“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is
at hand.”
“I have heard of You by the hearing
of the ear; but now my eye sees You; therefore I retract, and I repent in dust
and ashes.”
“Therefore remember from where you
have fallen, and repent and do the deeds you did at first; or else I am coming
to you and will remove your lampstand out of its place – unless you
repent.”
God is a righteous judge, and a God
who has indignation every day. If a man
does not repent, He will sharpen His sword, He has bent His bow and made it
ready.
“Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the miracles had been performed in
Tyre and Sidon which occurred in you, they would have repented long ago,
sitting in sackcloth and ashes.”
“Therefore say to the house of
Israel, ‘Thus says the Lord God, “Repent and turn away from your idols and turn
your faces away from all your abominations.”’
Peter said to them, “Repent, and each
of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your
sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”
Those are
seven of the 184 occurrences of either the word or the idea of repentance that
are scattered across both the Old and New Testaments. And although this word is not the most
frequently used religious term in the Bible (faith occurs 929 times and holy
shows up in 1286 places) the importance of gaining an accurate understanding of
it cannot be overstated. The reason is
that the idea and the action of repentance are the grounds by which created
human beings gain any sort of access into the good favor and acceptance of God,
the creator. As such, when we consider
the massive eternal implications bound up in the concept of repentance or the
lack thereof, it quickly rises to a critical level of importance. Furthermore, whether we think we know what
repentance is or is not is only as relevant as our understanding lines up and
matches what God says it is. In other
words, we must not rely on our own wisdom and understanding. We must turn to the Bible for education. Our eternity hangs on this so we absolutely
must get it right. And thankfully, I
believe that God in His great compassion delivers to us a recipe, or a formula,
or a pattern that characterizes exactly what He means when He commands a person
or a group of people to repent. This
recipe for genuine repentance is found buried in the middle of the minor
prophets of the Old Testament, in the book of Joel.
But before
we dig into that we need to define our terms to ensure we are on the same
page. In other words, before we can
study how to do repentance we need to understand what it is. In Matthew chapter 3 it is recorded for us
that John the Baptist ministered as a forerunner for the incarnation of God in
the form of Jesus Christ. His ministry
was prophesied by Isaiah hundreds of years previously when he wrote: “The voice of one crying in the wilderness,
make ready the way of the Lord, make His paths straight!” So John and his teaching heralded the arrival
of the Messiah and revealed to humanity that which they needed to know prior to
His arrival. To accomplish this, the
Scripture tells us he began to preach in the wilderness of Judea. And undoubtedly, he taught on a variety of
topics. But Matthew tells us in verse 2 what
the primary foundation of John’s message was:
“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” John reinforced this message with a warning to
the Jewish religious leaders of the day in verse 8: Therefore bear fruit in keeping with repentance. Mark in the gospel that bears his name
underscores the point in chapter 1 and verse 4: John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness preaching a baptism of
repentance for the forgiveness of sins.
The point of John’s ministry was to prepare the way for the coming of
the Lord. He accomplished this by
informing the people what God desired so as to smooth the way for Jesus’s earthly
ministry, thus “making His paths straight.”
John said that what God desires is genuine repentance and the fruit that
characterizes it. So what is genuine
repentance? Quite simply, it is to
change one’s mind for the better. In
this context, the implication is that we are to change our minds about the sin
that we are enslaved to, no longer preferring it and instead prioritizing that
which is in accordance with the character of God. This is the only way to have forgiveness of
those sins. And because the Bible
unmistakably teaches that from birth we face the unmitigated wrath of God over
our rebellion and sinfulness, it follows that to be separated from His favor is
to exist in a precarious position indeed.
Put simply, without repentance we are doomed.
So then, as
stated above, due to the eternal ramifications of this topic, it is critical to
our future well-being to learn accurately and completely how God sees
repentance. What is the fullness of meaning,
according to His standard, of the act of repenting and what process should we
follow when entering into the presence of God with an intention to repent? But before we delve into that question, I
want to take another moment and clarify one more point; namely, who this
message is for. Who is it that ought to
give heed to this teaching on repentance; those who would gain forgiveness for
their sins or those who have already received that forgiveness?
