Today, if you look around churches, many of the mainstream Christian church preaching is centred around Blessing. Whereas Jesus did not preach to us to build mega churches or get more people to Church or Convert people to Christianity or give us more to be blessed. His preaching is centred only on Repentance
So, what is this Repentance? I am sharing what God taught me as part of my Bible study
Don’t think this repentance is applicable only to Christians, its free for anyone who seek Christ and the repentance in Christ is gift that you receive from Christ Jesus.
So is repentance something we must do before we can come to God? It’s a “YES and NO” answer
- Repentance does not describe something we must do before we come to God
- It describes what coming to God is like
Maybe you are confused with the above statement, to understand this better Imagine if you are asked to travel from Chennai to Mumbai. No one needs to tell you “Leave Chennai and Come to Mumbai”. To come to Mumbai is to leave Chennai, and if you have not left Chennai, you certainly have not come to Mumbai. Same way we cannot come to the Kingdom of heaven unless we leave our Sin. Repentance is an action to get to the Kingdom of heaven.
The call to repentance is important and must not be neglected. It is entirely accurate to say that it is the first word of the gospel.
Repent was the first word of John the Baptist’s gospel (Matthew 3:1-2)
Repent was the first word of Jesus’ gospel (Matthew 4:17 and Mark 1:14-15).
Repent was the first word in the preaching ministry of the twelve disciples (Mark 6:12).
Repent was the first word in the preaching instructions Jesus gave to His disciples after His resurrection (Luke 24:46-47).
Repent was the first word of exhortation in the first Christian sermon (Acts 2:38).
Repent was the first word in the mouth of the Apostle Paul through his ministry (Acts 26:19-20).
John’s Preaching of Repentance
'In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” ' Matthew 3:1-2
John’s message was a call to repentance. Some people think that repentance is mostly about feelings, especially feeling sorry for your sin. It is wonderful to feel sorry about your sin, but repent is not a “feelings” word. It is an actionword. John told his listeners to make a change of the mind, not merely to feel sorry for what they had done. Repentance speaks of a change of direction, not a sorrow in the heart.
Warning to Flee
If you read further in Matthew 3, when he saw the Pharisees and Sadducees, these are people who have mastered the law and follow the law, to these people John says, “flee from the coming wrath?”
'But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to where he was baptizing, he said to them: “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? ' Matthew 3:7
We have an opportunity to understand this better than the Pharisees and Sadducees, we all have our Bibles printed in various languages, that explains what the “wrath of God is” and “what we should flee from”. It makes our generation more accountable than the pharisees, as we cannot say we did not know about this during the judgment day (“Wrath of God”).
So, what is this warning that John refers “Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?”
This wrath is the wrath of God.
This wrath is fair and well deserved.
This wrath is often ignored or disregarded because it is not immediate; it is going to come
This wrath is not any less certain just because it is delayed and is going to come.
This wrath is terrible when it comes because it is God’s wrath.
This wrath cannot be stood against; the only way to survive is to successfully flee from it.
So, what are we supposed to flee?
To flee implies immediate action.
To flee implies swift action.
To flee implies straight movement with no diversions.
Fleeing gives birth to Actions.
Actions of Repentance
'Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. ' Matthew 3:8
Once you flee you must produce fruit to keeping with the action of repentance.
1. Faith in Christ - Believe that Christ is the only source thru which you can get your sins washed
2. Awareness of sin exists in your life - This type of awareness of sin is the foundation for most revivals and awakenings. Many times, Satan deceives us to say we don’t have sin and we are clean in our own eyes. Only Jesus can open our eyes to show the Sins of our life. Many times, we live by human standards to compare other people and say we don’t have Sin. Compare yourself against Jesus to see what Sins are in your life. Satan will keep telling you, he is God how can you compare him? this is the deception trick he tries. Never settle for that.
3. Baptised in Christ - Christian baptism is like John’s in the sense that it demonstrates repentance, but it is also more. It is being baptized into Christ, that is, into His death and resurrection (Romans 6:3)
4. Confessing their sins - This was another important aspect in repentance action, confessing to Jesus on your sin’s and telling him what you did on your own is key, don’t think that God does not know your Sin. He knows everything. The act of repentance is self-confession of your Sin / Guilt to Jesus, once you do that you receive his Mercy and Grace to protect you from doing this sin again and doing a U turn away from your old life.
“The ‘Confessing their sins‘ which went with baptism in the Jordan gave it its meaning. Apart from the acknowledgement of guilt, it would have been a mere bathing of the person without spiritual significance.” (Spurgeon)
5. Forgiveness of Sin - Jesus died for our sins, his death is to provide value to our life of repentance and turn to his righteousness.
The faith that we have in Jesus will gives us the assurance that he has forgiven our sins. Does not matter what your Sin may be, there is no definition in Bible as ‘Small Sin ‘or ‘Big Sin’. Sin is measured in one standard. If you murder it’s a Sin, if you tell a lie, it’s a Sin. Both are measured by the same standards. But we have an assurance thru Jesus that our sins are forgiven.
6. Gods’ peace - How do you know that you have repented, your repentance is not just in words or actions, it’s the peace of God that guards you from the condemning your heart. It’s the Peace of God that will not trouble you or torment you for the Sin you have committed in past. God’s peace will make you stay away from that past life and this peace will come to you only thru the Holy Spirit.
7. Jesus helps us to fight the sins - Satan is a devouring lion constantly looking out to take us back to the old life that’s filled with Sin. If you give room for something of your past, he will take you back twice as bad than where you have been earlier to make it difficult to come back to Jesus.
So, walk with Jesus daily, he is your guard against the sins of your life, the name Jesus can be the fortress of our life, Jesus can take us to righteous path
Satan will try many tricks to get you back to old life, but don’t fall to the trap, he will bring memories of past to get there but don’t give up. Pray to God to give you strength to fight back as you walk daily. He is more powerful that Satan as he conquered death.
Repentance actions are recorded in the book of life, think of this like a web cam recording all your activities in world since your birth to death. When you say you repent to Jesus and start doing these actions the sins are erased from the web cam to make white spaces. So that we are protected from the Wrath of God - judgement day.
Impact on Actions of Repentance
John describes the effects of not following the actions of Repentance
'The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire. ' Matthew 3:10
The tree that does not produce the good fruit will be cut down and thrown to Fire
Revelation explains this even better
'And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what they had done. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death. Anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire.'Revelation 20:12-15
All of them standing before God to be judged – “dead, great and small, standing before the throne”
Your action of repentance is opened and judged – “Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books.”
Throwing to Fire as described in Matt 3:10 and Rev 20:15 – “each person was judged according to what they had done. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire”
Cast into the lake of fire... they will be tormented day and night forever and ever
'And the devil, who deceived them, was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown. They will be tormented day and night for ever and ever. 'Revelation 20:10
We have a chance to act now, repent and turn to God and show our actions to him. It’s never too late to turn back to God. Examine your ways and repent as John describes.
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