Wilderness Wonderings

Restoring wonder within the wandering of life.

repentance

In Christ Jesus

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“There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.” (Romans 8:1-4)

In a court of law, the penalty for breaking the law ranges depending on the crime. In all states, the maximum penalty for murder is condemnation, either by separation from society or separation from life. From the beginning the penalty prescribed by God’s dictates for breaking His commands was condemnation – death. This played out in two ways: 1. separation from the Garden and the intimate relationship that was once experienced in the presence of Almighty God. 2. eventual separation from life through death as a result of the corruption of creation that sin had wrought.

Justice requires payment for transgression. Holiness demands death from sin. It’s an inescapable fact. It’s the consequence of natural and spiritual law of life. However, because of God’s great love for His creation, through His mercy and grace, justice is paid and holiness is satisfied in the cross of Calvary. Jesus Himself, having known no sin, was the spotless Lamb of God – having no blemish – stood in our place as the perfect, acceptable sacrifice for our sin as demanded by the law.

No more was the requirement of sacrifices at the temple, because the eternal Lamb had been slain “once for all.” No more would condemnation rain down upon those who are “in Christ Jesus.” But what does it mean to be “in Christ Jesus.” The very phrasing of the entire statement implies that there are some who are NOT “in Christ Jesus”, and as a result, condemnation is still reserved for them.

The ones who are “in Christ Jesus” are those “who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.” The “flesh” in this case is simply those who live life according to their own appetites, instead of in obedience to the Word of God and the expectations of His righteousness. Not our own self-righteousness. Not the “righteousness” that is dictated by the world, but the righteousness that is spelled out in His Word. It is a different way of life because our old way of life before we were “in Christ Jesus” wasn’t working. It was self-destructive and leading to death and separation apart from Him. Why then would anyone who was “in Christ Jesus” want to continue to live life according to the flesh knowing that such a life leads to condemnation?

Repentance is the lost doctrine of the gospel that has been swept under the rug in the name of appeasement and self-aggrandizement. The Bride of Christ has become more interested in having the world like us that we have become conformist, rather than transformative. And this is indeed the great tragedy of the Church of today. If the “gospel” is not transformative, then it is not the gospel. Good news, truly good news, inspires action, celebration, and change. We act through repentance. We celebrate the good news through worship. We change through spiritual growth. But it all begins with the act of repentance. Without it, our worship is hollow and lifeless, and a lifeless existence cannot grow.

If you want to know for sure if you are “in Christ Jesus”, examine yourself. Examine your attitudes. Examine your habits. Examine your words. Examine your heart. Are you living life in accordance with God’s Word or in accordance with your own prejudices and desires that naturally conflict with His dictates? As Charles Haddon Spurgeon once put it “if I am a friend of God, I must be the foe of Satan and from this day I pledge myself to fight forever with Satan till I get the victory and am free from sin.” (“Consider Before You Fight”, c 1865)

It has been asked: “If you were ever on trial for being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you?” I ask you, please, examine and consider your answer to this critical question. It’s not a matter of right or wrong; it’s a matter of life and death.

The Grace of Repentance

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“What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.” (Romans 6:1-4)

One of the great tragedies of the modern church is that we have allowed the humanistic philosophies of the Enlightenment to color our interpretation of God’s Word, instead of taking His word for what it is – the truth. We have abandoned truth in favor of our own morally relativistic perspective of life that disregards God’s definition of sin and have compromised our understanding of what it means to be disciple of Christ.

In fact, we have gone so far as to no longer publicly discuss the basic spiritual principle of repentance. The prevailing gospel message of the last several decades as been if we simply pray a prayer of forgiveness and get baptized, that is all we need to do in order to obtain our “fire insurance” and avoid hell. However, now we find ourselves even denying the existence of Hell. If Hell doesn’t exist, then why did Jesus even go to the cross to reconcile us to God Himself. If God is holy and just, then it necessitates the existence of an eternal punishment for those who defy His Word. The question then is “Is there salvation without repentance?”

Our salvation is not dependent upon our works. Ephesians makes this clear that we are saved through grace, not works. But repentance is the evidence of the transformation that comes from genuine salvation. Repentance comes as we are motivated out of gratitude and love for our Abba as we seek to please Him. Repentance means turning away from a harmful path to a path that is designed for our betterment. Repentance is the choice to walk in His way because we know our way was not working. If there is no transformation, there is no salvation.

Recently I was watching a few of our grandchildren at a small park on a river in Belton, Texas. We were near a pizza restaurant and there were some concrete stairs about 5 feet high going down towards the river from where we were about 200 feet away. As I was watching our grandchildren play, I noticed the youngest (17 months old) curiously taking quick steps towards the stairs going down. Fearing for her safety, I took off running as quickly as I could, but her dad saw me running, assessed the situation and took off as well and beat me to her before she could tumble down the stairs. And then he walked her back to where the rest of the family was gathered.

