From the outset, we will need to address the terms used when discussing repentance. Much of the confusion on the topic comes from a fuzzy vocabulary.
Previously, repentance was defined as fully reconciling your ideas, desires, and actions to your sincere understanding of what is best.
What is best is defined as righteousness. This is, perhaps, the first major point of contention between the religious and not, as the former tend to believe that righteousness is defined by another person, and the latter do not. This probably ought to be less of a disagreement than it is. While a full argument of this point will have to wait until later in this book, it is important to note that “righteousness” is not a static list of ideas or actions. Furthermore, it isn’t something one person can dictate to another without the involvement and consent of the conscience. In other words, the determination of what is best is something that relies on the understanding of the individual. While this can be and is heavily influenced by interactions with others, it is neither proper nor possible for one person to merely dictate righteousness to another. Not even God does this. He reasons with a person, as one person reasons with another. Again, much more will be discussed on this topic later.
Deviation from what is best is called sin. Sin is a word with highly charged connotations that vary wildly depending on who is using it. It ought not be this way. Sin is simply willingly doing less than your best. In this usage, we clearly have not defined what is best, but simply assigned a name to doing anything less. Under this definition, it is obviously useful, good, and desirable to recognize and correct sin, as it reorients someone to what they say they want, not what someone else says they want.
The choice to sin creates the need for repentance. When someone is already living in a state where they constantly think, desire, and do what they sincerely understand to be best, there is no sin and therefore no need for repentance. The state of being reconciled to what is best is called sinlessness.