Have you ever been in a catch-22 where you need one thing to get another, but can’t get the first without already having the second?
That’s precisely the spiritual trap many sincere believers find themselves in when it comes to repentance.
Here’s the confusion that paralyzes countless people: they’ve been taught that they must repent before they can come to Christ for forgiveness. That makes sense, right? God only forgives those who are genuinely sorry for their sins. So you need to work up genuine repentance, get yourself to the point of being broken and contrite, and then—once you’ve achieved the right level of remorse—you can approach God for mercy.
But here’s where it gets impossible: how do you manufacture genuine repentance in your own heart? How do you produce authentic sorrow for sin when your heart is hardened by sin? How do you create the spiritual contrition that God requires when you’re spiritually dead? It’s like telling a corpse to come to life, or commanding a prisoner to break his own chains.
Think about what this teaching actually requires. You must somehow generate, through your own spiritual resources, the very thing that your sinful condition makes impossible to develop. You must produce the fitness to come to God before you can come to God to receive the power to be fit. You must achieve the brokenness that qualifies you for grace before you can access the grace that produces that brokenness.
This is why so many people remain stuck at the starting line of the Christian life, never actually beginning the race. They’re waiting to feel sorry enough, broken enough, repentant enough to come to Christ. They examine their hearts, find insufficient remorse, and conclude they’re not ready yet. They try to work up more sorrow, manufacture more contrition, produce more spiritual feeling—and they fail, because you can’t create these things through willpower.
Let me tell you about someone I knew who spent years in this trap. He knew he was a sinner. He wanted to be saved. He understood that he needed to repent. But every time he examined his heart, he felt his repentance wasn’t deep enough, his sorrow wasn’t genuine enough, his contrition wasn’t complete enough. So he kept waiting, kept trying, kept attempting to manufacture the repentance he thought he needed before he could come to Christ.
What he didn’t understand was that he was trying to do something impossible. He was attempting to accomplish, through his own effort, what can only be achieved through the divine gift. He was trying to generate spiritual life while spiritually dead, produce spiritual sight while spiritually blind, and create spiritual desire while spiritually hardened.
But here’s the liberating truth that changes everything: repentance isn’t something you produce for yourself so you can come to Christ. Repentance is something Christ gives you when you go to Him. You don’t manufacture fitness to approach God—God provides the fitness as you respond to His drawing.
This completely reverses the order most people imagine. They think it goes: achieve repentance, then come to Christ, then receive forgiveness. But Scripture reveals it actually goes like this: Christ draws you, you respond by coming to Him, He gives you repentance, and through that gift of repentance, you receive forgiveness.
The very first movement toward Christ happens not because you’ve worked yourself up to the right spiritual state, but because the Holy Spirit is drawing you. Your response to that drawing is the beginning, not the achievement of some prior spiritual qualification. You come to Christ not after you’ve repented, but to repent.
Think about what this means practically. If you’ve been waiting until you feel sorry enough for your sins before approaching God, you’ve got it backwards. Your insufficient sorrow is precisely why you need to come to Him—because He’s the one who can give you the genuine repentance you lack. Your inability to manufacture true contrition is the very reason you need His gift of repentance.
This understanding should lift an enormous burden. You’re not responsible for generating the spiritual resources necessary to come to Christ. You’re only responsible for responding to His drawing when He attracts you. You don’t have to achieve a certain level of brokenness before you’re qualified to approach Him. You come to Him with whatever level of awareness and desire you have, and He provides what you lack.
The question isn’t “Am I repentant enough to come to Christ?” The question is “Is Christ drawing me, and will I respond to that drawing?” If you sense any desire for God, any awareness of your need, any attraction toward Christ—that’s evidence that He’s already drawing you. Your part is to respond by coming to Him, trusting that He will give you the repentance you need.
Stop waiting to achieve the impossible. Stop trying to manufacture what only God can give. If you sense any stirring toward Christ, that’s His Spirit drawing you. Respond to that drawing, come to Him just as you are, and trust Him to give you the repentance that you cannot produce for yourself.
“No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day.” - John 6:44
