The Next Life Series, Study 08

REPENTANCE & CONFESSION

The Bible says that all have sinned and come short of God’s glory. There is not one person who
has ever walked this earth that has not sinned except Jesus. As we look in the mirror of God’s law
and we come to this realization that we deserve death, and we see Jesus hanging on the cross
for our sins, what should be our response? This is what we will look at in this study.

1. What is repentance?
Ans:
• Repentance is basically a u-turn. You are going one direction and you discover that you
are going the wrong way, you turn around and go back the way you came.
• In the Christian life there are only 2 roads and they go in opposite directions. A person is
either going the direction which leads to heaven, or they are going the direction that
leads to hell. There is no such thing as no movement in a person’s life. Everyone is
moving. It just depends which direction they are going.

2. Who gives us repentance?

Bible Text – Acts 5:31
Ans:
• Acts 5:31 – Jesus is the only one who can give us repentance. It is not something we can
do with our own strength or earn. This means that if we truly want repentance, we must
ask for it from Jesus. Everyday, part of our prayer should be to ask Christ for a heart that
desires repentance. The natural human heart is full of pride and does not desire to
repent. It doesn’t come from within us.
• What else does Jesus give to us in Acts 5:31?
o Along with repentance comes forgiveness from God. As we repent with the right
heart and attitude (which comes from Christ giving it to us), God will give us
forgiveness. Christ desires nothing more than to wash away our sins and forgive
us. But first, we must desire and experience repentance.

3. What is the most important thing that must take place in our heart if we are to repent?
Bible Text – Luke 18:13; Isaiah 64:6; Psalm 139: 23-24
Ans:
• Luke 18:13 – recognize ourselves to be a sinner and ask God for mercy. Humble ourselves.
• Isa 64:6 – recognize that all the good things we have ever done or could ever do are as
filthy rags.
• This is the key in the Christian life. We must know who we truly are, and then we will know
what we need to do. How does this happen? We must see ourselves for who we really
are in the mirror of God’s law and not be deceived to our true condition. If we never
think we are sinners, we would never come to repentance.
• Psalms 139:23-24 – ask God to search our hearts and show us our faults. So even if we
think we are OK or clean, we should still ask God to search our hearts and show us where
we fall short.
• Remember our previous studies:
o As we have studied the last few studies, I pray that you have seen from Fall of
Man that we are helpless sinners ever since Adam and Eve fell. We have no
power to control our will. We sin without thinking. We need a Saviour.
o From the Power of the cross, you saw the experience of Jesus on the cross. Only
the Son of God could pay for all our sins and the only way to pay the price of
breaking God’s law was death. Even God cannot excuse the punishment. So
what was the solution? He paid the price instead.
o From the study on Law and Grace, we learnt that God’s law is the only way we

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The Next Life Series, Study 08

can see our sins and that it shows us how we can have God’s character. But it
cannot help us keep it. Only Jesus’ sacrifice at the cross and our acceptance of
Him into our life can help us to keep God’s holy law.
o All of these studies show how helpless is the condition of man and the love of God
to save this weak, pitiful human race.

4. When we repent, what is the first thing that we should do?

Bible Text – 1 John 1:9
Ans:
• 1 John 1:9 – we need to confess our sins. Jesus is faithful that He will forgive. But
confession is our part. God cannot and will not force us to confess. Confession must
come from a willing heart.
• What we also learn from this is that when we confess our sins, it has to be of a specific
nature. Many people pray “Lord forgive us our sins, in Jesus name, Amen.” We don’t
usually specify what sin that is. But here’s the example that will help us to understand it
better. If we go up to our friend and say, “I’m sorry.” What is the first question that our
friend will ask us? “Sorry for what?” We have to be specific if we want to apologize.
Otherwise that person won’t know what we are apologizing for.
o In the same way, when we confess, we need to specific. In the Old Testament
when they brought the lamb to kill at the sanctuary, before they killed the lamb
they had to confess their sins over the lamb’s head. Of course, we wouldn’t go
there if we didn’t do anything wrong. Neither would a person go there just in case
they sinned. They only went there when they knew what they did wrong and they
had a specific confession to make.
o Moreover, the reason why we have to be specific when we confess our sins is not
because God doesn’t know what we did. He knows everything. We need to be
specific because that is more for us than for God. Why? Because it will help us to
know what we need to change. If we only confess generally and not specifically,
it will never help us to change because we really didn’t know what we did wrong.

5. After confessing our sins, what should we do next?

Bible Text – Proverbs 28:13
Ans:
• Prov 28:13 – after confessing, we need to forsake our sin. What does that mean? We
need to leave the sin that we committed. We have to change.
• A confession only means something when we show that we have changed.
• Example – if a friend comes to you and apologizes for something they did and you
forgave them, and then the following week they do the same thing again, what would
you think? Is there an expectation that they would change since they apologized? And if
they keep doing it and apologizing over and over again, we would begin to have
doubts that their apology is sincere correct?
• Sometimes we treat God like that. We read the Bible and we see that when we confess
God will forgive us, and He does because His word is true. But it is clear to God and also
to others that all the confessions that were previously made were not sincere at all!

6. Why is turning away from our sins such an important action?

Bible Text – Ezekiel 33:13
Ans:
• Eze 33:13 – the text says that if we continue to commit sin, all the righteous things (right
things) that we did before will not be remembered. Righteous things such as confessing
our sins.
• When we continue to sin and not change, even though we keep confessing, our

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The Next Life Series, Study 08

confessions don’t mean anything and it is as if our sins were never forgiven.
• Human beings are like that as well. When friends become our enemies, they never
remember any of the good things we did in the past, all they remember is the bad.

7. What are the characteristics of true repentance?

Bible Text – 2 Corinthians 7:10-11
Ans:
• 2 Cor 7:10-11 – we must respond with godly sorrow rather than a worldly sorrow.
• What is worldly sorrow vs godly sorrow?
o Firstly you can see the sincerity in verse 11. You must take repentance seriously
and cry out to God full of desire. Ask God to show you what you truly are. And
then cry out for forgiveness with sincerity.
o Worldly Sorrow:
 Sorry for the consequences, because you were caught in the act, not that
you were sorry for what you actually did.
 Gen 3:12-13 – example of worldly sorrow – blaming others.
 Fear of the consequences rather than sorry for hurting God or hurting
others.
o Godly Sorrow:
 You do your best to live differently so that others can see that you were
really sorry for what you did. You do your best to clear your name or what
you did in the past. You don’t expect others to trust you, you earn their
trust again by making sure that they don’t even THINK evil of you.
 A husband who commits adultery against his wife must live a very different
life from that of other husbands. He must go above and beyond to prove
that he has changed. Obviously not doing it again will show that change.
But every day, he must prove that he is a different man. What changes
might he have to make? Maybe quit his job. Maybe move to a different
state or country. Maybe cancel all his internet. Maybe never go out late
or never go anywhere without the wife. He must HATE the very thing that
he did and must prove that he hates it by his change of actions.

8. What is the final result of true repentance?

Bible Text – Ezekiel 18:30-31
Ans:
• Eze 18:30-31 – the final result of true repentance if a clean heart. But that clean heart is
evident from our actions of turning away from that which we used to do, from our old life
of sin.
• The actions of a person do not save us, it only reveals what is inside our heart – what we
are thinking and feeling. Good and righteous actions reveal and clean and righteous
heart.

9. How do we get this clean heart?

Bible Text – Psalm 51:10
Ans:
• Ps 51:10 – a clean heart must be created in us.
• How did God create at the very beginning? By His word. What is that for us today? It is
the Bible.
• In our quest to be a different person, in turning away from our sins, the first step is to
recognize that we are sinners, then we confess and ask God to help us to turn from that
sin. In doing so, God points us to His word, His Bible, which teaches us about Jesus who
will give us that help to turn from our sinful ways. Can you see again how important the

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The Next Life Series, Study 08

Bible us? It is everything to the Christian, because it is in that book that it will tell us about
a wonderful and loving Saviour who can to die and set us free from sin.

Each one of us is in a hopeless, sinful condition that we cannot deliver ourselves out of. However
there is hope, through accepting the gift of repentance we can be delivered from sin through
Jesus Christ. Jesus is the only one and His sacrifice is the only reason that will move sinful man to
the act of repentance. We cannot accomplish repentance by ourselves. Will you ask Jesus to
help your heart to repent today?

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