Paul Washer's Thoughts on Repentance

Paul Washer. This man has had such an impact in my walk with Christ, I dare say that I almost idolize him. I was converted through a YouTube video of him preaching and God has used many of his sermons to open my eyes to truth. I listened to another one of his sermons and it was exactly what I needed to hear in my struggle with sin and repentance.

I have so many people come up to me and they doubt the assurance of their salvation because in their scrutiny of their own repentance, they're expecting, almost demanding, that their saving repentance be the repentance of a mature believer of 30 years. They scrutinize every aspect of their life and if they don't look like a Puritan, then they say, "I cannot be converted."

What you need to understand is that repentance, in its initial seed, is simply a changing of the mind. "God is all I need. I need Him!" You say, "That's it?" It can be. "I can't save myself. I'm lost! I need a Savior."

You say, "But the Bible describes repentance in so many different ways!" Yes, it does. But are you expecting a full-blown repentance the second God begins working in your heart?

As I study repentance in Scripture, I look back at the moment I was converted and my repentance was a very singular thing: "I need to be saved!" But now after 25 years, as I grow in Scripture, my repentance matures and deepens. But you err, young person, when you scrutinize your life and you wonder whether not you're saved and you're looking for a repentance that can only be found in someone who's walked with God for decades.

- Paul Washer

As I've said in my previous blog posts, I am struggling a great deal with certain sins in my life right now. I hear so much that repentance is a turning away from sin and a turning towards God and His ways. Is that true? Absolutely. But repentance, like sanctification, is a process. This is something I've forgotten.

I keep reprimanding myself and I keep wrestling over the fact that I'm either not repenting enough or that my repentance is possibly false. Why do I think such things? Because I wrongly expect myself to completely abandon my sins as soon as I repent. I have the incorrect notion that I need to overcome these sins now or else my repentance is weak or inadequate.

That's not true. I was wrong. Should we strive for perfection? Yes, because our chief goal is to conform to the image of Jesus Christ, who is nothing short of perfection. But at the same time, it's a process. Repent when you sin but remember that sanctification is a process of growth and only God can determine how fast that growth is.