Repent

Repent, Repenting and Repentance	Created Date: 3-Mar-2019
	Last updated: 23-Nov-2025

Sections

1	What is Repenting
2	Requirements and Benefits from Repenting
3	Secret Sins are often the Last Sins to Repent

What is Repenting

Repenting is the act, according to the Scriptures, as the step of turning away from activities that are against God that are known as sin. The turning away is stopping the action that is sin.

This author's favorite analogy for repenting is an analogy of vehicle moving down a highway going any high rate of speed. Going down the highway is in the wrong sinful direction. In order to repent, the vehicle must come to a complete stop of moving before going back in the correct direction.

The scripture have given us the Ten Commandments, as part of the Law of God, and Jesus Christ summarized the entirety of the Law with two commandments as read in Matthew 22:36-40 and John 13:34.

The following is an excerpt from the Law topic:

In Matthew 22:36-40, Jesus Christ told the Pharisees the summary of the entirety of the Old Testament Commandments, with two laws that encompasses all of the laws of the Old Testament. It is also confirmed in John 13:34 when Jesus Christ spoke of the "new commandment".

Matthew 22:36-40	36 Teacher, which commandment is the greatest in the Law? 37 And he said to him, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' 38 "This is the great and foremost commandment.' 39 The second is like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40 Upon these two commandments hang the whole Law and the Prophets.
John 13:34	I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.

If we love God and others, then we should be exhibiting and performing works of love from any wrongful actions towards God and others that we are repenting from.

James 2:14-26

14 What doth it profit, my brethren, if a man say he hath faith, but have not works? can that faith save him? 15 If a brother or sister be naked and in lack of daily food, 16 and one of you say unto them, Go in peace, be ye warmed and filled; and yet ye give them not the things needful to the body; what doth it profit? 17 Even so faith, if it have not works, is dead in itself. 18 Yea, a man will say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: show me thy faith apart from thy works, and I by my works will show thee my faith. 1

Requirements and Benefits from Repenting

Often the Christian who repents does not realize or ignores the principles of God's instructions to make restitution when applicable in sinful actions.

Not all sins are solely against God and ourselves,
Restitution is absolutely NOT penance. Penance is a form of punishment, and Restitution is to restore victims and restore damages if possible.
We must demonstrate our ambassadorship for God.
Some forms of Restitution must be done in secret and anonymously for various reasons such as protection for yourself and others.
Some forms of Restitution must be done to people and places that are not victims of our sinful actions because the true victims cannot be given Resititution.

There are some sins that are deeply offensive to God and extremely harmful to ourselves and others which absolutely require Resititutionsuch as the Four Greatest Sins, the things God hates as read in the Adultery topic.

Proverbs 6:16-19

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There are six things which the Lord hates, Yes, seven which are an abomination to Him:
Haughty eyes,
a lying tongue,
And hands that shed innocent blood,
A heart that devises wicked plans,
Feet that run rapidly to evil,
A false witness who utters lies,
And one who spreads strife among brothers.

The following is an excerpt from the Adultery topic, which is an example of one of the Four Greatest Sins:

An "adultery consequences to others" analogy is partially like someone mischievously causing a dam to fail, which then causes a great deal of water to destroy homes and have people drown downstream. The person who destroyed the dam confesses the mistake, where the person is forgiven, but because of forgiveness and maybe even jail time, this person believes everything is now made good. This is not the case because of the dam breaking, there will be people helping to clean up the mess, make repairs, replace destroyed homes and assist the families who lost loved ones. The person who destroyed the dam needs to do more than just confess and feel sorry from a Christian perspective. All our sins are covered under the Cross, so that we can have entrance into heaven. We all should know that God never meant the Cross to be a license to be sinful without consequences and being part of solutions to help others. There are actions to be taken to repair lives, make restitution which is required if possible

The benefits of repenting, with many examples in the scriptures are:

Consequences are God administrated with Grace and Mercy to benefit the sinner.
Restitution to God and any victims will become blessing that will become payments against the sin repenting and also building of benefits in our lives along with Rewards in Heaven.
A clear mind to be influenced by the Holy Spirit.
A greater peace that surpasses our understanding will become part of our lives with strengthening against the temptation to return to sinful areas in our lives.

Philippians 4:4-7

4 Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! 5 Let your gentleness be apparent to all. The Lord is near.6 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

The question on how do we make Restitution is done through our guidance of the Holy Spirit in our life, and if required then a peer Christian friend or group should be used. The idea of Restitution is also part of counseling in therapy and also part of well-known twelve steps of Alcoholics Anonymous.

	Steps
1	We admitted we were powerless over alcohol - that our lives had become unmanageable, understand the consequences.
2	Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity, strength us at all times
3	Make a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.
4	Make searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
5	Admitted to God, to ourselves and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
6	Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
7	Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
8	Make a list of all persons we had harmed and became willing to make amends to them all.
9	Make direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
10	Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.
11	Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.
12	Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

Secret Sins are often the Last Sins to Repent

The following is an excerpt from the topic on Secret Sins

All Christians, that are growing in our Faith and maturity, will realize that we are not perfect. We also realize that we can do better in our relationship with God and others.

The Holy Spirit that indwells us, which we can unfortunately suppress His influence because of our sins and also thoughts. The Holy Spirit is there always for us to recognize sins and conquer the desires to continue in them. See Matthew 15:9-20 for knowledge that our "our heart", which is our inner being's desires, is the place that must change in our life to stop Secret Sins and all sins.

Matthew 15:5-9

5 But ye say, Whosoever shall say to his father or his mother, That wherewith thou mightest have been profited by me is given to God; 6 he shall not honor his father. And ye have made void the word of God because of your tradition. 7 Ye hypocrites, well did Isaiah prophesy of you, saying, 8 This people honoreth me with their lips; But their heart is far from me. 9 But in vain do they worship me,
Teaching as their doctrines the precepts of men.

Matthew 15:13-20

13 But he answered and said, Every plant which my heavenly Father planted not, shall be rooted up. 14 Let them alone: they are blind guides. And if the blind guide the blind, both shall fall into a pit. 15 And Peter answered and said unto him, Declare unto us the parable. 16 And he said, Are ye also even yet without understanding? 17 Perceive ye not, that whatsoever goeth into the mouth passeth into the belly, and is cast out into the draught? 18 But the things which proceed out of the mouth come forth out of the heart; and they defile the man. 19 For out of the heart come forth evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, railings: 20 these are the things which defile the man; but to eat with unwashen hands defileth not the man.

The revelation, that comes with Christian maturity, is Secret Sins are stopping all of us to obtain greater outcomes in our lives and Rewards in Heaven. When we are sinning then we can simply ask God for assistance and a starting point to stop.

All sins are known and there is a great motivator in our life to persevere and conquer. We are constantly encouraged, strengthened and rewarded by God when we are acting as we should.

Hebrews 12:1	Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,
Mark 4:22	For there is nothing hid, save that it should be manifested; neither was anything made secret, but that it should come to light.

When we realize that for God, there is knowing done in secret that will come to light, then the

Embarrassment,
Self awareness of not living righteously as an Ambassador of God, and
The potential loss of Rewards in Heaven and our life on Earth

should motivate us to stop all forms of Secret Sinning. God will bless us for stopping, which will replace the selfish and temporary benefit of any sin with God's rewards. Do not be deceived that a Secret Sin will give you any type of benefit, as all Secret Sins will bring negative consequences that are greater than any enjoyment out of sinning.

Matthew 6:33

But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.

What to read next?

Does Sowing and Reaping happen both positively and negatively? What are the Four Greatest Sins. What is the Holy of Hollies of the Old Testament?