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Repentance
I John 1:8-10 As far back as anyone knows, our attempt to
educate our children has been summarized by referring to the basic and
introductory knowledge they need to learn as the three “R’s”.
It is indicative of the education system of America that the actual first
letter of the three “R’s” is not “R” at all but
“W” “A” and “R” which spell WAR!
That is a psychological and philosophical “war” for the minds of our
children that takes place every day in the public schools across our land. In the next several issues of the Trumpeter I
would like to deal with the three “R’s” also. My three are genuine
“R’s”! Repentance,
Revival and
Reward. They are logically connected in
that Repentance
leads to Revival
and revival leads to Reward.
Our first thoughts about repentance will probably take
us back to that first recognition of the nature of our own personal sin.
Whenever we initially heard the Gospel or at least began to believe it, we were
prompted by the Spirit of God in the realm of conviction. We were convicted of
our sins, and immediately began to feel a sense of remorse and sorrow as we
learn about the price Jesus paid in order to deliver us from the curse and to
bring us fully cleansed to take our place in the Kingdom of God. But hopefully there is also an ongoing sense of guilt
and sorrow every time we take account of our walk with the Lord and find that we
are not all that we should be in His sight. This condition requires the very
same action that we took the first time we came for deliverance from sin. That
action is to repent. Let us never be so self righteous and blind that we fail to
see our own failures in this area, and neglect to take remedial action daily
according to the Scriptures quoted at the head of this article. I would like to make a
dramatic statement right off the bat, and I want it to burn into your memory for
frequent recall.
“Without
repentance, there is no forgiveness!” This is true whether we are speaking of forgiveness from
God or our fellow Man. Why is this so? It is so because the Lord insists that
sin be genuinely dealt with. Man must comprehend that sin is unutterably heinous
to God, that the divine law is perfect and inexorable, and that he himself comes
short and falls below the requirements of a holy God. He not only wants us to
know that He is holy and that we are sinners, but also that this sin has created
a schism between man and God so complete that eternal fellowship in His presence
is precluded. Therefore, a knowledge of sin without a corresponding desire to
change our way and follow Him is like dying of thirst at the very source of a
spring of living water. By far the most common Greek word translated
“repent” is the noun
METANOIA (Strong’s
# 3341) and its verb equivalent. It is actually a compound word using the
preposition META-“after” joined with NOUS-“mind”.
The result is that METANOIA carries the dual
idea of turning from sin and toward
God. It is a change of mind that results in a change of direction. One of the clearest illustrations of repentance is found
in the parable of the prodigal son, often spoken of as the parable of the
“Lost Son”. Turn in your Bible to Luke 15
with me (Go ahead, get your Bible,
I’ll wait). In order to grasp the fundamental lesson that our Lord
is teaching in this chapter, we need to realize that all three parables relate
to something “Lost”. Jesus
wants to show the Pharisees that they are acting hypocritically in that they are
happy to recover temporal things that they have lost, but will not allow God the
same pleasure concerning something infinitely more important than animals or
money. So we may say that the first two parables are preliminary. They lay the
groundwork for the eternal teaching of the third. The important word in both
parables is “repentance”. It is not applied directly to the prodigal son,
but is understood because the theme is already establish in verses 7 and 10
which speak of the joy in heaven and in the presence of angels of God over one
sinner that repents, more than over those that need no repentance. So ultimately, all three parables actually have as their
theme the idea of “repentance”, and the “lost” idea becomes secondary or
even tertiary. The sheep in the first parable have nothing to do with the number
of animals one owns, and the lost one represents a repentant sinner. The coins
in the second parable have nothing to do with the wealth of the woman, but that
lost coin represents someone that repents. The son in the third parable then is
not so much about a prodigal son, or about a lost son, as it is about a son
that repents! It is also a parable about at least four people, the loving
father, the repentant son, the prodigal older brother … and you! Keep in mind that the reason for giving the parable in the first place was because the Pharisees and Scribes were upset that Jesus was ministering to Publicans and sinners. They were wondering why the Lord would waste time on these unworthy creatures? Jesus wants these hypocrites to see the folly of their way. When a sinner repents, God the Father is happy! When a sinner repents, the Angels in heaven are happy! When a sinner repents, why are the Pharisees and Scribes unhappy? I am sure you get the picture that Jesus wants us to
grasp. It is that we in the Church should be ecstatic when someone who is caught
up in deadly sin repents and breaks free to return to the Father.
It is also that we should always include the act of repentance whenever
we preach the Gospel or encourage the backslider. There is one more side to this problem of repentance
that is not always easily understood. It comes into play when Christians sin
against one another. Too often we are taught that forgiveness is to be granted
unconditionally. If a brother or sister sins against us, we are told, just
forgive them. Is this an accurate interpretation of how it is to work? Now I do
not deny that when an unbeliever sins
against us we should forgive unconditionally (Luke
23:34, Acts 7:60). But when our brothers and sisters are involved, a
pivotal passage for me is Luke 17:3,4 where
Jesus says: Take
heed to yourselves: If thy brother trespass against thee, rebuke him; and if
he repent, forgive him. And if he trespass against thee seven times in a
day, and seven times in a day turn again to thee, saying, I repent; thou
shalt forgive him. Before I tell you why this verse is so important, let me
clarify two words in the text. The word “trespass” is the Greek word HAMARTIA,
the general word for “sin”, and the word “repent” is METANOIA
(see above). We are talking here
about sin, not about times when you take offence at something someone says or
does, but which is not sin. Many times, when we take offence, the only thing to
do is to get over it, because love thinks no evil. (I
Cor. 13:5). But why rebuke? And why look for repentance? It is
because the one who sinned needs these two things! It is not the one who is
sinned against that needs it, but the one who sinned! If I sin against you, and
you just stay off by yourself and declare me forgiven without confronting me
about the sin, you are not really helping me. Without repentance, there is no forgiveness.
That is why James 5:19,20 says: Brethren, if any of you do err from the truth, and one convert him; Let him know, that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins. (cf. Gal. 6:1) Let us take another look at how important repentance is
in our evangelistic outreach and in our everyday fellowship with the saints.
How seldom do you hear the word mentioned? Let us be faithful to the lost
sheep and instruct them, not only with the fact that Jesus is the Savior, but
also that He requires repentance concerning sin. Let us be faithful to one
another and be willing to rebuke our brother in order to effectively cleanse the
sin through repentance. Let us also not neglect to repent before God each night
when we are alone with Him before retiring and sin is brought to our attention. At the risk of repetition: Without repentance, there is no forgiveness of sin. Hayden |