Repentance: A Return to God
Repentance is often misunderstood. Many think of it primarily as turning away from sin, as if the Christian life were mainly about not sinning.
While repentance certainly involves a rejection of sin, its true and primary focus is not what we leave behind but whom we are turning toward.
At its core, repentance is a return to God. This is why Paul speaks of “repentance toward God” in Acts 20:21. The call to repent is not a command to clean ourselves up but an invitation to come back to God.
The Weight of Sin
When we sin, we often experience an initial response of shame, guilt, or even fear. We may feel exposed, much like Adam and Eve in the garden, hiding from the presence of God. If left unchecked, this can drive us into despair or worse, into self-reliance. Either avoiding God out of fear or trying to compensate for our failure by renewing our efforts.
However, when the Spirit convicts (or convinces) us, He does not leave us in our sorrow. Instead, He humbles us under the mighty hand of God (1 Pet. 5:6) and produces a godly grief that leads us back to God in repentance (2 Cor. 7:11).
To be clear, this conviction is not just a feeling of regret, nor is it a feeling of terror; it is an awareness that we have turned from the One who loves us. The weight of sin is not just in its consequences but in the separation it creates between us and God.
When we cling to sin, we are, in effect, turning our backs on Him.
And yet, repentance is not simply about putting sin away. If we think of it only as rejecting sin, we miss the point. What matters most is not what we are turning from but whom we are turning to.
Turning to the God
This is where many Christians struggle. We see our sin, we feel its weight, and we want to change. But where do we go?
If we imagine God as only wrathful and unapproachable, we may be hesitant to return to Him. Instead of repentance drawing us closer to God, it can become a source of spiritual paralysis, where we remain stuck in shame, afraid that He will not receive us. Or it places us into a spiritual ‘penalty box’ where we must spend time in penance for what we have done.
But Scripture teaches the opposite. Romans 2:4 tells us that it is the kindness of God that leads us to repentance. He does not merely call us to turn away from sin; He calls us to Himself. The goal of repentance is reconciliation. It is not merely about putting away bad habits but about returning to our Father.
This is why repentance can never be separated from Christ. We do not come back to God through our efforts, hoping to be accepted based on our doing better. We return through the Son, who has already reconciled us.
Colossians 1:20 reminds us that Christ has made peace through the blood of His cross. He is the way back to the Father. Repentance, then, is not a self-driven act of reform but a Spirit-led response to the grace of God in Christ.
A Lifelong Process
If repentance is turning to God, then it is not a one-time event but a lifelong practice.
Every day, we are drawn back to Him. And every day, we find that His mercy is new. We may throw down our sins in disgust, only to pick them up again, as Paul laments in Romans 7. But the Christian life is not about how many times we stumble. It is about how many times we turn back.
So when we hear the call to repent, let us not think of it as a demand to fix ourselves or reject sin. Let us hear it as an invitation to return to the God who loves us, the Father who runs to meet us, and the Savior who has already made the way home.