Why is the word repent still so taboo? Haven’t we learned? To repent is a gift, time and time again. Do we believe it’s some sort of demotion to “have to” repent even as mature Christians? Perhaps if it pricks our hearts that intently, it’s to kill the pride we conveniently hide under false doctrine.

I consider it a blessing not just to repent when I fall short, but to see the fact that I have at all. It’s me witnessing my transformation in real time- my growth. That sin that reared its head last year? This year, it’s been fully buried at the cross. To say to myself, “Kelly, your sin has already been buried, walk as if you’re new,” doesn’t keep my flesh from desiring to sin. That is the heart of the gospel: the heart. It’s not about putting on a new change of clothes as new creations, it’s about being renewed daily inside and actually seeing that manifest outwardly, which I will not if I simply ignore my evil desires.

Maybe we don’t see that a lot of shame and undue expectation comes from the idea that we can simply act as if we’ve been made new, even when we believe the truth that we are new. That dissonance exists because until we receive our glorified bodies, we are made new in Spirit, not in flesh. Hence, the ongoing war within us and the need to continue working out our salvation with fear and trembling. This doesn’t mean we’re not saved. It means the fear of God in us reveres Him enough to trust that we still need Him as desperately as we did at the beginning of our walk.

And the thing is, my identity in Christ isn’t threatened by sin because it knows sin is a defeated foe. My identity has in fact been fortified in Christ the more I continually come to His feet with my sin, as a daughter who once more fell in the mud in her new dress. He doesn’t shame me, nor do I feel expected to clean myself of sin (sin which always requires washing- yes, even the washing of future sin was made available at Calvary). So I return to the cross, even in my white dress, each time my sin threatens to say “I rule you.” I surrender fully once more, reminding it: it is finished. This isn’t tedious or shameful, it’s glory! It’s freedom. It’s deliverance. And it bears fruit that continues to propagate.

Consider if Goliath were to have resurrected, David surely wouldn’t have said, “Well I killed you already, so game over.” No! He would’ve slung him till he stayed dead and buried, once and forever. This is the power of God through us: to break strongholds of sin, which is to be truly delivered from the *strong hold* sin has on us. We cannot negate spiritual warfare, that is, the very strongholds Jesus gave us power over, by ignoring their manifestation. We must confront all sin head on. Always. This is wisdom. This is freedom.

Do not forget you were once slaves to sin. So any time you sin, and you do, time to time.. that’s an attempted threat, Romans 6:12. Where is our urgency? We should meet any and all sin with nothing less. While we are dead to sin, sin is not dead to us. Go to war. Don’t be passive and worldly. The fear of God says: when I sin, I repent. That’s it. No discussion. When I sin, I repent, because I love God. Because I want to walk in His fullness. Because for those who preach the Word, we can’t walk in hypocrisy. How can we say sin doesn’t matter to the born again believer’s life when we still sin? No: I am no longer a sinner by identity. Yet the actual fact that I still sin means I still repent. 1 + 1 = 2. We can only move on from the milk to meat once we can all agree: sin is bad, Hebrews 5:12-14.

We must address theology rooted in reality, not theory alone, just like the apostles did. Like theirs, our doctrine should be lived, tested, and preached into real cultural and spiritual climates in order to contend with sin, deception, and idolatry directly, in real lives. We don’t share the gospel only for ourselves, but for those Jesus calls us to be used to deliver. I still preach the gospel to myself when I’m really wrestling because no matter how I mature, I’ll never be matured past the gospel. I could preach what I think the Bible is saying til the cows come home, or I could preach what has actually born fruit in my life and is also rightly aligned with scripture, and I do, because I want everyone to experience the same power, love, and self discipline I am blessed to experience daily, void of religious theatre. I’ve witnessed the fruit of deliverance in those I minister to, certainly not of my own power, but of the power of God through all who preach the full, unadulterated gospel. This is the will of God.