Tag Archives: Repentance

A Character Built on Repentance

Then David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.” And Nathan said to David, “The Lord also has taken away your sin; you shall not die.”
– 2 Samuel 12:13

David was a man of contrasts. As a young man he was zealous for God’s glory (1 Sam. 17); refused to lift his hand against God’s anointed (1 Sam. 24; 26); and displays great compassion (2 Sam. 9).  But David also committed serious sins. He committed adultery with Bathsheba (2 Sam. 11); conspired to have Bathsheba’s husband killed (2 Sam. 11); tempted God through a census (2 Sam. 24); and was a poor father who refused to deal with the sin of his children (2 Sam. 13).  So, why does the Bible call David a man after God’s own heart (Acts 13:22) even though he had such a flawed, sinful character?  Perhaps it is because David was tenderhearted when confronted over his sin.  When Nathan the prophet confronted David for his sins of adultery with Bathsheba, and the murder of her husband, David’s response was one of confession and repentance.  Unlike his predecessor, Saul, David did not try to justify his actions (c.f. 1 Sam. 15).  David understood his sin, readily confessed it, and turned from it.  That is a sign of a regenerate heart. 

Radical Consequences and a Radical Transformation

In his book Better Than The Beginning (2013, Reformed Baptist Academic Press), Richard Barcellos writes:

Man was created to reflect who God is and what He does more than any other aspect of God’s creation.  Man, and man alone, was created in the image of God.  That is why Adam’s sin, Adam’s failure to be a good image of God, has such radical consequences.

What are the “radical consequences” that Barcellos mentions?  In Romans 5:12 we read:

Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned —

Before Adam sinned death was something that the human race had never experienced.  It remained a promised consequence if sin were to enter the world.

Genesis 2:16-17 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you shall surely die.”

Adam disobeyed God’s command.  God, being true to His word, pronounced judgment – not just on Adam, but on the all of Adam’s posterity.

Genesis 3:17-19 Then to Adam He said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat from it’; Cursed is the ground because of you; In toil you shall eat of it All the days of your life.  Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you; And you shall eat the plants of the field; By the sweat of your face You shall eat bread, Till you return to the ground, Because from it you were taken; For you are dust, And to dust you shall return.”

Adam was a unique creation.  He is the only human being never to be born of a woman.  He was never an infant or child.  He was created with a fully developed intellectual capacity.  Because his mind was free from sin at his creation, Adam was not saddled with the war that is constantly waging in our members – the struggle between obedience and sin.  It can be said that Adam was the most perfect of God’s creation.  Adam was made Imago Dei, in the image of God.  No other aspect of God’s creation was made in His image.  In a real sense Adam was our fair and just representative.  He was acting on behalf of the human race; either through his obedience or disobedience.  When Adam sinned he corrupted the Imago Dei, not just for himself, but for all of future humanity (c.f. Rom. 5:12).  Radical consequences indeed.

Thankfully, God provided the means by which the radical consequences of Adam’s sin could be reversed.

1 Corinthians 15:45 So also it is written, “The first man, Adam, became a living soul.”  The last Adam became a life-giving spirit.

The last Adam is the Lord Jesus Christ.  Because Jesus was born sinless, He was able to keep God’s commandments – His law – perfectly.  Whereas the first Adam simply became a living soul (God gave Adam physical life), the last Adam, Jesus, became a life-giving spirit.  That “life-giving” is nothing less than the gift of eternal life, given to all who repent of their sins and place their faith in Jesus Christ.

No matter what type of mess your life has become because of sin, it is not beyond the transforming power of Jesus Christ.  Jesus can forgive you sins and bring you into a right relationship with God by repenting (turning from) of your sins and placing your faith wholly in Him.  Instead of radical consequences, the message of the Gospel offers radical forgiveness and transformation.

