Why is it so important to repent?

rocknrollchuck · 2020-06-19T15:11:01+00:00

It's not about improving your position in heaven, it's about being a genuine Christian in the first place. Here's an analogy that might help:

Let's say a married man cheats on his wife and they separate. After a month he calls her up and says 'You know, I want to say I'm sorry and ask for your forgiveness. Can we try to reconcile?' She says 'Ok, come on over.' He shows up at the house and rings the doorbell. She opens the door and there stands her husband...with his mistress still on his arm!"

Did he truly repent? He said he was sorry and asked for forgiveness, right? (what the world thinks repentance means) But obviously that is not true repentance. True repentance involves a turning from sin. It means going in the opposite direction as much as you know how. Imagine if you are driving in a car and all of a sudden you realize that you have been going in the wrong direction for the last hour. Is it enough to just realize it, or change your mind about it? No, you have to stop, figure out which way to go, turn around, and head in the right direction. So it is with us when we truly repent.

afterthe_fapocalypse · 2020-06-19T16:51:03+00:00

Because what if you don't have to 'struggle' - i.e. fail, try again, fail, try again, etc. etc. What if you could be free of those things permanently?

Repentance is about seeing what is really going on in your life. What you are really doing to yourself. You see that by masturbating to porn you've hardened your heart not just against your wife or gf, but against all people. You are killing your opportunities with people. You aren't as friendly. You remember the way you were as a child late in the night, maybe on the coattails of a nostalgic dream. Someone honest. Someone who felt things. Someone who saw the way people were. And then you see what you've become since then. Someone obsessed with image, who chases girls around like a mutt, who doesn't care about telling the truth anymore or about people. Who is obsessed with 'getting ahead'. And someone who is going round and round and round this hamster wheel, telling himself he's leveling up and listening to self-motivation ... All the while going nowhere. His life and his heart are as empty as when he started. He's getting tired. Running out of fuel.

Often things are specific. I remember a girl I was close to. The second person I knew who really loved me. The first who had in easily over 10 years. And I ruined that. Because of porn and masturbation. I remember a girl I had a crush on when I was really little. We never even tried dating because I lied to her that I wasn't interested. I hid. I remember a job I got fired from because I wouldn't stop kidding around and being stupid and silly, and ended up telling a joke that offended the wrong person. That destroyed a really good opportunity at a career. And I see myself leaning toward doing that again.

Repentance is the only way to really move on from that. You have to see it. If you keep going on with your life, distracting yourself with girls or money or cars or the next rat race fad, when are you taking the time to become a better person? To love more? To tell the truth when you want to hide it, or to be open when you'd rather be vulnerable? To do the right thing when you've done wrong so long? To do what it is you've been hiding in fear from? To obey your conscience if you still have one? I look at everyone so distracted by race riots now, and just so easily avoiding their own flaws and their own hatred and how much of a burden and a drain they themselves are to those around them. Not saying all protesters are. But it's very easy to get sucked into this and talk about that and think about it instead of who we are becoming as people: good or bad. Do you want your life to be meaningful again? For things to matter? To have a heart again?

It's not always about cutting yourself to pieces, but sometimes it is.

But the biggest reason is friendship with God. When we are sinning we can't feel that. We choose to be friends with what kills us instead of the giver of life. And it's fun to be alive! It's better. God is indescribably perfect, and worth every second of time spent and eternity. God IS that. He is everything.

I mean it's so obvious why we need to repent. To stop doing the things we're doing. But we only see it when we see that what we're doing to ourselves, to others, and where we are is wrong.

ENTPunisher · 2020-06-19T18:59:41+00:00

Becoming a Christian puts you on a path to continuous improvement. Acknowledging that there is an issue and requesting forgiveness is the first step towards moral and spiritual improvement.

Requesting forgiveness is spiritually considered a good work, and the reason we perform good works in this life is to accumulate spiritual treasures in heaven.

"But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal" Matthew 6:20

Keep in mind that salvation itself is obtained purely though faith in Christ. Everything beyond that (your good works) counts as bonus. Go get that spiritual chedda'

Torn4_025 · 2020-06-21T04:12:59+00:00

It's quite simple. If you believe God's word is true and you commit a sin the natural reaction is to repent of it. If you are living in sin while telling other people you believe in God's word then you are not living what you preach.

If you keep living in sin then your faith might be dead. There's no sure fire answer on if living in sin will result in losing in salvation, but God's word does say you can fall from grace, Paul speaks of enduring to the end and Hebrews speaks of a point there is no more sacrifice for sins.

sliprymdgt · 2020-06-19T04:12:29+00:00

Repentance is not something you do once, and it doesn't improve anything for you in heaven. It improves your life here on earth.

Repentance prevents turning this life into a living hell.

Nazi Germany could have been prevented, with repentance.

Title	Why is it so important to repent?
Author	da_independent_varia
Upvotes	6
Comments	11
Date	June 19, 2020 3:50 AM UTC (3 years ago)
Subreddit	Posted in /r/askRPC
Original Link	https://old.reddit.com/r/askRPC/comments/hbtjce/why_is_it_so_important_to_repent/
Archive Link	https://theredarchive.com/r/askRPC/why-is-it-so-important-to-repent.696501 https://theredarchive.com/post/696501