When Jesus walked out of that desert after His temptation, He arrived with a word. The Scriptures say, "From that time Jesus began to preach and say, 'Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.'" (Matt 4:17). "Repent." Not a popular word these days. In fact, we're pretty sure we don't like it much at all. Too confrontational. Too judgy. You know ... can't we all just get along? Well, apparently Jesus thought it was important. When they came to Him worried about the people Pilate had killed, Jesus said, "I tell you, no, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish" (Luke 13:3). He told the Pharisees, "I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance" (Luke 5:32). When He sent out the 12 to preach, "They went out and preached that men should repent" (Mark 6:12). Apparently Jesus thought repentance was important.
Repentance in Scripture is not merely "feeling bad for my sins." That may be a start, but actual, biblical repentance is feeling bad enough to turn. It is seeing your sin for what it is in the eyes of God and despising it enough to walk away from it. Actual repentance is changing direction. John the Baptist told his listeners, "Bear fruit in keeping with repentance" (Matt 3:8). Because repentance is not just feeling sorry; it is about a change. When Peter preached his first sermon at Pentecost, they asked him what they had to do. His first instruction was "Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit" (Acts 2:38). Change directions and receive forgiveness. And here's a little tidbit you may not have realized. Paul, instructing Timothy on what he needed to do in Ephesus, told him to correct his opponents with gentleness because, "God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth" (2 Tim 2:25). Do you see that? It is a grant, a gift from God. And it isn't certain -- God may grant it.
Nobody likes the "sin" topic these days. Let's not talk about that. Oh, maybe your sin, but not all of ours. Too religious. Too pointed. And, so, no one really wants to hear about being so convicted of sin that they realize they need to change direction. The problem, of course, is that the less we talk about repentance, the less people are going to hear about their need for it. And without repentance, salvation is not possible. Do we really want to "play nice" and assist people to an easy trip to Hell?
2 comments:
We need to get over our fear of the moral relativism of our age and be firm in speaking the truth in confidence and love. (Replace all the "we's" and "our's" with "I" and "my").
Thank you Stan. Repentance is truly a gift, which when done in humility, allows us another gift...gratitude. Which produces in us further desire to abhor our sin. But with the vast and unrelenting temptations to sin, even sinning everyday in disobedience to God (when we refuse to love our neighbor or our God, or we willingly give in to temptation), we see the daily need to take up our cross, Follow Christ, and obey Christ's words to repent. Every single day.
Praise God for the gift of humility and repentance. May our nation be consumed with the desire to turn the other direction and be gifted with repentance.
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