One of the hardest parts of the repentance process is forsaking our sins once we have repented, confessed, and have received forgiveness. The difficulty lies not only in setting aside every sin and temptation which easily besets us, but in letting go of the person we used to be who used to succumb to those temptations and sinful behaviors. When we are symbolically buried in the waters of baptism, or when we renew that symbolic burial weekly as we partake of the sacrament, we are not merely burying our sins, but burying the sinner who committed those sins. Until we have forsaken not just the sin but also the sinner, until we have killed and buried our old self and are then born again through the Atoning power of our Savior Jesus Christ, our repentance and our forgiveness cannot be complete. It is not enough for us to choose today to live righteously and shun error, but to still allow our identity to be tied up by what we did in the past. If we have truly repented and been forgiven and truly forsaken our sins, then it is wrong for us to think of ourselves as sinners. “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” (2 Corinithians 5:17). If we have forsaken our sins but continue to identify with our old sinner self, then we are setting at naught the precious gift of forgiveness and we are not letting ourselves to be in Christ and be new, non-sinner creatures. I know that the last and most important step in forsaking our sins is forsaking the sinner we used to be and embracing our new life in Christ and I know that as we do this, we will experience a greater measure of peace and joy as we fully complete the repentance process.
