Have you ever left the house to go somewhere, only to realize that you had to turn completely around, a 180, because you forgot something at home? Have you ever missed an exit and had to drive on to the next one, do a 180, and go back to the one you missed? We have all had our share of complete 180’s, and those experiences have an important lesson for us about the Christian life––faith in Jesus includes a life of repentance. It’s starts with a 180 and continues with 180’s along the way. In Matthew 16:13-28, Jesus explains the four checkpoints on the road to repentance.

In 2006, at a storefront on 44th Street in Manhattan, two artists created a performance piece called “Inside Out.” They stood in white on the sidewalk with clipboards, paper, and envelopes stamped “secret,” inviting passersby to “Air Your Dirty Laundry. 100% Confidential. Anonymous. Free!” Hundreds wrote their innermost secrets and dropped them in buckets, which were later posted in the window. This artistic exercise revealed what Christians already know: people carry a heavy load of unconfessed sin and instinctively try to hide it. Yet God invites us to bring that hidden guilt into the light through repentance and find freedom in Christ. In Job 42:1-6, Job’s answer to God bringing to light his sin contains five lessons for us about how we should repent.

One day a kindergarten teacher was helping a student named Jimmy with his pronunciation. He struggled with the letter “R,” so she gave him a sentence packed with R’s: “Robert gave Rob a rap in the rib for roasting the rabbit so rare.” After practicing, Jimmy proudly recited, “Bob gave Bobby a poke in the side for not cooking the bunny enough.” Clever kid—he avoided the “R” sound altogether. Many people today, including Christians, do something similar with another “R” word: repentance. King David avoided it for a year. Psalm 51 records his repentance, highlighting the 5 effects avoiding it had on him and 4 characteristics of what rue repentance is.

There’s an ancient story about a disciplined king who never missed his morning prayers. One day he overslept, but a devil woke him and urged him to get up and pray. Suspicious, the king asked why. The devil replied, “If you had overslept, you would have been sorry and repented. But if you never miss for ten years, you’ll become proud and self-righteous.” There’s a lesson in that ancient story, not to purposely skip prayer, but to always stay humble, remembering that repentance is a way of life. When King Josiah found the Book of the Law in the temple, he realized God’s people forgot that truth. 2 Kings 22:19-20–23 describes 4 aspects of his repentance.

Religious people can be very busy for God while completely missing what God actually wants. In the prophet Micah’s day, people wondered how to impress the Lord—bigger offerings, more sacrifices, dramatic spiritual gestures. God’s answer was surprisingly simple, deeply searching and profoundly encouraging. Repentance according to Micah is not about you upgrading your religious performance, but about God being actively involved in your soul to change your way of life. In Micah 1:1-16, God tells us 3 ways he is operating in our repentance.

Noah’s message from the steps going up to the Ark was not, “I’m okay, you’re okay, everyone is going to be okay.” Similarly, the prophet Daniel wasn’t placed in the lion’s den for telling people, “You do you.” Likewise, John the Baptist was certainly not beheaded because he preached, “Love is love.” No, the world rejected these men of God because they preached God’s message which included one word that the world always finds offensive––Repent. About John the Baptist, Jesus said, “among those born of women there has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist.” We would do well to listen to what John taught, particularly about repentance because it was a hallmark of his ministry. Mark 3:1-12 has 6 lessons from him in that regard.

Think of the person in your life that everyone despises: corrupt, selfish, always taking and never giving. That was Zacchaeus, the chief tax collector who climbed a tree just to get a glimpse of Jesus. To everyone’s shock, Jesus saw him up in that tree, told him he came to town to see him and invited himself over to Zacchaeus’s house. That simple act of grace turned Zacchaeus’ world upside down. Luke 19:1-10 has 5 insights about repentance from his personal experience with Jesus, and these are so helpful to us as they can turn our world upside down by grace too. 

A man once described a lesson his father taught him about his fiery childhood temper. Every time he said or did something mean, his dad drove a nail into their gatepost. Each kindness removed a nail. Day after day, the growing line of nails confronted him, until kindness finally outnumbered outbursts. Eventually, only one nail remained. Proudly, he watched his father pull it out—until his dad pointed to the holes and said, “Don’t ever forget that the scars remain.” Sin leaves scars too. God fully forgives in Jesus Christ, yet our sinful ways still do damage. That’s why it is so important to repent, so that we produce as little harm as possible. Nobody knew that better than the Apostle Paul, and 2 Corinthians 7:2-16 provides 4 instructions from him about how we can repent in order to minimize the destruction sin causes in our relationships.