We have
already seen in the message John preached that repentance is a pre-requisite
for obtaining forgiveness for sins. The
Bible calls this salvation, or being born again. Sinners are called to acknowledge their
sinful state, turn away from that state, and embrace the truth that Jesus was
punished and died for their sins.
Through Him this repentant sinner is declared not guilty and no longer
threatened with God’s wrath. The Spirit
of God Himself takes up residence in this person’s heart and soul, causing a
desire to please God to well up from within and be evidenced by good works,
which the Bible calls spiritual fruit.
But what happens after that? Once
a person has been saved from their sins is repentance relevant to them? After all, aren’t their sins already covered
and paid for? What would they need to
repent of? The Bible itself seems to
confirm the idea that repentance is exclusively a saving act. Almost every time the New Testament uses the
Greek word for repent it is in the context of an initial turning away from sins
unto salvation. However, there is what
we might call an expectation or an attitude of penitence and repentance
pervades the New Testament Scriptures.
Furthermore, there are at least two instances that I know of where it is
used with a clear intent that leads me to believe there is a repentance leading
not to salvation but rather leading to sanctification.
Consider the
text of Luke 17:3-4: Be on your
guard! If your brother sins, rebuke him;
and if he repents, forgive him. And if
he sins against you seven times a day, and returns to you seven times, saying,
‘I repent,’ forgive him.” Jesus is
speaking to His disciples in this passage.
More specifically, He is giving instructions to those who had not
already fallen away after the harsh teaching on the cost of discipleship in
Luke chapter 14 and John chapter 6. In
other words, He is teaching genuine followers here. These are the people who would later form the
structure of the beginning of the church age on the Day of Pentecost in Acts
chapter 2. And in case there is any
lingering doubt, notice the reference to “the apostles” in verse 5. In light of these clues, we can say
confidently that Jesus was not just giving instructions here about how to deal
with a biological brother or any random acquaintance in the world. He is speaking explicitly about
inter-personal relationships between fellow Christians. And He indicates that there will be
opportunities for repentance in these situations among those who have already
received the gift of saving faith.
In addition
to that, we have Christ’s message to the church at Ephesus in Relevation
2:1-7.
The relevant portion for our
topic today is verse 5, which I read earlier: Therefore remember from where you have fallen, and repent and do the
deeds you did at first; or else I am coming to you and will remove your
lampstand out of its place – unless you repent. It’s important to remember here that this is
not Laodicea we’re talking about. That
church was filled mostly with unbelievers and was about to be completely
rejected by Jesus. In contrast, the
church at Ephesus was for the most part on the right track. They were in error in the critical area of
love, but they still had the ability to discern truth and reject heresy. So these are genuine followers of Christ,
perhaps not so very much unlike us, who are being commanded to repent.
But this
begs the question; repent of what? Their
sins past, present, and future are already covered by the blood of Christ on
the cross. The answer is really quite
simple and it should be obvious to you at this point. But allow me to briefly turn to Romans
8:12-14 to provide a solid biblical response to the question: So then, brethren, we are under obligation,
not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh – for if you are living
according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to
death the deeds of the body, you will live.
For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. Notice the phrase in the middle of this
passage: “by the Spirit you are putting
to death the deeds of the body”.
This phrase implies two things.
First, it tells us that the Spirit is present. This lets us know that this is someone who is
truly born again because the Spirit of God does not take up residence with
those who are not His own adopted children.
We can see that in the very next verse, number 15, of Romans 8. Second, even with the Spirit present in the
believer there still exists the deeds of the flesh, otherwise known as sins,
which must be put to death. So the
answer to the question of what is it that a Christian is repenting of, is
simply the sins they continue to commit even after being born again and
declared justified before the Lord.
