(from Journal,  5-11-15)

Repentance is the first step on the path of righteousness. “Unless you repent you shall all likewise perish,” (Luke 13:5). Repentance is a grave concept, not to be misunderstood. A seeker of God must not get this wrong.

Nevertheless, the way to repentance is guided by the warm arms of forgiveness. For had not Christ forgiven us all, we would never be able to come to the altar of repentance from our sins.

Many believe that past sins are forgiven them by God, but they don’t believe that the sin nature within them—the old nature that produced the sin—is gone away for good. And therein lies the problem—the recurrence of sin in a person’s life. Why does sin keep cropping up? It is because of unbelief that our old sinful self has died with Christ on the cross. Through this unbelief, the old heart will still produce sin, the breaking of the Ten Commandments.

Sins Sent Away

The word “forgiveness” is translated from the Greek word aphiemi, a verb which means “to send away or depart.” Christ has sent our sins away.

We see this in the types and shadows of the old Mosaic law. One remembers how the Aaronic priest laid his hands on the scapegoat, transferring the people’s sins onto the goat. And then the goat was sent away into the wilderness, taking their sins with it. The scapegoat was a type of the Lamb of God “who takes away the sins of the world.” Christ had the heavy responsibility of being that Sacrifice. Christ took upon Himself all the sins of humanity. Shockingly for some, He died as a lost man that day; I say, in the similitude of a lost man. “For He was made to be sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him” (2 Cor. 5:21).

He was our scapegoat offering. He has forgiven us in that He has sent our old selfish heart away. He is saying to us, Thy sins are forgiven. Your sins are sent away; they are departed and gone. They are no longer there. “Go and sin no more” (John 8:11).   

Forgiving the Debt

The Greek word translated “repentance” has another nuance of meaning. It means to “to forgive a debt.” When we owe someone money, for example, we have a debt until either it is paid or until the debt is forgiven. When forgiven, the debt is gone, poof! It is no longer a reality; it no longer exists.  

It is the same with the old heart that sins. That person has a debt to love his fellow man, for God has said, “Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law” (Rom. 13:8 NIV). That is our debt: to love our neighbor as ourselves.

And yet, sin is the opposite of love, and it resides in unregenerated man. These are those that Christ has commanded us to love. We are to love the unlovable, those who have hurt us. We love them by forgiving them. This is how our debt is paid.

But our debt can never be paid by trying to do good works in our own strength. Yahweh takes away our sin through the sacrifice of His Son. We can repent through His grace to us.  This happens when we identify our sinful nature with Christ. Then the sin dies with Christ, and by belief/faith in His resurrection in us, we now walk in a “newness of life” (Rom. 6:4).

Once this revelation sinks in, then we can say as Paul did that it is no longer I that lives but Christ that lives in me (Gal 2:20). We need only read and believe Romans 6:1-15 and not question it.

When we do this, the sin will depart forever. The debt is paid. Our sins are forgiven. For good. All gone. Departed. Christ is big enough to make this happen. No more sin in our lives. It is a wondrous thing. This is His doctrine, and it is astonishing!

Kenneth Wayne Hancock