Table of Contents
Here are some of the great promises of God for repentance, confession and forgiveness that will help us find the true way of returning back to God.
Repentance
Our need for repentance
Deuteronomy 4:29: But if from thence thou shalt seek the LORD thy God, thou shalt find him, if thou seek him with all thy heart and with all thy soul.
2 Chronicles 7:14: If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.
Job 11:13: If thou prepare thine heart, and stretch out thine hands toward him; if iniquity be in thine hand, put it far away, and let not wickedness dwell in thy tabernacles. For then shalt thou lift up thy face without spot; yea, thou shalt be stedfast, and shalt not fear…
Proverbs 28:13: He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy.
Psalm 51:17: The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.
The Bible is full of promises about the forgiveness of our sins, and the first step that needs to be taken is repentance. When Peter and John preached in the temple after the Resurrection of Jesus and there was a sick man who received healing in the name of Jesus, Peter briefly summarized to the witnesses of this miracle the duty of the sinner towards Christ.
He said: “Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord.” Acts 3:19. Repentance and conversion are gifts of God to those who earnestly desire to please him and to give their lives to him.
The more we look at the spotless life of Christ, the deeper will be our realization of the terribleness of our sins. And the more earnestly will we desire to be cleansed from them and to find pardon, seeing that it was because of our sins that Christ died on the cross. In view of the matchless love of God in giving his Son to die for us, we will abhor our old selves and we will desire to become new creatures in Christ Jesus.
God’s desire to accept our repentance
Psalm 147:3: He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds.
Psalm 34:18: The LORD is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit.
Isaiah 55:6-7: Seek ye the LORD while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near: Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
Isaiah 57:15: For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.
Joel 2:12-13: Therefore also now, saith the LORD, turn ye even to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning: And rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the LORD your God: for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil.
It is true that there is a condition to finding forgiveness and it is that we repent and confess, and separate from our sins, but how much more earnestly should we strive to receive pardon when we realize the great sacrifice that was made on the part of God who gave his dear, only-begotten Son for our salvation.
The sacrifice of the precious blood of Jesus on the cross was full, and God poured out all Heaven in this gift. Our part is to accept the redemption that was purchased for us with the life, sufferings, and death of Jesus, and from henceforth to be obedient to the holy Law of God the trespasses of which broke the heart of the Son of God on Calvary. Repentance is not true if we continue to sin, and so we must strive to reform and live out the truth that is beginning to shine in our hearts.
Confession
The acknowledgment of our sins
Job 9:20: If I justify myself, mine own mouth shall condemn me: if I say, I am perfect, it shall also prove me perverse.
Job 13:23: How many are mine iniquities and sins? make me to know my transgression and my sin.
Job 42:5: I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee.
Psalm 32:5: I acknowledge my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the LORD; and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin.
Psalm 40:11: Withhold not thou thy tender mercies from me, O LORD: let thy lovingkindness and thy truth continually preserve me.
There is a need for us to acknowledge our sins and our iniquities that have separated us from God, in order to be separated from them. Looking at Calvary, we will see the sinfulness of sin, and we will desire to part ways with it. There we may find peace, there we may receive the blessing of pure conscience and clean hands. Calvary is the pledge on the part of God that he is ready to forgive us, if we come to him with repentance.
The willful decision to put away sin from our lives
Psalm 51:2-4: Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me. Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight…
Isaiah 64:5: Thou meetest him that rejoiceth and worketh righteousness, those that remember thee in thy ways: behold, thou art wroth; for we have sinned: in those is continuance, and we shall be saved.
Jeremiah 3:21-22: A voice was heard upon the high places, weeping and supplications of the children of Israel: for they have perverted their way, and they have forgotten the LORD their God. Return, ye backsliding children, and I will heal your backslidings.