With this
evidence before us, I believe we can confidently say that repentance is
applicable to both those pre-conversion people who are under the wrath of God
and genuine disciples of Jesus who have been set free from bondage to sin and
are somewhere along the path of conformity to the image of Christ. I’m going to call these parallel types of
repentance “saving repentance” and “sanctifying repentance”. The ultimate point for all of us is that no
matter your spiritual condition, the call to repentance and therefore the need
to have a clear and accurate understanding of it applies to you directly. It doesn’t matter whether you are in
rebellion against God, playing with the fires of hell and gambling your eternal
state on the hope that you will have time to turn to Jesus before you die, or
you’re a fresh faced new Christian who is still in the honeymoon phase of your
relationship with Jesus, or you are a spiritually mature stalwart of the faith
who is more than ever before aware of and repulsed by your own sin. In any of these scenarios biblical repentance
is desperately important to you because it is a command from God, the One who
is described as a consuming fire who will purge sin from His universe one
day. And as such, to be cavalier with
your sin and your need to repent is to be extremely foolish.
This brings
us finally to the topic at hand; namely what should this genuine repentance
look like? We know what it is and we
know who and how it applies to each of us.
But when we find ourselves in a situation where we think we are
repentant before God, does that repentance look the same as what He describes
as genuine repentance? What we are going
to do is hold up the mirror of Scripture and compare it against our own
lives. We are going to carefully examine
our patterns of behavior to see if they align with God’s design. And if we find ourselves lacking, I hope and
pray that you will join me in a concerted effort toward spiritual renovation. I believe we can find this mirror in Joel
2:12-14. In these verses the Lord gives
us an exact blueprint of what He expects of those who would come before Him in
an attitude of repentance.
Joel is a book
of parallels; multiple layers of parallel imagery in fact. Like several of the minor Old Testament
prophets we have very little information about this man. It seems likely that he was from Judah. Some scholars postulate that he wrote in the
late pre-exilic period; in other words, shortly before the Babylonian conquest
of Judah which would eventually result in the complete destruction of
Jerusalem. In point of fact, we don’t
know exactly when the book was written and a few different ideas have been
floated throughout church history. But
the dating of the book is really of little significance because the import and
meaning are abundantly clear. Joel
begins in the very first chapter with an opening layer of prophecy by
describing a locust invasion that completely devastates the country. There is literally nothing left after this in-sectile
army completes its conquest. The people
don’t even have enough grain remaining to offering sacrifices to God. That is how desperate their circumstances
become after this invasion.
Then in
chapter two he reveals a second depiction of this invading army and the
conquest and devastation they bring.
Only this time, it takes a more supernatural twist. References to the sky growing dark, fire
consuming both before and behind, the earth quaking, and the heavens
trembling. If this book was written
prior to the exile then this second description of conquest could be seen as
pointing to the Babylonians. But whether
locusts or Chaldeans the ultimate meaning is made clear with references in
verse 15 of chapter 1 and verses 1 and 11 of chapter 2 to something called the
“Day of the Lord”. This phrase in Old
Testament prophetic context refers to impending judgment against the
world. This is a time when God will pour
out His wrath upon mankind over sin.
When this phrase is used in prophecies that is always what it is referring
to. So we know from this huge clue that
what is in view here is an eschatological sequence of events that will
ultimately result in the complete and utter devastation described by the coming
of the locusts earlier in the chapter.
And this
brings us to what is really the heart of the book. After prophesying of the judgment and doom
that is coming, the Lord through His prophet issues a call to repentance. This is the issue of greatest significance
that rises above the details of Joel and is what makes this book so relevant
for the question I am trying to answer.
In verses 12 to 14 God unveils a comprehensive recipe for genuine
repentance that will serve us as the perfect litmus test to determine whether
we are in alignment with His design.
First we are
presented with the components of repentance.
These are the building blocks that must be present in order for genuine
heart change to take place. They fall
into three categories: a whole hearted effort, visible evidence, and authentic
desire. We’ll tackle these one at a
time.
