A Recipe for Repentance

Let me put it kindly: my wife did not marry a baker. If asked to compete on a show like The Great British Bake-Off, my “showstopper” would probably (quite literally) stop the show. Paul Hollywood would not shake my hand. He would more than likely bury his face into his hands.

But when I find myself in a situation where I’m responsible for preparing a dish for others to eat, there is usually a lifeline I can rely on: the recipe. Some people (like my wife Hannah) are comfortable and gifted in the kitchen, and recipes serve as little more than suggestions to them. Yet for me, the recipe is an instruction manual: do it this way, and it will turn out edible. Preparing a meal seems possible when the ingredients are named and the instructions are clear.

Some Instructions Required

Sometimes, in the Christian life, it can feel like we are in the kitchen without a recipe. We know what the finished product should look and taste like. We are just not sure exactly how to get there. And we far too often bring these feelings to our practice of repentance.

We could capture the essence of the Old Testament prophets’ ministry to Israel with one word, the word that both John the Baptist and Jesus Christ began their public ministries with—”Repent” (Matt. 3:2; 4:17). Jesus closes his earthly ministry by charging the disciples to preach repentance in his name (Luke 24:47). In the light of the gospel, it was repentance, over and over, that was the resounding answer to the question, “How then shall we live?”

In the light of the gospel, it was repentance, over and over, that was the resounding answer to the question, “How then shall we live?”

No one can take such a step apart from the Spirit. Repentance is not mysteriously generated from within us. It is a gift to be received. It is a change of mind provoked and carried by the Spirit himself. It is only by “the gift of God” that we are saved (Eph. 2:8).

We who possess faith in God have tasted the meal of repentance prepared for us. To be a follower of Christ is to be a repentant follower of Christ. But, as we know, it is one thing to taste a meal and another thing to prepare it. In a similar manner, it is one thing to experience repentance and another thing to practice it.

Perhaps, for example, you are battling a besetting sin. You have tried to overcome what you are fighting against but nothing seems to work. You cannot seem to get yourself to truly and fully repent. What’s the path forward for those of us who lack direction? And how do we know whether what we’re “dishing out” is the real deal or not? How can we determine the genuineness of practicing repentance? We need a recipe. And lucky for us, one skilled chef has offered to help us.

Preparing the Meal

Thomas Watson’s short work The Doctrine of Repentance is one of the most lucid and practical explorations of this doctrine. Watson defines repentance as “a grace of God’s Spirit whereby a sinner is inwardly humbled and visibly reformed” (Thomas Watson, The Doctrine of Repentance, 181). Those two qualifiers “inwardly humbled” and “visibly reformed”—help us see that repentance involves both an inward change of the mind and an outward change of behavior. When Christ, John the Baptist, and the prophets called people to “repent,” they had both of these qualifiers in mind.

But Watson delves deeper into this idea, listing “six special ingredients” belonging to repentance. A recipe has been created for us. If repentance is going to happen, and if it is to be genuine, then each of these ingredients must be present:

Ingredient List

Sight of Sin. Watson puts it bluntly: “Before a man can come to Christ he must first come to himself” (Watson, Repentance, 18). Watson later argues that this is perhaps the main impediment that prevents some from truly repenting: they simply do not see their sin for what it is.

As long as we fail to come to our senses and open our eyes to see the sin in our life, we will miss out on true repentance.

We’re masters at seeing sin in others, but when it comes to seeing it in ourselves, we hang onto justifications, excuses, and pride that blinds us from our sin. As long as we fail to come to our senses and open our eyes to see the sin in our life, we will miss out on true repentance.

Sorrow for Sin. Our cultural impulse is to make apologies for the consequences of our actions, and not explicitly for the fact of our wrongdoing. Have you ever been apologized to in this way? How did it feel? How must God feel, then, when this is how we say, “Sorry?”

To practice real repentance, Watson argues, is not only to identify our sin, but also to be pricked to the heart by it. He refers to this sorrow as a “holy agony” that is not merely sorry for getting caught, but sorry for sinning. We must work our hearts into this frame, by the power of the Spirit, who helps us see our sin for what it is.

Confession of Sin. Without this ingredient, repentance is simply impossible. Confessing our sins gets us “walking in the light” before God and man and clears the pathway for forgiveness and cleansing (1 John 1:7–9). We are not saved by our confessions, but we are saved for them. Now, in Christ, we can confess our sins freely, without the risk of rejection, without the uncertainty of pardon, without the absence of an Advocate.

Watson provides some helpful qualifiers for how to confess sin with the right heart. True confession is voluntary, not forced. It is sincere, not mechanical. It is particular, not general. When confession is born out of a true sight and sorrow of sin, real change can start taking place in us.

Shame for Sin. “Since God is slow to anger and patient, then why when man first sinned was His wrath and punishment so severe and long lasting?” To this Q&A offering, R.C. Sproul famously lost his cool. “What’s wrong with you people? This is what’s wrong with the Christian Church today. We don’t know who God is and we don’t know who we are. The question is ‘why wasn’t it infinitely more severe?’”

Sproul’s understanding of sin as “cosmic treason” helps us see sin as worthy of shame. Sin is not a light thing. It is, as Watson helps us see, an ingratitude of our Lord, a laughing at God’s patience, a dismissal of Christ’s example. As Watson eloquently puts it, “It is one thing to confess sin and another thing to feel sin” (Watson, Repentance, 29).

Hatred of Sin. The sparks of repentance turn into flames when we begin to burn with anger at our sin. “Christ is never loved,” Watson argues, “till sin be loathed” (Watson, Repentance, 45). In repentance, our love for God should develop into a hate for sin. If we are ever going to reach a place where leaving our sin is possible, we must change our attitude toward sin.

One of the reasons repentance is often difficult for us is because we simply tolerate or concede to the presence of sin in our lives. We are quick to say to one another, in the name of authenticity, that we’ll always struggle with sin, that we’ll never be perfect in this life. Perhaps we are a bit too comfortable and at peace with that reality. We know we are seeing our sin rightly not when we shrug at its presence, but when we are incensed toward change.

We know we are seeing our sin rightly not when we shrug at its presence, but when we are incensed toward change.

Turning from Sin. What would be the point of pursuing repentance if it never moved from the internal to the external? All our sorrow and confession and hate around sin must motivate something visibly different in us. Repentance, literally, is a change of mind. But that change of mind is a change “so visible that others may discern it . . . a change from darkness to light” (Watson, Repentance, 53).

Such a shift is bound to display itself as a new creation, for the old is gone and the new has come (2 Cor. 5:17). Repentance, then, is the Christian not simply leaving his sin behind, but running to his Father in faith. Watson likens it to getting under Christ’s banner and wearing his colors.

Taste and See

Is there a greater satisfaction in eating than that first bite into a delicious meal you’ve labored to prepare? You are reminded that all the chopping and dicing, the measuring and stirring, were worth it in the end. Each ingredient comes together to create something worth savoring.

With these ingredients in mind, we’re not only enabled to repent rightly, but we see the joy in it. Repentance is, as Watson reminds us, one of the greatest graces afforded to the Christian. By it we lean more into who Jesus intends for us to be and find the joy of being holy as he is. Let us taste and see its goodness.


Zach Barnhart currently serves as Student Pastor of Fountain City Church in Knoxville, Tennessee. He is married to Hannah, and they have three children. You can follow Zach on Twitter or check out his personal blog, Cultivated.