Remorse or Repentance

by Gene Poore

During a revival service, a friend of mine accepted Jesus Christ as her

personal Savior. Her face radiated her inner decision. Weeks later, she confided
to me that before Jesus entered her life, her problems contaminated her every
thought. Her troubles controlled her emotions. However, after she asked Jesus into
her heart, her worldly problems remained, but her problems no longer burdened her
thoughts nor tweaked her attitude.
As any Christian would, I understood. After we accept Christ, life’s
difficulties do not disappear. Only the weight of worldly problems evaporates,
because Jesus’ “Burden is light.” (MAT 11:30). The dramatic change in a person
after Christ enters their life never astonishes the Christian. Yet, the aura
around the new Christian startles nonbelievers, the unremorseful, and the
unrepentant who sit convicted and quivering in the pews.
Further, as we left the revival service, I remember my friend sobbed an
overpowering truth. “I joined the church when I was twelve. Tonight, I found God!”
I nodded. “Tonight you joined the Spiritual Church! Years ago, as a child,
you joined a contrived convention without understanding personal conviction calls
for repentance.”
Later, I pondered that conversation. Although I believe God treats a
deceased child’s salvation differently than a deceased adult’s salvation, I
considered a thorny thought. If scripture states we need first to repent and then
receive baptism for salvation, if a child of any age does not understand
repentance, how can that child repent before the child’s parents sponsor baptism?
Until a child’s maturity brings understanding of repentance, does “forced” baptism
on a child remain useless for that child’s adult salvation? If that is true, how
many adults, baptized when children, walk the church aisle with false confidence
in their salvation? How many adults, baptized when children, now kneel at the foot
of the cross unaware their tears of remorse may stain their cheeks and dampen the
altar but do not moisten the feet of Christ?
The guilt created by remorse at any age simply means, “I am sorry I got
caught.” However, repentance means the willful turning away from a past course of
wrongdoing. At any age, understanding the difference between remorse and
repentance represents the difference between joining a material church or uniting
in Fellowship with God and Christ through the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit
searches for repentance in your heart and mine. The Holy Spirit ignores remorse
that keeps us attached to an artificial, material church. We can join every
artificial, material church in the world by remorse, but the Spirit of Christ
indwells only the repentant heart.
Such indwelling evidence of a repentant heart radiated from my sister in
Christ that night. My sister in Christ, now baptized again after she understood
repentance, joined the Spiritual Church through her repentant heart. Childhood
baptism had kept her loosely attached to a misunderstood, artificial, material
church.
Remorse or Repentance? Understanding the difference at whatever age leads to
the true Christian experience. Remorse or repentance becomes our individual choice
at the age we understand the difference, regardless of when we received baptism,
how we received baptism, who baptized us, or whether we thought we joined the
church as a child through baptism.
Scripture implies that before we receive the value of baptism, we must
repent. Clearly, we must understand repentance. Once understood, repentance
followed by baptism opens the Way, the Truth, and Life everlasting through Christ.