In verse 12
the Lord says “Return to Me with all
your heart.” Before anything else He
makes it crystal clear that genuine repentance must be a total and complete
effort. In God’s mind, to repent is an
all or nothing affair. We have often
heard the phrase uttered between couples, “I love you with all my heart.” The meaning is obvious. Everything within me, every fiber of my body
and soul, the totality of my existence is what I am pouring into my love for
you. That’s exactly what God is looking
for here in the repentance of His creations.
Make no mistake, God does not tolerate a careless, flippant, apathetic,
or disinterested demeanor.
Remember the
terrifying condemnation of the church in Laodicea, found in Revelation 3:15-17:
‘I know your
deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot; I wish that you were cold or
hot. So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I
will spit you out of My mouth. Because you say, “I am rich, and have
become wealthy, and have need of nothing,” and you do not know that you are
wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked. Water has value for refreshment when it is
cold. And it is beneficial for soothing
when it is hot. But when it is merely
lukewarm and good for neither cooling nor heating, refreshing or soothing, then
it is a mostly useless liquid. Just like
lukewarm water, the members of this church were utterly worthless to God. There is a disgust or loathing here in how He
views such people. And in the conclusion
of the metaphor the Lord will spit these people out of His mouth just as we might
spew out tepid water that we take a swig of.
Continuing
to the next phrase we see that it is not enough to merely say the words. This sorrow over sin must be accompanied by
visible evidence. God says there must be:
“fasting, weeping and mourning.” What we are dealing with here is
attitude. Will I submit to my flesh and
my own cravings or will I deny myself?
Is my repentance of such conviction that I am willing to abstain from
that most quintessential of all human desires; food? Furthermore, am I really broken over my
sin? Is my sorrow such that it
overwhelms me both internally with mourning and externally with weeping?
Notice how
another Old Testament prophet, Habakkuk, responds to a terrifying revelation of
future prophecy that he is given in Habakkuk 3:16. I
heard and my inward parts trembled.
The idea is that his bowels turned to water and his stomach roiled and
boiled like the surface of a storm tossed ocean. At the
sound my lips quivered. Picture a
small child. They have just fallen and
skinned their knee. They aren’t sure yet
whether they’re upset or not. But as the
pain begins to mount and perhaps their parent comes running, communicating
louder than words to the youngster how dire the situation is, their lip begins
to tremble and shake just prior to the flood of tears that pours forth. That is how the prophet feels here. Decay
enters my bones. The body feels
weak, fragile, and incapable of action.
All one wants is to lay down and rest.
The thought of any type of physical activity is abhorrent. And in
my place I tremble. Habakkuk is over
come with tremors. His limbs rebel
against him and shake uncontrollably. We
are talking about a comprehensive dread and horror of mind and body that is
completely overwhelming. Now in
Habakkuk’s case he is responding not to his own sin directly. Rather, he is utterly terrified of the vision
of the future that God has given him and what it means for his country, Judah. But the response is perfectly aligned with
how we should respond to the conviction and guilt that comes when the Holy
Spirit points out our transgressions to us.
Do these
descriptions seem over the top to you?
Do they seem extreme and excessive?
Do you resist the idea of humbling yourself to this degree? If so, then you need to understand that you
are in opposition to the model of genuine repentance that God outlines for us
in Scripture. And you need to have an
honest dialogue with yourself and with God to determine whether a genuinely
repentant attitude exists within you at all.
Don’t make the mistake of trifling with this issue, because God doesn’t
take it lightly. He makes this
abundantly clear in the final component of repentance given to us in Joel 2:13.
“Rend your heart and not your
garments,” God
says. This is a reference to the ancient
Middle Eastern custom of tearing one’s garments as an outward display of
extreme emotion. We can see an example
of this in Matthew 26:65. Jesus is in
the mock trial at the high priest’s house.
He has remained silent throughout the false accusations that have been
leveled against Him. But when Caiaphas
finally, probably out of exasperation, asks him directly whether He is the
Christ, the Son of God, Jesus finally breaks His silence and confirms the
truth. In verse 65 we read Caiaphas’s
reaction: Then the high priest tore his
robes and said, “He has blasphemed!”
