Repentance or Restitution?
I am convinced one of the most misunderstood concepts we deal with is the concept of Godly repentance. There is a belief among some in our fellowship that repentance requires restitution.
A few years ago I was teaching an adult Bible class. This class was dealing with the question of repentance. I had carefully described the difference in repentance and restitution. One of the young deacons who had been sitting in the class came up to me afterwards. He told me what we had talked about in class couldn’t be accurate. I asked him why not. I was expecting some Biblical objection to the things I had taught. Instead this was his reply. He said, “What you are saying can’t be true, if what you have taught is correct I will have to change what I believe about marriage divorce and remarriage.” Wow! That ought to be the determining factor in all our doctrinal positions.
For many of us repentance always requires restitution. We have the view that in order to repent we must set every past sin right. Many believe that repentance requires undoing all the wrong we have done.
We know that the Biblical definition of repentance is a change of direction. What we misunderstand is this, changing direction doesn’t require undoing sin. If our salvation required our undoing past sins we would never be saved. Certainly if our hearts are right we will want to right as many of the wrongs we have committed as possible. However, repentance doesn’t require restitution on our part.
If I could provide restitution for my sins why would I need the blood of Christ? The Lord’s blood was shed to take away the sin in our lives. Forgiveness is in His hands. When God forgives sin that sin is forgotten, it no longer exists.
Our forgiveness is based on repentance and baptism not on restitution. Our salvation is dependant on being in the blood of Christ not our ability to perform restitution. Place your heart with God. Submit to baptism and trust Him to take care of the sins you have committed. Don’t let anyone place restitution as a pre-requisite of salvation, God never did.
