Do You Repent or Only Confess?

Language naturally evolves over time as the meaning of words and their usage change. As with many words today, “repentance” has lost its original meaning.

Most professing Christians confuse the words repentance and confession. I often hear people say in reference to something they are guilty of, “I had to repent.” Most often, what they mean is they had to confess, or admit, their guilt to God. Some see repentance as crying out to God for forgiveness over something they feel convicted about. Many even feel the only way to do this properly is at the altar in a church.

But what these people are describing is not biblical repentance. It is confession. Many sincere people find themselves at the altar each week crying out to God in confession but never seeing any real change in their life. They may feel sorry for what they have done but not to the point that they stop doing it. Many are not so much sorry for the sin itself but rather the consequences.

True biblical repentance is far more than simply acknowledging guilt to God. And it’s more than simply asking for forgiveness. Repentance means change. Repentance is a complete turn around to head in the opposite direction. Repentance is first a change of heart. Which means our understanding and attitude becomes completely reverse to what it was before. We are completely convinced of the need to change our actions. Which brings us to phase two of repentance—action. Once our heart is genuinely changed, we are then compelled to change our actions as well. If there is no change in action then genuine repentance has not taken place.

To say we are guilty and admit we need to change is not repentance. That is confession. To stop, turn around, and head in the opposite direction is repentance.

The initial repentance experienced is at the point of salvation. First, we hear the Gospel message. Second, the Holy Spirit opens our understanding and brings conviction over our sinful state and our desperate need of a Savior. Third, we confess our condition and need to God, ask forgiveness, and pray to receive Jesus as Savior and the new birth. If what we are experiencing is real, we will at that point change the course of our life. We stop living for self and start living for Jesus. We stop seeking our own will and pleasure and begin pursuing His. We stop studying ways to make ourselves happy and start studying God’s Word in order to know Him better and learn to walk in His ways. All this is initiated and empower by the Holy Spirit. We are utterly incapable of making the necessary changes ourselves. If we could, there would be no need of a Savior.
Obviously, total change is a process—not everything changes at once. But what has completely changed is the desire of our heart. A new desire, completely opposite from our old desire, is given to us. This new desire is to be holy; to be obedient to God; to live a life that is pleasing in His sight. Immediately a war begins between our old desire to please self and our new desire to please God. The old nature still desires the things it is accustomed to, while the new nature longs to be like Jesus. All those truly born-again will experience this change and this war. (See Paul’s description of this war in Romans 7.)

What I’ve just described is only the first repentance experienced by a true Christian—it is not the last. This repentance is evidence that we have received genuine salvation, but it is not the end of our need to repent. As we travel the road to maturity in Christ, we encounter more and more areas of our life that need to be changed. The process is the same as the first. We hear (or read) about something in our life that is not right. The Holy Spirit brings conviction to our spirit. We feel guilt and the need to change. We confess our guilt, our need for forgiveness, and our need for help. We then make the necessary course correction to bring that area of our life into alignment with God’s will—we repent. Again, this is absolutely a work of the Holy Spirit, for we cannot do it ourselves.

Many today say that repentance is not required for salvation. Jesus and the Apostle say it is. Throughout the New Testament, you will find that the preaching of the Gospel always included repentance. True repentance is change—change of not only heart, but also action. Without change, genuine salvation has not occurred. The very first thing we repent of is unbelief. We stop not believing and start believing in Jesus. We stop trusting in ourselves for salvation and start trusting in Christ alone. And as I said, if this is real, our actions begin to change.

Conviction without confession is rebellion. Confession without repentance is hypocrisy. If God brings conviction to our mind and we refuse to admit our guilt and need, we are saying, “I don’t care what You say, I will do as I please.” If He brings conviction and we confess our guilt and need but do not change, we are fooling ourselves and pretending everything is all right.

Jesus warns of those who fool themselves with mere religion in Mathew 7:21-23. “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’”

Notice that Jesus did not consider even grand religious works done in His name as doing the Father’s will. He referred to these religious people as evildoers! God’s will is that we live a godly life in Christ Jesus; that we bear the fruit of righteousness that brings Him glory; that we seek Him for who He is and not just for what He can do for us.

Jesus makes clear the need for genuine repentance when He says in Luke 13:5, “unless you repent, you too will all perish.”

Do you truly repent or merely confess?