When I call someone to repentance, I am not asking him to make himself worthy of Christ’s forgiveness. I am asking him to admit his sin and return to the God he has refused to obey. Regret can be part of that response, but feeling terrible about what happened is not the same as turning to the Lord. Scripture explains both why that return is necessary and why a guilty person can come with hope.
Return to Me
Joel preached to Judah after locusts had devastated the fields and vineyards. The ruined harvest threatened their food supply, and Joel 1 describes grain and drink offerings cut off from the Lord’s house. As the prophet warned of the coming day of the Lord, God called the people to return to Him:
“Now, therefore,” says the LORD, “Turn to Me with all your heart, With fasting, with weeping, and with mourning.” So rend your heart, and not your garments; Return to the LORD your God, For He is gracious and merciful, Slow to anger, and of great kindness; And He relents from doing harm.
Joel 2:12-13
The invitation was “Turn to Me.” The people could have wanted their crops restored while remaining unwilling to obey the Lord. He called them to face the rebellion that had drawn their hearts away from Him. Returning to Him would mean giving up that rebellion, even before they knew whether their fields would recover.
A man may stop cheating because he is afraid of losing his job, while wishing he could find a safer way to get away with it. His outward restraint may prevent further harm, but it does not mean he has returned to God. Repentance requires him to stop defending the conduct and acknowledge the Lord’s judgment of it. Wanting a better reputation or fewer repercussions is not enough.
Joel adds “with all your heart.” In biblical usage, the heart includes our thinking and will as well as our desires. God calls the whole person back to Him. I cannot answer that call by improving what other people see while insisting that a private part of my life must remain beyond His authority.
Tearing one’s garments could express grief or fear and sometimes accompanied repentance. Joel told the people to rend their hearts because a gesture could be imitated without the inward response. God knew whether the person beneath the torn clothing was genuinely returning to Him.
Joel’s call to fast, weep, and mourn makes it clear that he was not forbidding visible grief. Sorrow over sin can be deeply felt and honestly expressed. Yet tears and humble language can also persuade an audience while concealing a refusal to change. We therefore need to consider whether the person is returning to God, rather than treating an emotional display as proof.
Public wrongdoing may require public confession, and private sin needs to be acknowledged honestly before God. Neither requires a person to make a spectacle of his despair. Admitting guilt does not mean concluding that mercy is beyond reach. Joel gives the sinner a reason to return by describing the character of the God who is calling him.
The Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abundant in kindness. Joel was recalling what God had already revealed about Himself to Moses:
And the LORD passed before him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth.”
Exodus 34:6
God did not become merciful because His people finally repented well enough. His mercy was already the reason He called them back. We are not trying to persuade a reluctant God to care about us; we are responding to the mercy He has made known.
That does not mean He overlooks guilt. Exodus 34 also says that He will by no means clear the guilty. His justice requires us to admit that our conduct deserves judgment, rather than ask for forgiveness while insisting there was nothing to forgive.
When Joel says that God relents from doing harm, he is speaking about threatened judgment. The Lord has not discovered that His warning was mistaken. He genuinely calls people to turn and may withhold the judgment He warned of when they humble themselves. Joel’s next verse leaves the requested relief in God’s hands. His mercy gives them reason to return without giving them control over how He must respond.
What Repentance Means
The Hebrew verb shuv means to turn back or return. It expresses the prophets’ repeated call, “Return.” Their hearers had turned away from God and needed to come back to Him. Acquiring more religious information would not answer that call if they still intended to disregard what He said.
In the New Testament, metanoia, commonly translated repentance, involves a change of mind. Its biblical use concerns our response to God and sin. Instead of justifying my rebellion, I agree with His judgment of it and turn toward Him. Recognizing who Jesus is also requires me to reconsider my claim to govern my life independently of Him.
This does not produce instant maturity. A new believer still has much to learn, and an experienced Christian may need a sharp reprimand. We should not confuse struggling against sin with insisting on the right to practice it. If Scripture exposes wrongdoing, repentance requires me to receive that correction instead of devising a reason God’s command should not apply to me.
Repentance and Faith
Paul described what he had preached to Jews and Greeks in these terms:
testifying to Jews, and also to Greeks, repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.
Acts 20:21
In repentance, I stop defending my rebellion and turn toward God. In faith, I entrust myself to Jesus Christ for the salvation I cannot provide. I cannot honestly ask Him to save me while insisting He has no authority over me. Neither can I save myself by admitting my guilt without turning to Him.
Jesus also joined the commands to repent and believe when He announced the kingdom of God:
The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel.
Mark 1:15
We should not teach repentance as a way to purchase salvation. Yet removing it from the gospel can leave someone claiming faith in Jesus while openly refusing His authority. Paul describes salvation as God’s gift and then explains the good works that follow it:
For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.
Ephesians 2:8-9
Salvation is God’s gift, received through faith. If I repay money I wrongfully took, I am returning what already belonged to another person. I have not given God something that obliges Him to forgive me. Tears cannot make that payment either. Verse 10 goes on to describe believers as created in Christ Jesus for good works. Their obedience follows from the new life they have received; it does not buy that life.
Paul’s correction of the Corinthian church helps us see how sorrow can lead to that changed conduct. His letter grieved them, and at first he regretted sending it. When Titus brought news that they were eager to address the wrong, Paul rejoiced because their sorrow had led to repentance. He explained the difference between sorrow that leads us to God and sorrow that ends in death:
For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted; but the sorrow of the world produces death.
2 Corinthians 7:10
Godly sorrow acknowledges sin against the Lord and leads a person toward Him. Worldly sorrow can be intense because of what the wrongdoing has cost. Someone may be devastated at the prospect of losing a relationship or a good reputation while still insisting that his conduct was justified. The pain is real, but it has not brought him to agree with God about the sin.
Judas felt remorse after betraying Jesus and tried to return the money. Matthew records his response when he saw that Jesus had been condemned:
Then Judas, His betrayer, seeing that He had been condemned, was remorseful and brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders.
Matthew 27:3
Judas admitted that he had betrayed innocent blood. Matthew then records his despair and death, without describing a return to Christ for mercy. Acknowledging the wrong and giving up the money did not, by themselves, amount to a return to God.
I cannot measure repentance by the strength of someone’s emotion. I need to consider whether the person is returning to the Lord, including how he responds to the wrong he has confessed. Feeling ashamed may awaken someone to his need, but shame cannot provide the mercy he needs from Christ.
John the Baptist likewise directed attention to the conduct that should follow repentance:
Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance.
Matthew 3:8
John was addressing Pharisees and Sadducees who came to his baptism, warning them against relying on their descent from Abraham. The fruit he called for would show that their response to God was real; it would not purchase forgiveness. Zacchaeus gives us a later example of how that response could change a person’s dealings with others.
Zacchaeus was a wealthy chief tax collector in Jericho. His work was associated with Roman authority and opportunities to exploit people. He joyfully received Jesus when the Lord chose to stay at his house, although the crowd complained about Jesus becoming a sinner’s guest. What Zacchaeus then said addressed his wealth and his treatment of other people:
Then Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord, I give half of my goods to the poor; and if I have taken anything from anyone by false accusation, I restore fourfold.”
Luke 19:8
Jesus then announced that salvation had come to that house. Zacchaeus was prepared to share his wealth with the poor and put right any fraud for which he was responsible. Those commitments showed that receiving Jesus had affected his conduct, although they could not purchase salvation.
Restitution should address the actual harm wherever that is possible and lawful. If I spread a false accusation, I should be willing to retract it before the people who heard it. Saying I feel terrible does not remove that accusation from their minds. Where harm cannot be undone, I can still stop defending it and accept the repercussions.
Nor can restitution become a way to regain control of the person who was harmed. An apology does not entitle someone to demand renewed contact or immediate forgiveness. I cannot use my confession to pressure another person into trusting me again. Repentance accepts appropriate boundaries and consequences while seeking to put right what can be repaired.
We should expect repentance to affect the very conduct a person had been defending. But grace does not wait until he can present a flawless record. Christians still need instruction and correction as they learn to obey the Lord who has saved them.
Pharaoh’s confession in Exodus gives us a contrast to Zacchaeus’s response. During the seventh plague, hail devastated Egypt while Goshen was spared. The king summoned Moses and Aaron, and his confession named both his own sin and God’s righteousness:
And Pharaoh sent and called for Moses and Aaron, and said to them, “I have sinned this time. The LORD is righteous, and my people and I are wicked.”
Exodus 9:27
Pharaoh asked Moses to pray for the thunder and hail to stop, promising to release Israel. Moses warned him that neither he nor his servants yet feared the Lord. When Moses prayed and the storm ended, Pharaoh sinned again and hardened his heart. He still refused to let Israel go, despite the promise he had just made.
If I will admit wrongdoing only while the consequences threaten my comfort, then return to it once the pressure eases, I am following that same pattern. I need to consider whether I ever agreed with God about the sin or was only looking for a way to escape its consequences. Proverbs brings confession and forsaking together:
He who covers his sins will not prosper, But whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy.
Proverbs 28:13
Covering sin does not always require an outright denial. I may admit what has been discovered while concealing the part no one has proved. I can describe a calculated lie as a misunderstanding or blame the person I deceived for putting me under pressure. A joke or a spiritual explanation can also deflect attention from the wrong. These are ways of continuing to defend it while appearing to acknowledge it.
Repentance in the Christian Life
Repentance continues after new birth because Christians can still sin and need correction. Coming to God for forgiveness does not mean being born again each time. John puts confession within his teaching about walking in the light and fellowship with God:
If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
1 John 1:9
Being God’s child does not give me permission to walk deliberately in darkness while claiming fellowship with Him. Confession acknowledges the wrong before God, and repentance turns from it. I cannot replace either with an argument that a believer’s sin is no longer serious.
Following Jesus includes obeying Him when I would prefer to do what is comfortable or advantageous to me. He was plain about what following Him involves:
If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.
Luke 9:23
On another occasion, He used the example of a builder calculating the cost of a tower to teach people to consider what discipleship would require:
For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it.
Luke 14:28
Jesus was not asking people to determine whether they had enough moral strength to save themselves. He was requiring them to consider what they would have to give up to follow Him. I cannot receive Him as Lord while reserving the right to disobey whenever obedience threatens something I want to keep.
Continuing repentance need not leave us permanently gloomy. Because I trust Christ’s mercy, I can admit wrongdoing without spending my life protecting an appearance of innocence. I can receive correction, seek to repair the harm, and learn to obey without pretending that my effort is what earns forgiveness.
Christ gives eternal life to His sheep, and no one can snatch them from His hand. Those who have genuinely been born again are indwelt and sealed by the Holy Spirit, eternally secure in the Savior. He keeps them despite their failures as they learn to obey Him. Their obedience is evidence of new life, but it neither earns nor keeps salvation.
That does not make every profession of faith genuine. Strong emotion, church membership, and baptism cannot produce new birth. In 1 John 2:19, John describes people who left the apostolic fellowship and denied the truth about the Son, explaining that they had never truly belonged to Christ. Regeneration is genuine new birth, and a Christian label cannot take the place of the new life that should become evident in our conduct.
A troubled believer does not need to make his repentance impressive enough to persuade Christ to keep him. If he is bringing his sin to Christ, we should direct him to the Savior’s promise rather than tell him to produce a more convincing display of grief. Someone who is defending his sin needs a different response. We cannot assure him that his profession of faith makes his refusal to turn irrelevant.
Calvinism distinguishes a gospel call heard by many people from a saving call it regards as irresistible and given only to the elect. I reject that distinction because I believe God’s invitation gives every sinner a real opportunity to respond. I also reject the Arminian teaching that a truly born-again believer can lose salvation. People can resist God’s appeal, while those who truly repent and believe are made new and kept by Him.
Peter explained God’s patience while answering scoffers who treated the apparent delay of Christ’s return as proof that His promise would fail. The Lord does not measure time as we do, and His delay did not mean He had forgotten His word. It gave sinners time to repent before the coming judgment:
The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.
2 Peter 3:9
That does not mean everyone will eventually be saved. People can resist and finally reject the truth. It does mean that God’s patience is an opportunity to return to Him, rather than a reason to assume that His warning has become empty. We should respond to His mercy while He gives us time.
The invitation rests on Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, fully God and fully man. He lived without sin and voluntarily gave Himself to be slain as the perfect sacrifice for the sins of the whole world. Wicked men mocked, beat, and crucified Him according to God’s foreknown saving purpose, but the Father neither punished nor abandoned His Son. Father and Son acted in unity, and Christ’s shed blood and death completed His saving sacrifice before His burial and bodily resurrection. Forgiveness is possible because Christ redeemed us with His blood, rather than because God has decided that sin does not deserve judgment.
If God is pressing on your conscience, you do not need to make yourself presentable before coming to Christ or punish yourself into peace. Jesus came to seek and save the lost, and He receives those who come to Him in faith. Admit the sin and turn from it, trusting the Savior whose grace you cannot earn. You do not have to defend the wrongdoing or pretend it never happened to come to Him for mercy.
My Final Thoughts
I do not want to explain repentance in a way that leaves a guilty sinner afraid to come to Christ. Nor do I want to assure someone that grace gives him the right to keep rebelling. God calls us to return to Him, and He has provided the Savior we need. I can admit my sin without excusing it or trying to pay for it myself. Trusting Christ’s mercy gives me reason to begin obeying Him.
When I read about the high priest’s garments and sacrifices, I need to consider what God was teaching Israel through them. These instructions governed how guilty people could approach a holy God. The high priest represented the nation, but he was also a sinner who needed atonement himself. Hebrews explains how Jesus fulfills what that ministry anticipated, giving us access to God that Aaron could never secure permanently.
God Appointed the High Priest
God assigned sanctuary service to the tribe of Levi and chose Aaron’s family within that tribe for the priesthood. Israel had many priests, but one high priest represented the nation. Aaron, Moses’ brother, was the first. Neither he nor Moses devised the arrangement; the LORD appointed the office and told them how to prepare Aaron for it:
And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying: “Take Aaron and his sons with him, and the garments, the anointing oil, a bull as the sin offering, two rams, and a basket of unleavened bread;”
Leviticus 8:1-2
Before Aaron could minister, God specified his garments and anointing oil, along with the sacrifices and bread for his consecration. Aaron could not choose a ceremony that suited him and expect God to accept it. The LORD had appointed the office and told him how to approach. That provision helps us understand the gospel, in which God gives us both the Priest and the sacrifice in His Son.
The earlier instructions in Exodus 29 use the Hebrew verb qadash for hallowing the priests, meaning to set apart or consecrate. Being set apart did not make Aaron sinless. God included sacrifices in the ceremony because the priest himself needed atonement:
“And this is what you shall do to them to hallow them for ministering to Me as priests: Take one young bull and two rams without blemish,”
Exodus 29:1
God required unblemished animals, so Aaron could not substitute an offering God had declared unacceptable. Their death and blood confronted Israel with the seriousness of sin. Personal goodness could not qualify Aaron for his office. Before ministering for others, he needed sacrificial blood for his own sin. Jesus differs from him in this essential respect: the eternal Son became truly human without ceasing to be divine, and He remained entirely without sin.
The other priests offered sacrifices and cared for the sanctuary, but the high priest had a particular responsibility on the annual Day of Atonement. He alone carried out the appointed ministry within the Most Holy Place. Even his access was governed by God’s instructions and the blood he was required to bring.
The Tabernacle, the Garments, and Representation
The tabernacle was the portable sanctuary Israel carried through the wilderness. A worshiper could enter the outer court, while priests served in the Holy Place, the first room. A veil separated it from the Most Holy Place. As a person approached the place of God’s special presence, the restrictions became greater.
Behind the veil stood the ark, a gold-covered chest containing the Testimony, including the covenant tablets given to Moses. Its gold cover was the mercy seat, overshadowed by cherubim. God told Moses that He would meet and speak with him there:
You shall put the mercy seat on top of the ark, and in the ark you shall put the Testimony that I will give you. And there I will meet with you, and I will speak with you from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim which are on the ark of the Testimony, about everything which I will give you in commandment to the children of Israel.
Exodus 25:21-22
God chose to dwell among His people and give them His word, but His nearness did not make their sin harmless. The veil restricted their approach, and blood would be brought behind it only as He commanded. The mercy seat and the veil both belonged to His arrangement. He was providing a way for Israel to approach Him while teaching them to take His holiness seriously.
I cannot appeal to His kindness as though worship were whatever makes me feel close to Him. The old covenant instructions taught Israel that God determined how they could approach Him. Under the new covenant, Christ fulfills what that earlier ministry anticipated and opens the way to the same holy God.
Aaron’s garments also identified his responsibility to represent Israel. God called for beautiful garments whose design expressed holiness and judgment. The ephod, a priestly garment, had two onyx stones on its shoulders, engraved with the tribes’ names:
“Then you shall take two onyx stones and engrave on them the names of the sons of Israel: six of their names on one stone and six names on the other stone, in order of their birth. With the work of an engraver in stone, like the engravings of a signet, you shall engrave the two stones with the names of the sons of Israel. You shall set them in settings of gold. And you shall put the two stones on the shoulders of the ephod as memorial stones for the sons of Israel. So Aaron shall bear their names before the LORD on his two shoulders as a memorial.”
Exodus 28:9-12
Every tribe was represented by name. Aaron carried those names before the LORD as a memorial, and the breastplate placed them over his heart:
“So Aaron shall bear the names of the sons of Israel on the breastplate of judgment over his heart, when he goes into the holy place, as a memorial before the LORD continually.”
Exodus 28:29
The shoulders suggest the responsibility he carried, while the position over his heart suggests personal care. He represented particular people before God, not an anonymous crowd. His ministry could not cleanse their consciences permanently, but it helps us understand Christ’s finished offering and continuing care for the people He represents. The One who has opened the way knows the people who come through Him.
Blood and the Day of Atonement
Sin deserves death, and promises to improve cannot remove its guilt. God supplied the provision He required:
For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood that makes atonement for the soul.
Leviticus 17:11
The words “I have given it to you” show that blood atonement was God’s provision. Israel was following His instructions, rather than devising sacrifices to bribe Him into mercy. He accepted these offerings within their covenant setting, teaching His people that their guilt required atonement. Animal blood could not finally remove sin or complete redemption, so the sacrifices pointed toward a greater offering.
The Hebrew kaphar can mean to cover or make atonement. In Leviticus, this language describes God’s provision for dealing with guilt through sacrificial blood. A substitute died according to His command, so the worshiper could not simply ignore his sin or decide for himself how to address it. We need to understand that setting before considering how Christ fulfills it.
Leviticus 16 begins by recalling the deaths of Nadab and Abihu after they approached the LORD in a way He had not commanded. Aaron could not enter within the veil whenever he pleased either. For the Day of Atonement, he bathed and put on the prescribed holy linen garments. These were the clothes for going inside the veil, rather than the ephod and breastplate described earlier.
Aaron first offered a bull as a sin offering for himself and his household. He brought incense within the veil so that its cloud covered the mercy seat, then sprinkled the bull’s blood as commanded. Afterward, he killed the goat offered for the people’s sins and brought its blood within the veil. The atonement included the sanctuary and altar as well as the priests and congregation, because the uncleanness of sinful people affected even their place of worship.
But into the second part the high priest went alone once a year, not without blood, which he offered for himself and for the people’s sins committed in ignorance;
Hebrews 9:7
Paul summarizes the restrictions: the high priest ministered alone on that annual occasion, bringing blood for his own sins as well as the people’s. “Once a year” refers to the annual observance. Leviticus 16 prescribes more than one entry through the veil as the high priest carries out the required ministry. Even the man representing Israel needed mercy, and his service had not fully opened the way into God’s presence.
The two goats in Leviticus 16 pictured both atonement and removal. One was killed as a sin offering. Aaron confessed the people’s sins over the living goat, which was then sent away into the wilderness, carrying their guilt away from them. God taught Israel that sin needed to be dealt with before Him and removed from His people. Yet the Day of Atonement returned every year because those sacrifices had not perfected worshipers forever. Their repetition showed the continuing need for a sufficient offering.
Jesus supplied that offering by voluntarily giving Himself to be slain as the perfect, sinless sacrifice. Wicked people inflicted His bodily suffering and death as He willingly gave His life for our sins. His sacrifice was complete through His shed blood and death before He was buried and rose bodily from the dead. The Father did not punish, curse, abandon, strike, bruise, or pour wrath on Jesus. Father and Son remained united in redemption. Christ’s offering obtained the eternal redemption to which the earlier sacrifices pointed. The study on Life Being in the Blood examines this provision further.
From Aaron to the Order of Melchizedek
Death also removed the priests themselves from office, so others had to replace them. Neither that succession of priests nor their repeated offerings could provide the permanent cleansing from sin that worshipers needed:
For the law, having a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with these same sacrifices, which they offer continually year by year, make those who approach perfect.
Hebrews 10:1
Paul calls the Law a shadow because its priests and sacrifices anticipated what Christ would fulfill. God taught Israel through that ministry, so we cannot dismiss Leviticus as meaningless ceremony or resume its sacrifices as though Jesus left His work unfinished. Later in Hebrews 10, Paul contrasts priests standing at their repeated daily service with Christ seated at God’s right hand after His one offering. Jesus lives forever and needs no successor, and His completed sacrifice never needs to be repeated.
Jesus came from Judah, rather than Aaron’s family. His priesthood follows the different order announced in Psalm 110:
The LORD has sworn And will not relent, “You are a priest forever According to the order of Melchizedek.”
Psalm 110:4
Genesis 14 records Melchizedek meeting Abram after Lot’s rescue. He was priest of God Most High and king of Salem, later known as Jerusalem. He brought bread and wine, blessed Abram, and received a tenth from him. Paul explains in Hebrews that the lesser received blessing from the greater, and that Levi, as Abraham’s descendant, was represented in Abraham’s giving of the tenth. Melchizedek’s priesthood therefore takes precedence over the line that would come through Levi.
I believe Melchizedek was the preincarnate Son of God, appearing before He became human. Such an appearance is called a Christophany. Hebrews calls him king of righteousness and king of peace, and describes him as without father, mother, or genealogy, with neither beginning of days nor end of life. It also describes him as made like the Son of God. Those details lead me to identify him as Christ. Others understand him as a human king-priest whose biblical description forms a type, a pattern anticipating Christ. The study on Melchizedek develops the argument more fully.
The change of priesthood also requires a change in the law governing the office:
For the priesthood being changed, of necessity there is also a change of the law.
Hebrews 7:12
The men who succeeded Aaron belonged to his family and served in an earthly sanctuary, carrying out the sacrifices repeatedly. Christ’s priesthood is eternal and belongs to Him permanently. He fulfills what Aaron’s ministry anticipated, rather than becoming another priest who will eventually need replacing. We cannot continue the Levitical arrangement under new names or blend the two orders as though they were interchangeable.
Jesus Christ, Our Great High Priest
Paul urges the readers of Hebrews to hold fast because they have this great High Priest. Under pressure to draw back, they needed assurance grounded in Him rather than in the strength of their own resolve:
Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession.
Hebrews 4:14
An earthly high priest passed through a veil into a room made by human hands. Jesus has passed through the heavens into God’s true presence. He entered the heavenly sanctuary on the basis of His own blood and completed offering. As the Son of God who became truly human, He is qualified to represent us and bring us to God:
For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus,
1 Timothy 2:5
If my conscience is troubled, I need to remember whom God has provided. I do not have to assemble a record of recent obedience before I can ask for mercy. Christ’s sinlessness also does not make Him indifferent to my weakness:
For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.
Hebrews 4:15
A fellow sinner cannot accomplish the rescue sinners need. Jesus can sympathize with us without sharing our guilt, and His sinlessness qualifies Him to save. Paul follows that description with an invitation to seek His help:
Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
Hebrews 4:16
Boldness means confidence in the Priest God provided. If I have sinned, I should confess it and seek mercy instead of staying away until I can show God a better week. Christ has opened the way for people who need His help. We can be confident of His welcome while treating Him with reverence.
At Jesus’ death, the veil in the Jerusalem temple was torn from top to bottom. The later temple, like the wilderness tabernacle, had a veil restricting access. Its tearing showed that God had opened the way:
Then, behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; and the earth quaked, and the rocks were split,
Matthew 27:51
I understand its tearing from top to bottom as God’s work, rather than an entrance people forced open for themselves. Hebrews explains the access God has provided through His Son’s blood and body:
Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh,
Hebrews 10:19-20
The way is new because Christ fulfills the old order, and living because He rose from the dead. The reference to His flesh directs us to the real body He gave. We can approach God because He has accomplished atonement for our guilt through that sacrifice. Paul therefore calls believers to draw near in faith:
let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.
Hebrews 10:22
Full assurance means taking God at His word about His Son. We can be honest about failure while trusting that Christ’s provision remains sufficient. He has not asked us to deny the sin or manufacture a better spiritual mood before seeking Him.
His Intercession and the Believer’s Priesthood
Christ’s sacrifice is complete, while His priestly care continues. His eternal life means that those who come through Him are never left without representation:
Therefore He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.
Hebrews 7:25
Intercession is His continuing representation of His people on the basis of His completed offering. Jesus is not persuading an unwilling Father to be kind. The Father sent Him, the Son willingly gave Himself, and the Spirit applies that finished work. Their purpose in salvation is united.
John uses the related term Advocate for Jesus, the righteous One who represents us before the Father. He writes so that Christians will not sin, while directing those who do to the help they have in Christ:
My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins.
1 John 2:1-2
John does not tell the believer that a fresh sacrifice is needed after every failure. Christ is the propitiation for our sins, meaning that through His perfect sacrifice our guilt is dealt with and God’s righteous requirements concerning sin are satisfied. Jesus does not have to suffer repeatedly in order to continue helping His people.
The rest of 1 John 2:2 extends that provision to the whole world. Jesus died for every person, and God’s offer is genuine even though people can resist and finally reject Him. Those who repent and believe are forgiven and born again. The Holy Spirit comes to live within them and seals them for the day of redemption. Every genuine believer is eternally secure, but that security does not permit lawlessness. A superficial profession without new life cannot establish that someone belongs to Him. Soteriology: The Study of Salvation examines these truths more fully.
Having received mercy, believers are also able to offer spiritual sacrifices through Christ. Peter calls us a holy priesthood:
you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
1 Peter 2:5
These sacrifices are acceptable “through Jesus Christ.” When we pray, give generously, praise God, or obey Him in our daily responsibilities, we are responding to mercy already received. None of that service atones for our sins or supplements Christ’s offering. He has brought us near and made us acceptable, which is why we can serve.
No earthly priest or pastor can repeat Christ’s sacrifice or become an additional mediator for sin. Church leaders rightly teach, shepherd, and pray for people, but their work does not complete His atonement. Baptism is an important act of obedience, and communion remembers the sacrifice He offered once for all. Neither repeats the cross, and no institution or ritual can supply something missing from it.
My Final Thoughts
Aaron carried Israel’s names into an earthly sanctuary and brought blood, but he remained a sinner whose service needed repeating. Jesus is the sinless, eternal High Priest who offered Himself once and opened the way to God. I can draw near because my access rests on His blood. When I fail, I can confess my sin and seek His mercy without wondering who else must intervene or what further sacrifice God requires. That confidence should bring reverence and gratitude into my worship, and a willingness to obey the Savior who has brought me near.
If I can name every quality in the fruit of the Spirit but keep defending the way I mistreat people, I have not taken Paul’s teaching seriously. Knowing the list should bring me to examine what is happening in my life. Galatians 5 describes the character the Holy Spirit produces in people who belong to Christ, and Paul places it alongside a frank description of the flesh. We need to understand both before deciding that we are doing well simply because we have a few agreeable qualities.
Grace, the Flesh, and the Setting of Galatians 5
Paul wrote to churches in the Roman province of Galatia, in what is now part of Turkey. Gentiles there had believed in Christ, but other teachers insisted that faith was insufficient without circumcision and observance of the Mosaic Law. This was more than a disagreement over religious customs. They were making human effort necessary to complete what Christ had accomplished. Paul answered by explaining justification, God’s declaration that the believer is righteous through faith in Christ:
knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law; for by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified.
Galatians 2:16
We need to keep that argument in view when we reach the fruit of the Spirit. If I make love, patience, or self-control the price of God’s acceptance, I have reversed what Paul teaches. Becoming a more disciplined or pleasant person cannot remove the guilt of my sins. I need the salvation Christ provides.
Jesus was without sin and willingly gave Himself to be slain as the perfect sacrifice for our sins. Wicked people inflicted the torture and death He endured in His innocent body. His sacrifice was complete when He shed His blood and died; He was then buried and rose bodily from the grave. The Father did not punish, curse, abandon, strike, bruise, or pour wrath on Jesus. Christ gave Himself for the whole world, so God’s offer of salvation is genuine for every person. People can resist and reject Him, but everyone who repents and believes is forgiven and born again. The Holy Spirit lives within that person and seals him for the day of redemption.
The life God gives through faith is also to be lived in dependence on His Spirit. Paul does not defend grace and then leave Christians free to treat sin as harmless. In Galatians 5, he warns them against using liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, and tells them how they are to live instead:
I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.
Galatians 5:16
By flesh, Paul means fallen human nature acting in rebellion against God. He is not teaching that the physical body is inherently evil. Sinful desires can enlist both mind and body, and the believer still has to contend with them. The Spirit’s presence means we are no longer helpless before those desires. We depend on Him and respond when He convicts us through the Scripture He inspired.
Paul identifies the conduct that comes from the flesh:
Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
Galatians 5:19-21
A church can be quick to condemn sexual sin while tolerating people who cultivate bitterness and compete for influence. Paul names both kinds of conduct. His list includes false worship and the occult practices of sorcery, but it also exposes the hostility and rivalry that divide people. Heresies here refers to destructive factions or sectarian divisions. Paul also condemns drunkenness and the wild partying described as revelries, in which people indulge appetites they ought to restrain. None of these practices becomes acceptable because the people involved call themselves Christians.
The phrase “those who practice such things” describes an established pattern. We should distinguish that from a believer falling into sin, grieving over it, and repenting. A serious failure requires confession and correction; it does not mean someone genuinely born again has lost his salvation. But I would be giving false reassurance if I told someone he could keep defending his sin because he had once said he believed in Christ. We need evidence of new birth, not merely the claim that it has happened.
One Fruit Formed by the Holy Spirit
After describing the works of the flesh, Paul turns to what the Spirit produces:
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.
Galatians 5:22-23
The words “of the Spirit” identify where this fruit comes from. A person can be courteous and disciplined without being born again. Those traits may be useful, and a healthy church environment can encourage good habits, but none of them can replace the Holy Spirit’s work. He is a divine Person who gives life, indwells believers, convicts us, and forms Christ’s character in us. The study on the Person of the Holy Spirit examines who He is more fully.
The Greek phrase karpos tou pneumatos means “fruit of the Spirit.” Depending on the context, karpos can refer to fruit, a harvest, or a result. Paul uses the singular fruit, but the grammar alone does not explain how the qualities relate to one another. His larger argument describes the character the same Spirit produces in all believers. We are not being offered a selection from which each Christian chooses the qualities he finds easiest.
That does not mean growth is uniform or immediate. A new believer may show sincere love while still learning patience, and a mature Christian may need to repent of harsh words. We should be patient with that growth without turning it into a permanent excuse. If I am dependable, I still need gentleness. Avoiding an argument does not establish that I love someone enough to help when helping becomes inconvenient.
These qualities become visible in the ordinary responsibilities we share with other people. A spouse hears how we speak when we are irritated, and coworkers learn whether our promises can be trusted. Our response to correction may reveal something that the people who see us only at church would never notice.
Love seeks another person’s true good and is willing to act for it. Practical help and forgiveness can be costly, and an honest conversation may be easier to avoid. Warm feelings do not remove those responsibilities. Nor does love mean approving what will harm someone, especially when that approval encourages sin. In 1 Corinthians 13, Paul explains that love does not envy or take pleasure in evil. Impressive spiritual ability cannot compensate for its absence.
Joy has its roots in the Lord’s goodness and faithfulness. A Christian can grieve deeply while trusting that Christ has risen and will keep His promises. Some express that confidence exuberantly, while others hold it quietly beneath their sorrow. God is not asking a bereaved believer to pretend that a terrible loss feels pleasant. Joy also looks ahead to the Lord’s return, giving us hope that reaches beyond our present circumstances.
Peace begins with reconciliation to God through Jesus Christ. Within that relationship, the Spirit teaches us to bring troubled thoughts to God and pursue peace with others. I can ask for His help without pretending that I feel no fear. I can also work toward reconciliation without claiming that an unresolved conflict has already been put right. The peace He produces should shape my response to those concerns instead of leaving anxiety to dictate it.
Longsuffering means patient endurance, particularly with other people. A patient person is slow to anger and does not rush to repay an offense. Someone else’s slow progress may frustrate me, but that does not justify constant irritation or a determination to make him pay for the inconvenience. The Spirit teaches us to bear with people and give necessary correction without letting resentment decide how we treat them.
Kindness concerns how we approach and help someone, including the way we speak the truth. If I offer help and then make sure the recipient feels foolish for needing me, the fact that I helped does not excuse my contempt. We should learn to do good with humility and tenderness, especially toward someone who is weak.
Goodness includes moral uprightness, loving what God calls good and refusing what He calls evil. Someone who is always agreeable may still refuse to act when another person needs protection. Doing good can require confronting sin, giving a warning, or refusing to cooperate with wrongdoing. Our firmness should protect people and oppose sin without becoming cruel.
Faithfulness makes a person dependable over time. Trust in God should show in the way we carry out responsibilities and keep our word. People learn whether they can rely on us by what happens after we make a promise, especially when keeping it costs more time or effort than we expected. The Spirit teaches us to be honest and persevere when the initial enthusiasm has faded.
Gentleness should govern how we use strength and authority. Jesus is gentle and lowly in heart without being cowardly. A leader may have to confront wrongdoing firmly, but his position does not give him the right to bully. He can say something painful to hear without enjoying the pain he causes, and he can correct someone without trying to crush him.
Self-control means desires and impulses do not have to determine our conduct. With the Spirit’s help, I can turn away from a fantasy instead of feeding it, or hold my tongue when anger is urging me to speak. Strong appetites and fear are real pressures, but they do not give me permission to disregard what God has said. That restraint does not save me; it expresses the new life in which the flesh is no longer my rightful master.
Paul concludes, “Against such there is no law.” These qualities agree with the moral direction of God’s Law, instead of producing the rebellion it condemns. He is explaining the life led by the Spirit. He has not withdrawn his earlier teaching that justification comes through faith or suggested that love can earn it.
Why Fruit and Spiritual Gifts Must Be Distinguished
Spiritual gifts also come from the Holy Spirit, but He distributes them to equip different members for service. One believer teaches while another meets practical needs. Others lead, encourage, give, or show mercy, and much of that service may never receive public recognition. Paul explains how the gifts are distributed:
But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually as He wills.
