Chapter 7. Step 2. Repentance. It is certain we do enough every day to bring us upon our knees at night. Matthew Henry. Not one day has passed but I have sinned before God. Was this a fitting return for all my Creator's gifts, for my Redeemer's blood? Francis of Assisi. The individual who truly repents not only sees sin to be detestable and vile and worthy of abhorrence, but he really abhors it and hates it in his heart. Charles Finney. The second reason for our spiritual examination is to bring us to repentance.
That's because, to a large degree, we can only seriously repent to the extent that we know what we're repenting of. Deep repentance is another secret of the Kingdom life. Jesus created an enduring link between repentance and the Kingdom of God by making them the joint theme of His gospel. From that time, Jesus began to preach and to say, "Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand." Matthew 4:17. Repentance used to be the norm.
In New Testament times, prospective converts were called upon to thoroughly repent before their conversion and baptism. Even John the Baptist required this. Then Jerusalem, all Judea, and all the region around the Jordan went out to him and were baptized by him in the Jordan, confessing their sins. But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, "Brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance." Matthew 3:5-8.
So John the Baptist required real repentance before he would baptize anyone. He wanted people to be ready to change their entire way of life because the Kingdom of God was at hand. People confessed their sins at the time of baptism. John warned them their lives must continue to bear the fruits of this repentance. Did things change with the Christian gospel? No. The meaning of baptism changed, but not the requirement to truly repent.
The apostles preached to the crowds, "Repent, therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord." Acts 3:19. Paul told King Agrippa that he had "declared first to those in Damascus and in Jerusalem and throughout all the region of Judea, and then to the Gentiles, that they should repent, turn to God, and do works befitting repentance." Acts 26:20. Writing about AD 150, Justin Martyr describes baptism in his day.
As many as are persuaded and believe that what we teach and say is true and undertake to be able to live accordingly are instructed to pray and to entreat God with fasting for the remission of their past sins, the rest of us pray and fast with them.
The ancient exhortation to repent and confess one's sins before baptism has been replaced today by the anemic invitation merely to "acknowledge that you are a sinner." As a result, millions of people have come to conversion and baptism without ever having confessed and repented of their particular sins. They've only made a general acknowledgment that they are sinners along with the rest of mankind.
That is why I recommend combing your mind's memory banks to recall the sins you've committed during your life up to this point. I'm not referring to sins you've already confessed, repented of, and been forgiven. Those are buried and forgotten. I'm talking about serious sins that you've never confessed to God and never specifically repented of. You'll no doubt be able to recollect only a small percentage of your actual sins. But it's likely that the ones you remember will be among your more serious.
If you haven't previously repented of these, confess them now to the Lord and repent of them. Likewise, confess and repent of each aspect of the ungodly morass you've discovered inside yourself. The same goes for the fruits of the Spirit that you realize are deficient in your life. As for the many sins, wrongs, faults, and mistakes you've made that you can no longer remember, pray daily, "Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors." Matthew 6:12. The Big Surrender.
All of this examination, reflection, and repentance is designed to bring you to a point of making a deliberate, total surrender to God. There can be no authentic Kingdom life without such a surrender. That's why I sometimes refer to those who embark on the Kingdom life as surrendered Christians. Anabaptist minister Ken Miller describes this initial thorough surrender in these words: "This other kind of repentance is the total capitulation of our lives to Jesus at the beginning of the Kingdom life.
It isn't just repenting of latent character flaws and leftover sinful patterns. It's the total giving up of self. It's where a person turns from serving himself and the kingdoms of this world to decisively surrendering himself to Christ and His Kingdom. Such a person has been conquered by the love of God in Christ, and he is ready to sit at the table and sign the terms of surrender."