This is the picture of repentance and what it means to “walk in newness of life.” Left to our own devices, we were and are heading towards disaster with nothing forward but the potential danger and pain. But the Father comes along and he scoops us up to save us from our own curious devices and carries us to safety in His arms. And He brings us into a family that is there to help guide us and keep us safe from the dangers of this world.

Sometimes we may not like it. We want to scream and throw our fits and still do our own thing, but Jesus is the better way. The holy way. The grace way. He loves us enough to give us boundaries by which to live. He loves us enough to discipline us when we cross those boundaries. And He wants us to trust Him and His way.

The Reward of Repentance

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“I baptize you with water for repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork in in His hand, and He will clear His threshing floor and gather His wheat into the barn, but the chaff He will burn with unquenchable fire.” (Matthew 3:11-12)

I grew up in the country, the grandson of a beefmaster farmer, so I know a little bit about agriculture. I remember nummerable summers hauling hay bales onto the back of a truck and trailer, stacking them high and building forts. I remember picking a long stemmed grass with wheatlike fruit on the end and chewing on it while we worked the fields. The green stem of the grass was the chaff and the seeds would branch off near the top of the chaff in multiple directions but looked like wheat, but it was not. When this grass would age, it would even look like wheat at first glance, with its beige hue. This would eventually be cut down with the rest of the hay field and included into the bales that we would provide for the cattle to eat. It was a good source of protein for them, but not really something fit for human consumption. This was what is commonly known in scripture as tares.

When harvesting wheat for the grain stores in Biblical times, once the wheat was brought into the storehouse, a worker would take what is called a winnowing fork to harvest the grains of the wheat and separate it from the chaff so that it might be processed into flour for bread and other wheat-based products. A winnowing fork is essentially a primitive form of pitchfork where the harvester would pick up wheat, toss it into the air, and the wind would then separate the smaller wheat grains from the chaff. Once the wheat grains were separated, then the chaff was removed from the harvesting floor and thrown out into the fire since it was no longer of any use.The fruit of the wheat chaff – the grain – would then be used for multiple purposes, but primarily it would be ground into flour and then used for making bread.

In our Scripture today, we begin with the baptism of water. In the ministry of John the Baptist, the immersive baptism was symbolic of the washing away of our sins as a result of individual confession and repentance. The act was a total immersion within the water as a means of ensuring complete cleansing from head to toe so that no part of the body was left dry and unclean. The symbolism of baptism changed after the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ to represent believers being buried with Christ and raised again to new life (Romans 6:4).

But John mentioned a different baptism by Jesus whereas He would baptize us with the person of the Holy Spirit and with fire, a spiritual fire that will burn away the chaff, the useless parts of our lives that are no longer needed once the fruit of the Spirit has ripened for harvest – the fruit of repentance.

Additionally, in keeping with the context of John’s criticism and condemnation of the hypocritical religious leaders in the Pharisees and Sadducees, the Holy Spirit would in effect be the “winnowing fork” that would separate the good wheat from the tares. He would separate the good fruit from the waste.

The heart of repentance is one that demands and inspires holiness. Grace also demands and inspires holiness. Grace by definition is the imparting unto us that which we do not deserve. This definition implies that we deserve something much worse. Romans 6:23 declares “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

The old Hebrew word for death and even the Greek word represent a separation from life. The root definition implies a separation in relationship, but the context implies a deeper separation – a broken relationship with our Creator. A relationship broken by our sin. But a relationship that can be restored supernaturally as a result of the sacrifice of Christ on Calvary.

It’s not enough to simply pray a prayer of forgiveness and then go about your life unchanged. If you still bear no fruit of the transformative power of grace, it is because repentance has not taken root in order to bear that fruit. In which case, when the time of harvest comes and the grains of wheat are sifted from the chaff, which pile will your life end up on?

Will you remain on the threshing room floor so that you might undergo the transformation from wheat to bread? Sure, it’s going to be a painful grind, but the end product is what provides nourishment to a world starving for the Bread of Life.

Or will you be tossed in the wind with the remainder of the chaff, separated into the pile of waste, to be burned away and forever separated from the saving knowledge of a relationship with the harvester of souls? Yes, hell is a reality. The lack of belief is not evidence for the lack of existence. Like Pascal, I’d rather gamble on the reality of spending eternity in the arms of my Savior. For if I am wrong, and there is no hell, then I have lost nothing. But if I am right, and I choose to reject Him, then I have lost everything.

The Call of Repentance

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“He has told you, O man, what is good;
and what does the Lord require of you
but to do justice, and to love kindness,
and to walk humbly with your God?” (Micah 6:8)

As I have sat in quiet, grieving, pensive reflection over the events of the last few weeks that have our nation in turmoil, I can’t help feel the grief that must grip the heart of God. We have seen fear ravage the world and isolate us from one another. We have seen racism divide our hearts from one another. We have seen the threat of war divide us from within. And we now see the culmination of all of the division escalating once again into violence upon ourselves. And I can’t help but weep for the heart of God above it all.

If we ever hope to see peace in this world, we must all repent.
If we ever want to see hope in this world, we must all repent.
If we ever want to experience grace in this world, we must all repent.

