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Luke 19:1–10
“Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, ‘Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor. And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold.’ And Jesus said to him, ‘Today salvation has come to this house, since he also is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost’” (vv. 8–10).
Conversion, which follows effectual calling in the order of salvation, is the decisive act of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and repentance from sin by which we enter into a saving relationship to God and are reconciled to Him (Acts 20:17–20; Rom. 5:1; 2 Cor. 7:10). Faith has priority in conversion even though saving faith and repentance are inseparable graces. As we have seen, authentic repentance includes a sinner’s coming to a true sense of his sin and an apprehension of God’s mercy through Christ Jesus (Ps. 51:1–6; Jude 20–21). Yet true repentance does not end there.
Westminster Shorter Catechism 87 summarizes the Bible’s teaching on repentance, telling us that to repent truly means also that a sinner “with grief and hatred of his sin, turn[s] from it unto God, with full purpose of, and endeavor after, new obedience.” We see here not only that repentance includes a sense of how our sin is against the Lord but also that repentance means that we mourn and hate the sin itself. Texts such as Psalm 38:18 and Jude 23 tell us as much.
In repentance, we also turn from the sin unto God. This turning requires that we acknowledge the wrongness of our sin, forsake it, and reorient ourselves to the Lord (1 Thess. 1:9). Certainly, we cannot do this unless our Father “[grants] repentance that leads to life” (Acts 11:18), so our repenting is a gift of His grace that we do not work up in ourselves. Still, those to whom God grants repentance will truly repent, will change their minds about the nature of their sin and agree with Him that it is evil. They will look to Him for forgiveness and mercy.
Finally, as the catechism tells us, when we repent, we resolve to obey and start endeavoring to do so. Authentic repentance does not simply involve saying “sorry” and moving on, but it requires the amendment of our lives. This does not mean that we are not truly repentant if we fall into the same sin again, for we will struggle with sin until we are glorified and must continually look to Christ (Rom. 7:7–24; 1 John 1:8–9). It does mean that we are striving to follow Jesus more and more every day. Today’s passage gives an illustration of this endeavoring after new obedience. When Zacchaeus the tax collector received Christ, he did not simply say that he was sorry for his sin, but he restored what he had stolen from others, as required by God’s law (see Ex. 22:1). In his repentance, he pursued obedience to the Lord’s commandments.
Coram Deo Living before the face of God
Repentance without endeavoring after new obedience is not repentance at all. We do need to say that we are sorry and feel sorrow in our hearts, but our repentance is incomplete if we are not seeking to obey the Lord where we have in fact disobeyed Him. As we repent, let us seek not only to feel sorrow but to discern where we need to make a change and obey the law of God.
For further study
- 2 Chronicles 7:14
- Acts 3:19
The bible in a year
- Isaiah 27–28
- Ephesians 6
- Isaiah 29–34
- Philippians 1–2