Repentance = Know evil, then choose Good

The most important thing in being a Christian is to want for oneself resurrected eternal life in Heaven. 

But maybe the second most important thing is repentance - because unless we repent our own "sins" - our own evil desires - then even one of these can block our desire for Heaven. 

This seems to be why the Fourth Gospel more-or-less equates sin with death - because the salvation offered by Jesus Christ saves us from the situation that follows death of our mortal body, when all that remains is a depersonalized ghostly spirit; so that sin leads to death - and salvation is eternal life of our re-embodied self. 

It does not need to be a very "severe" sin (e.g. something like murder) to block salvation; it could be anything that is not-aligned with God and divine creation, hence incompatible with Heaven; and which we refuse to give-up, when the choice comes. 

If the way this might work isn't obvious to you (e.g. due to the great mass of false and confusing information on the subject) the matter was clarified for me by CS Lewis's "The Great Divorce"; where we have illustrated how apparently trivial and private faults or flaws can induce a person voluntarily to reject the immediate offer of salvation. 

This salvation-blocking effect happens because any un-repented sin makes us Not Want Heaven. 

So repentance is vital - but what is it? 

I've written extensively on the matter; but here I'm trying to boil it down to the absolute simplicity of an equation: 

Repentance = Know evil, then choose Good. 

First we must know evil, which means recognize evil as evil, acknowledge that this is indeed evil. 

Second - knowing this instance of evil, we must inwardly choose Good. 

We need to realize there is a side that is Good (the side in harmony with the purposes of God and divine creation) and the choice is to affiliate with the side of Good. 

(And to reject the side that is against-Good = the side of evil.) 

That is repentance. 

The usual riposte is on the lines of "That's all very well, but what are you actually going to Do about it?"

But that action-focused approach is a serious mistake, indeed it functions as a demonic snare. The real question is whose side we have chosen, not what we can or will do. 

Or, more accurately, what we do must be Heaven-orientated, must primarily and essentially be spiritual in nature; and spiritual action does not necessarily nor always leading towards any particular this-worldly/ material outcome. 

After all; this mortal world is of its nature a sin-full one terminating in our death; and there is zero possibility of living without sin - as becomes obvious once we have really understood what sin means, and how pervasive it always is.

The point is not to "live without sinning", nor even to try such an absurd impossibility. 

(Jesus came to save sinners, after all - and did not require of disciples or followers that they cease from sinning, but that they "follow Him".)

The point is to know evil, and repent sin by choosing the side of Good. 

Repentance sounds simple and easy, maybe too easy? It is simple, but apparently it is not easy, or seldom so; since repentance is so rare.