We must “bear the fruit of repentance”, not the acts of religion.
We must “bear the fruit of repentance”, not the acts of government.
We must get to the heart of the matter, because all that really matters is the heart of mankind.

Until the heart of mankind repents and learns to live in a spirit of mercy, grace, faith, hope, and love, division and strife will always stand between us. Until the heart of mankind repents and learns to hold one another accountable to God’s Word, evil will always strike. Until the heart of mankind repents and seeks restoration and reconciliation, evil will always be revisited upon evil.

It’s a vicious cycle that is unending and continuously churning in the same direction towards our ultimate destruction. Unless we turn around and repent, this same path will forever dominate our human destiny.

If My people who are called by My name
(the Church is His bride, not our social club)
humble themselves
(abandon the sin of pride and self-centered aggrandizement),
and pray
(confess your individual and collective sinfulness)
and seek My face
(look to the God of Creation for your guidance)
and turn from their wicked ways
(REPENT!),
then I will hear from heaven
(our cries for mercy will reach His ears and pierce His heart)
and will forgive their sin
(forgiveness is predicated upon sincere confession characterized by repentance)
and heal their land.
(Your division will be restored and reconciled.)

What is the heart of repentance? Is it religion? Is it charitable giving? Is it works of service? No. It is a heart that is turned to the heart of God and abandoned to the desires of His heart.

“To do justice” – actively pursue justice in a manner befitting of the integrity and honor that would demand justice in return. It is not enough to simply “want justice”. Justice and vengeance are two very different beasts. Justice seeks restoration; vengeance seeks destruction. Do not repay evil with evil, but let kindness and grace have its perfect result. And justice will ultimately prevail. Be Just!

“To love kindness” – actively pursue kindness to your family, your neighbors, your friends, your enemies, the stranger across town, the person that wears funny clothes, the foreigner, the ethnically different. Put simply: Be Kind!

“To walk humbly with your God” – actively pursue God and His wisdom, knowing that you don’t have all the answers, but He does. Walk daily in obedience to Him and His word and seek His heart. Be transformed by the renewing of your mind into the Christlike person He always intended for you to be. Be Humble!

This is the heart of repentance. This is the heart we are called to pursue. This is the only heart that has the ability to change our world.

The Fruit of Repentance

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“But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them ‘You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not presume to say to yourselves, “We have Abraham as our father,” for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham. Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.'” (Matthew 3:7-10)

Salman Rushdie, in his book “The Satanic Verses”, wrote: “From the beginning men used God to justify the unjustifiable.” Unfortunately, this has been proven true over the eons and still rings true even today. That is why it is all the more important that we understand the fruit of repentance. Without repentance and adherence to God’s word, our religious observances and declarations are impotent. If we blindly follow only the letter of the law, we do good, but we become legalistic and judgmental. If we blindly follow only the spirit of the law, we quickly fall into the trap of moral compromise. We must strike a balance, or else we become nothing more than the blind leading the blind through the dark alleys and passageways of the world.

The Pharisees and Sadducees were the religious leaders of Israel in the time of John the Baptist and Jesus. They were known for harsh disagreements over doctrines, but more importantly they were known for their harsh treatment of the people by keeping them shackled to an impossible moral standard that exceeded even the dictates of God Himself. It became so rigid that they began to make up rules about the Sabbath that God Himself never intended. For example, the prohibition of women to even look into a mirror on the Sabbath because she might pluck out a gray hair and that would be considered work and vanity. But any other day of the week was fine.

Repentance is the truest fruit of genuine religious faith. And the fruit of repentance is clearly defined as a matter of evidence of a transformed heart by the power of the Holy Spirit: “But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy,[d] drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do[e] such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.” (Galatians 5:18-24)

Dan Brown is the controversial write of the “The Da Vinci Code”. I’m not here to debate the conclusions he draws in that book because it is a work of fiction. I do not herald him as some sort of religion expert or history for that matter. But a statement by the character of the camerlengo in his book “Angels and Demons” speaks a startling, earth shaking truth about religion itself:

“Whether or not you believe in God, you must believe this: when we as a species abandon our trust in a power greater than us, we abandon our sense of accountability. Faiths… all faiths… are admonitions that there is something we cannot understand, something to which we are accountable. With faith we are accountable to each other, to ourselves, and to a higher truth. Religion is flawed, but only because man is flawed. The church consists of a brotherhood of imperfect, simple souls wanting only to be a voice of compassion in a world spinning out of control.”

It is our unwillingness to submit to accountability that prevents a true spirit of repentance. Accountability acknowledges that there is a higher, better way. Accountability demands repentance when we stray. Accountability is the plumb tool that we use to measure our lives against the plumb line standard of God’s Word. Not out of a spirit of obligation, but out of a spirit of gratitude and devotion.

If a tree does not bear good fruit, the horticulturalist is left with little choice but to destroy the tree because it is already dead. The only way to know if a tree is good is if it bears the fruit of its design. The same is true for the religionist that does not bear the fruit of the spirit. The fruit is the evidence of repentance and it makes all the difference.