Repentance Of Sin
It is imperative that men — who all sin (Rom. 3: 23; I John 1:8,10) — repent of their sins. Repentance stands between the alien sinner and forgiveness (Acts 17:30; 2:38; 3:19); repentance stands between the child of God who sins and forgiveness (Acts 8:22; Rev. 2: 4-5,16). Upon the impenitent God's wrath will be poured out (Rom. 2:4). The Bible abounds with examples of God's mercy sparing and forgiving the penitent. But there is no blessing promised the impenitent.
But our wills can become stubborn and our pride foolish, and we will not repent. To repent demands that we admit that we have sinned against God and, perhaps, against man also. We must admit that we have done that which displeases God or neglected that required of us by God. We must acknowledge guilt; we must be sorry that we have wronged God; we must be ashamed of our wrong; we must "change our mind" (The literal meaning of "REPENT") about our sin; we must resolve to thus sin no more; we must desire God's forgiveness. Repentance is perhaps the most difficult command to comply with; yet even we can see the wisdom of the necessity of it.
We are not to try to justify our sins--we cannot. We are not to attempt to conceal them. We are not to endeavor to excuse them. We are not to lightly regard them. We are not to expect the mere passing of time to erase them. We are not to hope that men will not notice them and God will not care. We must not embrace them to our bosom, carry them as companions through life, wear them in death, and face them in the judgment — but we will if we do not repent of them. Yes, we must repent of our sins, but this is the most neglected of all the commands issued by heaven. We must either repent or perish (2 Pet. 3:9.)
When man repents of sin, when God forgives sin, man is delivered from the practice of sin, the love of sin, the guilt of sin and the punishment due sin. We are not to ignore or reject God's will when it denounces our sins, and we are not to resent and rebuff the efforts of men to point out our sins. We need to, we must repent of sin.