be unsafe, or you are not sure what to do, talk to your pastor first. The next lesson is about the Holy Spirit, who works in us.

Practice