In the first recorded teaching of Jesus in Mark’s Gospel, he says “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.” Mark 1:15 (ESV)
In Baptist life, repentance is usually connected with the salvation experience or backsliding. Simply put, you repent when you get saved, or when you “backslide” after you’ve been saved.Traditionally during revivals, we hope that backsliding church members will repent. Repentance, however, is bigger than just the salvation experience or the backslider’s rededication. …way bigger!
When Martin Luther began the Protestant Reformation in 1517 by nailing his 95 theses to the door of the Wittenberg Church for discussion, his first thesis was about repentance. Here’s my paraphrase of what Luther wrote: “For the Believer in Jesus Christ, all of life is repentance”.
In agreement with Luther, I think that repentance should be a regular discipline for the Christ follower, not an event only for salvation or revivals. The Scriptures tell us “God is at work in us” ; and, that we are being conformed to the image of God’s Son, Jesus. That means that God the Holy Spirit regularly shows the disciple of Jesus what needs to be done in his/her life; not just about salvation and sin, but about life itself. He constantly shows us where we need to “repent and believe”.
Repentance is about putting off old ways and putting on the ways of Jesus. Since our hearts and minds were corrupt prior to our new birth, the rest of life after conversion is regularly learning a new way to think and to live. Paul calls it “putting off the old man and putting on the new”. Repenting is not just saying “I am sorry for my sin”; it is saying “Lord Jesus, thank You for showing me a better way to live or think or act or believe. Now, out of my love for You, I want to live as You lived. Out of my gratitude for what You did for me on the cross, I want to trust Your every teaching and replace my ways with Your ways.” We repent because we trust Him and know that He loves us and wants the best for us.
We are talking about a way of life that involves repenting and replacing old values with the values of Jesus. It is repenting and replacing the ways of the world with the ways of the Kingdom. It is repenting and replacing the sins of the self with the godly practices of the Savior. Indeed all of life is a repenting, because God the Spirit is always working is us at the pace He chooses to replace the ways of the world, the flesh, and the devil with the ways of the Lord Jesus. When He convicts us of sin, He is calling us to be changed, to repent of those things that are destructive to God’s people, and to embrace the things that build the saint and the Kingdom.
I think we who follow Jesus must rethink repentance. It is not some painful and terrible practice to be avoided. It is the loving God pointing out ways that are destructive to us, to others, and to the Kingdom. It is not an “every now and then” religious event, but rather an ongoing, faithful work of the Spirit of God living in us. And because God will continue His work in us until the day of Christ, all of life for the Believer will involve repentance. It will not be a scheduled event, but a regular practice of the growing disciple. Watch for it. Hope for it. And when He draws you to repent, say “Yes, Lord. Thank you for loving me”.
Just thinking ….
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