 | Rev. Patrick Notley is the Associate Pastor of First Presbyterian Church located at 525 N. Broadway in downtown Wichita. Reverend Notley received an MA in Divinity at San Francisco Theological Seminary and a Master of Arts in Christian Education from Presbyterian School of Christian Education in Richmond, VA. Born in Denver, CO and raised on the East Coast, Reverend Notley along with his wife, relocated to Wichita in 1997 to join the church, where he is responsible for Evangelism Educational programs. You can reach Reverend Notley at (316) 263-0248 ext. 22 or by email at pwnotley@firstpresbywichita.org |
Religion
2004-06-01 09:59:00
Why repent when you’re going to commit the same sins again?
: What's the point of repenting your sins when you just know you will commit the same sins over and over again?QUESTION: What's the point of repenting your sins when you just know you will commit the same sins over and over again?
ANSWER: I have noticed, over the years, that there is a great deal of confusion about the concept of repentance. This question is a good case in point. The questioner seems to be confused with the difference between confessing sins and repenting. In basic terms to confess is to simply admit to wrongdoing and seek forgiveness. In other words it is to say, "I am sorry for what I have done." We are all familiar with this because it is a common occurrence in our daily lives. And yet, we are also familiar with persons who say they are sorry only to do the same thing over and over again, each time repeating that they are sorry. This is not repentance! Repentance literally means to turn about face. In other words to repent means to first confess and seek forgiveness and then to turn around and head away from the sinful behavior that caused you to confess in the first place. We see this happen in our common language as we say or hear others say, "I have to turn my life around." So to truly repent means that committing the same sins is not an option because you have turned away from that behavior and toward the one who forgives. A wonderful example of this concept can be found in the Gospel of Luke in The Parable of the Prodigal and is Brother (Luke 15:11-32). This familiar story has many lessons to tell but for our purposes I will focus on the life of the young son who asks for his portion of the father's estate while the father still lives. The son then goes off to waste that inheritance in "dissolute living" until he has nothing left and then must work as a common laborer on a pig farm - not a good occupation for a good Jewish boy. In verse seventeen of this story we read that he came to himself or in more modern language he came to his senses and left what he was doing in order to seek his father's forgiveness. The son then set out away from the life he had lived, away from the dissolute living and back toward the life we knew with his father. He turns his back on his sinful behavior and his face toward the one who will forgive. Now, we do not know whether he was successful in remaining true to his desire to live a new life and we do not know if he ever committed another sin. That does not matter. What matters is that we have an example of what repentance is all about; the desire to admit wrong, to seek forgiveness and to not engage again in that behavior. To repent does not mean that we will be sinless, for all we need to do is look around to know that humanity is far from sinless. To repent means that we turn our face to God and continue to seek God's help in our lives so that little by little we may move toward a more holy and healthy life. So the point of repentance is to understand more fully what it means to have God in our lives so that we slowly but surely refrain from that which is Godless.
