Without repentance, the Gift of Christ does not matter. Why is that? The dictionary defines repentance as feeling sorrow for having done wrong. The Bible supports this meaning in James 4:9-10 and 2 Peter 3:9. They read:
Grieve, mourn, and wail. Change your laughter to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.
The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.
Repentance means to not laugh, but to recognize what we've done, and that is sin. And everyone from the dawn of time till now, and for the rest of time has sinned except for Jesus Christ. For Proverbs 20:9 says:
Who can say, "I have kept my heart pure; I am clean and without sin"?
And because we all have sinned we must all repent. By mourning for our lives that we have put to death. By humbling ourselves before the Lord, through our mourning, we ask Him to forgive us for our sins by accepting Jesus into our hearts. But, if we are forgiven anyways, why do we have to repent? Because only through repentance can we receive the Gift. You can not be forgiven if you do not say you're sorry first. You must recognize that you have sentenced yourself to death first. That is why the verse from 2 Peter says that He is patient and wants everyone to come to repentance. Because only through repentance can we be forgiven.
But there is a mistake we all make. It is the thought that if we repent once when we accept Jesus into our hearts, we don't have to do it again. We soon learn that this is not the case. After a while we begin to sin repeatedly, and at this point God flips our world upside down to show us what we're doing. And after we see it, we repent and beg for forgiveness. However, this is the wrong way to live. The Israelites did this repeatedly. Judges 2:16-23 says:
Then the Lord raised up judges, who saved them out of the hands of these raiders. Yet they would not listen to their judges but prostituted themselves to other gods and worshiped them. Unlike their fathers, they quickly turned from the way in which their fathers had walked, the way of obedience to the Lord's commands. Whenever the Lord raised up a judge for them, he was with the judge and saved them out of the hands of their enemies as long as the judge lived; for the Lord had compassion on them as they groaned under those who oppressed and afflicted them. But when the judge died, the people returned to ways even more corrupt than those of their fathers, following other gods and serving and worshiping them. They refused to give up their evil practices and stubborn ways.
Therefore the Lord was very angry with Israel and said, "Because this nation has violated the covenant that I laid down for their forefathers and has not listened to me, I will no longer drive out before them any of the nations Joshua left when he died. I will use them to test Israel and see whether they will keep the way of the Lord and walk in it as their forefathers did." The Lord had allowed those nations to remain; he did not drive them out at once by giving them into the hands of Joshua.
This was right after the death of Joshua, who had led the Israelites. But after all the people who followed closely the ways of God had died, the new more sinful generation took over. They did not repent, and because of it, they were oppressed by the other nations. And then they began to groan and asked God for deliverance from their bondage, to forgive them. So God sent a Judge to deliver them. But after the judge died they turned to worse way than before. The Israelites repeated this 12 times with 12 judges.
The time of Joshua can represent the time we accept Jesus into our hearts, and the amount of time we act like a Christian should. The moments when the Israelite start to do wrong and get put into bondage represent when we commit sin over and over, and when God flips our world because of it. The time of the judge is the time we repent and act like we should again. However, just like the Israelites, we repeat the pattern over and over again. Way more times than the Israelites.
This is the wrong way to repent, and to live. How then should we live and repent? For this we look to Paul as our example. Before I explain we must observe Acts 22:4 and 1 Timothy 1:12-17. They say:
I persecuted the followers of this Way to their death, arresting both men and women and throwing them into prison.
I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has given me strength, that he considered me faithful, appointing me to his service. Even though I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man, I was shown mercy because I acted in ignorance and unbelief. The grace of our Lord was poured out on me abundently, along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.
Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners-of whom I am the worst. But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his unlimited patience as an example for those who would believe on him and recieve eternal life. Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen
Paul knew what he did, and he repented for his sins every moment of his Christian life. From speaking in public, to a letter, to his speaking with God. He humbled himself before God every moment because he knew just what the gift God gave him was. Forgiveness. Paul called himself the worst of sinners. He killed people of our same faith. If we lived in that time, and Paul was in front of usas a persecutor, he would have arrested or killed us on the spot. He did this to many Christians. And because of it, he repented all his life after Jesus came into his heart and he was forgiven. But do not think that he was the worst for killing Christians, for all wages of sin is death. You and I are just as deserving of the fate Paul would have recieved if he had not turned to Christ Jesus. He repented for his sins of past and present. Because of his constant repentance, he kept himself "in-check". He lived a righteous life of serving God, and God blessed him.
We must take the example of Paul and repent at all times. Constantly asking God for forgiveness for our sins. More than everytime He flips our world, more than weekly, more than daily. No we must do it constantly! Every chance we get we must mourn for our souls and beg God for forgiveness. And we can trust that God will forgive us for our sins. For God will never leave us. Job 16:20-21 says:
My intercessor is my friend as my eyes pour out tears to God; on behalf of a man he pleads with God as a man pleads for his friend.
Your friends of this world, not just the people but your family and the things that are in this world that you have trusted in, may scourn you; but God is your eternal friend who accepts you with open arms and forgives you. He will listen to your cries, and catch your tears. Why then would you turn to the world and commit sin? Instead, turn to God and repent. For when you repent, God forgives you and lifts the burden the sin creates off of your shoulders.
Repentance is recognizing what we have done by humbling ourselves in front of and apologizing to God, and asking Him to forgive our sins. And because we know that God forgives us every time, we take joy in this forgiveness. For joy comes from knowing that we have a place in Heaven after death. But we cannot recieve that place in Heaven if we have not repented and asked for the forgiveness God offers first. So when you repent and have that joy, no matter who you are, you feel the want to serve God and live a righteous life. Only through repentance can we truly accept God's Gift of freedom from our sin, and go to Heaven to spend an etenitly with Him.
Thank You For Reading
Long Live Jesus Christ
Amen
No comments:
Post a Comment