How often do we need to repent?
We answer that question often with the attitude of repenting for the known sin in our lives. But this attitude often assumes we are completely clear on that sin and is usually based on a fairly shallow view of sin.
What if the sin problem in our lives is much deeper, more pervasive than we usually acknowledge? What if we have been so corrupted by the Fall that we are impacted by that Fall in ways we are not even aware of?
Tim Challies speaks to this idea:
But this is another great one I came across (one drawn from The Valley of Vision but which I stumbled across while reading some other web sites). It is titled “Continual Repentance.” I think these lines are particularly good: “I need to repent of my repentance; I need my tears to be washed; I have no robe to bring to cover my sins, no loom to weave my own righteousness.”
What if, as the prayer suggests, that even my repentance and the possible tears surrounding it are stained with sin, with selfishness at some level?
The great news of the gospel is that “the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin” (1John 1:7) – even those sins that are beyond my current understanding.
This moves me to rest not in my repentance but in Christ as the source of security for my relationship with God.
