Yesterday I wrote Eleven Words on Repentance. Here are some questions I asked myself as I wrote the post.

Can I keep repenting for the same sin?
Yes. If Christ told Peter to forgive seven times seventy, then we can assume that God’s mercy is wider (Matthew 18:22).

What if I keep repenting, but do not see change in my life? 
There are several options here. One is that you are changing, but your perception is skewed because you are too close. Find someone who knows you well and will be honest with you. Ask them if they are seeing change. Many times we are hard on ourselves. An outsider can help us see that we are growing. Second, you may not be using the tools God has given you to overcome your sin. Are you just repenting and hoping change strikes you like a bolt from heaven? Or are you reading and memorizing Scripture, attending worship, spending time with godly men, working hard, praying, etc.? God works through means. Finally, it is possible you are not regenerate. One sign of a regenerate heart is not just the desire to repent and change, but the actual power to do so (I John 3:9). The good news is that Christ casts out no one who comes to him (John 6:37). Flee to Christ, trust in Him, and He will give you His Spirit so that you might begin overcoming sin.

How much fruit does true repentance bear? 
The short answer is some.  There is no growth chart to tell us how much fruit we should be bearing. But there should be signs of growth over a long period of time. I encourage people to look at large sections of time in their lives. It is hard to see growth in a week. It shouldn’t be hard to see it in a year. Also remember that God usually works on certain areas of our lives before moving on to other areas. For example, right now he might be working on anger in me. I fight anger. I memorize verses to kill anger. I repent of my anger. But after some years, by the Spirit, I begin to overcome anger. God then usually brings up another sin, such as bitterness. This can give the illusion of not growing.  But what has happened is you have moved from one sin, which you have under control, to another sin you do not.

Does my repentance need to be emotional? 
This is a tricky question. There can be a lot of tears spilled and no repentance. There can be no tears shed and a man be repentant. Repentance should involved the whole man, including his feelings. We should feel our sin. But not all of us express our feelings the same way. We even express our feelings differently at different stages of our lives. So yes it should involve our emotions, but we should not judge our repentance or anyone else’s on outward expression of those emotions.

How do I know I truly repented? 
Did you look to Jesus to take away your sins? Do you trust in Him and his work alone to remove your sins?  Good then you repented. Don’t ask questions like, “Did I really feel repentant?”  “Was I totally sincere?” In certain situations they might be helpful, but often they turn us inward in a way that is not healthy. Looking to Christ and the promises given in the Word are the keys.

Are there any keys to leading a life of fruit bearing repentance?
There are no magic bullets in the Christian life, but there are few things that can help.

First, realize that you are a much worse sinner than you think you are. Without a deep sense of our sinfulness repentance will be in short supply.

Second, realize that you are rightly condemned by God’s law outside of Christ. You cannot in any way earn even a sliver of your salvation. When God declares you “not righteous” he is being entirely just. It is not an unfair judgment.

Third, realize that God’s mercy shown to us in Christ is great. Jesus has saved us to the uttermost. Your sins, as great as they are, are overwhelmed by Christ’s blood. His mercy is free and the fountain does not run dry. This is a great spur for us to keep repenting and fleeing to the cross no matter how often or how grievous our sins.

Fourth, believe that because of Christ’s shed blood you are forgiven. Trust the promises given in God’s Word that tell us He forgives (Micah 7:19-20, Luke 24:47, Ephesians 1:7, and I John 1:8-9). You are really forgiven. It is not a hoax.

Fourth, long for and love God, Jesus, the Spirit, and holiness. These things must be treasures to us, not just people we “must” love or things we “must” do. Our affections must be fixed on God.  Too often we combat sin by talking about how ugly sin is. This can be helpful. But we also need to emphasize how glorious God is. We need to repent not just because we chose sin, but because we rejected the glory of God. When we choose sin we toss aside happiness, blessing, joy and life (Jeremiah 2:12-13).

Fifth, the Word must be a constant presence in your life. Memorize it. Read it. But most of all hear it preached. When we read God’s Word we see it through our own eyes. Preaching however forces us to look at the Word from a different angle. Therefore reading God’s Word is not enough.

Finally, spend more time on your own sins than you do on the sins of others. One of the surest signs someone is not leading a life of fruitful repentance is that they think much of the sins of others and little of their own sins.

Do you have other questions about repentance? Put them in the comments and I will try to reply.

1. Repentance does not save you.  It is not a work of merit. God does not forgive you because you repent. He forgives you because of Christ’s blood. Therefore your repentance does not have to be “perfectly sincere” or “really heartfelt.”

2. Repentance is not feeling bad for your sins. Many men have felt guilty and yet never repented. Often men mistake that feeling of sorrow/guilt for true repentance.

3. Repentance is not fearing the consequences of your sins. Many men do not want the consequences of their sins, but also do not want to repent. Consequences can help us see the need to repent, but in and of themselves, are not enough.

4. Repentance is the act of confessing and turning from our sins because of the conviction of the Holy Spirit through the Word and turning to the mercy of God shown to us in Christ. We must turn from our sin and turn to God. That is why guilt and fearing the consequences are insufficient motivators for repentance. Neither of those automatically drive us to God. If repentance does not end at the blood of Christ, it is not true repentance.

5. We should be repenting of sins in the Bible and using the language the Bible uses. Call it what it is. Lust, gossip, anger, bitterness, malice, slander, laziness, greed, and coveting are all terms in the Scriptures. Do not call your sins mistakes. Do not say lust was just a slip up. Don’t say laziness is just being tired.

6. Repentance should involve confessing specific sins to the Lord. Too often repentance is generic. “Lord, I am a proud man. Please forgive me.” This is not a bad prayer and it is probably a true prayer. But it does go deep enough. “Lord, because I am a proud man I got angry at my son when he beat me at Dominion.” Or “Lord, I am vain, I was jealous when that woman’s dress got complimented and mine did not.” Root your repentance in real events, not in generic descriptions of your sinfulness. It helps see us for who we really are and not who we imagine ourselves to be.

7. Repentance means looking at the why as well as the what. Why did I look at porn? Why did I talk disrespectfully to my husband? Why am I lazy at work? The desires and motivations of hearts matter as much as the action itself. This also means you can repent of things that you never act on. It is possible to be greedy and never steal or to be angry and never hit.  Yet greed and anger are both sins that need to be repented of. It is odd that in a culture where the shape of our desires are so important there is such little emphasis on repenting of sinful desires.

8. Repentance does not remove the consequences of your sins. A man who repents can still be disciplined by the Lord. But this is not punishment for his sin. A man whom God disciplines is not making atonement for his sin through that discipline. Atonement was fully paid at the cross by Jesus. Rather he is being molded by God so that he might reject sin in the future. A repentant man will accept the consequences of his sin.

9. A repentant man knows that forgiveness is not owed. Just because you repent does not mean you deserve God’s grace. God does not owe you anything including forgiveness.

10. A repentant man does not trust in the sincerity of the repentance nor in the desire to do better in the future. When we do this we are making of the foundation of our repentance ourselves. This cannot be. True repentance rests solely on Jesus and his work on the cross. A repentant man knows that even his repentance needs to be covered by Christ’s blood.

11. Repentance will bear fruit. However, this fruit is usually small at the beginning and grows over time. A man who repents of his anger does not automatically get rid of it. But that repentance and desire to turn from sin will bear fruit over time. There are two dangers. One is believing repentance is just about forgiveness and not about change. The other danger is that we believe that if we repent sin automatically goes away. Neither is correct. Repentance is part of our lifelong war against the sin in our hearts.