Repentance Is Not Punishment

When we suffer an illness or an injury, we often have to take medicine or physical therapy as part of our recovery. This can be annoying and even painful. But the medicine we take or the exercises we perform are not punishment for being sick. They don’t make the medications purposefully more unpleasant to the taste or the exercises more difficult as some kind of judgment against us. It is the same with repentance. Repentance is like medicine or physical therapy. It is designed to help us get better. It may at times be unpleasant or difficult or painful, but that is because we are spiritually sick and wounded and anything we do might be painful when we are sick. God doesn’t make the repentance process purposefully more unpleasant or difficult because He wants to punish us or make us pay for our mistakes. God already paid for our mistakes. He gave us repentance to help make us better. Repentance may sometimes be inconvenient or difficult or painful, but it is always for our good.