The Sinners Prayer

I attended a popular bible college that was steeped in the Finney tradition of evangelism.  During the invitation after a Gospel presentation, individuals were asked to pray a prayer like this, “Lord Jesus, I believe I’m a sinner. I believe Christ died on the cross for my sins.  Please come into my heart and save me, for Jesus sake.  Amen.”  I would like to compare that still popular method of evangelism with how the Puritans viewed repentance and faith.  The following prayer is taken from the book “Valley of Vision”, a compilation of Puritan prayers.

O Lord,

Thou knowest my great unfitness for service,
my present deadness,
my inability to do anything for thy glory,
my distressing coldness of heart.

I am weak, ignorant, unprofitable,
and loathe and abhor myself. I am at a loss to know what thou wouldest
have me do,
for I feel amazingly deserted by thee,
and sense they presence so little;
Thou makest me possess the sins of my youth,
so that I feel all sin,
I cannot think or act but every motion is sin.

Return again with showers of converting grace to a poor gospel-abusing sinner.
Help my soul to breathe after holiness.
after a constant devotedness to thee,
after growth in grace more abundantly every day.

O Lord, I am lost in the pursuit of this blessedness,
And am ready to sink because I fall short of my desire;
Help me to hold out a little longer,
Until the happy hour of deliverance comes,
for I cannot lift my soul to thee
if thou of thy goodness bring me not nigh.
Help me to be different, watchful, tender, lest I offend my blessed Friend
in thought and behavior;
I confide in thee and lean upon thee,
and need thee at all times to assist and lead me.

O that all my distresses and apprehensions
Might prove but Christ’s school
to make me fit for greater service
by teaching me the great lesson of humility.

The Puritan who wrote this prayer understood his brokenness and spiritually bankrupt state. His only appeal, his desperate appeal, was for God’s grace, through Christ. How different than what passes for a prayer of repentance and forgiveness in the church today.

Whiter than Snow

Snowscape

The Great Blizzard of 2009 has started. As I sit here at my desk, I am looking out the window. The landscape is covered with a thick blanket of white snow. It looks beautiful. The sea of white makes it look almost pure; at least until it turns to brown mush a few days later. It’s like that in our lives, isn’t it? We recognize that we’ve made a mess of our lives, and we often try to turn over that new leaf in order to make things right. Some of us try really hard, and it seems as though we’ve changed. Our lives almost seem like that sea of white from a fresh blanket of snow. But what happens to that snow a few days later? Car, trucks, and people turn it brown. Rising temperatures melt the snow and turn it to an unsightly mush. In our lives that mush is caused by sin, and we’re all guilty of it. Here is what the bible says about sin:

Romans 3:23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

Sin is anything that displeases God; anything that is contrary to God’s law. We’ve all heard of the Ten Commandments. They contain God’s moral law. In simple terms, right from wrong. Consider just four of these commandments that are found in Exodus 20:

You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor

False witness is term to describe lying. Lying is a serious sin. What do we call a person who lies? We call them a liar. About heaven the Apostle John wrote:

Revelation 21:27 and nothing unclean and no one who practices abomination and lying, shall ever come into it, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.

Therefore, no liar will be able to enter heaven.

You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain

Have you ever used the word “damn” in conjunction with God’s name, or swore by His name and then did not fulfill that vow? Taking the name of God in vain is called blasphemy. We call people who do so blasphemers.

You shall not steal

Have you ever taken anything that hasn’t belong to you? Anything? It doesn’t matter how big or how small the items is, we call that stealing. What do we call people who steal? We call them a thief.

You shall not commit adultery

Most of us have broken the first three commandments I listed, but we may feel a bit justified on this one. Most of us have never actually committed adultery. What I mean is that we’ve not actually done the deed. But Jesus said:

Matthew 5:27-28 27 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery’; 28 but I say to you, that everyone who looks on a woman to lust for her has committed adultery with her already in his heart.”

Based on the standard of the bible, if we’ve ever looked at another person and had a lustful thought we are guilty of adultery.

So, according to the bible, you and I are lying, blaspheming, stealing, adulterers.

