The Path from Sin to Freedom

**This podcast is taken from our Global Video Report: EMPOWER CONNECT October 2024 Edition**

RON: Hello, everyone. I’m bringing you greetings from Southeast Asia — specifically, the shores of Vietnam. I’m here on a trip interviewing national church-planting leaders across about six different countries. It’s a pleasure to be with you today from this beautiful location. It’s very hot outside, and as I look over my left shoulder, I can see the ocean. After this recording, I’ll be heading into more meetings with pastors and friends.

This trip is incredible because you get to see into the lives and hearts of the workers God has raised up around the world. There are biblical characteristics — traits — that we repeatedly see in them. They’re so obvious that they sit in my consciousness, and as I look into the Word of God, I see confirmation of these same traits developing within them.

One of those traits I want to talk about today is contrition.

I’m using my notes here in a slightly awkward way since I’m in a hotel room in the middle of nowhere — but let’s walk through this together. Contrition is part of our experience of repentance. I’m going to give you definitions, Scripture, and then share how this is being lived out in the lives of believers around the world who are coming to the Lord by the millions.

Contrition means to be crushed by a sense of sin — broken to pieces, smitten. It’s part of repentance. Repentance includes fear of punishment, awareness that we have offended a holy God, sorrow for sin, and turning to Him in humility. But the heart must also display contrition.

Here’s a theological definition: contrition refers to the grief experienced when the Holy Spirit reveals our sin through the preaching of the law. You can see this in Jeremiah 23:20. Again: it is the grief that comes when the Spirit of God awakens our consciousness to the reality that we are sinners. That revelation produces grief — crying out, hurt, pain. This theme runs through Scripture from beginning to end.

One key example is found in Psalm 51, written after David was confronted by Nathan regarding his sin with Bathsheba and the murder of her husband. David writes:

“The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.”

David knew God did not simply want an animal sacrifice. He needed forgiveness—before offering a peace offering. The sacrifice he had to bring was a broken and contrite heart: a humble spirit fully penitent for sin.

In the Old Testament, a person needed a prophet or priest to confirm forgiveness. Only then could they worship again.

In the New Testament, the word of forgiveness is forever written in God’s Word. We see this in 1 John 1:7 and 1:9:

“If we walk in the light… the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin.”
​“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us… and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

We don’t have to live continually weighed down by grief. We don’t walk around with our heads down every day, endlessly lamenting our sin. God releases us. He cleanses us. That is His gift of salvation.

Yet — and this is important — among the believers I’m interviewing here in Southeast Asia, as well as others around the world, that initial contrition is unmistakable. When they give testimonies, you can see it on their faces. You can hear it in their voices. They remember clearly who they were without Christ.

Yesterday, I listened to a brother share how he had been a gambler, a drunkard, someone who wasted all the family’s wealth. As he spoke, every second sentence was, ​“I’m sorry, Lord. I’m sorry.” Not in shame — but in honesty. You could see the grief, but then the victory. He finished with joy, saying God had dealt with it, he had dealt with it, and now he was walking in freedom.

From grief
→ to contrition
→ to victory
→ to joy.
This is the pathway God intends.

Let me read another verse—Isaiah 57:15:

“The high and lofty One who lives in eternity, the Holy One, says this: ​‘I live in the high and holy place with those whose spirits are contrite and humble. I restore the crushed spirit of the humble and revive the courage of those with repentant hearts.’”

A commentary explains that this recalls Isaiah 40, where a road is prepared for the Lord. Now the faithful are walking to the Lord. Even though He is majestic, eternal, and holy, He fellowships with the contrite and lowly in spirit. His anger does not last forever. When His people repent, He forgives — bringing healing, guidance, and comfort.
The forgiven enjoy peace; the wicked, who refuse to turn to the Lord, have none.

They cling to their sin, so they never experience release, forgiveness, or peace. They never begin the pathway — the pathway of repentance.

Before closing, I want to share something I was taught years ago from the book of Hebrews. There are five warnings about falling away from God. The second warning is in Hebrews 3:12 – 13:

“Take care… that there not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God. But encourage one another day after day… so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.”

“Hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.”
This is our great enemy — especially in the West. Sin deceives subtly. It winds into our lives until we are hardened and no longer sensitive to God’s presence. We lose that gentle walk with Him — the humility, the contrition, the gratitude for forgiveness.

This is why I’m so encouraged by these believers coming out of false religions or no religion at all — animism, secularism, anything. They come with honesty, with brokenness, with longing. They begin the pathway toward God, then walk with Him continually.

Let me tell you one more story. Years ago — also in Vietnam, up the coast from where I am now — I sat in a hotel room by the ocean while workers came in to be interviewed. One brother was an incredible evangelist. He was beaten regularly for his faith. Authorities would beat him almost all day long, yet he kept going back.

As he told his story, his face changed when he began describing his own salvation. He said, ​“Jesus saved me. I was such a sinner.” He listed his sins — not glorifying them, but acknowledging truthfully what he had been. You could see the pain etched into his expression — the recognition of how he had hurt God. But then came the gratitude, the release.

He said, ​“I carry that with me every day when I go out to preach. I look at people who are like I was. That gives me motivation. Under the power of the Holy Spirit, I will set them free by preaching the Truth.”

This is contrition. Not living in shame — but remembering where you came from so you can lead others to freedom.

Around the world today, this is what we are seeing. People who remember who they were, and who cannot help but tell their families and friends: ​“You don’t have to live there anymore. You can walk with God. Come on — get on the pathway. Repent. Come to Jesus. His blood will cleanse you from all unrighteousness.”