Summary
Owning It
Repentance, in its most basic biblical sense, means turning around—going one direction and then turning to walk the other way. The Lord calls his people to this turning continually, but during the forty days of Lent the Church gives it particular attention. And at the heart of repentance lies a simple, costly act: owning it. Owning our sin. Taking responsibility before God rather than passing it off on someone or something else.
The hard truth is that refusing to own our sin is one of the oldest patterns in Scripture. When Moses came down from Sinai with the tablets of the law and confronted Aaron over the golden calf, Aaron's answer was a cascade of excuses: the people are bent on evil, they pressured me, I just threw the gold in the fire and "out came this calf" Exodus 32:21-24. The same evasion echoes from Eden, where Adam blamed the woman—and God for giving her to him—and Eve blamed the serpent Genesis 3:12-13. It is the world's acceptable sin: not acceptable to God, but normal among us. His fault. Her fault. Their fault. I was born this way. I had no choice. The excuses multiply.
Against this, God uses his law as a mirror. The chief function of the Ten Commandments is to show us our sin, for "through the law comes the knowledge of sin" Romans 3:20. And throughout Scripture his Word points its finger and says, own it. Jesus tells the crowds, "you refuse to come to me that you may have life" John 5:40, and weeps over Jerusalem, "you were not willing" Luke 13:34. James warns that each person "is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire" James 1:14-15. The sin is ours. The responsibility is ours.
David shows what owning it looks like. Confronted by the prophet Nathan after his adultery with Bathsheba and the murder of Uriah, David did not deflect. He prayed, "I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned" Psalm 51:3-4. No blame shifted to Bathsheba, to circumstance, to the temptations of kingship. He took it as his own—because it was. This is why Ash Wednesday begins not with a swelling hymn of praise but with Psalm 51 and a corporate confession in which God's people declare that they have sinned "by my own fault, by my own most grievous fault, in thought, word, and deed, by what I have done and by what I have left undone." That confession is owning it.
And here is the gospel that meets the honest sinner: what we own, Christ has taken. The spotless, sinless Lamb of God went to the cross and bore the sin that was ours, not his. He owned what was not his so that we might live. Through his cross we are reconciled to God 2 Corinthians 5:21. The ash traced on the forehead in the shape of a cross says both things at once—"remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return" Genesis 3:19, and you are forgiven. Lent calls us to stop making excuses and to step into that exchange: we own our sin, and Christ owns us.
For the full meditation, see "Owning It" 3-5-25.
Video citations
- "Owning It" 3-5-25 — Would you open your Bible's please with me this evening to Exodus the 30-second chapter? Exodus chapter 32, if you're using a few additional Holy Scripture, you will find that on page 73, the…