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Recognising false repentance

Dear BPCWAians, We saw last week that repentance is a total change in how you view a sin. And because of this sense of the heinousness of it, there is a natural desire to avoid it and be rid of it. We also saw that with genuine repentance, there is remorse and a sense of guilt under the conviction of sin from God’s Word. This week, we shall see some traits of false repentance so that we can identify them in our own lives.

Repentance and salvation. Before we go further, it is needful to emphasise that we should not have the wrong idea that repentance is salvation by works, nor that we are trusting in the acts of repentance for salvation from hell. The thief on the cross did not have the chance to come down from the cross to do any works, but Christ affirmed his salvation (Lu 23:43). Repentance is not doing good works and depending on that to be saved. Repentance is also not sinless perfection, but it is the genuine transformation of the heart and mind towards sin and turning to God to seek forgiveness, desiring not to sin, and avoiding sin thereafter. Being spared from eternal judgement is only through faith that the Lord Jesus Christ has paid fully for your sin and hence you are justified for heaven. Repentance does not add to the work of Christ to help save yourself, nor it is to “maintain” your salvation. Instead, repentance is because having known that the Lord Jesus bore the infinite penalty of my sin, I renounce sin and want to depart from it. Be sure you have and are trusting in the finished work of Christ, in His full payment for the penalty of sin, and that you genuinely desire to truly repent and to depart from the power of sin after salvation. Whether you are new to church or have been in church for a long time, be very sure you are clear in your heart of whether you have repented to salvation.

Repentance is towards God first. Repentance  is  first  and  foremost to God. All sins, even those we commit against man, is firstly sinning against God, because we have broken God’s laws. That is why David, after committing adultery and murder, confessed in Psalm 51:4, “Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest.” This is not to say that we are not to make right with man. We will cover this later. For now, we must realise that there is a difference between feeling remorseful and avoiding sin, versus true repentance which is first towards God. If you simply feel terrible that you have done something bad to someone, or because you have been told by your parents or others that you should not do certain things since young, or because it is evil by society’s or church’s standards, then your repentances can be just to abide by social and moral laws, but it may not be Biblical repentance. First and foremost, repentance is a sense  of guilt toward God. It does include remorse towards man, but it is not that alone. Why is it important to understand this? If you do not have genuine repentance, then you will be aiming to lead a moral life to please man and only to look godly before man. You do not really care what God thinks about you. You are not repenting to get right with God first and foremost, and consequently with man as a result. For example, in false repentance, when you dislike a person, you do not care or have any guilt in sinning against the person. Instead, you will live by man’s and church’s standard of how to behaveas if you were penitent, instead of seeing sin as sinning against God. If so, your “repentances” will then be based upon what church you attend, what your family values are,  or what your friends or society consider or not consider sinful. If man  is your standard of right and wrong, then you will resist what is taught at church if what the church teaches goes against what you or those around you like or dislike. You will not last long in such “repentance” because you do not feel you are sinning against God in the first place. Instead, you will uphold in your heart the standard that best meets what your heart wants at that point of time.

Traits of false repentance. King Saul’s life reflects false repentance in its many forms in 1 Sam 13 and 15. An unrepentant attitude, like false confession, makes excuses and rationalises and it also likes to blame others (13:11-12). False repentance is just merely admitting that what you said or did was wrong simply because you have been caught or exposed. Saul would not admit except when confronted with the sound of the bleating sheep (15:13-14). An outward change of behaviour that is not due to an inward conviction of sin hides an unrepentant heart. Meanwhile, you continue to harbour that sinful thought, desire, or emotion in your heart. Saul first pretended that he had good intentions (15:5), then resorted to blaming others (15:24). An unrepentant heart is regretful of a sinful thought or action because of the consequences your sin brought, not because you know you have truly sinned against God. Saul’s confession was false, and so was his sense of guilt. He only had remorse because God had rejected him as king (15:24-29). Also, in false repentance, the change of behaviour is due to concern about one’s own “face”. King Saul only “repented” because he wanted Prophet Samuel to appear with him before the elders of Israel and worship with him (15:30). You can change your behaviour simply because you are worried about what others would think about you in church, how you appear  in the eyes of others in church, or what your family or friends would think of you. Are you “repenting” just because others have come to know about your sin? Do you try to minimise your sin and if possible, make it not appear to be a sin, blame others, and give excuses? Are you “repenting”, or even shed tears before man, simply to lighten or avoid the consequences for your sin, or look repentant? If so, then your intentions to change your behaviour is just like Saul, and they are not genuine repentance.

God willing, we shall continue to study this important topic and to understand how to have true repentance in our lives.

Yours in our Lord’s service

Pastor