Healing and Repentance
Is it necessary to repent of your sins before you can get healed?
By the time this discussion is over, I hope that you will have your answer.
First, we need to define what repentance is and isn’t. The Greek word used for repent is metanoia, which means to change one’s mind.
Here are six things that repentance is NOT:
First, repentance is not remorse or feeling bad about your sin. If feeling remorseful about what you did were repentance, Judas Iscariot would be in heaven today, rather than having his divine epitaph be that it would have been better for that man if he had never been born. Judas was “filled with remorse” after he betrayed Jesus, but he still went to hell. So obviously, feeling bad about your sin does not constitute true repentance. Furthermore, there is nothing explicit in the Greek word above that specifies that you have to feel horrible about what you did, though this could certainly be the case.
Second, repentance is not sorrow that you got caught. Many criminals go out to commit further crimes and their only regret is that they got caught. There is no repentance involved there.
Third, repentance is not simply changing your intellectual view about something or learning something. If this were true, anyone who switched political party affiliations has “repented” and anyone who sits listening to teaching at college (or even a Christian conference) is “repenting” while sitting there listening. That is not the biblical use of the term. Repenting relates to changing your mind about sin, not simply getting your mind changed in the sense of being further educated. That would be better categorized as renewing your mind, not changing it. The modern claim that everyone is “repenting” while listening to someone speak because their minds are changing does violence to the way that the word “repent” is actually used in the Bible.
Fourth, repentance is not penance, where you do one work to make up for another one. For example, someone in a religion costume tells you to say 10 “Hail Mary’s” to make up for telling a lie. This is an abject waste of time, since Mary cannot help you from heaven where she is now and praising her is basically idolatry anyway. Some people think that they can sin all they want on Saturday and make up for it all on Sunday by “confessing” their sins and being told what price they must pay to make things right. This is a slap in the face to Jesus, who already paid the price to make things right, and who preached that men should repent. I knew a serial confessor. There was no repentance from a biblical perspective because he did not change his mind about sin. He kept doing it, figuring that he could erase his transgressions by following instructions given by a voice in a booth. He sinned enough that he actually went every day, not just every week, but his confessions were still “dead works” that didn’t help him in the slightest. What a colossal waste of time. Penance is a slap in the face to Jesus, who Himself did all the work needed for your forgiveness from sin.
Fifth, repentance is not confession of what you did. “Going to confession” cannot replace true repentance, nor can simply saying to anyone that you did something wrong. Judas DID confess what he did; he said that he had betrayed innocent blood. But the fact that he confessed what he did does not mean that he repented. He still went to hell after confessing his crime. If confession is repentance, anyone who has ever pled guilty in court has repented of his crime. But it is clear from the number of repeat offenders that simply pleading guilty to doing something wrong is not repentance. There has been no true change of mind. Certain so-called churches try to use James 5:16 to support confessing your sin in a dark booth, but that verse talks about admitting your shortcomings to each other, so you would then have every right to say, “Enough about my sin, now what bad things have YOU been doing lately? Let’s hear it!”
Sixth, repentance is not punishing yourself because you feel so bad about what you’ve done. That seems rational only to someone who does not understand that righteousness is a GIFT that was conferred on you the moment you received Jesus (Romans 5:17). Punishing yourself, far from being a virtuous act that shows God and everyone else how sorry you are, is actually another slap in the face of God’s grace, which allowed JESUS to be punished for what you did. Because Jesus paid for your sins, YOU should not try to pay for them a second time. Leave the sackcloth-and-ashes routine back in the Old Testament where it belongs. In the New Testament, Jesus’ blood sprinkles you from an evil conscience – He doesn’t GIVE you an evil conscience that keeps bothering you about what you did and repented of.
If you punish YOURSELF for sinning, you’re actually stealing from God! God says that vengeance is His (Romans 12:19). Only God has the right to punish sin. Man’s only involvement is when human authorities punish sins to keep order in society, with God’s blessing (Romans 13:3-4). However, when you punish YOURSELF for sin, you are actually sinning the whole time you’re doing it, because you’re stealing the right to punish sin from God, who alone has the right to do it. You NEVER have the right to punish yourself for your sins!
Now let’s look at what repentance IS:
Real repentance is a change of mind. What you previously held to be OK, you now hold to be not OK. Rather than continuing to do whatever it is, you make a U-turn and run AWAY from it, not TOWARD it. You are no longer interested in whether you can get away with it. You only want to get away from it. Your thinking about that sin has changed. You agree with God and say what He says about it.
