The Afterthought of the True Christian

How often do we think repentance is all about merely doing?

Perhaps you fell into pride, and your first instinct is to practice gratitude and give credit where it's due. Or you watched something on a website you know you shouldn't have, and your response is to surround yourself with others to keep yourself from going back. Or maybe you've been seriously financially reckless, and instead of sitting with that, you just resolve to stop spending for the rest of the month and move on.

None of those things are bad in themselves, but that kind of mindset puts us in serious danger. Why? Because we're no longer operating in faith; we're operating in works.

Here's an idea you may have never encountered in your Christian walk: repentance—that is, the afterthought of the true Christian—is not merely doing. It is thinking. It is belief. And it is fueled by faith that is empowered only by the Holy Spirit, for He is the one who convicts us of sin, who opens our eyes to the weight of our rebellion, and who draws us toward God in genuine sorrow. That inward turning is precisely what metanoia—the Greek word behind repentance—captures: a "change of mind," an "afterthought."

And yet many assume repentance simply means to stop sinning. But that's only a half-truth. Before you can be led into a godly life, you need that afterthought. You need to look back at your sin and feel the weight of committing treason against a holy God. You need to abhor your sin—to know it has left a stain that no one, not even yourself, can ever remove except God. You need to believe that this sin is what separates you from Him, and that you want it gone.

There are many reasons people struggle with repentance, but I'll name one. Some of us can't—or perhaps, I should say, choose not to—repent because we genuinely don't believe what we're doing is sin. We don't truly believe we've broken the heart of God in our disobedience. And if we don't believe that, we will never feel the weight that drives us to repentance.

So, how do we get to that place?

Stop trying to do things your way. Shift from a works mindset to a faith mindset. Recognize sin when the Lord calls it sin. See how it separates you from Him and where it's leading you. Lament over it. Depend on the Holy Spirit to fuel your obedience in moments of weakness.

Some of you might be thinking, "But Kelvin, I don't feel guilty. I don't feel brokenhearted at all."

Two things: first, acknowledging your lack of remorse is actually a very good thing, and second, remember that repentance is not founded on us—it is founded on the God who gives grace. 

What does that mean? It means that even the faith that fuels repentance is carried by the grace of God. Scripture is clear that saving faith is not our own doing—it is a gift from Him (Ephesians 2:8-9). And if faith itself is a gift, so too is the repentance it produces. R. C. Sproul put it well: "The only way to have a clean heart is by a work of divine re-creation." Ask the Lord to stir a mighty work of genuine repentance in you, because only He can do such a thing.

Now, to those who think repentance is unimportant—a mere optional add-on to the faith—I want to push back on that. Yes, we are saved by grace. Yes, we are justified by faith alone. But understand this: the call of the gospel is not belief alone. It is belief and repentance. The two are inseparable, because genuine faith always produces the afterthought. To embrace one while dismissing the other is not the gospel Jesus preached—it is a watered-down version of it.

Consider what Jesus Himself said: "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel" (Mark 1:15; emphasis added). He did not call us to simply believe and move on. Repentance and faith were, for Jesus, two sides of the same coin.

You may have heard that repentance is turning away from sin and turning to God. But I'd argue that before we can even turn away from sin, we must first turn to God. He is the source of our salvation, the source of our obedience, and the source of our repentance. It is only by the gracious power of the Holy Spirit that the afterthought of the true Christian can ever occur.

Repentance was never yours to conjure because it was always His to give. And the good news is that the same God who calls you to repent is the very God who makes repentance possible. Rest in that. And let Him do the work.