Is penance ever necessary for forgiveness?

Oh hey everyone. Here’s a question for us. Is penance ever necessary when it comes to confessing and getting forgiveness for our sins? This is a question that a lot of people, depending upon your faith background, wrestle with from time to time and I think it’s always good for us, even if you come from a different background that has nothing to do with penance, that we think about because there is something instinctive within all of us that thinks about when I feel guilty, I’ve got to do something

about that. I’ve got to come out from under the weight of this guilt. And so every culture has some sort of way of dealing with it, whether it’s some kind of ritual or some kind of series of good deeds or some kind of personal sacrifice. It’s the idea that I need to deal with this in some way. And so penance is just historically speaking, one response that some Christians and some churches have used to deal with this, the idea that I can do certain things, I can pray certain prayers, maybe a certain

number of times. I can do certain acts of charity, I can fast, I can maybe even punish myself in some way to work off this guilt, this sin that I’m dealing with. It’s one person used the illustration, and it’s probably a bit of a crude illustration, but the idea of community service to pay off some sort of debt in some way. That’s again, a crude illustration, but it’s the idea of I can work this off in some way.

It’s just a couple of challenges though that I would want to point us to when it comes to that thinking. One is the notion that we could pay off God. The notion that we could repay God for his sacrifice for us through Jesus or all the ways that he provides for us is really, really presumptuous if you think about it.

No amount of good deeds, no amount of kindness or charity or punishment for myself could ever adequately repay what Jesus has done. And to think that we could do that, really is to minimize sin, it’s to minimize God’s holiness in a significant way. And so we could never really repay because the Bible describes our debt in sin to God being infinite, and we can never repay something like that or even begin to.

But another thing that penance subtly suggests is that Christ’s sacrifice is not enough for us. And what it does is it puts the focus on us rather on Jesus, rather than on Jesus and what he did for us. It puts the focus on, look at me and how sorrowful I am, how bad I feel for what I’ve done, all these things that, look at what I’m doing, God. Don’t you see that sincerity?

And indeed, you may be very, very sincere about that. But again, that’s putting the focus on us, whereas biblical repentance, which is the alternative to penance, biblical repentance puts the focus on Christ. It is turning back to him and recognizing, I could never pay you back, Jesus, for what you did for me.

I’m putting the focus off of myself and I’m putting it back on you. I’m putting my heart back towards you in a significant way. Think about it this way. When Jesus died on the cross, he said, ‘It is finished.’ He didn’t say, ‘Most of this is finished and now the rest is really up to you and you’ve got to help complete this sacrifice here.’ No, Jesus paid it in full for us.

And so I would just want to encourage us to relax and put ourselves once again under the mercies of God, reflecting on what Jesus has done for us. And that’s the uniqueness of what it means to be a Christian. He paid for all of our sins. He paid for it all. And there’s nothing upon us that could ever repay him.

And for anyone who is in Christ Jesus, you decide to follow Jesus, Romans 8:1 promises, there’s no condemnation for you at all. What a weight off of our shoulders to know that. So, let’s rest in the finished work of Jesus on our behalf. Whenever we fall, let’s confess that, let’s acknowledge that openly, let’s repent by turning back to the Lord, but recognize that Jesus’ sacrifice is sufficient.

It is enough for you and for me. Thanks so much for joining us today.