Real repentance has evidence, or fruit, involving changed action. As John the Baptist said in Luke 3:8, “Bring forth therefore fruits worthy of repentance, and begin not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, That God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham.” Also, Acts 26:20: “But shewed first unto them of Damascus, and at Jerusalem, and throughout all the coasts of Judaea, and then to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, and do works meet for repentance.”
Real repentance is a decision, not an emotion. It has nothing to do with proving how sorry you are by wallowing in misery or depriving yourself of sweets for a week because you feel so unworthy. You may not even FEEL like repenting of something emotionally because the passing pleasures of sin seem too alluring, but you can still DECIDE to turn away from what the Bible says is wrong.
Now let’s deal with an important question: “Is repentance still something that God expects from sinners today?” Let the following verses (not a complete list) speak for themselves:
Matthew 3:2 (John the Baptist speaking):
And saying, Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
Matthew 4:17:
From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
Mark 6:12:
And they went out, and preached that men should repent.
Luke 5:32:
I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.
Acts 11:18:
When they heard these things, they held their peace, and glorified God, saying, Then hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life.
Luke 24:47:
And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.
We see above that preachers were to preach repentance along with forgiveness to sinners. Did they do this? Let’s see!
Acts 2:38:
Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.
Acts 3:19:
Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord;
Acts 5:31:
Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins.
Acts 17:30:
And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent:
Acts 20:21:
Testifying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.
Hebrews 6:1 even lists repentance from dead works as one of the six fundamental doctrines of Christ that every new believer should be taught: “Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God,”. Dead works certainly could include outright sins, but dead works would also include fleshly attempts toward self-justification with God (penance, confessing in a booth, or any other action that replaces Christ’s sacrifice with human effort).
2 Peter 3:9:
The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
I listed that many verses on purpose because there are some people who perceive themselves as paragons of grace who will practically run you out of town if you suggest that you should tell sinners to repent. They think that this is old-fashioned Law preaching, or at best, a mixture of Law and grace. But given the verses above, how you can you rationalize preaching a gospel that DOESN’T urge people to repent? We really need to study our own Bibles rather than taking some preacher’s word for things like that.
As far as the Law is concerned, Paul even told Timothy that the Law is for the murderers, kidnappers, homosexuals, perjurers and anyone else who does things contrary to sound doctrine (1 Timothy 1:9-10). By the Law comes knowledge of sin, and by the knowledge of sin comes the knowledge of the need to be saved from sin. One reason it’s hard to get many modern people saved is that we haven’t convinced them yet that they’re LOST! The Law does that. It won’t make anyone right (only Jesus can do that) but it shines the light on the need to be made right.
Our message is certainly not, “God is really ticked with you, so you’d better get right!” No, our message is the same of that of the apostles – that the grace of God has provided forgiveness for sins. That is how they preached Christ in the book of Acts. It was always about forgiveness of sins – not having better self-esteem, or even being healed, being prosperous, having greater peace or any other temporal benefit. These benefits come WITH the package but they are NOT the package – JESUS is the package! Jesus came so that we could be forgiven for our sins! But this “good news” will be seen as a useless message by someone who doesn’t think that anything he’s doing is a sin and thinks that what he’s doing has no consequences. The sinner needs to understand that it is NOT OK to just “do your own thing” – you must change your mind about it and submit to Jesus’ lordship.
So I think I have presented an airtight case that God expects sinners to REPENT. As we have seen, that doesn’t mean that they have to wallow in the dust and decry their woefulness (I didn’t) in order to be saved. However, they do have to change their minds from living any old way in any old sin to receiving Jesus as Lord and following Him. Of course, He will always lead you out of sin. I didn’t run out and put on sackcloth and ashes – and I actually didn’t even cry any tears about my sins. I simply changed my mind about not following Jesus and living how I was living. I decided to make Jesus Lord of my life, and I was saved.
So now the next question is: “Does God expect CHRISTIANS to repent?” Obviously, they don’t need to repent of the biggest sin of all, which is refusal to submit to Jesus’ lordship and be born again, because they have already done that. Once you’re born again, you don’t have to keep getting born again any more than you have to keep getting born all the time in the natural.
But if you’re a Christian and you’re doing something wrong, does God expect YOU to repent? Let’s let the Scriptures speak for themselves again, this time with verses all aimed at believers during our current age, the Church Age, with all the quotes spoken by our Lord Jesus Christ Himself:
Revelation 2:5:
Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent.
Revelation 2:16:
Repent; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth.
Revelation 2:21-22:
And I gave her space to repent of her fornication; and she repented not.
Behold, I will cast her into a bed, and them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation, except they repent of their deeds.
Revelation 3:3:
Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard, and hold fast, and repent. If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee.
Revelation 3:19:
As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.
So we have another airtight case – repentance is for believers, not just for sinners. If you are in sin, you need to change your mind about it and turn away from it. We have absolutely wrecked the modern error that believers don’t have to repent of their sins anymore.
The next area we will cover is what EFFECT repentance has for the believer and WHY we repent.
Does repentance make you “right with God?” No, receiving the Lord Jesus Christ already made you “right with God.” You are justified by His blood, not by your repentance. No one ever got saved by repenting of sin but not calling on Jesus. Jesus is 100% of your righteousness, your ability to stay out of sin and repent of it is 0% of your righteousness. If repenting of sin irrespective of calling on Jesus did not make you any more righteous before you were saved, it won’t make you any more righteous today. You may do more righteous deeds and APPEAR more righteous to the world and other Christians, but your perfect righteousness was received as a GIFT from God (Romans 5:17) that has nothing to do with your personal track record, then or now.
Does repentance cause you to be forgiven for your sins? NO! The blood of Jesus causes you to be forgiven for your sins. He does not have to go back to the cross to purchase forgiveness for whatever you did wrong today – His shed blood already paid for whatever you did wrong today. As you can read elsewhere in this book, you already HAVE BEEN forgiven in Christ as a believer. (The article What 1 John 1:9 Really Means goes into this in detail.) Thus, you cannot earn or obtain forgiveness by any work of your own, including repentance. Actually, if you were not forgiven, you would not be right with God, and vice versa. Are you “justified by His blood” (this basically means that God treats you as if your sin never existed)? The Bible says you are (Romans 5:9)! So it is wasted human effort and “dead works” to try to obtain the forgiveness that Christ already obtained for you. You are still welcome in His presence as if you had never sinned, and you can talk to Him just as freely as if you were Jesus – even if you’ve sinned!
With regard to the believer, there is no Scripture to support the idea that repentance produces forgiveness. Actually, there is no scripture that even teaches that confession of sin gets you forgiveness either! It didn’t for Judas! (If 1 John 1:9 suddenly flashes in your mind as a verse that disproves this statement, you should read What 1 John 1:9 Really Means and see otherwise.)
So if you HAVEN’T repented of a sin, your righteousness is still intact, your forgiveness for the sin is still intact, and your ability to talk to God is still intact. Knowing that, the obvious question that more carnal Christians might ask is, “So why bother repenting at all if sin isn’t going to cost me anything – I can just go down to the Low D Bar and hang out with the drunken floozies and it won’t matter!”
But it WILL matter.
Sin is no less deadly than it ever was. It has really bad consequences that always catch up to you. How would you like to come home some night and have to tell your wife that you are now paying child support to one of the drunken floozies? That would have some horrible consequences; your life as you know it would be ruined. You would be a mess, and it’s harder to receive healing when you’re an emotional mess and your awful circumstances are screaming for your attention. There are signs on the highway, “Speed costs and kills” but maybe we need some that say “Sin costs and kills” because it’s true. Sin leads to death, as James told us (James 1:15). If you sow to the flesh, you reap corruption from the flesh (Galatians 6:7-8). Corruption – think a big slab of 3-month-old meat with maggots crawling all over it. That’s what sin brings you. That’s why you need to get sin out of your life. God loves you enough to not want you to have a pile of corruption in your life – that’s why He corrects you when you get into sin.
A brief aside here – you can get badly confused by some modern teaching that God will never deal with you about sin (contrary to Hebrews 12:5-13 and various verses in Revelation 2 and 3) because (supposedly) only your own conscience will deal with you. The DANGER of that is that when God DOES speak to you about sin in your life, you will assume that it has to be the devil CONDEMNING you (even though God never does it in a condemning way, though He can be stern), and you will start rebuking the voice of God thinking that it is the voice of Satan. That’s a quick way to end up as a sorry mess, having no idea who’s doing the talking after a while. Even worse is the idea that God doesn’t even know if you’re sinning because all He sees is Jesus’ blood. That’s absurd; how could He correct you for sins if He doesn’t even see them? How could He correct the churches in Asia Minor in Revelation 2 and 3 if He didn’t even notice that they were sinning? How can he correct His children, as Hebrews 12 says that He does, if can’t see His children’s sin? Fortunately, because of the blood of Jesus, God will deal with you as if you’d never sinned at all when it comes to what you can receive from Him. But when it comes to correction, yes, He will point out your shortcomings so that you can repent and be more like Him, reflecting more of His holiness in your outward actions. (You already have His holiness on the inside when you’re saved.)
