Early in my ministry, I found myself in a most uncomfortable position. I was not converted, and I didn’t know how to become converted. I wasn’t saved, and I didn’t know how to get saved. And for one who is unconverted and unsaved the gospel ministry is the most uncomfortable place in the world to be!

Summer came. The time for camp meeting rolled around. As a new minister, one of my duties was to help pitch tents at the campground the week before the meetings began. The ministers assigned to this task got the first row of tents pitched, so they would have something to stand behind, and then they needed a rest! We weren’t used to this kind of exercise!

While we rested for a while between the rows of tents, we became involved in all sorts of theological discussions. We talked about where the Battle of Armageddon would be fought and whether or not angels’ wings have feathers! I saw my opportunity.

Going up to one of the older ministers, I asked, “What do you tell someone who asks you how to be saved?” (That seemed a safe way to phrase it!)

He said, “I tell them to repent.”

“What if they ask how to repent.”

“Well, repentance is being sorry for your sins and turning away from them.”

“OK, how do you turn away from your sins?”

“Why, you repent!”

I said, “Wait a minute. Are you telling me that the way to turn away from your sins is to turn away from your sins, and the way to repent is to repent?”

“Yes, that’s right,” he beamed, obviously pleased with my clear grasp of the subject.

The classic definition for repentance, found on page 23 of Steps to Christ, uses those very words.

“Repentance includes sorrow for sin and a turning away from it.”

But the truth about repentance that I had missed is that repentance is a gift. It’s not something we achieve; it’s something we receive. That makes all the difference.

Acts 5:31 tells us that repentance is the gift of God. Selected Messages, book 1, page 353, says clearly,

“Repentance, as well as forgiveness, is the gift of God through Christ.”

So any repentance that we try to work up on our own, any repentance that is self-generated, will inevitably fall short of the genuine article. We may be able to be sorry for the consequences of our evil deeds. We may regret the results of our life of sin. But unless we receive the repentance that is a gift from God, we will be unable to go any farther than that.

Sorrow for sin, sorrow for having lived life separated from God, can come only from God Himself. We cannot make ourselves sorry. Genuine sorrow for sin is a gift.

And turning away from sins is a gift as well. We don’t turn away from sins in order to repent.

We come to Jesus in order to repent! And Romans 2:4 says it is the goodness of God that leads us to repentance. We most fully recognize the evil of sin when we most fully realize the love of Jesus. As we study the life of Jesus, as we contemplate His sacrifice for us upon the cross, our hearts are broken, and we experience genuine repentance. Sin no longer looks attractive.

When our hearts are changed, our actions are changed, and we receive the gift of repentance that does not need to be repented of. Our part is only, always, to come to Him.