1 John 1:8-10: If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.
After we have confessed our sins, we need to make the decision that we should not do them again. And even if we may be overcome by the enemy of all righteousness, we may plead to God before the throne of grace, and ask him to cleanse us of all iniquity. We must strive to overcome our inherited and cultivated tendencies to do evil, and strive to follow the example of the sinless life of Christ – our perfect Pattern.
Finding pardon
God desires to forgive us of our iniquities
Exodus 34:6-7: The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty…
Psalm 32:1-2: Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man unto whom the LORD imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile.
Psalm 99:8: Thou answeredst them, O LORD our God: thou wast a God that forgavest them, though thou tookest vengeance of their inventions.
Psalm 103:12: As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.
When Joshua the high priest was presented as standing before God in filthy garments, representing the sins of the nation, and Satan was there to remonstrate against him, God showed his mercy and compassion by commanding that a change of raiment should be given him and a fair mitre shall be placed on his head.
This shows the attitude that God has towards us. He desires to win us back from our bondage to sin and receive us unto himself. When Jesus was about to part with his disciples just before his crucifixion, he promised his disciples that he was going to prepare a place for them so that where he is, they shall be also (John 14:2-3).
He wanted to inspire hope in his disciples and give them courage in the great affliction they would have. Such is the heart of our heavenly Father, and such is the love of Christ towards us. Though sinful and polluted, we may come to Christ, just as we are, and ask him to remove our defilement from us, cleanse us of all unrighteousness, and give us a new heart.
God’s purpose is to recover his moral image in us
Isaiah 1:18: Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.
Isaiah 43:25-26: I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins. Put me in remembrance: let us plead together: declare thou, that thou mayest be justified.
Jeremiah 31:34: And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.
Hebrews 8:12: For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.
1 John 1:7: But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.
1 John 1:9: If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
1 John 2:1-2, 12: My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for our’s only, but also for the sins of the whole world… I write unto you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for his name’s sake.
God is pure and holy, and no sin can stand in his presence. Therefore, if we want to be able to live in the presence of God forever, we must separate from all sin. This is why when Nicodemus went that night to ask for an interview with Jesus, the Master did not tell him to correct his teachings but he told him that what he needed was to be born again.
The new birth is the representation of the new life that we receive from God through the merits of the blood of a crucified and risen Savior. We cannot earn this new heart, we cannot produce the new life, but we can receive them if we abide in Christ, as the branch abides in the vine and bears much fruit. Of ourselves, we can do nothing.
All that we are and all that we can accomplish is done through Christ, for the glory of God. Thus repentance, confession, and pardon are for his honor only, in the name of his only-begotten Son. All praise must go to him. And our hearts may be overjoyed with thankfulness and praises for the new being that they have wrought in us.
Pardon is still offered to those who have backslidden from God
For those who have once been with God and have wandered away in the world, the loving, yearning heart of God is still drawn out to them, and his eyes are eagerly watching for their return. This can be seen in the wonderful parables of Jesus and particularly in the Parable of the Prodigal Son.
When he had spent all the wealth that the father had given him in a foreign country for a life of self-indulgence and sin, and he was left to do the most humiliating job of feeding the hogs, he came to his senses and he realized his wretched, miserable condition.
Then he decided to return to his father and confess his sin, and ask him to grant him a servant’s place in the house. In his humility, he thought that he could no longer be received as a son, but this only shows that he did not know the heart of his merciful and gracious father.
Luke 15:20-21: “And he arose, and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him. And the son said unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son.”
When he returned, the father did not wait for him to come, he ran from afar off and embraced him, and commanded that clean and beautiful clothes be given him, and he covered his waste form with his own beautiful mantle.
Thus the love of God as our heavenly Father is presented to us. Thus the heart of Infinite Love is revealed to the fallen race. Even if we are like the prodigal son, hopeless and without God in the world, a pardon is still offered to us and we can still return to our home, and find peace.
“Great peace have they which love thy law: and nothing shall offend them.” Psalm 119:165.
For Further Study: