“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives.”
1 John 1:9-10
One of the disturbing trends in our American culture is that fewer and fewer people seem to be willing to take responsibility for their own lives or actions. They want to be taken care of by others and be exempt from the consequences of their own actions. One of the reasons may be that those who grew up in the past 30 years did so in an environment that emphasized self-esteem over self-reliance and group affiliation over individual character. They received sports “participation trophies” for simply being on the team, regardless of their effort or contribution to its success. They were taught that it isn’t fair for one person to receive awards and recognition over another and that everyone should receive benefits whether they earned them or not. This ends up sheltering them from taking responsibility for their lives or their individual actions.
But there are also other people that either blame others (or society in general) for their own failures or they seek to justify their actions as legitimate because it’s how they “feel”. We are seeing this play out currently in the form of identity politics that puts people into collective categories by race, gender identity, or nationality, and divides them between oppressor and the oppressed. This holds people accountable for the group they are in and not their individual actions. Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream of having people “judged on the content of their character rather than the color of their skin” appears to have been tossed on the trash heap of history. When people no longer take personal responsibility for their own actions, they see no need to repent because in their mind they have done nothing wrong!
This failure to be responsible for personal conduct and actions has had a major impact on our nation. From a sociological and cultural perspective, if individuals do not take responsibility for their own actions, then they can do whatever they want without being held individually accountable. If you belong to one of the “oppressed” groups you are free to steal, commit violence, or slander others without punishment. This is evidenced by the passing of laws that allow stealing, the demonization of groups of people instead of individuals, and penalizing individuals who achieve success. But if you are categorized as one of the oppressors, you are condemned regardless of your personal behavior. This ideology pits our citizens against each other and has resulted in discrimination, conflict, and violence. In other words, it has allowed evil to flourish, leading to lawlessness and chaos that is slowly destroying our nation!
This new “Man-centered” ideology (instead of “God-centered”) has had a profound impact on Christians and churches in America as well. Any attempt to share God’s Truth with our world is met with criticism and disdain, if not outright hostility. One of the reasons for this is that Bible believing Christians are one of the major voices in America who are standing up against this Godless ideology. Therefore, that makes Christians an enemy that must be silenced as the voice of opposition to this ideology championed by the institutions of government, media, academia, and entertainment.
The Christian faith is built on the premise that we are created sinful (Romans 3:23) and that we are in need of a savior. But if people believe that they are not responsible for their actions then they will not accept this premise of their own sinfulness. This is in direct conflict with their political ideology. It also makes evangelism more difficult and results in a lack of repentance for individual sins in our culture. Without repentance there is no forgiveness or reconciliation and therefore no need for Christ or Christianity. People can do whatever they determine for themselves to be right regardless of how it affects others (see Judges 21:25).
So, why is repentance so important for our nation and the world? First of all, the belief in man’s inherent sinfulness is critical to the well-being of everyone in the world. Western civilization and prosperity were built on Biblical principles and an understanding of man’s sinful nature. Nations that have failed to acknowledge this fact have started wars that caused massive suffering and material destruction in the name of racism, communism, and totalitarianism. One would think the world would understand this by now. Unfortunately, it hasn’t! Secondly, once we acknowledge that individuals are sinful and need to be held accountable for their own actions, people can repent and forgive one another and seek peace. Third, repentance and forgiveness lead to the reconciliation of our differences (see Matthew 18:15-17). Reconciliation is what enables cultures and nations to grow and prosper together. Without reconciliation, there is no peace, there is only more conflict and evil!
On a personal level, the recognition of our sinfulness is what leads to repentance and confession of our sins. When we acknowledge our sins and repent of them, we are forgiven by God and can move forward with our lives. This is why repentance is so critically important, not only for us as individuals, but for our nation and culture as well. The first thing that Jesus preached when he began his ministry was repentance (Matthew 4:17, Mark 1:14). It was to turn away from our sins and to seek forgiveness for them, and to bring peace into our lives. If we do not confess our sins or seek forgiveness for them, God will still hold us accountable for them (Ecclesiastes 12:14). The only way to remove the judgement of our sins is to put our faith in Jesus Christ, whose death on the cross paid for our sin once for all so that we might be reconciled to God (Romans 5:10). In other words, through Christ, God has forgiven our sins “and purified us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1: 9).
If we want a better world, people need to take responsibility for their own actions, repent of their sins, and seek reconciliation. In doing so, they will diminish the violence, discord, and division that ravages our world so that all people can live in peace and prosperity!