This is really a perfect example of
the point being made back in Joel.
Caiaphas and the other ungodly members of the Sanhedrin were basically a
bunch of hypocrites. Jesus said of the
Jews such as them: “These people honor
me with their lips but their hearts are far from me.” He also condemned them as whitewashed tombs
that appear beautiful on the outside but inside are full of dead men’s bones
and filth. Caiaphas’s reaction to
Jesus’s claim was actually the proper response for a Jew when someone
blasphemed against the name of God. But
the descriptions of these men as terrible hypocrites makes it clear that he was
false in his denial of the Messiah. He
was straight up consciously lying or he had convinced himself subconsciously
that Jesus was a blasphemer. Either way,
his public response was a cover up for a truth he refused to admit.
In the same
way, here in Joel God commands us to dispense with useless tearing of the clothes
that cover our skins but don’t reflect a truly broken heart inside our breasts. Brought into modern vernacular we might say
“don’t bother putting on your suit and tie and going off to church when your
life is just as carnal as your next door neighbor. We confront this issue from the pulpit every
time we have a communion service. But
honestly this issue ought to be confronted by each and every one of us on a
daily basis, quite apart from whether we are expected to show up at church on
that particular day of the week.
So those are
the components, or ingredients if you will, of an attitude of genuine
repentance. If your repentance lacks
those then it is not repentance the way God has defined it. But He’s not done. Just as someone who posts a recipe on the
Internet might spend a few moments describing the taste of the dish they are
promoting, God now proceeds to tell us just exactly why we should have this
mindset of repentance. What should our
motivation be? And now it really gets
good. Check out the remainder of verse
13: Now return to the Lord your God, for
He is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, abounding in lovingkindness
and relenting of evil. What an
incredibly powerful sentence of exaltation toward God!
He is a “gracious”
God. This means He shows favor to those
who don’t deserve it. And please
understand, although you may be penitent over your sin, just the fact that you
committed the sin in the first place is enough to qualify you for
annihilation. Romans 6:23 lets us know
that the wages, or paycheck, that you earn from sinning is nothing less than
death. It is only God’s matchless grace
that saves you from such a fate. Don’t
make the mistake of thinking that your repentance entitles you to anything from
God.
Not only is
He gracious but he is “compassionate”.
He cares for us and feels sorrow over our pitiable state, alternatively
enslaved to sin prior to salvation or shackled with the presence of indwelling
sin after salvation. When is the last
time one of your children deliberately, defiantly, and shamelessly broke one of
your house rules and you genuinely felt compassion for their miserable state of
having succumbed to temptation? Or are
you the type of parent that ruthlessly eschews mercy in favor of a rigid,
unyielding, and quite possibly unloving determination to see your rules upheld
at any cost? I ask this question so
pointedly because I am unfortunately describing my own tendencies, much to my
shame.
God also
says He is “slow to anger”. I think what
He is doing here is making a point of contrast or comparison with us. The phrase “slow to anger” implies a type of
wrath that is not entered into thoughtlessly or rashly. Rather, it is a carefully considered and
methodical fury that is applied in measured and controlled doses. Now it should go without saying that this
type of clarification should not even be necessary with the Lord. Of course He is not going to be characterized
by an unrighteous type of anger. But we
most definitely are characterized that way, probably almost exclusively. So I take this statement to be one of
contrast with us for the purpose of making a point. We should be genuinely repentant precisely
because God is a god of holy and righteous anger. He is not going to fly off the handle at the
drop of a hat over the stupid and repeated infractions we are guilty of.
That leads
right into the next attribute that Joel ascribes to the Lord. He is “abounding in loving-kindness”. This is a word in the Hebrew that really encapsulates
multiple ideas into one. It’s not just
love. It’s not just kindness. It’s a love that is characterized by kindness
and applied with faithful consistency that can be counted on. It’s the same love that God would display six
centuries later when He, at great personal cost, condemned His Son to horrific
and unthinkable torture and death for no other reason than to be benevolent to
a race of people who, with every fiber of their being, desired nothing less
than to spit in His face, spurn His advances, and utterly reject His influence
in their lives. It’s the kind of love
that overcomes such fierce opposition by remaining constant regardless of the
circumstances.
