8 For even if I grieved you with my letter, I don’t regret it. And if I regretted it—since I saw that the letter grieved you, yet only for a while— 9 I now rejoice, not because you were grieved, but because your grief led to repentance. For you were grieved as God willed, so that you didn’t experience any loss from us. (2 Corinthians 7:8-9 CSB)
Do you feel guilty for a period but then go on and repeat a sin again? This is human guilt, not true spiritual repentance.
When we begin to realize that our human guilt does not lead to true repentance we can start to look to The Spirit and greave properly. We can begin to see our sin for what it truly is, which is a human condition that cannot be overcome without God.
We must, then, cry out to God in true repentance and ask that we are strengthened by The Spirit so we may overcome our weakness. Of our own accord we are simply too human to turn true repentance into spiritual growth.
We preach “once saved, always saved” and I believe this to be true. But it is not an open invitation to go on living life in our sinful way. NO, it is meant as a halcyon call to an ever changing life that is a life of growth and spiritual maturity. How can others seek us out to know a better way if we are wallowing in unrepentant sin ourselves?
Recognizing and being sorry for sin is not enough. We must make the next step toward repentance.
