 | Reverend Terry G. Fox is Senior Pastor of Immanuel Baptist Church. He is Chairman of the North American Mission Board, member of its Executive Committee and the FamilyNet Broadcast Communications Committee, as well as numerous other subcommittees. He's listed on the Who's Who Among Outstanding Corporate Executives. He is a sought after speaker and has traveled and ministered in many places in the United States, Latin America and Southeast Asia. Rev. Fox and his wife Barbara have three children. You may contact him at Immanuel Baptist Church, 1415 South Topeka, Wichita, Kansas, 67211; phone (316) 262-1452; or Fax (316) 262-4704. |
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?
ANSWER: I think you are limiting the word "repent" to mean "confess to receive forgiveness". It can be frustrating to have to ask fororgiveness again and again for the same sin. But sin is more than guilt, and repenting is more than seeking forgiveness. God told the Hebrews that His law was given to them for their own good. Sin is unhealthy...like taking drugs. Repeated confessing and repenting is often part of the cure. To repent is to change direction, or at least to express the desire to change. "Oops, I've done it again" doesn't qualify as repentance. There must be a recognition of the seriousness of the consequences. Sin really is like drugs. The thrill diminishes: an ever increasing hunger for an ever decreasing satisfaction. The Devil is just as interested in giving pleasure as a fisherman is in feeding fish...just enough to keep getting you hooked. So repeated confession and plea for help from God is normal. It may even be said to be His chosen method! Suppose I could overcome all of my weaknesses and shed the obnoxious parts of my personality easily. Wouldn't I become sure of my moral superiority and be a proud religious prude. God will only give me progress toward righteousness when I am fully aware that He has given me this victory. It is hard for me to sympathize with a person who is trapped by a sin which has not been a problem for me. It is so easy to feel superior, and God-- and everybody else --dislikes proud, self-sufficient people. God wants me to be like Jesus. He was sinless, but not arrogant, and they called Him "a friend of sinners". An awareness of one's personal sin and moral weakness is the first step in salvation. The only people who want to be saved are those who realize they are lost and in danger. God's Holy Spirit works on the conscience to produce guilt and the understanding that I do not deserve forgiveness. The conscience can be weakened by pretending that I am not bad compared to other people....but then realization of really shameful words, acts or attitudes breaks in and a fear of facing God results. Then the Gospel is seen really as Good News. Jesus has suffered and died in my place. He Who had no sin of His own, and was Deity so He could die for us all, offers me total forgiveness if I accept Him as my Savior and Lord. He will perform a moral surgery by putting the Holy Spirit into the sinner so that new power, desires, sensitivity to sin and joy in His presence are implanted.. And we begin to learn what sin really is: It is unbelief. It is telling God, " I know better what is good for me that You do." It tells Him that I do not trust His goodness or I do not trust His knowledge. His love or His wisdom is flouted. Repentance...even repeated repentance... is then seen as the necessary method to become Christ-like.
