What is True Repentance?

“The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel”.  Mark 1:15

First, let’s acknowledge what repentance is not:  it is not just being sorry for your sins, nor just deciding to “do better”, nor “turning over a new leaf”, nor “taking a ‘do good’ pill”, nor any other phrase which people believe is sufficient to make themselves acceptable to our holy God.  The main problem with all of these attempts is, first of all, that none meet God’s requirement for salvation.  Secondly, even if these methods could lay the groundwork for salvation, they would all eventually fail, just like those New Year’s resolutions that folks make, but are usually broken by the middle of January.  For a man, woman, boy, or girl to become a member of God’s family, the criteria is very exact.

Nicodemus, a Pharisee who was a member of the Jewish Sanhedrin, the council which ruled over Israel, came to Jesus after nightfall because he didn’t want any of his peers to know that he was meeting with Jesus.  The Pharisees hated Jesus because they believed Him to be an imposter, and some of them accused Him of working for the devil (Matthew 12:24).  I can see how fear could cause one of them to not want to be seen with Jesus.  Nicodemus would likely have been treated as a traitor if any of his fellow Pharisees found out that he met with their supposed enemy.  Why do you suppose he wanted to speak to Jesus?  Could it be that he was questioning the way to eternal life that he had been taught, that is, to follow a set of rules and regulations in order to please God?  Had the Holy Spirit brought conviction upon his heart?  I think we can assume that is the reason that he desired to talk with Jesus.  In order to be saved and receive eternal life, a sinner must be convicted of his or her sins by the Holy Spirit and then repent of those sins, not just be sorry for them, but to turn from them and follow Christ for the rest of his or her life, a real commitment, a real possession of faith and not just a profession of faith

It is not recorded in scripture that Nicodemus asked Jesus a question but rather acknowledged that Jesus had come from God because Jesus could not have been doing the miracles that He had been doing unless God had sent Him.  Even though Nicodemus did not verbally ask Jesus a question, Jesus knew that Nicodemus was seeking how to have eternal life.  We know that because of what Jesus said to him:  “…Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3).  Jesus knows our thoughts even before we think them.  Nicodemus didn’t understand, thinking only about a physical birth.  However, Jesus explained that the Holy Spirit is like the wind.  We don’t know from where He comes nor where He goes, but we know that He has been there because, like the wind, we feel the effects of His presence.  The work of the Holy Spirit is to bring conviction of sins and a call to repent, to completely turn from those sins, and to place faith in Jesus Christ.

True repentance brings a change of heart to a sinner.  No longer does he or she desire to sin.  He or she receives a new, spiritual nature and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit whose work is to reinforce that new nature to increase and that old, sin nature to decrease.  Paul wrote that if we yield ourselves to God, then sin will not have dominion over us (Romans 6:13-14).  Sin is powerful, but God is greater than any sin we can imagine.  I think about it like this:  I don’t want to do anything that would hurt my relationship with the Lord because of the tremendous sacrifice that He made for me.  I wish the world could understand the joy and peace that comes from knowing Christ as Lord and Savior.  As for Nicodemus’ response to Jesus, we are not told of his decision, but we do know that he brought a hundred pounds of spices to anoint the body of Jesus after He was crucified (John 19:39), and he did this out in the open, unashamedly and boldly which gives us evidence that he did repent and believe on Jesus.