Tag Archives: lifestyle

WHAT IS REPENTANCE?

Christian life, ,

I used to think that repentance was about those crisis moments when I came face-to-face with the bad things I had said and done. I was ever so sorry and cried and pleaded with God to forgive me. I felt much better after I had got my sin off my chest, and then carried on with my life until the next episode of “repentance”. Believe me, I had many of those crisis moments. However, that isn’t the Bible’s meaning of repentance.

Repentance may involve those times of tears and regret that but the Bible’s meaning of repentance is much more than periodically acknowledging and feeling sorry for our sin.

Repentance has has two parts to it. The Old Testament meaning comes from the Hebrew word “shuv” which means “return”. You were once walking on the path of God’s Word, i.e., living in obedience to God’s instructions, but you have wandered off the path into the wilderness of sin and unbelief. Return to the way of truth lest you be lost and die in the wilderness where there are no landmarks to show you the way to God, and no food and water to sustain you.

The second meaning of repentance in the New Testament is the Greek word “metanoia” which means “change your mind”. We sin because we are deceived. We believe the lies that the world, the flesh, and the devil sow into our minds, lies like… sin is pleasurable; God won’t notice; God understands; God won’t mind this time; I won’t do it again; it’s only a small thing… and, and, and.

However, sin comes from an attitude – rebellion. “I want to do it! I’m going to do it! I will do it!” and, worst of all, “I’ll do what I want to do, and then ask God for forgiveness!!”

Repentance starts with a different attitude towards sin…changing our mind, first of all about God and His attitude towards sin. God hates sin, everything we say, do, and think, that contradicts who He is – holy, righteous, pure, and utterly committed to be who He is, the I AM.

We can only change our minds about God and His attitude to our sin when we understand that, as His creation, we are accountable to Him for our thoughts, words and actions. We WILL give an account of our sin, unless we repent, which includes the awareness of God’s attitude to sin, and receive the forgiveness Jesus paid for with His blood. We can only overcome our desire to sin by trusting the Holy Spirit to provide the power to fulfil our resolve.

Secondly, because all our words and actions flow from the way we think, we need to understand ourselves. Even as new creatures, born from above by God’s Spirit, we still have a sin-nature that produces ungodly desires.

‭James‬ ‭1:14‭-‬15‬ ‭NLT‬
[14] “Temptation comes from our own desires, which entice us and drag us away. [15] These desires give birth to sinful actions. And when sin is allowed to grow, it gives birth to death.”

Through God’s Spirit in us, we are instructed to kill those ungodly desires by following the leading of the Spirit instead of giving in to the desires of the flesh.

Then, thirdly, we are to think differently about God’s Word. The Bible is far more than a book about God and people. Empowered by its author, the Holy Spirit, it transforms our minds if we believe what it teaches.

‭2 Timothy‬ ‭3:16‬ ‭NLT‬
[16] “All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right.”

So, repentance, changing our minds and returning to God’s way, is not only an event but also a lifestyle. You see, we developed some strange beliefs about God, ourselves, and how God and we relate, during our growing up years. We were influenced to think wrong thoughts from the ungodly nature we were born with…

‭Romans‬ ‭5:10‬ ‭NLT‬
[10] “For since our friendship with God was restored by the death of his Son while we were still his enemies, we will certainly be saved through the life of his Son.”

… as well as from the people in the world around us.

As we journey with Jesus from the moment of our new birth, we need to change the way we think about Him and us, and the way we react in life.

Paul explains it like this…

‭Romans‬ ‭12:2‬ ‭NLT‬
[2] “Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.”

How can we change the way we think so that we avoid sinning against the Lord?

‭Psalms‬ ‭119:11‬ ‭NIV‬
[11] I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.

If we continue to change our way of thinking by paying attention to God’s Word, putting Jesus in the centre of our lives and being accountable to Him all the time, the events that call for repentance will slowly decrease in our lives.

Now that’s a deal worth considering!

Forgiveness is a Lifestyle

Christian Life, , ,

FORGIVENESS IS A LIFESTYLE

“‘Be alert. If you see your friend going wrong, correct him. If he responds, forgive him. Even if it’s personal against you and repeated seven times in a day. and seven times comes back to you and says, ‘I’m sorry. I won’t do it again,’ forgive him.'” Luke 17:3-4 (The Message).

What Jesus is advocating here is not reluctant and sporadic forgiveness but a generous and open-hearted attitude to people who offend us as a reflection of the Father’s attitude towards us in spite of the way we behave towards Him.

Forgiveness is the foundation of our relationship with God, and His forgiveness stands securely on what Jesus did on the cross. He paid the debt of all the sin of all people for all time when He gave up His life as a sin offering for us.

When we sin against another person, we sin against God. David understood this. He had Bathsheba’s husband, Uriah, killed in battle to justify his lust and adultery but, when his sin was exposed, he cried out to God, “‘Against you, you only have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight so that you are proved right when you speak and justified when you judge.'” Psalm 51:4 (NIV).

Sin incurs an unpayable debt and only because of God’s mercy, made available to us through Jesus, can He cancel our sin and clear our record of guilt. Because the blood of Jesus has washed us clean of sin for all time, there is nothing that can separate us from His love.

However, God requires a reciprocal attitude from us. Since He has already forgiven the sin of those who sin against us, we have no right to hold them guilty. To do so is to act illegally because we cannot demand payment for what had already been paid for. If we refuse to forgive another, we automatically cancel God’s forgiveness of us. Now that is a scary thought! That means that we will experience separation from God and have to bear our own guilt.

Not to forgive our fellow man for the paltry things he does against us is to misunderstand the greatness of the debt we incurred against God and the enormity of His mercy that provided a way of forgiveness at the cost of His own Son’s life. Because we tend to focus on what the other person has done to us rather than on what we did to God, we hold on to our offences instead of letting them go because we can.

But there is something deeper to this issue of forgiveness. God forgave us through the death of Jesus to restore the unity between Himself and us because the entire universe can only function properly as a unit. When the relationships between humans remain fractured through offenses and forgiveness, the whole of life unravels, leaving in its wake chaos and destruction.

Forgiveness is God’s way of restoring unity with Himself and unity between people. When we forgive and reconcile, we contribute to the healing of our world. When we refuse to forgive, we fail to co-operate with God in His work of restoring everything to its original purpose of reflecting Him in the universe. We add to the destruction of our world.

Since God has already cleared the debt of the one who sins against us, all that is required of us is to look the guilty person in the eyes and declare, “You owe me nothing.” It’s not about making excuses for their failure. It’s about setting them free from their debt and restoring the unity that expresses who God is. And that is not only an act but a lifestyle.