All sin must be repented of, however; the goodness of God will always lead you to repentance. Romans 2:4 says "Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?" It is important for every believer to realize this powerful fact. The reason is that any sorrow of a child of God taken in sin that leads only to self-loathing, self-condemnation, and denial along with anything along these lines is not inspired by God and is the work of the devil. For clarification it is not wrong and somewhat inevitable to experience these feelings but when they begin to dominate the mind they become damnable and dangerous. It is at that point you will find yourself being drawn away from repentance toward the destruction of your soul, which is right where the devil wants you to be.
Yes, the Holy Ghost will convict of sin, but he will never leave you drowning in your sorrows, self-loathing, and self-condemnation. The remedy for all sin, for the sinner and saint alike has been made available, the blood of Jesus Christ. But what about Hebrews 10:26 & 27 you may proclaim, "For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, 27 “But a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries." This applies to any who would turn away from God after conversion and live a life of habitual sin, thereby becoming an apostate. It is not speaking of those who sin after salvation and genuinely seek forgiveness as God draws their heart unto repentance.
How do I know this? The proof is here in 1 John 2: 1 & 2 "My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: 2 And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for our’s only, but also for the sins of the whole world."
God is not as concerned about your sin as he is with whether you will bring it to him or not. For clarification, God holds all sin accountable and hates it, but he is not worried about the sin problem due to the solution he has had in place before he created man. Bottom line, he is already prepared for it. What must be understood by the believer, is that the last thing the devil wants you to do is to repent, truly repent. It is for this reason that the first thing he will try to overwhelm you with is guilt. Notice that I said overwhelm. This is the key; God uses guilt or sorrow to drive us to him. The devil uses guilt or sorrow to keep us fixated on what we did so that we will not go to God. The bible teaches us that godly sorrow always leads us to humility. 2 Corinthians 7:10 says "For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death." Humility brings us to the place where we yield our will before God and own up to our sin and give it to God. This includes a complete change in habits such as putting measures in place to ensure that it will be difficult to fall back into past behavior patterns that once lead us onto a path of sin. On the other hand, an over fixation on our guilt or sorrow because of sin will lead to destruction and God’s judgement because it keeps us from true repentance. An example of this is acknowledging our wrong and realizing that we need to do things differently but then turning around and making no changes to our behavior, and not establishing any measures to ensure that we will have a different result. Another problem is the lack of removing influences that we are weak to that have led to past sin. Yes, there is acknowledgement and repentance and sorrow for the past sin but nothing to prevent them from reoccurring. This will lead to a repetitive cycle of sin and repentance with no hope of being broken. In such a state a person is lost in an endless loop of sin with no hope of deliverance, only a fearful looking forward to of judgment. This is the place the devil desires to keep every child of God when they sin.
The goal of this article is to realize with discernment that God never leaves us in a state of remembering what we did. He draws us by his love that points out the violation against his will, along with the remembrance of the wrath that is in store if we remain there, but he gives us the hope that he is ready to cleanse all over again if we will let him. Finally, through the admonishment of his word is the realization that the wages of sin is always death but the gift of God eternal life.
Sorrow for our wrongs is healthy, natural, and necessary to bring about change but we must be wary of dwelling upon them for too long as it will not lead us to deliverance but too eternal destruction. Therefore, seek God without too much hesitation and own up to your transgressions and do all within your power to prevent them from recurring.
Finally, let this be your hope during your time of failure, Micah 7 : 8 & 9 "Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy: when I fall, I shall arise; when I sit in darkness, the Lord shall be a light unto me. 9 I will bear the indignation of the Lord, because I have sinned against him, until he plead my cause, and execute judgment for me: he will bring me forth to the light, and I shall behold his righteousness."