Finally, God
describes Himself through His prophet as being “relenting of evil”. This bears a moment of explanation. Is Joel saying that God is capable of evil
acts but that He is willing to relent from carrying them out? I thought God was incapable of evil. What’s going on here? The answer can be found by considering the
definition of the Hebrew word translated here as evil. It’s the word “ra” and it has a variety of
meanings: evil, distress, misery, injury, or calamity. So how do we know which one is appropriate
here? We turn to other Scriptures to see
if they shed any light on the question.
And indeed they do. Just a few
books away, Hosea 14:9 reveals that: the
ways of the Lord are right. Further
off in the New Testament, John describes God like this in 1st John
1:5: God is Light, and in Him there is
no darkness at all. John is using
the concept of light to represent good and darkness to act as a verbal
surrogate for evil. So we know from
these and many other passages that God is perfectly good rather than evil. Therefore we can conclude with confidence
that Joel is not using “ra” in the sense of evil, but rather distress, misery,
injury, or calamity. And I think any of
those four could apply here. In fact,
several of our modern English Bible translations use those words rather than
the one used here in the NASB, evil.
The
prophet is reminding us that God is willing to stay His hand of judgment and
not bring down the disaster upon our heads that our sins justifiably make us
worthy of.
In light of
these phenomenal characteristics of our God, Joel is saying “Look, I shouldn’t
have to convince you of the need to repent.
When you consider the wonder of who God is, how gracious He is, how
compassionate He is, how righteously He applies His burning anger, how loving
and kind and faithful He is, and how willing He is to stay His hand of
judgment, why in the world would you not want to repent?” This is a painfully obvious conclusion isn’t
it? It’s only our stubborn “sin-stupid”
brains that complicate the issue beyond what it ought to be.
The final
piece of this puzzle is found in verse 14, and it is my favorite bit: Who knows whether He will not turn and
relent and leave a blessing behind Him, even a grain offering and a drink
offering for the Lord your God? I
call this the “Nike principle”. I think
that does a bit of a disservice to the text, but I can’t help it. Every time I read it I think of the old Nike
slogan “Just do it!” Joel is
communicating the idea that he doesn’t know whether God will actually stay His
hand of judgment or not if we repent.
But whether He does or He doesn’t, the repentance is still on us to do.
My favorite
passage of Scripture to illustrate this is found in Daniel 3:16-18. The setting is Babylon. Daniel and many of the young nobles from
Judah have been taken into captivity.
Among them are Daniel’s friends Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah who have
been renamed by their captors as Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego. The Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar thought it
would be a good idea to have a giant golden statue constructed and force the
people to worship it on pain of death in a heated furnace if they refused. Daniel’s friends, being devout Jews and
committed to the Lord their God, chose to remain standing when the time came
rather than bending knee to this abomination.
Nebuchadnezzar predictably flips out over this and confronts them about
it. And it is their collective response
that sends shivers down my spine with the beauty of it: Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego replied to the king, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to give
you an answer concerning this matter. If
it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the furnace of
blazing fire; and He will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But even if He does not, let it be known to
you, O king, that we are not going to serve your gods or worship the golden
image that you have set up.”
Wow! What courage!
What bald-faced defiance in the face of certain death. What an unwavering commitment to doing what’s
right regardless of the consequences.
That is what makes this passage in Joel so powerful to me. It appeals to me as a demonstration of honor
and integrity. I like it because there’s
a certain “devil may care” attitude at work here, in the sense that the penitent
person doesn’t give a rip what problems Satan might trump up. God is in control and will take care of
business if and when He chooses. And,
with apologies to any female readers, this concept gets me fired up because to
me, it is a demonstration of true manliness.
