I've been talking with a dear Christian sister about our struggles with being human, with always falling short of His glory, and with always sinning and giving in to temptation. We talked about God's grace being sufficient, and His love never ending; BUT that doesn't mean we can just go on sinning. We came to a conclusion that goes:
"It's only by His grace that we are saved, and in that we should put our faith and trust on. That doesn't mean we should go about our shortcomings like a cycle of God-forgives so we-forget. What the stories in the Bible are telling us is that God is a God of second chances, and that He wants us to repent--sincerely repent. And to ask Him for grace not to be waived off our sins again, but to teach us to change, the way He wants us to."
Then it hit me: Have I been repenting, or only apologizing?
In the Oxford English Dictionary (Online) to repent is defined as:
"To review one's actions and feel contrition or regret for something one has done or omitted to do; (esp. in religious contexts) to acknowledge the sinfulness of one's past action or conduct by showing sincere remorse and undertaking to reform in the future."
("repent, v.". OED Online. December 2011. Oxford University Press. 22 February 2012 <http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/162742?rskey=EXLQZ8&result=4&isAdvanced=false>.)
For the most part, I've only been apologizing: saying SORRY. That's not what God wants!
Sure, He is pleased that we acknowledge our shortcomings and our faults and that we express remorse for them; but that's not enough. He asks for REPENTANCE not APOLOGIES. Apologies are great, they are the first step to repentance: recognizing that we are wrong and that we need help; but repentance goes further than that. Repentance entails a complete turn around -- we stop walking in the direction we're going, and turn back to go to where He wants us to go! Apology is just stopping in our tracks and staying there, that's not what He wants.
From that time on Jesus began to preach, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” (Matthew 4:17)
Jesus did not say "Apologize for your sins! For the kingdom of heaven has come near." NO, He said: REPENT.
Also, listen to Paul in Acts 20:21, he says:
I have declared to both Jews and Greeks that they must turn to God in repentance and have faith in our Lord Jesus.
He did not tell the Jews and the Greeks to "turn to God and apologize," he said REPENT.
When we sin and then repent, we are just doing what we're supposed to: we fall, so we have to get up. However, abuse of His grace comes when we sin and we just keep apologizing and think we're OKAY by virtue of His grace.
Apology is not repentance, if it were, Jesus would've used apologize in His preaching.
I, and everyone else, am not abusing God's grace when I genuinely repent. I feel bad about taking His grace for granted because I only have "apology" in mind. If you've always been feeling guilty about constantly sinning and then saying sorry, then fellow saint, that must be God bugging you saying: Child, I don't need your apologies, I want your repentance. Repentance means DOING something; it's turning AWAY from our sins -- not just saying sorry for them.
Now I will echo John the Baptist's call: REPENT!
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