For this second round of blog posts from your Grow Ministry Team, I have asked everyone to share one of the top spiritual principles that the Spirit has emblazoned on their heart … and I’ll start:
Do you find it puzzling that we are taught to repent when clearly the Bible teaches us that our sin has been removed as far as the east is from the west (Psalm 103:12), and that there is no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1)? What am I now repenting of as a Christian if my sin has already been once-and-for-all dealt with at the cross? I needed help with this, perhaps I can help you too.
Repentance is a change of mind, or as some have described it as a complete 180-degree turn-around. I was going this direction toward sin, and now I have stopped, turned around, and am headed the opposite direction toward Christ. We do that once … at the point of our conversion. So, we must acknowledge then, that every other “times of repentance” are something a bit different than our initial “turning from sin and to Christ”.
Sin is punished in only one of two places - At the cross for all who have trusted Christ, or in hell for all who have rejected Christ. Therefore, God does not punish His children for their sin … period, full stop. Our Heavenly Father has already removed the barrier of sin and death that stood between us and Him. Christ forever dealt a deathblow to sin and separation. We are His, and He is ours … forever!
But we still sin. We still chase after things other than God to find pleasure. Thankfully, the Spirit brings us to conviction over that sin, and we … repent! But what are we doing and why are we doing it?
As Disciples of Christ, this is how we are to think about repentance …
(1) We are acknowledging that we still need the mercy and grace of Christ as much today to save us from our sin as we did the first time we turned to Him. That means, our acts of repentance as Christians are acts of rehearsing the saving power of Jesus in our lives. We are not practicing penance.
(2) We are choosing to turn, yet again, from false objects of our worship and lift our eyes to the One alone who is worthy of our worship and in whom all our delight is found. That means, our acts of repentance as Christians should produce an ever-deepening sorrow for sin and ever-growing hatred for sin. We are not condemned for our sin but developing a deeper hatred for sin.
(3) We are committed to walking in brokenness (Psalm 51), so that nothing will inhibit our intimacy with Jesus, steal our joy, or trick us into throwing our affections into lesser things. That means, our acts of repentance are simply the fruits of our obedience and the evidence that we love Christ more than we love our sin. We are walking a path of repentance that leads to joy!
I want joy! Therefore, I worship my Savior through a lifestyle of repentance that seeks to find my delight in Christ alone, and flees the lesser pleasures.
Pastor Mark Spansel