The Sinner’s First Response to God

Yesterday we came to the following definition of repentance: repentance is an inner change of mind, which results in an outward return, or reversal, to face a totally new direction.

The perfect example of true repentance, defined in this way, is found in the parable of the prodigal son (see Luke 15:11-32). Here we read how the prodigal turned his back on father and home and went off into a distant land, there to waste all that he had in sin and dissipation. Eventually he came to himself, hungry, lonely and in rags, sitting among the swine, longing for something to fill his stomach. At this point he made a decision. He said, “I will arise and go to my father” (v. 18).

He immediately carried out his decision: “And he arose and came to his father” (v. 20). This is true repentance: first, the inward decision; then the outward act of that decision – the act of turning back to father and home.

In his own unregenerate, sinful condition, every man that was ever born has turned his back on God, his Father, and on heaven, his home. Each step he takes is a step away from God and from heaven. As he walks this way, the light is behind him, and the shadows are before him. The farther he goes, the longer and darker the shadows become. Each step he takes is one step nearer the end – one step nearer the grave, nearer hell, nearer the endless darkness of a lost eternity.

For every man who takes this course, there is one essential act he must make. He must stop, change his mind, change his direction, face the opposite way, turn his back to the shadows and face toward the light.

This first, essential act is called repentance in the Scriptures. It is the first move any sinner must make who desires to be reconciled with God.