A real man does what’s right no matter the cost. And I think that’s what Joel is really going
after here. At the end of the day, after
listing all the reasons why we should want to repent, he says that it doesn’t
matter what response God gives. He might
relent or He might not. He might restore
the fortunes of Judah after this terrible locust invasion so that they can
finally offer up grain and drink offerings to Him, or He might not. He might safeguard your job after you stand
up for your faith in opposition to governmental regulations, or He might
not. He might keep you from getting beat
up by the bully at school, or He might not.
He might save your marriage, or He might not. But it does not matter one single iota what
personal circumstances result from your genuine repentance. You just do it. Period.
End of issue.
In closing
out this essay I want to make one final point by underscoring the argument that
I began with. The teaching found in Joel
is of supreme and absolutely monumental significance for every person reading
this, whether you’re a Christian or not.
If you’re not a Christian, then understand that your eternal future
hangs in the balance of whether you come before the Lord in sorrow and
repentance over your sinfulness. You
have only one life to get this right in.
If you blow this opportunity and wind up dead tomorrow, that’s it. There are no second chances, no further
opportunities to pass “Go”, and no time to change your mind and get a
“do-over”. To put it bluntly, your goose
will be cooked.
If you are
already a Christian then consider the following. I think that most of us have messed up our
model of repentance as it pertains to daily Christian living. I am convinced that whether we would openly
acknowledge this or not, our concept of repentance as evidenced by our actions
would be something like this. Picture a
graph of your Christian life. What is
being measured is your level of repentance on a timeline, from conversion
through sanctification to eventual death or glorification, whichever occurs
first. I think that for most of us, the graph
would start out very high but then gradually taper off over time without ever
seeing a return to our “moment of conversion” levels.
I believe
this is so for two reasons. The first is
the evidence in my own heart and mind of unreliability, laziness, and
apathy. I think humans, steeped in sin
as we are, are wired from the womb to be complacent about the things we should
be passionate about and excited about the things we should be avoiding. In other words, I think we get everything
backwards, most of the time.
That is why
the New Testament authors preached so vigorously and consistently about the
need to remain vigilant. Paul to the
church at Corinth in 1st Corinthians 9:24-27 describes us as runners
training hard because we should be intending to in our race. In 2nd Timothy 1:6 he exhorts his
son in the faith to fan into flame the gift he has been given by God. James, in his epistle makes the astonishing
claim that faith without works is dead.
1st Peter 1:13 instructs us to prepare our minds, keep our
spirits sober, and fix our hope. And
Jesus in His parable of the ten virgins in Matthew 25:1-13 implores us to stay
alert and prepared for the coming of the Lord.
I could go on and on with this but I’m sure you get the point.
I think the
Bible teaches this way because God knows exactly just how undependable we
are. And I think this tendency plays
itself out in how we tend to view repentance as gradually less important over
time. This is completely backwards of how
we should be. I would agree that the
biblical model of salvation should begin with a massive measuring of repentance
like nothing ever seen before. But I
believe from that point the line should go up, not down. As we delve ever deeper into the word of God,
as the Spirit unveils the mind of the Lord in ever increasing measure to us, as
our personal body of Scripture authenticating experience builds behind us, our
capacity and passion for genuine repentance should climb to monumental
crescendos of presence within our hearts and minds. We should become more convicted over our own
sin as we become more like Christ, not less.
The former
concept of sanctifying repentance simply doesn’t make any sense at all in light
of Scripture. But unfortunately I fear
that our increasingly dominant evil culture appeals to our carnal flesh. We are numbed to apathy and lifelessness by
the overwhelming assault of ungodliness on our spiritual senses. And we make the critical error of sidelining
the only weapon we have or need in this battle; the Bible. And so we meander through a broken shell of
cultural or nominal Christianity, re-assuring ourselves that we’re just fine
thank you very much. All the while the
Holy Spirit of God is grieved over our blindness and hardness of heart. And in the due course of time, perhaps it
will be revealed that we were never authentic Disciples of Christ in the first
place, and that just as with the church in Laodicea the Lord Jesus will return,
find us wanting, and proceed to spew us out of His mouth.
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