If God judges you based on the Ten Commandments would you be guilty or innocent? If you answered truthfully you have said, “guilty.” That guilt is because of the sins we have committed. Sin separates us from God. No matter how we try to change our lives, no matter how much snow falls, God sees our sin, and that sin separates us from Him. The prophet Isaiah wrote:

Isaiah 64:6 all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment

This means that even our attempts to do right are not enough. They are not able to undo the sin we’ve committed.

The Good News

So far I’ve shared with you the reality, the bad news. But there is good news. It is possible for us to receive forgiveness for our sins. It is possible to be loved by God, and to know for certain that we will spend eternity with Him in heaven. We can actually be whiter than snow. The bible says:

Psalm 51:7 Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

King David wrote this psalm. What did he mean by asking God to a wash him? David understood that he was a sinner. He had broken God’s commandments and deserved God’s wrath. But he also knew that God was merciful and would forgive the person who turned to him in sincerity and truth. The promise of God’s forgiveness was not just for King David; we can know God’s forgiveness today.

John 3:16 16 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.”

The Father sent His Son, Jesus, to come into this world to suffer the penalty for sin. When Jesus died on the cross He experienced God the Father’s wrath on sin. Jesus was born without sin, and lived a perfect obedient life. Because He was without sin His sacrifice was acceptable to the Father. Christ’s merit, His righteousness, is credited to all those who turn to Him by faith alone. Turning is an act of repentance. It means that we are abandoning our own path and turning towards God. Faith is believing, trusting without seeing. The Father calls on us to believe and trust in His Son, Jesus Christ. This is more than just believing in the story of Jesus, or that He is a historical figure. The belief the bible requires is complete trust; faith in Jesus Himself. We are called to abandon our sin and turn to Christ, to place our complete trust and faith in Him alone. The bible says:

Romans 10:9-11 9 that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved; 10 for with the heart man believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation. 11 For the Scripture says, “Whoever believes in Him will not be disappointed.”

Believe in your heart. Believe in and on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Turn from your sin and place your faith and trust in Christ. Jesus Christ paid the penalty for sin and made the way possible for all who turn to Him to receive forgiveness. Long after today’s snow storm has melted and turned to mush, it’s possible to be whiter than snow in your life. It is possible to have your sins forgiven and to know you will spend eternity in the presence of God.

Acts 16:31 “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you shall be saved…”

Saved? From what?

Matthew 4:17 From that time Jesus began to preach and say, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

The Greek word for repent is metanoia.  It means to, “change one’s mind, or purpose.”  Jesus didn’t simply say, “Believe!”  He said, “repent.”  Jesus was preaching a message that called on people to make a change.  A change from what?  If I were to ask you to change your mind about something then it stands to reason that you had an existing opinion that I wanted you to change.  So what was Jesus asking people to change?

Earlier, In Matthew 3:2 John the Baptist declared, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”  John was also calling for change.  Among those who came to be baptized by John were a group of Pharisees and Sadducees.  John called them a “brood of vipers” for he knew that they lead the people of Israel falsely.  Along with their baptism John called on them to “bear fruit in keeping with repentance.”  Here we see context added to the call to have a change of mind.  The religious leaders of Israel were to change their mind about their actions.  John was commanding them to “bear fruit” or in other words “show that your repentance is real.”  One chapter later we read that our Lord Jesus Christ was preaching a gospel of repentance.  He was also calling on people to change their behavior.  The behavior that Jesus was preaching repentance on was rooted in sin.  Therefore what Jesus was preaching was, “Turn away from sin!”

Of course we know that we cannot turn away from sin in our power.  Sin is master over us and we are powerless against it.  It’s power was broken by Christ on the cross, and it is the finished work of Christ on the cross that makes it possible for us to turn from sin.  This turning away is done by faith alone in Christ alone.  The Apostle Paul wrote, “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.” (Ephesians 2:8,9)

When someone asks you, “What are you saved from?” you can answer, “I am saved from the power of sin through repentance and faith in Christ Jesus.”