If our problem is really sin – a fundamental breach in human existence – then repentance, not self-improvement is the first requirement. This is the biblical view of the foundations of morality. The prophets, John the Baptist, Jesus, and Paul all beckoned their hearers to a new life by calling them first to give up the old in repentance. (See Mark 1:15; Luke 13:3-5; Acts 26:20; Romans 2:4; 2 Corinthians 7:9-10.) Repentance is the absolutely inescapable first step of the Christian moral life. Without repentance, the Christian moral life is impossible.
Repentance requires two things: humility and trust. Repentance requires the humility involved in the confession that I am a sinner, one whose life is not whole and who lacks the power both to find either the direction to wholeness or the resources for wholeness on my own. Repentance requires trust in God’s power that can and will ultimately sustain and establish me if I let go of myself into God’s powerful hands. Without both trust and humility, repentance is impossible.
-- Adapted from “Vision and Character” by Craig R. Dykstra
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