Mere Repentance

A thought-provoking quote from Mere Christianity:

Only a bad person needs to repent: only a good person can repent perfectly. The worse you are the more you need to repent and the less you can do it. The only person who could do it perfectly would be a perfect person -- and he would not need it.

Couldn't have said it better myself, actually. I know I can sin with the best of them, and I hate those sins, but here I read that I can't do anything to fix them. Ah yes, we're back to the part where we can do nothing for ourselves. I'm continually amazed at how little my faith, and God's forgiveness, have to do with me. In fact, repentance isn't so much an action on my part, but rather a description of turning back to God, of realizing, once again, how much I hate my sinful nature. As Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 7, godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation. The most amazing part is that God recognizes our repentance, and forgives, even while He knows that this sorrow will soon fade as we live our lives.

Anyway, perhaps more on that when it's not bedtime!