We in the Church love a good testimony. You know, the kind where someone was trapped in a life of addiction, gave their life to Christ, and was pulled out of it and now everything is great. But what about the person that gives their life to Christ then slips back into that sin? What of the Christian who confesses and agonizes over their sin only to return to it the very same day? Have they not truly repented? Are they not sufficiently contrite?
Repentance is often put forth (whether purposely or not) as an event, rather than a process. In some circumstances it truly is a one-time event in someone's life where they cease a certain sin immediately. But more often, it is not. We are sometimes told that if we do not stop falling into a certain sin then we are not repenting. This leads to overwhelming guilt and shame, even in a loving Christian community.
But the repentance that we see Jesus call for is not characterized by an immediate, perfect cessation of sin but of a hate of our sin and a process of change, called sanctification, by the Holy Spirit. Paul, in Romans 4, declares that we are made righteous before God because of the blood of Christ shed for us on the cross. The moment we receive salvation, we are justified before God. This is a one-time, once for all moment. Sanctification, on the other hand, is loving, molding process that the Holy Spirit undertakes to make us more like Christ. When we are justified, we do not stop sinning. However, our lives are no longer characterized by sin. Repentance finds sanctification as its context. The Holy Spirit works in our lives to make us more like Christ but it is a lifelong process. We are not made perfectly holy the moment we receive salvation.
Jesus was notorious among the Pharisees for spending time with "sinners." One of his most poignant and revealing statements to them (and us) comes in Mark 2:17 when He says, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners." Thus, the Church is intended to be a hospital for the sick. It is a group of people who don't have it all together. A group of people who consistently fall into the same sin over and over again but who hate their sin and genuinely want to move past it for the glory of God.
(As a side note, the analogy of the Church as a hospital for the sick also entails diagnosing sin in all its forms and calling it what it is according to Scripture. Christ did not gloss over people's sins or say they were not that big of a deal. He had to die for them. Our sin is serious. Hospitals do not amass a large amount of sick people and have them just fester in their illnesses. The goal of a hospital, and the Church by the power of the Holy Spirit, is to treat these diseases with the aim of the sick getting better.)
If you've ever been involved in an accountability group with other believers, you know it is a very frustrating thing to be involved in. The same struggles and sins continue to pop up. A follower of Christ may do really well with something they are wrestling with one week only to fall back into it the next. I've seen discouragement and have been very discouraged myself. When we view repentance as a one time deal and any relapse as a mighty failure, discouragement and crushing guilt are often the result. But this is not how Christ intended it. Repentance is the acknowledgement, confession, and renouncing of sin and the determination to turn from it with the help of the Holy Spirit. It is a process and a journey, one that takes time but yields change if we yield to Christ and do not rely on our own strength.
