A
Gift of Love
By
Fred Wikoff
John the Baptist,
Christ, and the Apostles all preached repentance. It is so identified with Christian belief
that the cartoon of an old man with flowing white beard, holding a sign
reading, “Repent the End Is Near,” is universally recognized. Yet ask ten people what it means to repent
and you will likely get ten different answers.
There is no manual or specific instructions provided in the Bible to
tell us how to repent or define it; only the plea to do it “for the forgiveness
of your sins.” Acts 2:38 But like most
important things in our relationship with God repentance is much easer to
understand than Satan would have us believe.
George Alder, my
high school pastor, simply used the old military command “about face” to define
repentance. Basically, it’s recognizing
that your sinful life is taking you in the wrong direction, stopping, turning
abruptly in the opposite direction, (“about face”) and following the Lord
wherever he might lead.
As simple as it
sounds turning ones life around is never easy; and recognizing and admitting
ones sins is even harder. The Fonz, from
the old “Happy Days” TV series comes to mind when I think of the difficulty of
admitting wrong-doing. He would stutter
and stammer, but no matter how he tried he could never quite get the words “I
was wrong” out of his mouth. True
repentance requires getting those words out and much more.
It requires a
complete change of mind, heart, and direction from one of sinful disobedience
and self-reliance to one of total dependence on Christ. This means not only stopping sinful behavior,
but also giving up our “I’m number one, I’m in charge,” self-love.
Self-love blinds us
from seeing our sins; and anyone thinking they haven’t sinned will not grasp
Christ’s call to repent. The truth is,
“all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Romans 3:23 And because
we are all guilty, God has done a wonderful thing for us by allowing us to
repent.
Often we only think
of repentance as our part in accepting Christ’s gift of salvation. This couldn’t be further from the truth. If God was not willing to forgive our sins we
could repent until the end of time with no results. Repentance is as much a free gift from God as
Christ’s death and resurrection; and both are equally vital to our
salvation. (See Rom.2:4; Acts 5:31;
11:18; and 2 Tim. 2:25)
Repentance is born
out of God’s love. It is his wish that
no one should perish, but all “reach repentance.” (2 Peter 3:9) And the plea to repent is God reaching out to
mankind and saying I love you, I forgive you, I want you, I’m willing to trust
you if you will only put your trust in me.
“I tell you, there
will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine
righteous persons who need no repentance.” Luke 15:7
Fred Wikoff writes from Eugene, Oregon. EugeneSpud@msn.com