So how do you get sin out of your life? Through repentance – changing your mind about it. Getting drunk singing bar songs that glorify wasting away again has to lose its appeal. Hanging out with loose losers has to lose its appeal. You must change your mind from thinking that they are “fun” things and realize from God’s Word that they are destructive things that God forbids and that you need to get them out of your life. Once you agree that God is right and your flesh is wrong, you are now in a position to overcome those sins. If you’re smart, you’ll sow to the Spirit by praying, reading the Word, attending church, etc., so that you do not fulfill the lusts of the flesh (Galatians 5:16). When you enjoy peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, the other deceptive sources of “joy” will lose their appeal in a hurry.
Regardless of whether or not you need healing, sin is a killer and you should want to get it out of your life. If you’re indulging in it, you need to change your mind about it.
You don’t repent to get forgiveness or right standing with God, which you already have. You repent to get sin out of your life!
Now let’s really get down to brass tacks. If you are in sin and you have not repented, will that stop you from receiving healing?
Given that EVERYONE is in sin on the earth to some degree, simply having some sin that you haven’t repented of yet will not disqualify you from receiving healing. If it did, NO ONE would ever get healed! If you didn’t even KNOW that it is a sin NOT to pray for those in authority, your healing will not be denied because you did not pray for whoever leads your nation today. And if you do pray, but today you didn’t, God is not going to split hairs and withhold your healing because you didn’t pray yet today.
God is not a legalistic nitpicker. Don’t you suppose that the crowds who got healed had some unrepented sin in their lives, especially given that they didn’t even have new sin-hating spirits because the new birth wasn’t available yet? Yet they got healed! In fact, “the worst of the worst” (prostitutes, tax collectors, etc.) were getting Kingdom blessings while the self-righteous Pharisees were on the outside looking in. Why would everyone get better than he deserved? It’s called grace!
So if you aren’t healed right now, don’t go for a witch hunt for some secret sin that you don’t know about. You’re wasting your time. You have the right to be healed.
The time when lack of repentance will get you into trouble and WILL hinder your healing is when you resist Jesus and WILLFULLY engage in sin, knowing full well that He hates what you’re doing. If you are in that position, believe it or not, you are STILL the righteousness of God in Christ as long as you have not actually rejected Jesus. Healing still belongs to you and it is still yours to receive, because you aren’t on a works basis with God. But there are now at least three problems.
The first is that your heart will condemn you. Your new man, created after God in righteousness and true holiness, wants nothing to do with sin. But as long as you deliberately engage in it, you will tend to feel embarrassed in God’s presence because your conscience will bother you. Furthermore, because Jesus loves you, as soon as you let Him get a word in edgewise, He is going to talk to you about your sin, just as Jesus got “in the faces” of the sinning churches in Asia. That’s why your flesh wants to stay out of His presence when you’re in sin – it knows full well that Jesus will have some things to say about what you’re doing.
The second is that it is hard to receive from the same God whom you are shoving away. If you are simultaneously saying, “Minister to me, Lord!” and “DON’T minister to me, Lord!”, you are sending yourself and God mixed messages. It is just plain hard to receive healing or anything else when you are trying to hold onto God with one arm while you’re shoving Him away with the other arm.
The third is that failure to repent will lead to hardness of heart, which will hinder you from receiving anything. The Pharisees and doctors of the Law failed to repent and they received nothing from Jesus due to their hard hearts. We know they failed to repent because they refused to receive John’s baptism of repentance.
Acts 19:4:
Then said Paul, John verily baptized with the baptism of repentance, saying unto the people, that they should believe on him which should come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus.
Luke 7:29-30:
And all the people that heard him, and the publicans, justified God, being baptized with the baptism of John.
But the Pharisees and lawyers rejected the counsel of God against themselves, not being baptized of him.
So what do you do when you have unrepented sin? You REPENT! You change your mind, agree with God and say the same thing that He says about your sins. You stop siding with sin and start siding with God. God won’t condemn you. He’s known about your sin the whole time that you were doing it and He didn’t disown you over it. You’ll find it’s much easier to receive from God when you cooperate with Him than when you actively resist Him.