1 Corinthians 12:11
Fruit is not distributed as though one person receives patience and another is therefore excused from it. Every believer is called to the character Galatians 5 describes. A public gift gives no exemption from gentleness or self-control, and a quiet ministry still requires love. The gifts equip us to serve, while the fruit concerns the character with which we live and serve.
The church at Corinth had abundant gifts, yet Paul had to confront pride and factions. Sexual sin and lawsuits between believers also required correction, and their gathered worship was disorderly. Spiritual ability had not made them mature. In 1 Corinthians 13, Paul explains that tongues, prophecy, and knowledge cannot replace love. He says that even if he had faith able to move mountains or gave away everything he owned, he would gain nothing without love.
I think it is dangerous to excuse a gifted person’s refusal to receive correction because his ministry seems impressive. A teacher who belittles people can harm the very congregation he is supposed to strengthen. We should value spiritual gifts while requiring their use to remain under truth, love, holiness, and biblical order. The study on the Gifts of the Holy Spirit examines their proper use further.
How the Fruit Grows and What Hinders It
Whether our service draws attention or goes unnoticed, the character Paul describes grows through dependence on Christ. In John 15, Jesus explains that dependence through the relationship of a branch to its vine:
“I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.”
John 15:5
To abide means to remain or continue, and Jesus uses that word to describe continuing dependence on Him rather than occasional religious contact. A born-again believer does not have to earn his place in God’s family, but he still needs to respond to what Christ says instead of waiting passively for maturity. We trust Christ and pray, receive His Word intending to obey it, and confess the sins it exposes rather than conceal them. Worship and fellowship are also ordinary ways the Spirit teaches, renews, and strengthens us as we depend on Christ. None of these practices is a payment for God’s acceptance.
Paul’s description of walking likewise concerns the continuing choices we make. He says, “If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit” (Galatians 5:25). The Spirit gives life first, then calls us to keep in step with Him. Romans 8 describes those led by Him as God’s sons and teaches that believers put the deeds of the body to death through Him. We really obey, but His power enables what we cannot accomplish through confidence in ourselves.
Believers can resist that work in their daily choices. Paul warns people who already belong to God against grieving the One who lives within them:
And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
Ephesians 4:30
The surrounding passage addresses corrupt speech, sinful anger, bitterness, and other practices of the old life. The people being warned are also assured that the Spirit has sealed them for redemption. Their security does not make those sins harmless. The Spirit who seals us grieves over the way we speak and treat one another.
We hinder growth when we defend sin, put off responding to conviction, or neglect the Scripture that exposes it. We may excuse anger as personality or guard a private habit while preserving a respectable public appearance. Legalism hinders us too, because it directs us to earn God’s acceptance by keeping rules rather than depend on Christ. Withdrawing from fellowship can also isolate us from help and correction. These choices need to be confronted even when they look more respectable than open rebellion.
We need to name the actual sin and turn from it. If bitterness has taken root, obedience includes forgiving as God in Christ forgave us. If we have been feeding lust, we need to remove the things that encourage it and deal honestly with the temptation. If harshness has become normal, we must stop calling it honesty and learn gentleness from Christ. Asking for fruit while insisting on protecting those habits works against the growth we claim to want.
Fruit Is Evidence of Life, Not the Root of Life
The commands to turn from sin do not mean that we give ourselves new life by obeying them. Titus 3 describes the Spirit’s renewing work, and 2 Corinthians 5 calls the believer a new creation. Ephesians explains that we receive the Spirit’s seal when we hear and trust the gospel:
In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise.
Ephesians 1:13
A genuinely born-again believer belongs to God and is kept by His promise and Christ’s finished work. Eternal security does not depend on producing perfect fruit, and the new birth cannot be undone. A newborn child is alive before becoming strong. Slow growth alone gives a weak Christian no reason to conclude that he is lost. The study on Being Born Again examines this new life more fully.
Paul also describes a decisive change in people who belong to Christ:
And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.
Galatians 5:24-25
This change of ownership and direction does not mean sinless perfection. Galatians 5 itself describes conflict between flesh and Spirit, so temptation and struggle do not disprove genuine faith. We should give a struggling believer the assurance Scripture gives, without treating a shallow profession as proof of salvation when someone is content to defend rebellion. Regeneration means genuine new birth, and it should become evident in how we live.
When we recognize growth, we ought to thank God rather than congratulate ourselves. The ability to love sacrificially, remain faithful under pressure, or resist a familiar sinful impulse comes through His mercy. That gratitude should also make us honest about what still needs correction. Calling anger passion or drunkenness liberty does not change what it is, and division is not automatically discernment. Patience with slow growth must not become indifference to sin. We continue in Scripture, prayer, and fellowship, confessing what God exposes and obeying in dependence on His Spirit.
My Final Thoughts
I should not read Paul’s description only to diagnose someone else’s faults. If the passage exposes something I have been defending, I need to bring that sin honestly to Christ and obey what He has made clear. I am not trying to purchase the life He gives or prove that I have reached perfection. I am responding to the Spirit who has made me alive, lives within me, and teaches me to live as someone who belongs to Christ.
