Repentance for the Forgiveness of Sins: Not Penance but Christ

Repentance for the forgiveness of sins is the message Jesus gave His disciples after His resurrection. He did not tell them to preach: penance for the forgiveness of sins religious works for the forgiveness of sins or self-punishment for the forgiveness of sins He told them that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in His name. One of the most important questions anyone can ask is, “How can my sins be forgiven?” Every religion tries to answer that question, and fallen man naturally gravitates toward the same answer: “I must do something.” I must suffer enough. I must sacrifice enough. I must perform enough religious acts, prayers, rituals, or good works to make up for what I have done. Basically, we think: “I have done something wrong, so I must do something right to cancel it out. I have sinned badly, so I must suffer badly. I have offended God greatly, so I must offer something great to satisfy Him.” But Jesus gives us a very different answer. After He rose from the dead, He appeared to His disciples, showed them His hands and feet, invited them to touch Him, and even ate in front of them to prove He had truly risen bodily from the dead. Then He reminded them that everything written about Him in the Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms had to be fulfilled. The cross and resurrection were not accidents. They were not Plan B. They were the fulfillment of God’s Word. And once Jesus opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, He showed them that the message of the gospel is not penance, but repentance in His name. https://youtu.be/fnuLzd6ouEI Table of contentsJesus Opened Their Minds to Understand the ScripturesUnderstanding Scripture Should Make Us Humble and PrayerfulScripture Reveals That Christ Had to Suffer and RiseJesus Commanded Repentance for the Forgiveness of SinsPenance Is Not the Same as RepentanceFallen Man Wants to Earn ForgivenessThe Old Testament Also Rejects Man-Made Payment for SinGod Desires Repentant Hearts More Than Religious SacrificesThe Tax Collector Brought the Sacrifice God AcceptsForgiveness Is Found in Christ, Not in Making Up for SinRun to ChristConclusion Jesus Opened Their Minds to Understand the Scriptures Luke 24:45 says: “Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures.” Notice the wording. Luke does not say, “They finally figured it out.” He does not say, “They were smart enough to put the pieces together.” He says Jesus opened their minds. This continues a pattern we see throughout Luke 24. Earlier, the disciples on the road to Emmaus were kept from recognizing Jesus. Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized Him. Spiritual understanding is not ultimately a human achievement. It is a divine gift. That does not mean study is useless. Paul told Timothy to do his best to rightly handle the word of truth. The Bereans were commended because they examined the Scriptures daily to see whether Paul’s teaching was true. Study matters. Effort matters. Sitting under faithful preaching matters. But in the end, God must still open the heart. These disciples were not unintelligent men. They had spent three years with Jesus. They heard Him teach in synagogues, in the Temple courts, by the lakeside, on the hillside, and in private. They knew the Old Testament. They were not spiritual novices. But they still did not understand until Jesus opened their minds. The same is true with us. A person can read Scripture and miss the meaning. A person can hear preaching and remain spiritually blind. A person can know facts about the Bible without seeing the glory of Christ in the Bible. Paul explains why in 1 Corinthians 2:14: “The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him.” The difference is not ultimately intelligence, education, or effort. The difference is God opening the mind and enlightening the heart. Understanding Scripture Should Make Us Humble and Prayerful If understanding Scripture is a gift, then two applications follow. First, we should be humble. If we have come to understand any spiritual truth from Scripture, our response should be gratitude, not pride. We did not crack the code because we are smarter than others. God was gracious to us. Paul prayed in Ephesians 1:17–18 that God would give believers “the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him” and that the eyes of their hearts would be enlightened. That is what happened to the disciples in Luke 24. Jesus opened their minds. He enlightened their hearts. He gave them spiritual understanding. Second, we should be prayerful. If understanding Scripture is a gift Jesus gives, then we should approach the Bible with dependence. Before we come to the text as students, teachers, preachers, or scholars, we should come as beggars. Psalm 119:18 is a wonderful prayer to pray before reading Scripture: “Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of your law.” The Lord opened the disciples’ minds, and He can open ours. Scripture Reveals That Christ Had to Suffer and Rise Luke 24:46 says: “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead.” When Jesus opened their minds, the first truth He showed them was that the Christ had to suffer and rise from the dead. This is the heart of the gospel. Paul said something similar in 1 Corinthians 15:3–4: “I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures.” If you have ever wondered what is of first importance, it is this: Christ died for our sins and was raised again. Notice that Jesus said, “Thus it is written.” He pointed them back to the Old Testament. If we were describing something dramatic that happened to us, we might say, “Let me tell you what happened to me.” But Jesus did not begin that way. He explained His suffering, death, and resurrection through the lens of Scripture. He did the same thing with the disciples on the road to Emmaus. Luke 24:27 says that beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, He interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself. Jesus was not the victim of circumstances. He was fulfilling Scripture written centuries in advance. His suffering was not accidental. His rejection was not a detour. His death was not an interruption in God’s plan. The cross was the plan. The resurrection was the plan. Everything happened just as God had revealed beforehand in His Word. Jesus Commanded Repentance for the Forgiveness of Sins Luke 24:47 says: “And that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.” Jesus opened their minds to understand two great truths. First, Christ had to suffer and rise from the dead. Second, forgiveness comes through repentance in His name. This is the heart of the gospel: forgiveness comes through repentance, not penance. That distinction matters because fallen man naturally wants to make up for sin. We assume that if we have done something bad, we must do something good, painful, religious, or sacrificial to balance it out: But the gospel does not say, “Confess your sins and then do enough religious work to help pay them off.” The gospel says, “Repent and believe in Christ, because He has already taken the punishment for sin.” Penance Is Not the Same as Repentance To understand why this matters, we need to distinguish repentance from penance. In Roman Catholic confession, a person confesses sins to a priest. The priest assigns penance, such as praying certain prayers, reading a passage of Scripture, or performing some action. Then the priest pronounces absolution. The idea of penance is connected to repairing damage or making satisfaction for what has been done wrong. This fits the way fallen people naturally think: “I sinned, so now I must do something to make up for it.” But this is not the gospel. Penance is the sinner trying to make up for sin. Repentance is the sinner turning from sin to Christ. Penance looks inward to what I can do, suffer, pray, or perform. Repentance looks away from self to Christ, who suffered in the sinner’s place. This is why the distinction is so important. If sinners could pay for sin through penance, sacrifice, self-punishment, religious works, or suffering, then Christ’s death would not be necessary. But we cannot suffer enough to be forgiven. We cannot serve enough to be forgiven. We cannot sacrifice enough to be forgiven. We cannot do enough religious works to remove even one sin before a holy God. Forgiveness is not found in our ability to make up for sin. Forgiveness is found in Christ. Fallen Man Wants to Earn Forgiveness This desire to earn forgiveness is not unique to Roman Catholicism. It is ingrained in fallen human nature. People instinctively think, “I need to make up for what I have done.” That thinking appears in many religious systems, but it also appears in secular life. People try to punish themselves, prove themselves, redeem themselves, or do enough good to outweigh the bad. But if forgiveness could be earned that way, who would receive the glory? The sinner would. The person could say, “I suffered enough. I sacrificed enough. I made up for what I did. I redeemed myself.” But the gospel gives all the glory to Christ. He suffered enough. He sacrificed enough. He satisfied God’s justice. He paid for sin. That is why the message is not, “Do penance for the forgiveness of sins.” The message is, “Repent for the forgiveness of sins in Christ’s name.” The Old Testament Also Rejects Man-Made Payment for Sin This is not a new idea. The prophet Micah addressed the same instinct in Micah