Must I ask for forgiveness from one who suffered the consequence of my sin before I can repent? This only seems logical to me. A person should first seek to heal a fellow human who has been hurt by them.<\/p>\n
Please\u00a0email\u00a0me\u00a0something\u00a0brief\u00a0about\u00a0this as I\u00a0am\u00a0in anguish.<\/p>\n\t
“For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted; but the sorrow of the world produces death. For observe this very thing, that you sorrowed in a godly manner: What diligence it produced in you, what clearing of yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what vehement desire, what zeal, what vindication! In all things you proved yourselves to be clear in this matter<\/em>” (II Corinthians 7:10-11).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Repentance is turning your life around. It isn’t often that a person can undo the results of his sins. You can’t reverse the course of time. But you can demonstrate that you are not the same person you used to be.<\/p>\n
If you regret what you did and the harm you caused, I would think it polite to let the victim of your sin know that you have had a change in heart. Whether that person will accept your apology or not is out of your control.<\/p>\n
Along with that, if there is some way to soften the damage that you did, it would be a proper thing to do on that person’s behalf. It would be a part of showing you are a new person. Again, the person might not accept your offer of help, but the offer would demonstrate that you’ve changed.<\/p>\n
Sadly many times a person who repents isn’t able to let the person know about their change or be able to offer to undo some of their damage. People move on or pass away and the opportunity is lost.<\/p>\n
Getting a person’s forgiveness isn’t a requirement for repentance. Most of what repentance ought to be is such a drastic change in your life that no one who knows you now would think that you would have done such bad things in the past.<\/p>\n\t
Response:<\/h2>\n
Thank you very much for your answer. It was very helpful to me.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Question: Must I ask for forgiveness from one who suffered the consequence of my sin before I can repent? This only seems logical to me. A person should first seek to heal a fellow human who has been hurt by them. Please\u00a0email\u00a0me\u00a0something\u00a0brief\u00a0about\u00a0this as I\u00a0am\u00a0in anguish. Answer: “For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[51,1571,50],"class_list":["post-22145","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-confession","tag-forgiveness","tag-repentance"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":20140,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/must-each-person-i-sinned-against-be-contacted-before-i-can-be-forgiven\/","url_meta":{"origin":22145,"position":0},"title":"Must each person I sinned against be contacted before I can be forgiven?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 11, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: How should a Christian handle sins that have been committed in the past as far as contacting each person whom he has sinned against? Must each person be contacted before the Christian is forgiven? Answer: A similar question was asked a few years ago. See: \"In order to repent,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":22926,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-is-godly-sorrow-and-how-can-a-wheelchair-bound-person-be-baptized\/","url_meta":{"origin":22145,"position":1},"title":"What is godly sorrow and how can a wheelchair-bound person be baptized?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 6, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I plan to be baptized as soon as I feel that I have properly obeyed the prerequisite commands to baptism: Hear the gospel, believe the gospel, repent of past sins, confess that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of\u00a0 God, and after being baptized remaining faithful until death. Which\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12307,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/would-god-forgive-incest\/","url_meta":{"origin":22145,"position":2},"title":"Would God forgive incest?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 8, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Greetings! I would like to ask for some advice about my unrighteousness. I hope you could reply. To get straight to it, I had sex with my brother. It was not really the kind of serious kind of sex because we were just playing around. At that time we\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":52519,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/im-not-sure-if-my-thoughts-are-sin\/","url_meta":{"origin":22145,"position":3},"title":"I’m not sure if my thoughts are sin","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 2, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I saw a website that makes going to heaven seem really difficult. I have religious OCD and I get blasphemous thoughts constantly and repent all day long. Some of the thoughts feel like I want them. What should I do? If I'm not sure if my thoughts are really\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":18886,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/can-there-be-repentance-without-confession\/","url_meta":{"origin":22145,"position":4},"title":"Can there be repentance without confession?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 23, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I have a question about repentance.\u00a0 I have always wondered if there was such a thing as a lack of repentance? For example, when someone lies to another and later on they repent and change their mind about lying, but they don\u2019t want to bring up the details of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":56286,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/forgiveness-3\/","url_meta":{"origin":22145,"position":5},"title":"Forgiveness (North)","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 26, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"by Phillip North via\u00a0Biblical Insights, Vol. 8, No. 8, Aug. 2008. Much has been preached and written on how mankind, especially Christians, should and must practice forgiveness. No doubt it is a command, not a mere option. 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